How can Islam be good if Muslims are bad?

The main issue we need to worry about is how to stop Muslims from becoming extremists, terrorists, killers and suicide bombers? The answer is actually very simple. Stop teaching Islam to children who are still too young to think. Wait until they are, say, 16 or 18 before you teach them religion.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Say you went to your local newsagent to buy your daily newspaper and the headline of one newspaper says ‘100 killed in Baghdad bazaar bombing’ and the other newspaper headline says ‘One killed in Jalan Masjid India bombing’. Chances are you will pick up the newspaper with the story on the Jalan Masjid India bombing.

That is how our mind works. We don’t care too much about events that do not affect us, but if the event is nearer home and/or would have some of affect on us, then we will sit up and pay attention and begin to worry.

Now IS has ‘declared war’ on Malaysia and the IGP says the grenade attack in Puchong was probably the first IS attack. The IGP also said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his Cabinet Ministers have been declared as IS targets for assassination.

So now this is no longer about a town in a far away land that you have never visited in your entire life, and probably never will till the day you die. This is now about your own backyard and anything that happens in your own backyard interests or scares you.

Malaysians are now demanding that the police do something and ensure that the public is protected and does not face the risk of getting killed in a terrorist attack (just as long as you do not detain these terrorists without trial). This makes it even more critical when tomorrow until this weekend it is going to be Raya Open House all over Malaysia and we are going to have large crowds congregating by the thousands.

And such crowds are favourite targets of suicide bombers or attackers because one bomb or grenade, or two people with automatic assault weapons, can create a lot of damage in just one minute.

So is everyone going to be made to go though strict security checks like at the airport before you board the plane? Can you just walk into the Agong’s or Prime Minister’s Raya Open House or must you first undergo a strict body check plus be scanned and x-rayed?

Must you bring your IC (or passport) along and show them to the guards before you will be allowed in? And would every minister’s and VVIP’s house be guarded by a swat team heavily armed and dressed to kill? And if in doubt would they shoot first and ask questions later, just in case?

Or would most open houses see a very low turnout tomorrow because a few pieces of ketupat and rendang is not worth getting killed for?

The police are going to be blamed if something happens tomorrow or over the next few days. The IGP had better not take leave tomorrow and the whole week. All leave for police personnel should also be cancelled and all those who have already balek kampung should be recalled for duty.

Note that if even just one life is lost over the next few days the IGP will have to resign. There are no two ways about it. He is aware that IS has declared war on Malaysia and that Malaysian leaders are now targets for assassination. Maybe for their safety all those opposition leaders who have been attacking Islam should be made to stay at home and not leave their houses, just in case.

Anyway, why do these terrorists do what they do? Why are educated and intelligent Muslims, some from well-to-do or elite families, getting sucked in to terrorist organisations and are prepared to die as suicide bombers? Do they really believe that a 72-year-old virgin is waiting for them in heaven (or was it 72 virgins)?

The problem actually lies with their parents. Even before they start school the parents send these kids to religious and Qur’an classes. So before they can even think properly they are already getting indoctrinated and brainwashed and are raised believing in Allah, the Qur’an, Prophet Muhammad, Angels, Satan, the Afterlife, Judgement Day, Heaven, Hell, etc.

Of course, the standard argument is that Islam is a religion of peace, Islam does not allow terrorism, Islam does not allow you to persecute and declare war on non-Muslims, Islam treats every human being as equal, wars can only be fought in defence and not an as act of aggression, what these extremists and terrorists are doing is not Islam and has nothing to do with Islam, and so on.

Yes, I have heard all these arguments, plus more, over the last 37 years since the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979. In fact, I, too, supported the Revolution and hoped that we could see the same thing happening in Malaysia (I was then just 28 years old and easily influenced by such romantic notions). And in 1982, when I went to Mekah, I joined the Iranians in their anti-US/anti-Saudi demonstration near Masjidil Haram.

But then if Islam is what the apologists say it is, then why do Muslims (and educated/intelligent Muslims from well-to-do and elite families on top of that) become terrorists and blow themselves up? Why do they kill innocent people who did them no harm and, say, were just enjoying their beer in a pub? If what they do is not Islam then what is it?

There is another side to the coin. Critics of Islam say that the fruit does not fall far from the tree. They say that the fruit from a poisonous tree is poisonous. In other words, followers of a religion become evil because the religion itself is evil — meaning, how can Islam be good if Muslims are bad?

