28 March, 2024

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Muslim Women’s Lib & Liberal Islam

By Izeth Hussain

Izeth Hussain

Izeth Hussain

The women’s lib (liberation) movement, which in the West had been gathering momentum in the first half of the twentieth century, became much more dynamic and also acquired a global spread in the second half. That is true as a generalization, but the Islamic world as a whole has been an exception. There it has been a case not of progress but of regress in women’s lib, back to the Middle Ages and even to pre-Islamic times. The regression has been seen most spectacularly in the widespread adoption of a female dress code that is utterly unIslamic. Strangely, the regression shown in the ghastly subjugation of women in a substantial part of the Islamic world has been accompanied by loud boasts that Islam gave equality to females as much as one thousand four hundred years ago, long before the West did. But the West and the rest of the world have been profoundly unimpressed.

The question of women’s lib in Sri Lanka has acquired a sudden urgency. A Commission appointed seven years ago to recommend revision of Muslim personal laws has failed to come up with anything at all. Now the EU wants as a condition for the renewal of GSP + a revision of Muslim personal laws to make them consistent with UN instruments on human rights which have been acceded to by Sri Lanka. That requires changes in Muslim personal laws affecting vexed questions such as child marriage and so on. Presumably a failure to make the requisite changes would lead to a failure to secure renewal of GSP+. That can certainly be expected to add fuel to the ongoing anti-Muslim hate campaign the proponents of which clearly hope to engineer another 1983 holocaust, this time against the Muslims. The supposition up to now has been that the present Government unlike the previous one is not covertly supporting the hate campaign, but we cannot ignore the fact that it has been refusing to take adequate counter-action to stem it. Now veteran Muslim journalist Latheef Farook has brought out a chilling fact in Colombo Telegraph of December o8: the President invited the BBS General Secretary, Gnanasara Thera, to a meeting of religious leaders on December 6. Apparently the President does not share the widespread Buddhist view that Gnanasara Thera is a deviant Buddhist who is dangerous to this country. Anyway we must bear in mind one fact: it is that since 1948 most of our Governments have been world-famous for a mind-boggling stupendous stupidity in managing ethnic relations. Obviously our Muslims should, in their own interest, now give priority to changing their personal laws.

MuslimRecently several articles have appeared showing clearly enough that some of the personal laws and the malfunctioning of the Qazi courts amount to a system of oppression of Muslim women: paradoxically they have been suffering injustice under the very institutions set up to secure justice for all including women. I will not repeat the facts and arguments in those articles. Instead I will focus on the underlying reason why it is proving so difficult to change Muslim personal laws. It is that the liberal Islam which sprang from the reform movement started by Jamaldin al-Afghani in the late nineteenth century came to be checked firstly by despotic Muslim leaders who favored conservatism in religion and later, from the 1970s, by the spread of Saudi-backed Wahabism. It became increasingly difficult to adapt Islam to the needs and aspirations of twentieth century Muslims and to evolve an Islamic form of modernity. I believe that the way out of this impasse has to include a challenge to the notion that the Sharia is the Divine Law, as it is that notion that is at the core of the Muslim resistance to change.

In this article I will be partly summarizing and paraphrasing some of the contents of a paper that I presented sometime in the first half of the ‘nineties at a seminar held by the Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum. It was published by them in booklet form together with another seminar paper in 2000 under the title The Need for Ijtihad or Intellectual Reasoning. The MWRF was headed by Jezima Ismail and has had among its most active members Faizun Zackariya and Anberiya Haniffa, all of whom and others have to be recognized as pioneers in the movement for Muslim Women’s liberation in Sri Lanka. Their success is attested by the fact that there are many more Muslim women like them today.

I will now give a brief account of the critique of the Sharia from the standpoint of the proponents of liberal Islam. I must emphasize before proceeding further that any ad hominem attacks on me on the ground that I am not an Islamic scholar and so on will be out of place because I am doing no more here than expounding the liberal critique of the Sharia as developed by Islamic luminaries of the order of Mohammed Abduh, Ameer Ali, and Iqbal. There are four sources of the Sharia, the first of which is the Koran. The following is from my seminar paper: “We should also consider the implications of the fact that out of 6,000 verses in the Koran, only 600 deal with legal obligations, and the majority of them with religious matters such as prayer, fasting, or pilgrimage. Strictly legal matters are dealt with in only about 80 verses, most of them about women, marriage, and laws of inheritance”.

Those facts must surprise the non-Muslim reader who must ponder over the implications of the fact that the Koranic verses with a legal import are so meager. Surely God could never have intended to prescribe a comprehensive legal system – such as the Sharia – valid and immutable in all places and for all time. I continued as follows: “According to Malise Ruthven’s Islam in the World (1984), Muhammed Azad has argued that the limited scope of ordinances both in the Koran and the Sunna was not due to an oversight. It was meant to avoid legal and social rigidity. The common sense of the matter is that the law has to be adapted to the conditions of time place”.

In a later part of my paper I wrote, “Sir Sayed Ahmed Khan, in the nineteenth century, used the argument of Shah Walliullah of Delhi in the eighteenth century that there are two dimensions to the Koran, one of which was eternal and universal, and the other temporary and locally specific. The Koranic verses with a legal import obviously belong to the latter category. Ahmed Khan proceeded to declare polygamy and slavery forbidden as all laws are subject to change according to circumstances, unlike the five pillars of Islam”. Sir Sayed Ahmed Khan was the famous founder of Aligarh University who, I must point out, continued to hold his exalted position in the Islamic society of his time despite his apparently heretical views.

