By Ameer Ali –
Integrisme is a French term for an ideology originated in the 19th and early 20th centuries which rejected the values of secular modernism and wanted the state and government subjected to the Church as it was in the days of medieval Christendom. This ideology rejects the idea of separation of state and church as advanced by the philosophers of Enlightenment. One who believes and works to achieve this objective is therefore an integrist. Sayeeda Warsi, a British Muslim writer and politician, in her recently published The Enemy Within, finds a similarity between integrisme and jihadism where the latter also wants an Islamic state governed by the sharia. Like the Catholic integrists, jihadists also want no separation between religion and politics. In their view Islam is a totality that encompasses all branches of human life, political, economic, cultural, ethical and moral. Jihadists are now popularly called Islamists and jihadism Islamism. These terms, as Warsi correctly identifies are misnomers, because Islamism and Islamist were used by the French philosopher Voltaire and philologist Ernest Renan in the 18th and 19th centuries to describe Islam and Muslims respectively. They employed these terminologies because the ones current in Europe during their time, Mohamedanism and Mohamedan were also inappropriate.
It was the Pakistani Muslim integrists, who a couple of weeks ago, burnt down twelve girl schools in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district in Pakistan. In October 2012, Taliban integrists shot and wounded Malala Yousafzai for advocating education for Muslim girls. Since 2013 Boko Haram integrists in North East Nigeria, with some regularity, burnt down a number of secular boarding schools, killed hundreds of students studying there and kidnapped girls from those schools not only to impregnate them but also indoctrinate them with their own version of Islam. (Incidentally, the name Boko Haram, which generally means ‘Western education is sin’ also means in Hausa language ‘books are outlawed’). In June 2018, in the city of Jalalabad in Eastern Afghanistan, about eighty girl schools were reported to have been shut down because of threat from the Islamic State (IS) integrists. IS also closed down a number of girl schools in its so called Caliphate. An incident that occurred in Saudi Arabia in 2002 when a girls school caught fire and when students ran out to escape, allegedly without their head cover, the religious police chased them back into the burning building, because they were not properly covered, also shows the relative values attached to a piece of cloth and girls’ lives and education. All these raise one crucial question. Why are these integrists so afraid of and detest Muslim girls acquiring secular modern education?
Integrists are generally against secular modern education because that education teaches the learner the art of independent and critical thinking. Questions why and how are more important in modern education than questions of what, when, where and who, which focus on memory and reiteration and do not lead to creation of new knowledge. It was independent reasoning and rational thought that pushed the Muslim world to the forefront of scientific knowledge and discoveries between the 9th and 12th centuries, and dislodged Islamic orthodoxy from its seat of intellectual domination. After the 12th century however, orthodoxy came back with a vengeance, closed all avenues of independent reasoning and promoted unquestioned imitation of the past. This is what the integrists want from their followers and traditional education in the madrasas satisfies that need. The history of Taliban madrasas in Pakistan is a good example to prove the point. However, from a utilitarian perspective integrists are prepared to welcome modern education in physical sciences and not in social sciences, because the latter undermine the social and political equilibrium of the ideology of integrisme. It should not therefore be a surprise to note that nearly 63 per cent of the jihadists, according to one study, are graduates of medicine, engineering, science and business disciplines. According to the same source, one of the disciplines the IS integrists suppressed in their failed caliphate was political science.
Modern education beyond elementary level for girls is double jeopardy for integrists. If Muslim girls are trained to think independently and critically they would certainly start questioning the unjust and misogynous traditions and rulings of orthodoxy. That would then pave the way for a women liberation movement, which integrisme detests. On the lap of the mother, said the Prophet of Islam, the son finds his paradise. If these liberated women train their children also to think independently and critically and question the teachings of orthodoxy that would then dry up recruits for the jihadist venture. Education of girls is therefore a double jeopardy. The simple solution is to burn down all secular schools for Muslim girls and stop them gaining higher education. This, in essence, is the reason for the incidents cited above.
In any case, theirs is a losing battle. Muslim girls in increasing numbers all over the world are breaking down religious and social barriers and pursuing higher education in multiple disciplines. Scholars like the Moroccan Professor Fatima Mernissi, American Laleh Bakhtiar who translated the Quran, Egyptian American Leila Ahmad, a sociologist and author of Women and Gender in Islam, American Quran exegetist, Amina Wadud and British Sayeeda Warsi are a few of the shining examples of this new generation. Muslim Women are already confronting the mullahs in Mullah’s own territory. Even the Wahhabi stronghold Saudi Arabia is now forced to relent against the rising tide of Muslim women power.