Muslims can argue that these critics have never studied Islam and do not understand Islam and that is why they are blaming the religion for what Muslims do. But these critics do not care what Islam or the Qur’an teaches, just like Muslims do not care two hoots what the teachings and religious books of the other religions have to say.

As far as the critics of Islam are concerned, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. They judge Islam based on what Muslims do and not on the excuses of the apologists. What you say is not worth one penny. Only what you do matters. And what Muslims do is the opposite of what they say.

Look at what a ‘famous’ Muslim, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said today in his Blog posting. If you support Umno or Barisan Nasional then you are corrupt (and the Muslims are the majority of these corrupt people, Mahathir said).

Can Lim Kit Siang agree with that statement? Did Lim Kit Siang post an article or comment in his Bog condemning Mahathir for labelling all those who support Umno and Barisan Nasional as corrupt people? I am sure Lim Kit Siang agrees wholeheartedly that all those who support Umno and Barisan Nasional are corrupt people.

Then the Pahang Mufti says that all those who are not Muslims are Kafir. And he gave a very good suggestion: if those DAP people do not want to be called Kafir then they should convert to Islam because Muslims will not be called Kafir.

But then Lim Kit Siang is very angry regarding this. He wants the IGP to declare those who call you Kafir as extremists and terrorists. (Is Mahathir an extremist and/or terrorist for calling those who support Umno-BN as corrupt?) But then Kafir is a word from the Qur’an. So should the IGP arrest all those people who read the Qur’an because reading the Qur’an might turn you into an extremist and terrorist?

What other ‘labelling words’ from the Quran other than Kafir should we also ban? Munafiq? Mukmin? Fasiq? Nasrani? Yahudi? Majusi? Kufur? These are also words that the Qur’an uses to label different categories of people.

Anyway, Mahathir said, as Lim Kit Siang would agree, that all those who support Umno and Barisan Nasional are corrupt. And the Pahang Mufti says all those non-Muslims who oppose Islam and/or the Syariah are Kafir. So let us just accept that.

The main issue we need to worry about is how to stop Muslims from becoming extremists, terrorists, killers and suicide bombers? The answer is actually very simple. Stop teaching Islam to children who are still too young to think. Wait until they are, say, 16 or 18 before you teach them religion.

By the time they are 16 or 18 they can already think properly and will not accept everything without question like five or six year olds do. The chances of 16 or 18 year olds believing in the reward of the 72-year-old virgin if you blow yourself up together with a busload of school children would be quite slim.

Actually, if you were to look back to the 1800s, you will see that the Christian world then was just like the Muslim world today. Then, 200 years ago, Napoléon Bonaparte conquered Europe right up to Russia soon after the collapse of the Hapsburg and Holy Roman Empires.

Napoléon then introduced Secularism and the separation of church and state to Europe. He also abolished the monopoly the church had over education and set up public schools with a non-religious based education.

Today, in France, you can insult Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad, Christianity, Islam, the Bible, the Quran, etc., and have gay marriages and multiple sex partners and you will not get arrested (or put to death) like in the past. That is the advancement that Napoléon introduced to France and the whole of Europe.

And that is what we must do in the Muslim world, in particular in Malaysia. Stop forcing religious education on young children of the age of five or six. Religion is too important to be entrusted on underage children who are not old enough to think and whom you are turning into zombies. If they want to learn about religion they will have to wait until they are 16 or 18.

Of course, the same applies to Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., as well. All the other religions are equally silly and they turn clever people into stupid people. And the non-Muslims have already said that they oppose the Syariah (and Hudud) because they do not agree that there is one system or rules for Muslims and another for non-Muslims. They want everyone to be treated equal.

So all forms of religious education should be banned. And it should be a crime for parents to brainwash and indoctrinate their children with silly religious teachings. There should be a sign on all places of worship that children below 16 or below 18 should not be allowed into those places and if you break this law you can get sent to jail for up to ten years and/or a fined no less than RM100,000.

By the year 2100 there will no longer be any extremists and terrorists in Malaysia. In fact, only 2% of the population will still go to church/mosque while less than 40% will believe in God like in the UK. And that is why the only terrorism you fear in the UK is getting beaten up when you wear a Liverpool F. C. T-shirt in a Manchester pub on a Friday night.

Yes, the British religion is football and Manchester United fans will kill you Liverpool Kafir if you make the mistake of straying into their territory. And if you don’t think so then view the video below.