I continued as follows: “Crucial to the argument of the liberal Muslims are the abrogated verses of the Koran. Watt in Bell’s introduction to the Koran (1970) writes of the doctrine of abrogation, ‘The idea underlying the doctrine is that certain commands to the Muslims were only of temporary application, and that when circumstances changed they were abrogated or replaced by others’. An example is provided by the stages through which the drinking of wine was prohibited – Suras 16:67, 2:219, and 5:90. Wine was apparently first regarded as permitted, then as an evil which had to be tolerated, and finally it was prohibited”. Bell was the Oxford scholar who wrote a path-breaking book on dating the Suras of the Koran. I believe that it has not been established which of the Suras was the final one about drinking wine.

To be continued…

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    [Edited out]

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      Izeth Hussain

      RE: Muslim Women’s Lib & Liberal Islam

      1. “I believe that the way out of this impasse has to include a challenge to the notion that the Sharia is the Divine Law, as it is that notion that is at the core of the Muslim resistance to change.”

      2. “The Need for Ijtihad or Intellectual Reasoning”

      3. “I will now give a brief account of the critique of the Sharia from the standpoint of the proponents of liberal Islam”

      4. “I must emphasize before proceeding further that any ad hominem attacks on me on the ground that I am not an Islamic scholar and so on …”

      Thank yo for the write up. Your Muslim critics will try to silence you by saying that you are Not a Muslin “Scholar”. Isn’t Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd from Cordova, Spain, in 1126 CE, a Muslim Scholar? In addition he was a polymath as well.

      In short, Islam needs Reformation based on Reason Just like Christianity and Judaism.

      Comments: It is about Ulemh, Mullah, “Scholar” Hegemony, Keeping their Ridgepole position in society. The Catholic priests did that, and the Monks and other Priests do that. This battle has a long history. It is like the battle between Republicanism and Monarchism.

      Please Read Faith and Reason in Islam by Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd, known in European sources as Averroes, was born in Cordova, Spain, in 1126 CE. ( ISBN 1-85168-263-5)

      Averroes held controversial views about the relationship between faith and reason, arguing that religion should not be allowed to impose limits on the exercise of rational thought.

      The dispute between reason and religion is far from a new phenomenon, this important book is essential reading for scholars, students, and all those interested in Islamic Philosophy, and its effect on the modern intellectual world, and cause transformation in Islam, help Muslims to get to the Age of Reason and Enlightenment, and Reform Islam, and take it away from the Ulema, Mullah and other Satan, Shaytan, Iblis, and Devil followers.

      Irshad Manji vs Mehdi Hasan: Head to Head Debate on Al Jazeera

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5wclhYcWaA

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        Izeth Hussain

        RE: Muslim Women’s Lib & Liberal Islam

        1. //“We should also consider the implications of the fact that out of 6,000 verses in the Koran, only 600 deal with legal obligations, and the majority of them with religious matters such as prayer, fasting, or pilgrimage. Strictly legal matters are dealt with in only about 80 verses, most of them about women, marriage, and laws of inheritance”.//

        2. // “According to Malise Ruthven’s Islam in the World (1984), Muhammed Azad has argued that the limited scope of ordinances both in the Koran and the Sunna was not due to an oversight. It was meant to avoid legal and social rigidity. The common sense of the matter is that the law has to be adapted to the conditions of time place”.//

        3. // Ahmed Khan proceeded to declare polygamy and slavery forbidden as all laws are subject to change according to circumstances, unlike the five pillars of Islam”.//

        4. //“Crucial to the argument of the liberal Muslims are the abrogated verses of the Koran. Watt in Bell’s introduction to the Koran (1970) writes of the doctrine of abrogation, ‘The idea underlying the doctrine is that certain commands to the Muslims were only of temporary application, and that when circumstances changed they were abrogated or replaced by others’//

        Thanks for the above narrations. Is ad hominen attacks the the only arguments the theologians can muster?

        Item 4 above is the most crucial, as the Quran itself recognizes the need for change based ob reason, facts and observation for the times.
        This position is what Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd, known in European sources as Averroes, advocates.

        Ibn Rushd, Averroes, says Philosophers are experts in theit field like physicians in the field of health, the common people and the theologians (the Islamic Scholars) are like patients who receive treatment and follow the advice of the expert doctors. The philosophers differ from other people in the degree and detail of their knowledge. Unlike common people and theologians, the philosophers take the needed time and acquire the appropriate skills for understanding such arguments.

        Ibn Rushd, Averroes, was also known as the commentator of Aristotle for his knowledge of Philosophy, in the West.

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    “YOU CAN’T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO”

    “You cant have your hijab and eat your ice cream.” – read in to the sentence without taking it literally.

    This week BBC aired a two part reality show “Muslims Like us”. Ten Muslims (5 men 5 women) from different backgrounds, including a convicted Islamic extremist, were all housed in a big house for 10 days to live together.

    What transpired was that the 10 Muslims among themselves could not agree what is Islam and what it is to be a Good Muslim, not just in their adopted country.

    one of the women confessed that she finds it to difficult to eat with the hijab….and she was not wearing a hijab as shown in the photo here.. but hijab not covering her full face.

