This was posted on the ex-muslim reddit
"I am an Arab who comes from a Muslim family and thoroughly understands Islam's current situation. Apologies for my English as it is my third language, and apologies for this extremely lengthy post which I am to proof read after I wake up tomorrow. Here's the full story.
Understanding the world's Muslims position on what's happening today requires a thorough understanding of an array of nodes, or variables, which are often off-set against each other in arriving at any given situation. These variables are extremely important to know in order to understand the fuller picture, and without them the international alienation of Muslims and Arabs may continue for reasons often viewed as a mesh; an extremely hard to decipher web of interconnected values leading to extremism and the complete insanity often portrayed by the few bad apples.
First, yes, it is important to understand that the conversion from a normal sane Apple to an horribly bad apple is quite simple under certain circumstances, and in order to avoid those and help the international Muslim world wake up, international governments and media must tread carefully and hand-in-hand in order to contain an ever boiling situation.
It is extremely easy to point fingers and blame a whole religion, and it's even easier to deal with brute-force-bombing villages and towns which are spewing terrorists around the world, but those are merely symptomatic-reliefs and are far from an actual cure. The virus that is religion-fueled extremism, especially when driven by faiths which make it "morally" easier to die, adapts rapidly and dangerously unless fully understood and contained.
First, allow me to give you a background about myself. I am a 30 years Arab Muslim who comes from a very authentic Arabic and Muslim background, I was brought up reciting verses of the Quaran throughout my childhood and I studied moderate -gulf states version- Islam for all my years of school and most of university. I also grew up in a typical Arab setting where being a "tough man" is often a survival instinct dictated by the constant bullying spread across various classes and often targets the "weak". The weak here is anyone who isn't willing to sustain bodily harm in order to defend oneself, usually women, the more feminine guys, children, and anyone who doesn't "cover up his sisters". The Arab world is a fascinating place where you can find the most human to human love and understanding, and you can find the most hateful and condescending interconnections, sometimes in the same damn building or house hold.
If you think you can get beheaded for drawing prophet mohammed, try swearing at a guy's sister in front of his dad, or try whistling at a veiled mother in front of a protective husband in many parts of the Arab world; be it Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Saudi even Lebanon, that can easily get you killed. To understand that a non-religious Arab would risk death and would murder for "honor" is an extremely essential part of understanding how this reflects on religion, because it is often that deep bewitched "readiness for martyrdom" attitude is what trickles down to religious extremism, honor crimes, and even crimes after a football match. Often asked yourself why Palestinian riots or demonstrations are often far more violent than, say, an Israeli demonstration? Why North Africans are -this is sad but true- extremely hard to deal with in places like Europe and are often avoided by the police? Why the Lebanese in Australia tend to be the most violent among their peers? It is extremely understand that the nature of Arab "honor" is transitive, it actually is not exclusive to Islam, a Christian Arab is far more likely to defend any version of "honor" more violently than say a Dutch Christian. I am here not saying that being Arab is the cause of extremism, not at all, but it is the interconnection of all these elements. The reason you won't find a Christian Arab strapped to some c4 somewhere is because Islam, as a misinterpreted and often politically exploited religion, makes it easier to "go big" for all those falsely promised rewards of 72 virgins and eternal paradise. The need to defend "honor" is very essentially the same, it is just extremely compounded when coupled with religion and systematic brainwashing of neglecting this "transitive temporary" life and focusing on avoiding eternal hell.
I remember my dad rushing to school when my sister was five in order to fight with the Islamic-studies teacher. My sister had returned home earlier that day, utterly traumatized and pleading my father to make "Allah forgive her". That asshole of a teacher has just exposed an innocent five years old to unimaginable descriptions of eternal hell, graphic suffering that gets into the details of burning flesh, wearing molten-steel shoes until the brain boils, eating puss-filled thorny food for eternity, and an array of things even adults can't handle to hear; yet there we were with my sister being just five and traumatized in one of the world's most progressive Islamic countries on Earth. That teacher taught me too, and I went through the same exact detailing of said horrors but I never went back home crying because guess what? Boys don't cry, or else how can I defend my honor? That teacher had no agenda asides from doing his job and getting his salary and doing what he though was a good job in transmitting a religious message, and I was in a private Arab school which taught Islam as part of the governmental curriculum. It is then easy to imagine the horrors the Arab and Muslim youths go through when systematically brainwashed by people with actual agendas, in countries where extremism is a national export. In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States had Saudi and many other Arab governments restructure their school curriculums where all teachings related to Jihad and martyrdom were moderated and teachers were instructed to lessen from their tones. This I believe was a great step forward is still lacking in traction.
Islam today carries this extremely strong "honor" overtone because it was born in one of the most tribal societies on Earth, and although it was a marvelous rebellion against many horrid tribal virtues once prevalent, it still inherited from the culture and like most pagan-to-Abrahamic conversions, it still had to cater to local tastes and thus punishments were often extreme: cutting hand of the thief made much more sense than the once common "kill him and rape his family and take his daughter as a slave", and to stone a woman and a man to their death for adultery was a way to defuse the "honor" anger and avoid the once extremely savage and common tribal wars. When Islam first arrived, it was a systematic solution to many of the huge issues back then, but it is evident today that even backward Muslims view such punishments as extremes let alone the moderates. Just like we will view capital punishment as extreme one day when we will have brain-reset solutions, humanity advances but religion makes it damn hard to let go and Islam is very good at that.
This school of "honor" though was the vehicle through which Islam spread back in its time, and many cultures who adopted Islam adopted with it this school of thought. Hence today, places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, Nigeria, even the Philippines adopted it and started producing their own versions of extremism. Some other countries were lucky enough to have adopted Islam without the extremism multiplier, where Malaysia often stands-out as a good example.
The problem with understanding international Islam today is to understand that the Arab world is still, largely, few centuries backwards in its way of thinking, yet this same Arab world clings to the leadership role of explaining and guiding Islam around the world. In the Arab world of today, Human life is still easy to waste for the silliest reasons, from a girl losing her virginity then murdered by her brothers all the way up to what just saw unfold in France, they stem from the same deadly formula; a skewed understanding of a tribal honor system and a religion which makes it easier to say "fuck it all", and those two are often exported in a couple and are dangerously offered throughout terrorists-production camps.
To add to this deadly formula, the Arab world sadly sits on a huge oil reserve which only lets international powers and human greed fuel these differences and feed them, and with Israel's presence in the region and another Abrahamic religion fighting for yet another prophecy in Israel, the Arab world and the Muslim world at large is a mess.
To fix this, the international community must take firm steps in not allowing Arab governments to continue their puppet-shows and to cease fueling hatred and extremism. Scientists worldwide must help us take major leaps against petrol-dependency and render the region uninteresting for all those meddlers. Education and schooling must vastly improve in order to give the Arab and Muslim youths purpose instead of the current desperation rendering them easy prey to remote exploiters.
It is time to stop the insanity and to stop each others' 2000 year's old books causing all this destruction. The exploitation and abuse is systematic and is politically driven, and if real efforts are made into corrective steps, international world peace is a very attainable dream. Meanwhile, free world, keep on doing what you're doing. Adherents to all religious must respect every human's right to say whatever they want to say with no risk of any punishment whatsoever, be it a risk of horrendous crimes or being taken to court, all religions must cut their bullshit. No human on earth has the right to shun another human from their birth-right of free speech.
Long live Charlie.
Thank you,
WQ
Topic: Deadly attack on office of French magazine Charlie Hebdo