SJ / August 16, 2018
The Saudi model of Islam is likely to collapse sooner than expected.
Saudi ambition to be the regional hegemon is its undoing.
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There is more to attitude towards women’s education than religion.
A negative attitude exists among many Hindu communities of India too.
*
BTW, in the universities of Iran there is a female majority among students even in some S&T faculties.
I asked an academic. He said that a number of them opt for higher education to avoid early marriage.
In fairness, Muslim females are doing well academically there, and in Sri Lanka.
What matters is ensuring that all of them pursue their careers.
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Amarasiri / August 16, 2018
Dr. Ameer Ali,
RE: Muslim Integrists & Education Of Girls
“All these raise one crucial question. Why are these integrists so afraid of and detest Muslim girls acquiring secular modern education?”
Thank you very much for an excellent article.
“Integrists are generally against secular modern education because that education teaches the learner the art of independent and critical thinking. “
“It was independent reasoning and rational thought that pushed the Muslim world to the forefront of scientific knowledge and discoveries between the 9th and 12th centuries, and dislodged Islamic orthodoxy from its seat of intellectual domination. “
Thousand years ago, the Ulama did not want even the men to study reason, philosophy and science, as it will pollute their interpretation of the revelations, even though many prominent Islamic Jurists and Philosophers said that there is o conflict between Religion and Philosophy (knowledge). So, this is about control and a power struggle, between reason, knowledge and revelation and the hegemony of the Ulama.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/artsandculture/2015/4/9/ibn-rushd-in-his-darkest-hour
A final reason offered was Ibn Rushd’s book The Incoherence of the Incoherence, in which he responded to the fallacies of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s The Incoherence of Philosophers. He did this despite knowing Ghazali was the master of the Almohad dynasty who were in power, and believed the earth was located between the horns of a bull.
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Lankan-patriot. / August 16, 2018
Dear Dr Ameer Ali. I read all of your articles with interest and keen. but I’m sorry to say that you got your Islamic understanding . I neither support radicals or mystics. yet, you following another radicals of secularist agenda, you have become a victims of their books and writing. What is the difference between you and Muhammad Arkoun? or Irshad Manji. all of you have been indoctrinated and brain washed with secularisms. You have right to so.. As long as you do not deny and articles of faith and any Islamic fundamentals..
what about Jamail din Afghani, M. Abduh, Rasheed Raida and other who said politics is an integral parts of Islam. What about the prophet Muhammad provided religious, ( imamat), legal, (judge) and political leadership. the uniqueness of Islam is that it is a culmination of all divine messages. Do you want to get rules and regulation for your personal or religious life from Islam and yet, your economic, political, and civic life from capitalism, socialism, communism and from all other Islam..
what is the different between you and SISI, Qadahfi,and Sadam. All said there is no role for Islam in politics. or no politics in Islam..
I do not agree with Taliban, or Al-Qaeda or ISIS and yet, your version of Islam is no different for me from them .. in that you have joined the group of International Muslim secularists to attack Islam within.. I hope you are not paid for this …
it is really shame for Sri Lanka Muslim community to have people like you .. to speak for Islam and Muslim community without sound knowledge in Islam..
I hope you reply to this..
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Amarasiri / August 16, 2018
Lankan-patriot,
“I hope you reply to this..” you ask Dr. Dr Ameer Ali..
The reply was given by the many works of Abu Walid Mohammad Ibn Rushd, 800 years ago.
Abu Walid Mohammad Ibn Rushd, born in 1128 C.E. in Cordova, Spain, has been held as one of the greatest thinkers and scientists of history. His name is often Latinized as Averroes. A product of twelfth-century Islamic Spain, he set out to integrate Aristotelian philosophy with Islamic thought. A common theme throughout his writings is that there is no inappropriateness between religion and philosophy when both are properly understood.
https://www.famousscientists.org/ibn-rushd/
Works
He wrote at least 67 original works, which included 28 works on philosophy, 20 on medicine, 8 on law, 5 on theology, and 4 on grammar, in addition to his commentaries on most of Aristotle’s works and his commentary on Plato’s “The Republic”. A careful examination of his works reveals that he was a deeply Islamic man. As an example, we find in his writing,
“Anyone who studies anatomy will increase his faith in the omnipotence and oneness of God the Almighty”
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He believed that true happiness for man can be achieved through mental and psychological health, and people cannot enjoy psychological health unless they follow ways that lead to happiness in the hereafter, and unless they believe in God.