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      Izeth Hussain

      RE: Muslim Women’s Lib & Liberal Islam

      Thanks. Expose, expose and expose.

      1. “That is true as a generalization, but the Islamic world as a whole has been an exception.”

      2. ” There it has been a case not of progress but of regress in women’s lib, back to the Middle Ages and even to pre-Islamic times. The regression has been seen most spectacularly in the widespread adoption of a female dress code that is utterly unIslamic.”

      3. “The question of women’s lib in Sri Lanka has acquired a sudden urgency. A Commission appointed seven years ago to recommend revision of Muslim personal laws has failed to come up with anything at all. “

      4. “Now veteran Muslim journalist Latheef Farook has brought out a chilling fact in Colombo Telegraph of December o8: the President invited the BBS General Secretary, Gnanasara Thera, to a meeting of religious leaders on December 6. Apparently the President does not share the widespread Buddhist view that Gnanasara Thera is a deviant Buddhist who is dangerous to this country. Anyway we must bear in mind one fact: it is that since 1948 most of our Governments have been world-famous for a mind-boggling stupendous stupidity in managing ethnic relations. Obviously our Muslims should, in their own interest, now give priority to changing their personal laws.”

      Thanks for the write up. 7 years, and it is only EU with UN and BBS, despite its anti-Muslim stand, which is trying to get the Muslim Personal Laws changed and rescue the Sri Lankan Muslim girls and women.

      5. “Instead I will focus on the underlying reason why it is proving so difficult to change Muslim personal laws. It is that the liberal Islam which sprang from the reform movement started by Jamaldin al-Afghani in the late nineteenth century came to be checked firstly by despotic Muslim leaders who favored conservatism in religion and later, from the 1970s, by the spread of Saudi-backed Wahabism.”

      The Saudi Wahhabis, Salafis and their clones follow the Devil, Iblis, Satan.

      Scholar from al-Azhar: Wahhabism is a Satanic Faith, the Horn of the Devil that Muhammad Predicted

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufxTUFapy1w&t=42s

      Hadith of Najd

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_of_Najd

      6. “It was published by them in booklet form together with another seminar paper in 2000 under the title The Need for Ijtihad or Intellectual Reasoning. The MWRF was headed by Jezima Ismail and has had among its most active members Faizun Zackariya and Anberiya Haniffa, all of whom and others have to be recognized as pioneers in the movement for Muslim Women’s liberation in Sri Lanka. Their success is attested by the fact that there are many more Muslim women like them today.”

      This is excellent news, many progressive Muslim women.

      Reformist Muslim Irshad Manji vs Mehdi Hasan: Head to Head Debate on Al Jazeera

      Published on Sep 11, 2016
      Irshad Manji debates Islamic reform with the host of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5wclhYcWaA

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      Izeth Hussain,

      Men interpreting Quran to their advantage.

      Why Islam needs Reformation. Judaism had Reformation, Christianity had Reformation, why not Islam?

      Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler reformed the Greeks and the Catholic Church.

      Irshad Manji vs Mehdi Hasan: Head to Head Debate on Al Jazeera

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5wclhYcWaA

      Verse (5:32) – English Translation

      Yusuf Ali: “On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our messengers with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.”

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      We saw how Tamil women ate ice cream in Nanthikadal.

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        hmmm I see you like your ice cream.
        I am sure you like liking it.

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      “YOU CAN’T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO” when Tamils of Jaffna wanted Eelam, Tamil economic refugees in EU / USA wanted war more than peelam. Is that what you talk about?

      :)

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    Mr. Hussein:

    The idea underlying the doctrine is that certain commands to the Muslims were only of temporary application, and that when circumstances changed they were abrogated or replaced by others’. An example is provided by the stages through which the drinking of wine was prohibited – Suras 16:67, 2:219, and 5:90. Wine was apparently first regarded as permitted, then as an evil which had to be tolerated, and finally it was prohibited

    You may not it even reminding it.

    Pork is also the same. they wanted to stop a certain disease. Only problem is they included whole rule book into the Quran.

    Just think, if the Sri lankan constitution has every rule including the penal code and traffic offences.

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      Jim softooo,

      Heard about “little knowledge is very dangerous”? Just because a keyboard gives you a shield, doesn’t mean you should showcase your ignorance and idiocy on a discounted price

      Thanks

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    If Izeth Hussain was an Islamic scholar nakedness amongst Muslim women would have been a norm in Sri Lanka and maybe even beyond. [Edited out]

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    This [Edited out] scholar calls for the need for Ijtihad or intellectual reasoning.Ijtihad primarily is not intellectual reasoning. Does this man know what he is talking about.

    Linguistically ijtihaad means: to expend efforts in order to reach some difficult matter. Technically it means: expending efforts to arrive at a Sharee’ah ruling. And the Mujtahid (the person-usually an Islamic scholar) is the one who expends efforts for this purpose.

    Conditions for Ijtihaad:

    Being a mujtahid has conditions, from them:-

    1) That he knows the Sharee’ah proofs which he needs in his ijtihaad – such as the verses and ahaadeeth pertaining to rulings.

    2) That he knows what relates to the authenticty or weakness of a hadeeth, such as having knowledge of the isnaad and it’s narrators and other than this.

    3) That he knows the abrogated and the abrogating, and the places where there is ijmaa – such that he does not give a ruling according to something that has been abrogated, nor give a ruling that opposes the (authentically related) ijmaa.

