Sara Khan

Sara Khan: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4806100/SARA-KHAN-says-duty-Muslims-defeat-terror.html

‘It is clear to me that Salafi-Islamism has become mainstream [1] and that more enlightened versions [2] of the faith have been marginalised. It is here that the battle against extremist Islamism is critical.’

‘It is clear to me that we must also look at the wider context of why so many young people [3] are seduced by extreme Salafi-Jihadism. Only by knowing the nature of the beast can we know how to combat it.’

‘To do that, we must recognise that despite the oft-repeated claims that there is a clash between Islam and the West, the real battle is within Islam.’ 

‘Muslim theologians need to provide an alternative to the toxic narrative [4] propagated by Islamists and clarify theological issues such as jihad, sharia, the caliphate and the global Muslim community (ummah).

‘ISIS and its allies have been hugely successful in using the internet to spread their propaganda of hate.’ 

‘Now those same techniques should be urgently used to powerfully articulate an Islam which embraces equality, human rights, freedom and democracy [5] while exposing the incompatibility of Salafi-Islamism with Islamic teachings.’ [6]

[1] Within Christianity there are differences in faith, belief and the intensity of practicing faith. For that matter there is also in Christianity more than one version of the book and each version has been translated many times. Modern western society has evolved along the route of majority Christian leaning. Mainstream Islamic society and the majority of Muslim people are not Christian leaning in their beliefs or in their ways of living. A very small number of Muslim’s are of the Sara Khan type ‘enlightened’ moderate in their philosophy of living and faith. The mainstream faith is clearly written in and directed by The Koran.

[2] The more enlightened versions Sara Khan speaks of is held by ‘the minority’ of Islamic people that were and are, shall we call the ‘upper middle class’ of Muslim society. More ‘modern’ in their thinking and culture. Less adherent to the directives of Koranic text, teachings and the culture it follows. This minority class, previously in the middle east, did not share the more common orthodox way of life or faith as taught in most schools and were not in favour of their children attending teaching days held at their local mosques. And so in the above mainstream, the ‘upper middle class’ found a separate space along with the Imam class and the academic & theologian class of minority Muslims in Islamic society. Only in Turkey did mainstream Islamic society have a loosening of the way of life that started in 1924 with Ataturk’s abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate. Secularism was given a foothold and education and the promotion of women to be more free happened in a mainstream Islamic society. In 1935 the reference to Islam was removed and the Turkish system had become a secular democratic republic. Ataturk’s reforms are being overturned as Turkey moves back towards Islamic values and government has become a dictatorship under a manipulated democratic veil. The next logical and probable step will be the dictatorship’s move to a more Islamic face and then into the hands of Imam’s & finally back to an Islamic Caliphate, eliminating the need for a veil over an unwanted democracy of protesting freedom.

[3] The secular west is by no means a good system or the best {or even a better} way of living. The western democracies are subject to a number of manipulations to control power, gain power and to prevent changes that do not appeal to the strings of power. Choice is limited by the limited narratives needed to gain votes. Ignorance is the most vital tool to keep democracy dumbocracy. Those that move towards political power are the weak & meek in every way apart from an orative talent, to influence and to make personal gains. Once in power they are and mostly remain hopelessly unqualified to govern. They are bereft of vision and have no plan to enact apart from adjustments to the existing flawed systems that they have no replacement for. That system has been mostly hijacked by the economic priority of the economic winners. And therein is the primary cause of the disaffection of the otherwise believers who are more angry about being alienated from their right to share in the milk and honey of the garden.

[4] For Theologians to tackle ‘the toxic narrative’ Theologians would need to disagree with the ‘toxic narrative.’ Given that they have not stepped up to the plate indicates that it is not as simple as Sara Khan thinks. One could ask of a Muslim; Do you follow the Koran? Do you want to lead a life according to the Koran? Do you think the society that you are living in should be governed by Sharia Law? If the answer is no to any of those questions the next question should be; How often do you miss going to the Mosque? And What do you eat & drink and What do you vote for?

[5] There are not only toxic narratives on both sides but also toxic actions. The West’s economic priorities alienates and victimises. Its political ideologies causes disputes internally and neighbourly. Bribery creates greed and corruption and the ignorance and lack of respect for other faiths has caused injustice, anger, violence and hate. The injustices and the crimes carried out {and ongoing} cannot be solved by inclusive western societies dishing out equal rights and equal chance in a society with high prices on minimum wage, in the perpetual near poverty state under law & order. {In fact it could be suggested that such an attempt is Pure Folly.}  

[6] It is a given that you Sara Khan believe in and support democracy and the western values of equality, human rights & ‘freedom’ but is not your desire to promote the interpretation of your following of the Koran {that is selective in its peaceful conduct under Islamic life – when in/under order – of the designed utopia} a pacifists attempt to push your minority interpretation out as propaganda against a majority literal view of total Koranic text?.

15-25% https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tgyS3RKSco