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Lankan / August 16, 2018
Hi.
Once again with philosophy Mr Amaeasiri…
Good thought .
I agree but ابن رشد ..
Is a problematic man
I prefer Al Ghazali..1111.
He was more orthodoxy than ibn Rishd…
He was brained washed by Aristotle logics ..
He took all what Aristotle and platao said .
But al-Ghazali challenges them all..
Read incoherent of philosophies by al- Ghazali..
Now MR Amaeasiri..you are half Muslim now .
You know what is Aqeeda .
What is iman ?
What is Islamic theology?
What is next life .
Who are prophets..
And so on..
All what you need to do now is take a good bath or solution and go to nearest mosque ..
Or ask one of Muslim in US to be witness for you ..
And make shahada.
There is no god but Allah..and Prophet Muhammad is his last messenger .
So; you will succeed in this life and next ..
No point in talking on board all knowledge like donkey ..
You need to belive what is true ..?
Why scared of people ..
People do not come with you when you die ..
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Amarasiri / August 17, 2018
Lankan,
“I prefer Al Ghazali..1111.
He was more orthodoxy than ibn Rishd…”
“But al-Ghazali challenges them all..
Read incoherent of philosophies by al- Ghazali..”
Ghazali was Wrong 7 of 20 points, in his incoherence. Cotton burns because of an agent or oxygen?
Go with demonstrative evidence and support, for the the ideas and explanations, and not in the names of different people advanced. On that score Gazali was incorrect 17 out of the 20 points raised, but Ghazali was a savior to the clueless orthodoxy, the Ulama. So, the Ulama used politics and the ruler, to burn Ibn Rushd’s works, just like the Catholic Church.
Despite his philosophical brilliance Ibn Rushd was banished and his writings burnt.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/artsandculture/2015/4/9/ibn-rushd-in-his-darkest-hour
His attacker was the grammarian Abu Said al-Sayrafi, who argued Arabs do not need logic. What is most notable about this early attack is that the vizier considered it to be a “defence of religion and the religious”.
However, when talking about the trials of a philosopher like Ibn Rushd in the 12th century it is important to remember attacks on rational science, especially logic, began in Abbasid Baghdad under caliphs who were parrots in cages in the 10th century.
A final reason offered was Ibn Rushd’s book The Incoherence of the Incoherence, in which he responded to the fallacies of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s The Incoherence of Philosophers. He did this despite knowing Ghazali was the master of the Almohad dynasty who were in power, and believed the earth was located between the horns of a bull.
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Amarasiri / August 17, 2018
Lankan,
“People do not come with you when you die ..”
Agree, but they come to bury you, and send you off to… where?
What is the physical body, and what is the soul? We all know the body decays? Does the soul leave the body at death? To where? Any evidence one way or the other?
What is your definition? Why do the Islamic fundamentalists object to the women’s souls getting educated? Why the sex discrimination? The lack of Y Chromosome?
soul
noun
1.
the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
2.
the essence or embodiment of a specified quality.
“he was the soul of discretion”
synonyms: embodiment, personification, incarnation, epitome, quintessence, essence; model, exemplification, exemplar, image, manifestation
“he is the soul of discretion”
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Lankan / August 17, 2018
Dear Amaeasiri…
Where does your soul go at death?..
Do you agree that we have a soul?
Come first to a logical question ?
Before you ask where does it go?
Where did it come from first into body at first ?
Read the famous Hadith in Hadith book about this ?
You are an expert on Islam ?
You could find about this question ..
I think you are more near to Islam than any other religions .
Hadith says where some ladies consumed at 40 day …soul is created in each baby…
Read more about it ..
So; it will go into عالم البرزخ…
Until day of Judgment..
The problem with you is that you try to imaging supernatural world with laws of this physical world …
That would be wrong all in all….
So; Amaeasiri..
Please read more about it ..
You will find many answeres to this question ..
But for dispute for Al- Ghazali and Ibn Rushd .
We need to have some detailed discussion .
I will give more details soon
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K.Pillai / August 17, 2018
Lankan-patriot ~ “.….all of you have been indoctrinated and brain washed with secularisms……….”.
Secular thinking results from critical analysis. It is the fundamentalists who need regular brain-washing. Right now Turkey’s Erdogan is doing that. He is surrounding himself with sycophantic ‘Yes men’.
~ “……..the uniqueness of Islam is that it is a culmination of all divine messages….….”.