    4) That he knows from the proofs that which causes the rulings to vary, such as takhsees (particularisation), or taqyeed (restriction), or it’s like. So he does not give a judgement which is contrary to this.

    5) That he knows the Arabic language and usul al-fiqh, and what relates to the meanings and indications of particular wordings – such as the general, the particular, the absolute and unrestricted, the restricted, the unclarified, and the clarified, and it’s like – in order that he gives rulings in accordance with what this demands.

    6) That he has the ability to extract rulings from the evidences.

    And ijtihaad may be split up, such that it may be undertaken in one particular branch of knowledge, or in one particular issue.

    I sincerely hope Mr Hussain understands all whats stated above?

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      Jo

      “And the Mujtahid (the person-usually an Islamic scholar) is the one who expends efforts for this purpose.”

      What happens when this Islamic Scholar does not posses the Common sense, intellect or reasoning abilities to arrive ay the correct interpretation. Everybody is misled.

      Please also read the comment by Amarasiri to AYMAN’S Post and the reference contained therein.

      Example. Abdul Wahhab and his clomes called Wahhabiles, Salafies, Tauhidis, ISIS, Taliban, Boko Haram etc.

      Iblis, Devil, Satan, Shaytan in Islam.

      His primary activity is to incite humans and jinn to commit evil through deception, which is referred to as “whispering into the hearts.”The Quran mentions that satans are the assistants of those who disbelieve in God: “We have made the evil ones friends to those without faith.”

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_(Islam)

      The Saudi Wahhabis, Salafis and their clones follow the Devil, Iblis, Satan.

      Scholar from al-Azhar: Wahhabism is a Satanic Faith, the Horn of the Devil that Muhammad Predicted

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufxTUFapy1w&t=42s

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        Amarasiri,

        What happens when this Islamic Scholar does not posses the Common sense, intellect or reasoning abilities to arrive ay the correct interpretation. Everybody is misled.

        This is what this pseudo scholar wrote. Imagine if you replace the word Islamic scholar with the Learned Professor in the above statement? This statement will then merit the prize for the most idiotic statement in this forum. An Islamic Scholar, who possesses the credentials that writer Jo enumerates is truly a Learned Professor. Need we say more?

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          Jamal, AYMAN and JO and Others

          //”This is what this pseudo scholar wrote. Imagine if you replace the word Islamic scholar with the Learned Professor in the above statement? “//

          Wahhabies, Salafis, Tauhid, ISIS, Taliban, Boko-Haram are the pseuo- Scholars. The history and data supports that.

          1. Amarasiri does not claim to be a scholar or a pseudo-scholar. Amarasiri has a keen interest in knowing the Truth of the Philosophers, Scientists and other free thinkers and, especially Prophets who claim to get Revelations from God, and try to comprehend the truth and wisdom contained in them. Amarasiri’s exploration is not limited to one particular Belief, Religion, Discipline, Disciple, Political Philosophy or Subject, but only dependent on the interest that excites in Amarasiri to satisfy his curiosity and cravings.

          “What happens when this Islamic Scholar does not posses the Common sense, intellect or reasoning abilities to arrive at the correct interpretation. Everybody is misled.”

          The above is actually more or less the statement and the position what Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd,(known in European sources as Averroes) advocated 900 years ago.

          Isn’t Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd from Cordova, Spain, in 1126 CE, a Muslim Scholar? In addition to being a theologian, judge, he was a polymath as well.

          Ibn Rushd, Averroes, was a medieval Andalusian polymath. He wrote on logic, Aristotelian and Islamic philosophy, theology, the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, psychology, political and Andalusian classical music theory, geography, mathematics, and the mediæval sciences of medicine, astronomy, physics, and celestial mechanics

          2. None of the current so-called Scholars, emanating from Wahhabi-Saudi Arabia and other places comes close to the understanding of the Quran, Philosophy, and God as did Walid Ibn Rushd did 900 years ago, and was an influential Islamic religious philosopher who integrated Islamic traditions with ancient Greek thought.

          He wrote the Decisive Treatise on the Agreement Between Religious Law and Philosophy (Faṣl al-Maḳāl), Examination of the Methods of Proof Concerning the Doctrines of Religion (Kashf al-Manāhij), and The Incoherence of the Incoherence (Tahāfut al-Tahāfut), all in defense of the philosophical study of religion against the theologians (1179–80).

          3. In short, Islam needs Reformation based on Reason Just like Christianity and Judaism.

          Ibn Rushd, Averroes, says Philosophers are experts in their field like physicians in the field of health, the common people and the theologians (the Islamic Scholars) are like patients who receive treatment and follow the advice of the expert doctors. The philosophers differ from other people in the degree and detail of their knowledge. Unlike common people and theologians, the philosophers take the needed time and acquire the appropriate skills for understanding such arguments.

          Ibn Rushd, Averroes, was also known as the commentator of Aristotle for his knowledge of Philosophy, in the West.

