I just fielded two comments on my post about the murder of Sis. Aqsa Parvez. Pretty standard fare, really, and they mimic the majority of what finds its way into my inbox from abdiel.ca. The first begged me not to hide the truth, called me appalling (and Muslim, which would seem to be redundant from this person’s perspective–I’m just guessing here, but I’d say that’s accurate), and then told me hijab was “legitimate subjects [sic] when discussing a religiously motivated murder.” Maybe that’s true. Definately irrelevant. The author of the second, and this is much more common, appeared not to have read the article at all. That’s okay, really. I can’t force people to read or listen before they write or speak. It’s just that if a person chooses not to, that person looks a bit foolish.
No matter, though, because this person left me a real gem, probably without even realising it. This person says: [Islam is] as silly an idea as any other religion (though probably more dangerous).” The first part is woefully uninformed and unenlightening–it’s a throwaway, because if a person thinks religion itself is merely “silly,” then that person is, de facto taking himself or herself out of the discussion. It’s a throwaway statement.
But the second part tweaked my interest: “probably more dangerous.” I’m sure the thought behind that statement was in the explodey-go-boom-muahaha-evil vein. Again, pretty standard stuff. But Islam is dangerous, much more so than the people who claim to commit mass murder in its name could even pretend to understand. Certainly more dangerous than the author of that comment knows. Islam, like any other iconoclastic movement, has behind its texts and processes and dogma and people an uncompromising premise that is, of itself, enormously dangerous:
La ilaha illa lah.
A primal rhythm, a simple truth. There is no God but God. Allahu Akbar. God is great. That’s the breath that fills our lungs, and the blood that courses through our veins–if we only knew it.
So to whom or to what is that dangerous?
Yeah, it’s dangerous to Moloch and Mammon and Baal and all the other spirits, and to the little wooden idols that don’t do anything for you. It’s dangerous to all that stuff priests and witches put in peoples’ heads to liberate them from their dollars. That’s true.
But it’s dangerous to the guy who wants to sell you that car you can’t afford. It’s dangerous to the guy who tells you you won’t get anywhere without it, or without the Armani suit and the gold watch, that nobody wants a loser who can’t afford $50 underwear, who can’t afford to drink French tapwater out of a bottle. It’s dangerous to the people who line their pockets feeding on you, reeling you in with lies and empty promises, who whisper in both your ears, who yell at you to get more and better stuff, who tell you it’s them you’re working for, it’s for the stuff, all that junk you don’t need–they lie to you when they tell you that you do. And we all buy it. Me too. Who doesn’t?
It’s dangerous to the men and women who collect your taxes, because it, more than any constitution or charter, puts them on notice, whether or not they realise it.
It’s dangerous to today’s priests and witches, to the charlatans who tell you the purpose of religion is to dictate how much skin women can cover up or how long men can grow their beards, or about how Islam is something that happened 1400 years ago. It’s dangerous to anyone who tells you self-righteousness is a reasonable facsimile for taqwa.
All of these people put something between you and God–money, sex, power, control. Sometimes they do what they do for the noblest of intentions, but that’s an exception, not a rule. At any rate, at some point, they lost the beat, they forgot to listen to that noble sound, that breath.
It’s God who is greatest. Allahu Akbar. La illaha illa lah. And that’s the beginning and the end.
‘Eid Mubarak, everybody. May you know peace.