It is the human interpretations which are being questioned.
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Ameen Ralli / August 22, 2018
K. Pillai
As you know secular means not connected to religion so secular thinking will have no room for religious thinking. But secular thinking embodies all good and evil thinking in the world. No need to elaborate here, you know what I am trying to show you.
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Real Revolutionist / August 16, 2018
“Muslim women are already confronting the Mullahs in Mullahs’ own territory”
There’s something funny we can do to make Muslim women victorious & bring to the surface the reality of men/women to Mullahs & to the world.
Find an injection to effect secreting male hormone in Muslim women & make them males & inject Mullahs to effect secreting female hormones to make them females.
(& set them to make relationships)
Mullahs will come to know that there’s a woman hidden inside them & there’s a man hidden inside every woman.
All the males who discriminate women on any ground should be given that punishment.
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Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera / August 16, 2018
RR,
I am glad at least someone has come forward in defense of the rights of Muslim women.
But where all the other Human rights champs here who get agitated even when a Sinhalese cracks a racist Joke?
Sometimes I have cracked a joke or two here which I acknowledge are racist in nature and these fellas were screeching at me when I did that.
To be honest, if human rights are to be protected then it must be applicable to all. Not just that Moslems are exempt from dressing up their women in gunny bags and parading them on roads.
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rbh / August 18, 2018
Mr. Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera
I am glad at least someone has come forward in defense of the rights of Muslim women.
What do you think of men who wear dresses? and What to you think of men who dress as women?
Man marring man
No mullah involved
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Amarasiri / August 16, 2018
Real Revolutionist
“Find an injection to effect secreting male hormone in Muslim women & make them males & inject Mullahs to effect secreting female hormones to make them females.
(& set them to make relationships)”
Inject Mullahs an agent that will destroy their Y chromosome.Then they will have only one X Chromosome, and perhaps their balls will fall off.
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Julampitiye Amraya / August 20, 2018
Even though the Islamists give punishments to sex offenders or sex maniacs , As per my experience in Middle East ,(most years in Saudi Arabia) it
is an open secret in Islamic Society every where
I found there are more Homosexual, Sex maniacs, Gays, and Lesbians than other Religions believers
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Muhandiram / August 16, 2018
Ameer Ali
Why don’t you leave Islam and Muslims alone? I doubt very much whether the non-Muslims in Sri Lanka who form over 90% of the population are interested in what the Muslims in Sri Lanka do as long as they don’t take up arms against the country. There is No chance of that happening any way.
If you are so concerned about changing the life style of the Muslims, go to a country like Indonesia, Pakistan or Bangladesh. Please, stop wasting the time of Sri Lankans.
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Amarasiri / August 17, 2018
Muhandiram ,
“Why don’t you leave Islam and Muslims alone? I doubt very much whether the non-Muslims in Sri Lanka who form over 90% of the population are interested in what the Muslims in Sri Lanka do”
This is a Sri Lankan citizen’s rights issue, a human rights issue guaranteed by the constitution, which the Ulama have managed to derail and the the so-called politicians have shamelessly sold out, the rights. Whether 10% or 1% is irrelevant.
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justice / August 16, 2018
Islamists need to discard harmful habits and traditions in this modern age.
Females need to be treated as absolute equals of males.
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SJ / August 17, 2018
Islamists? I doubt.
Muslims have adapted to change across the globe.
@
Females need to be treated as absolute equals of males.
That applies to all faiths and atheists too.
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niro / August 16, 2018
Productivity wise Muslim countries are shooting themselves in the foot by oppressing 51% the population. In every country in the world the ratio of females is higher than males. In Muslim countries this number is higher. Thus Muslim men, uneducated and poor ( about 90 % of all Muslims including in the ones in Sri Lanka ) have no chance at romance and Marriage. While men with money have 9 wives and where women sole purpose is to mass produce children. So .. you kn own they can rule the world.
This lead to poor Muslims getting offended at everything said about about Muhammud or the Koran ( Theo Van Gough , Charlie Hebbdo, Paris attack, Attack on Danish Cartoonist etc ) Then they blow themselves up to go to heaven and receive 72 Virgins. 72 !!!!!! Most men can’t deal with one women let a alone 72 . But this is the what Muslim men kill themselves for.
This is what we are dealing with.
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Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera / August 18, 2018
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
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RealMuslim / August 18, 2018
Niro,
I can’t wait till die and go to heavens for 72. For me just 3 is enough. I already have 2, if you can arrange me another 1 from within your circles (but a good looking one please), I will also fight for PEELAM and die.