          4. The Abdul Wahhab, the Founder of Wahhabism, Salafisim, and its clones the so-called Tauhid, ISIS, Taliban, Boko-Harams comes close to what the Quran warned about Satan,Iblis, and in fact the data supports that they all are misled by the Satan, Devil, Iblis. Read below:

          Wahhabi sack of Karbala, Killed 5,000 Shia Muslims, yes Muslims.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabi_sack_of_Karbala

          //”..despotic Muslim leaders who favored conservatism in religion and later, from the 1970s, by the spread of Saudi-backed Wahabism.”//

          5. Amarasiri strongly recommends that you read up on the Wisdom of Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd , Averroes 900 years ago from his writings, which the Europeans took advantage of, and get the Muslim to the Age of Reason and Enlightenment, they missed 900 years ago, and suffering since then, courtsey of the Ignorant Ulema and the so-called “Scholars” such as Ibn Taymiah, Abdul Wahhab and others who were misled by the Devil, Satan, Iblis.

          Iblis wants believers to get to Hellfire along with him on Judgement Day, and All those Wahhabies, Salafies, ISIS and their clones will be dragged to Hell-fire by the Devil, Satan, Iblis, as per Islamic Theology.

          Devil (Islam), Satan, Iblis

          His primary activity is to incite humans and jinn to commit evil through deception, which is referred to as “whispering into the hearts.”The Quran mentions that Satans are the assistants of those who disbelieve in God: “We have made the evil ones friends to those without faith.”

          “At the creation of man, God ordered all his angels to bow down in obedience before Adam. Iblīs refused, claiming he was a nobler being since he was created of fire, while man came only of clay. For this exhibition of pride and disobedience, God threw Iblīs out of heaven. His punishment, however, was postponed until the Judgment Day, when he and his host will have to face the eternal fires of hell; until that time he is allowed to tempt all but true believers to evil. As his first demonic act, Iblīs, referred to in this context as shayṭān, entered the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve to eat of the tree of immortality, causing both Adam and Eve to forfeit paradise. Disguised as the hātif, the mysterious voice of Arab mythology, Iblīs also tempted ʿAlī, Muhammad’s son-in-law, unsuccessfully trying to keep him from performing the ritual washing of the Prophet’s dead body.”

          https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iblis

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      Jo – I did not define Ijtihad ad as “intellectual reasoning”. I merely referred to a booklet carrying those terms in its title.
      In my article I have already anticipated your ad hominem attack on me on the ground that I am not an Islamic scholar. I quote: “I must emphasize before proceeding further that any ad homunem attacks on me on the ground that I am not an Islamic scholar and so on will be out of place because I am doing no more here than expounding the liberal critique of the Sharia as developed by Islamic lumanaries of the order of Mohammed Abduh, Ameer Ali, and Iqbal”. Their knowledge of Islam and their profound understanding of it cannot be questioned. I share their views of course. – IH

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        Izeth Hussain

        You’ve just acknowledged something that I always associated you with. I have nothing against you. Your reasoning is a trifle hollow and obtuse.I am yearning to see depth.

        Abduh was a Freemason and Mutazila. I need not say anything more of this individual or the rest you’ve mentioned. The preponderance of Muslims may not know who these people are or what they represent. What you are dishing out in the name of “intellectual reasoning” is corruption vis a vis mainstream Islam revealed to the last and final Messenger (Peace be upon him) – plain and simple.

        The rabid creed of the Mutazilah is well documented in history.They distorted the texts of the Shareeah from the Qur’aan and the Sunnah and plotted against the Scholars and attacking their honour. The most famous of such plots is the trial of Imaam Ahmad bin Hanbal Rahimahullah. The Mutazilah worked hand in glove with rulers of the time to refute the great Imam. He Imam Ahmed made an epic struggle against these deviants.He never gave in and said the Quran is the speech of Allah and the putrid Mutazila said its created and tried valiantly to promulgate this distorted creed.

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          JazakAllaah for your succinct reply. Apparently Izzeth has strayed into a most inappropriate field of discussion. When scientists, medical practitioners, engineers for instance, are broiled in some controversy in their related fields, the contribution of lay persons is tantamount to foolhardiness. You have given some of the pre-requisites for qualification to even think of contributing to this subject. As is quite obvious, Izzeth falls far short in this regard. Consequently he has raised a hornets nest resulting in the Islamphobes and Sharia bashes having a field day..

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            Jo and Jamal

            This debate, faith and reason, has a long history.

            The topic and subject matter of debate is Muslim Women’s Lib & Liberal Islam and rights of women denied by the Theologians using Sharia.

            According to Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd (Averroes), false interpretations are the root of the rise of heretical sects in Islam ( by extension Wahhabism, Salafism etc), totaling according a Prophetic tradition (Hadith 72), of which only one was destined to be saved.

            The debate is NOT on Mutazila, Mutzallite and Asharites, positions on the the worl being created in time(hadith or muhadith) must have a Creator or Orginator (Muhdith)who created in time, and the temporality of the universe(huduth).

            Please Read Faith and Reason in Islam by Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd, known in European sources as Averroes, was born in Cordova, Spain, in 1126 CE. ( ISBN 1-85168-263-5).

            The topic and subject matter is

            Averroes held controversial views about the relationship between faith and reason, arguing that religion should not be allowed to impose limits on the exercise of rational thought.

            The dispute between reason and religion is far from anew phenomenon, this important book is essential reading for scholars, students, and all those interested in Islamic Philosophy, and it effect on the modern intellectual world, and cause transformation in Islam, help Muslims to get to the Age of Reason and Enlightenment, and Reform Islam, and take it away from the Ulema, Mullah and other Satan, Shaytan, Iblis, and Devil followers.

            Scholar from al-Azhar: Wahhabism is a Satanic Faith, the Horn of the Devil that Muhammad Predicted

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufxTUFapy1w&t=42s

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            Why bother with the ignorant writers?

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              Maghribi and other Wahhabites*,

              “Why bother with the ignorant writers?”

              Why bother with the ignorant fools who follow the Devils, Satan, Iblis?

              Because somebody needs to help them, as they cannot help themselves, as demonstrated by the Washhabies*, Salafies, ISIS and their clones. Because of that they lose their Allah given critical thinking abilities, and becoming the stupidest people on Earth, based on the performance of the Wahhabi “Educated” graduate GMAT Test Takers.

              * They are collectively called Wahhabites, as they were bitten by Satan, Iblis, similar to those who are bitten by mad dogs, and they get rabies, and their critical thinking skills and IQs drop.

              Demonstration and Proof:

              Quick Post: L&V’s National IQs predict GMAT scores across 173 nations

              Regression Plot: The regression plot for GMAT scores and L&V’s (2012) Estimated National IQs is shown below.

              Wahhabi Salafi Saudi Arabia Average GMAT Score 330, and declining

              Sufi Separation of Religion and State Turkey Average GMAT Score 540,

              Shia Iran Average GMAT Score 520

              Buddhist Almost Secular Sri Lanka, Average GMAT Score 490

              Non-Wahhabi, Islamic Bangla Desh Average GMAT Score 480

              https://humanvarietiesdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/gmatregressionplot.png

              http://humanvarieties.org/2014/02/02/quick-post-lvs-national-iqs-predicts-gmat-scores-across-173-nations/

              Why?

              The Saudi Wahhabis, Salafis and their clones follow the Devil, Iblis, Satan.

              Scholar from al-Azhar: Wahhabism is a Satanic Faith, the Horn of the Devil that Muhammad Predicted

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufxTUFapy1w&t=42s

        • 2
          0

          Jo and Jamal,

          “He never gave in and said the Quran is the speech of Allah and the putrid Mutazila said its created and tried valiantly to promulgate this distorted creed. “

          See what Ibn Rushd, Averroes, the most respected Islamic scholar, had to say about this.

          Both the Mutazilah and Asharites were in error and the common people and the theologians (the Islamic Scholars) are like patients who receive treatment and follow the advice of the expert doctors.

          Ibn Rushd, Averroes, was a medieval Andalusian polymath. He wrote on logic, Aristotelian and Islamic philosophy, theology, the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, psychology, political and Andalusian classical music theory, geography, mathematics, and the mediæval sciences of medicine, astronomy, physics, and celestial mechanics.

          Ibn Rushd, Averroes, says Philosophers are experts in theit field like physicians in the field of health, the common people and the theologians (the Islamic Scholars) are like patients who receive treatment and follow the advice of the expert doctors. The philosophers differ from other people in the degree and detail of their knowledge. Unlike common people and theologians, the philosophers take the needed time and acquire the appropriate skills for understanding such arguments.

          Please Read Faith and Reason in Islam by Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd, known in European sources as Averroes, was born in Cordova, Spain, in 1126 CE. ( ISBN 1-85168-263-5).

    • 0
      0

      Jo.

      Demonstration and evidence that the Wahhabis follow Satan, Shaytan, Devil, Iblis

      Being a mujtahid has conditions, from them:-

      Abdul Wahhab, Father of Wahhambsm, was not an Islamic scholar. He was an Iblisic scholar. a Satanic scholar who hailed from Najd.

      The Hadith states:

      Narrated Ibn ‘Umar: (The Prophet) said, “O Allah! Bless our Sham (Syria) and our Yemen.” People said, “Our Najd as well.” The Prophet again said, “O Allah! Bless our Sham and Yemen.” They said again, “Our Najd as well.” On that the Prophet said, “There will appear earthquakes and afflictions, and from there appears the Horn of Satan.” (Book #17, Hadith #147, Bukhari)

      Najd: Exposing Horn of Satan 1

      https://youtu.be/QbHymIJWMfA

      Exposing Horn Of Satan 2

      https://youtu.be/aqBEm6oWTys

      End Times: Horn Of Satan To Appear From Najd, Saudi Arabia – ‘Sahih’ Hadith

      http://newsrescue.com/end-times-horn-of-satan-to-appear-from-saudi-arabia-sahih-hadith/#axzz4TWPaLmXR

    • 0
      0

      Jo.
      You think that you are clever. Think again.
      IH makes sense in his contribution to this debate.
      You seem to have copied verbatim some dogmatic explanation of Ijtihaad.
      Get real.

  • 7
    5

    Imposing ideas on others

    Izeth, you say, “Apparently the President does not share the widespread Buddhist view that Gnanasara Thera is a deviant Buddhist who is dangerous to this country”.

    Is your “widespread Buddhist view” based on some sort of poll? How does a Muslim decide what we think. Taking a hypothetical case, where there is a widespread Buddhist view that there are too many mosques in a given area, should the President ignore that or not?

    If as you say Gnanasara Thera is a deviant Buddhist, then almost every Muslim including you may be considered as a deviant Muslim. You insist on others following your rules whether they are Muslims or not. The problem is that you Muslims think that Islam is so special that not even a harmless joke may be directed at it. It is OK as long as it is a code of conduct imposed on Muslims only. But when you insist that others too follow it or else it is punishable by death, then that is a danger of immense proportions to the whole world.