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Ameen Ralli / August 22, 2018
niro (Donkey)
Why are you hating Muslims so much? May be it is your inferiority complex and jealousy. Why don’t you get converted and have four wives (not nine) or join a terrorist and blow yourself up so you can enjoy 72 Virgins if you are sure of that. Don’t worry about dealing with them, you have your own time in heaven so can go one by one.
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JD / August 16, 2018
Dr. Ameer Ali: I heard Saudi Arabia has eliminated the Extremism or WAHABIs from their country though Arabic Tribal cultures still exist in Sudi arabia and islamic devotees spread those as ISLAM. You can see browse thourhg the internet those photos. I have seen one woman covered totally including her face with the black garment was being kicked by anotheer make muslims in a shopping mall becaus she came alone. I hears Saudi arabia, it her tribal days, killed female infants born to the family by burying them alive under the sand. So, in that sense they are far better now. One Saudi arabian prince has his all JEt pilots women. But, when it comes to the society Saudi arabia is very inhumane. They say now it has spread to other countries eventhough they have controlled it.
With respect to Catholicsm, at one point Vatican was saying that every thing was created by the god. They intruded too much into devotee life. that is how Puritanist, Protestant sects began. That is how the Scientific thinking began. So, I think, even though Wahabism began as a deterrent to Western influence, now Wahabism is killing Islam all through e4xtremism. Intial Mohommadian religion is a very peaceful religion and it treated women well. There is a artistic culture created and thrived around LOVE. even though that is for the god, it was expressed via heterosexual love. Read Ghazal and Qawwali and RUMI (Kalil Jibran). Just the way Christianity peaked and then began to go down, now Wahabism is the peak point of Islam. Here after it only goes down.
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Ameen Ralli / August 22, 2018
JD
Saudi Arabia killed her female infants during tribal days which was stopped by Islam. In India still female infants are still killed. To avoid law they poison the infants as soon as born. Like midwife there are special type of women to do this on request.
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Sinhala_Man / August 16, 2018
Dear Dr Ameer Ali,
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Thanks for yet another article that educates us on the way in which we should support the Muslim community in its efforts to integrate with other communities, while maintaining your identity.
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I really think that it is this indecisive government of ours that is to blame. This has gone on much too long. I guess that the strategy of the obscurantists, must be to frustrate all our good intentions through a process of attrition. Even if a majority of Muslims are brainwashed/intimidated by patriarchs in to opposing reform of MMDA, I feel that we should be supporting the likes of Dr Ali, and the handful of Muslim women activists. I think that I have said all that I could have said in various comments that I have made.
.
Those whom you refer to as “integrists” must be hoping that we will get tired and flag in our efforts to welcome Muslims as full and respected members of our society. And they may be right. The government must take the lead now, in the interests of all. We want essentially decent people like Lankan-Patriot to be with us, but clearly, we will never be able to win arguments with people who refuse to recognise what they should clearly be seeing with their eyes – except that what enters their minds is a distorted picture.
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That British lady whom you have written about is the well-known “The Right Honourable The Baroness Warsi PC” isn’t she? Please look up Wikipedia. You see how much those societies are doing to promote integration. On the other hand what we have in our country are three purported “ethnic groups” tearing one another apart.
Power failure:
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https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/mmda-who-is-blocking-reform-of-this-discriminatory-law/
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Sinhala_Man / August 17, 2018
There really was a 30 minute power failure at that point, but the UPS held on long enough for me to insert that link.
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I fear that the next serious problem that’s going to face us is power cuts. Well, it’s like everything else which relates to the environment. LED bulbs consume much less power than the Edison-invented incandescent; but we’re making up for that by having lots of unnecessary lights on.
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By the way, I travelled more than a hundred miles by bus today. CTB, it was. But the strike by Private Buses did not seem to be effective. Good thing, too. I feel ever-increasing respect for Mangala Samaraweera. Seems the only politician able to tell us uncomfortable truths.
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We’re now in mid-August. The English cricketers are supposed to visit us in November. Can anybody think of a cricket ground where three out of five days’ play will be possible?
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Mohamed / August 19, 2018
Sinhala Man,
“Muslim community in its efforts to integrate with other communities, while maintaining your identity” – There is integration without both sides understand each other.
Why don’t you support and prepare your side that thinks a bit thicker gravy as Wande Pethi for integration while Amir Ali and the likes would do the same for their side thinks all Sinhalese are racists? Both parties need support in this aspect.