    When we were children, we used to joke about other religions, even Islam. At that time the Muslims were not brain washed like now and they took it up with a joke of their own directed at us. Now we dare not say anything like that even in our own country, because a Jihadi John may appear behind you with a big knife.

    • 4
      1

      Edwin,
      Coming from the back and stabbing would be bad but what if Jihadi John were to come from the front and cut the tip off?That would be tradgedy since you would automatically be enrolled as a member of the brotherhood!Anyway at your age I suppose the fate of the tip hardly matters,right?!!

    • 0
      0

      EDWIN RODRIGO [Edited out]

  • 3
    0

    Aingkaran’s article gets only 9 comments at this point in time.
    Where as Keethaponcalan’s attracted 161. Probably on Izeth’s series 41 may have commented by now.

    Hoole brother’s series may be 20.

    This is SL. How to change the media and political environmet without CLERGIES reawakening.

  • 5
    1

    Mr. Hussein:

    In this article you are very much a buddhist.

    Because, buddhism says that the HUman WILL POWER is the ALmighty god who produces this tangible world.

    YOu challenge the Sharia law which is said to be Devine and propose amendments to it.

    Am I correct ?

    You investigate what you hear, read etc.,independantly mean you are a scholar. That is what Buddhist – Kalama Sutta. At present, Indian Kalamas are muslims though.

    • 3
      0

      Izeth Hussein regardung jim softy Comments.

      Kalama Sutta, is reason and observations.

      This debate, faith and reason, has a long history.

      Please Read Faith and Reason in Islam by Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd, known in European sources as Averroes, was born in Cordova, Spain, in 1126 CE. ( ISBN 1-85168-263-5)

      Averroes held controversial views about the relationship between faith and reason, arguing that religion should not be allowed to impose limits on the exercise of rational thought.

      The dispute between reason and religion is far from anew phenomenon, this important book is essential reading for scholars, students, and all those interested in Islamic Philosophy, and it effect on the modern intellectual world, and cause transformation in Islam, help Muslims to get to the Age of Reason and Enlightenment, and Reform Islam, and take it away from the Ulema, Mullah and other Satan, Shaytan, Iblis, and Devil followers.

      Scholar from al-Azhar: Wahhabism is a Satanic Faith, the Horn of the Devil that Muhammad Predicted

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufxTUFapy1w&t=42s

  • 3
    2

    That all centuries-old laws are indeed subject to change, according to circumstances, is fundamental wisdom. The Christian and Catholic churches, widely accepted as moving towards liberalism – and, with a large and ancient following of the civilised, recognise this. The only major religion showing exception is Islam that obstinately holds on to medieval customs and beliefs. This is not in the interest of its flock of 1.6 billion. These are calculated to protect the narrow interests of Islamic rulers in the different parts of the Muslim word. Muslims throughout the world should consider that Judaism and Christianity – from which the more recent Islam is derived almost entirely – have changed yielding to popular calls during various times in their ancient history. Even in Sri Lanka, the Vatican made a major concession when Mass was allowed to be celebrated both in Sinhalese and Tamil. I believe this happened in the 1950s.

    My reading of Izeth Hussain, on the basis of his writings reproduced in the Colombo Telegraph for years, is that he is an unapologetic Islamic racist with an axe to grind against Tamils. And, sometimes, even the Sinhalese. But in this essay he breaks free from his established prejudice and advocates urgently needed reform in feudalistic Islam. It is only reform, in line with the modern world and its societal traditions, that can save Islam. There is no argument Islamic ways and behaviour are now under attack in many parts of the world. Islam has never been under this pressure in the world in this intensity, arguably, since the Crusades. Fortunately, Islamic academics and free thinkers in Egypt, Turkey, India and a few other countries are beginning to gradually and fearlessly speak out.

    It is good our own Muslim academics are beginning to feel the heat. Izeth Hussain shows much wisdom – to quote his words “I believe the way out of this impasse has to include a challenge to the notion that the Sharia is the Divine Law, as it is that notion that is at the core of the Muslim resistance to change” There is nothing sacred or divine in the Sharia Laws. Like all other in the world, this intrusive set of Islamic codes should be subject to popular discussion and scrutiny the Islamic world – in today’s context in the modern world. Alternatively, it is quite possible pressure from the rest of the world will force Islam to change its hardline rules.

    Devanam Piyadasa

    • 3
      0

      Devanam piyadasa is a catholic/christian Tamil and he does not like Izeth Hussein.

      • 1
        0

        Jim Softy is wrong in believing I am either Catholic/Christian and equally in error that I dislike Mr. Hussain. On the contrary I have been complimentary to Mr. Hussain in my comments for seeking reform in Islam. Free-thinking Islamists are what the world needs today to make the religion liberal and accept pluralism. There are indeed many throughout the world – and growing. But they fear the mafia-nature with which Islam holds its adherents in most countries. Remember the fate that befell Salman Rushdie and the Bangladeshi Taslima Nasrin? And, of course the killings and gun fights among our own Muslims in Kattankudy.

        Devanam Piyadasa

    • 3
      0

      Devanam Piyadasa

      “My reading of Izeth Hussain, on the basis of his writings reproduced in the Colombo Telegraph for years, is that he is an unapologetic Islamic racist with an axe to grind against Tamils. “

      There comes the ad hominem*. Address the arguments or issues raised by Izeth Hussein.

      Why should Muslims accept Judaism or Christianity with all their fallacies and errors, rather than reforming Islam, just the same way Judaism and Christianity were reformed?