If Google and Facebook want to integrate their respective engineers have to work with their platform that they understand, otherwise be a mess
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K.Pillai / August 16, 2018
Almost all religions have been hijacked by the religious hierarchy for their own ends.
Remember a Church in the then Apartheid South Africa claimed that the Bible allowed segregation.
Hindu bigots in India say that caste system’ is part of Hinduism. The government legislated against this.
It is known that religious clergy were very quiet when it comes to rights of women. For example women in Christian clergy is a recent phenomenon. Will there be a woman Pope? Hindu women priests are unheard of. Buddhist nuns cannot dream of the upper rungs of hierarchy.
There are definite signs in most religions to eliminate this gender discrimination.
.
Islamist clergy stand out as the pillar of tradition. At the time of the birth of Islam, misogyny was part of the way of life. The clergy decided to live with this. In due course this turned out to be a good tool of domination. This gotten written into the religion and here we are.
The flock is conditioned to believe that a male can marry a child but a woman cannot marry a boy. A man can divorce with triple talag but not a woman.
Gender discrimination is looked at as human rights violations.
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Lankan Man / August 17, 2018
SINHALA MAN.. What do you know about Islam? did you learn Islam from Taliban? please do not be like Plato or Aristotle to about philosophy of Islamic law. Leave it for people like Amarasiri. It looks mastered Islamic theology, history, Sufism and all other areas.. You are talking non-sense. do you know Dr Ameer Ali learned Islam from Non-Muslim sources.? it is like to you learn buddhists from English ro French.
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Sinhala_Man / August 26, 2018
I know enough, I feel.
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May I ask how much you know of systems other than Islam?
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You will keep getting insulted if you try to insult others. How dare you question Dr Ameer Ali’s understanding of Islam. I’m very impressed with what he writes.
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As for you: why is it that you cannot be satisfied with the considerable respect I accord Islam. Yu just won’t be happy until I convert to your way of thinking. But then, how many Islams are there.
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I was at a Muslim wedding last night. Nice for a change, but no, I’m not embracing your ways.
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Yes, of course, Amarasiri knows way more than I do. No problem. I can respect my youngers and betters!
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rbh / August 18, 2018
Moslems are exempt from dressing up their women in gunny bags and parading them on roads.
Traditional Sri Lankan women will wear long skirts, avoids gawking of men
Attiring partially a provocation to men? When men then stare at their assets and show interest, why do women get offended?
Some, in work environments, go to the extent of suing for harassment and insist choice of dress is irrelevant.
Habitual/ Traditional Sri Lankan women will wear long skirts, tops that cover their shoulders and upper arms, and will avoid trousers and any skirt above the knee.
The dress code should be like shown St marium (Mariam )
see the images of st mariam mother of jesus
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ekelbroom / August 18, 2018
The rigid patriarchal social system, that has shaped and continues to shape the internal dynamics of the local Muslim Community, effectively prevented the optimal utilisation of 50% of it’s Intellectual Capital over the years, thereby depriving the Community of the benefits that it would have otherwise reaped.
As long as Muslim males perceive females as mere ‘baby factories’ to be confined to their homes, who are incapable of independent thought and who must be maintained in a state of subservience for their ‘own good’, female Muslims will be deprived of their basic right to a complete education among other things.
If female Muslims are to be provided with the same opportunities as their male counterparts to realize their full God-given potential as human beings, then the rigid patriarchal social system has to be unshackled.
The Community has already witnessed the growing resistance to such an effort in the case of the MMDA with scholars, politicians and professionals doing everything possible by fair means or foul to prevent any ‘concessions’ being granted to the females.
Unfortunately, the hardening of positions among Muslim Sri Lankans will only hasten the emergence and strengthening of extremism within the community.
A little bit of critical thinking or more specifically systems thinking will reveal that if females of Islamic faith are to make any headway in their fight for liberation then they must do so as female Sri Lankans rather than as female Muslims.
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rbh / August 18, 2018
JD
I Hears Saudi arabia, it her tribal days, killed female infants born to the family by burying.
Today it is happening in other part of the world to avoid dowry, Demands for money turn into threats of violence, and when the family can’t pay any more, the bride is killed. husband started beating her immediately, demanding her parents hand over more money.
Why no enlightenment on such.
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Socrates / August 19, 2018
The civilizational responsibility of unbelievers and non believers is to phase out Islam with least physical harm to the brainwashed. This opinion peice shows it is moving forward albeit at snail’s pace. A moment to celebrate.
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