      *Ad hominem (Latin for “to the man” or “to the person”, short for argumentum ad hominem, is a logical fallacy in which an argument is rebutted by attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.

      Fallacious ad hominem reasoning is normally categorized as an informal fallacy, more precisely as a genetic fallacy, a subcategory of fallacies of irrelevance.

      • 3
        0

        Amarasiri says “Why should Muslims accept Judaism or Christianity with all their fallacies and errors, rather than reforming Islam, just the same way Judaism and Christianity were reformed?” If I understood you correct, you accept the need for reform in Islam which remains unresponsive in the fastly changing world and its own societies within the past millennium and half. So there is no argument between the two of us.

        Even if the followers fear to bring changes, pressure from social media and the non-Islamic world will force the change. It is these factors that have brought the right to drive for women auto drivers in Arabia as well as the right for women to enter politics – so far. Much more will surely come. Even the Wahabis, Salafists and Jihadists cannot live in a vacuum in today’s world.

        Devanam Piyadassa

        • 2
          0

          Devanam Piyadasa

          “Even if the followers fear to bring changes, pressure from social media and the non-Islamic world will force the change.”

          The change will happen by getting the younger generation o accept the changes slowly, and the older fundamentalists will gradually die out.

          What the Wahhabites, the Wahhabies, Salafies, Tauhidus, ISIS, Taliban Boko Haram and other fundamentalists, who literally interpret the scriptures want is no Change, no modernity and no secularism.

          They do not like the Theory of Evolution, but Science and modern genetics have painted them into a corner, the Earth is spherical and the Earth rotates on its own axis and orbits the Sun.

  • 2
    1

    By posing with a modern liberal face, it is an attempt by izeth to show that his hatred towards Tamils is sincere and real. He is having a difficulty to call out the truth.

    Taliban was saying it was chasing out Russia. Al Qaeda was saving Palestine. ISIS is reviving their lost Caliphate. But why the Lankawe Muslims fell into this cess pit? The pathetic case of Lankawe Muslims is a self inflicted wound with MMDA of Smart Muslim leaders.

    Lankwe women’s case was not regression on the path of civilization. Unlike Caliphate girls, who fighting along with the Jihadis, who are striving to claim their 72 virgin, Lankawe girls are studying in schools, working in offices showing interest in modern amenities like colorful dress…. It is slavery imposed on them with no escape by MMDA statue to extract support from Muslim leaders. It is enforced slavery of foreign law for the imported Riyals for Halal money to the indebted, foreign exchange derived Sinhala society. Buddhist Monks agreed to give up on Beef when they were told by Old King that their new Benz will not cross ocean unless cows are cut and exported to Saudi.

    It is the financial interest of the Muslim Leaders and Sinhala politicians politically attached with the MMDA is threatening the liberation of women from MMDA.

    Muslims leaders willingly and dastardly surrendered their women’s freedom to cunning Sinhala politicians’ Aappa Diplomacy. Adams Peak Land sale is a classic example of how the Muslim leaders and Sinhala leaders play this money game.

    The truth is MMDA not Sharia. Explaining the “just or the story” of Sharia does not explain or connect to MMDA. It is not law at all to be intended to protect any religion. There is nothing in the world comparable to MMDA. The MMDA is a present of Don Stephen to Muslims leaders for their hard work and support to suppress Tamils. Right after passing Indian Pakistani citizenship act, DS granted this gift of self inflicting wound to Muslim leaders.

    Now they both are caught. They are given difficult options. To Sinhalese, lose Halal money or lose GSP+. To Muslims dragged into international terrorism or free the women.

    That is why Izeth is just exporting the Muslim women’s problem to international theories and showing that he is modern liberal, rather than point it on the Lankawe’s Muslim leaders’ traitor work on their own women. The Sinhala government’s dedicated servant Izeth is part and parcel of this game. They say in Tamil “Kauli Thinra Kallanaar Kooda Ninnru Ulaavuraar” (The man who stole and ate the hen is searching with the crowd for the lost hen.)

  • 2
    4

    Izzeth here is the verse on total prohibition of intoxicants.:
    “(O you who believe! Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), and gambling, and Al-Ansab, and Al-Azlam are an abomination of Shaytan’s handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) in order that you may be successful. Shaytan wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants (alcoholic drinks) and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and from As-Salah (the prayer). So, will you not then abstain) (5:90, 91)

    • 4
      1

      Can’t Allah solve the problem by getting rid of Shaytan and his handiwork? No, I thought not.

      • 3
        0

        Taraki

        “Can’t Allah solve the problem by getting rid of Shaytan and his handiwork?”

        Without you there is no fun.

      • 2
        0

        Taraki

        “Can’t Allah solve the problem by getting rid of Shaytan and his handiwork? No, I thought not.”

        It’s the one that got away, to create mischief, after losing, just like Mahinda Rajapaksa and his cronies.

        Shaytan = Satan=Iblis =Iblees =Devil

        Devil (Islam)

        The primary characteristic of the Devil is hubris; not only did he deem himself a superior creation to Adam, he also demonstrated arrogance by challenging Allah’s judgment in commanding him to prostrate.[1] His primary activity is to incite humans and jinn to commit evil through deception, which is referred to as “whispering into the hearts.” The Quran mentions that Satans are the assistants of those who disbelieve in God: “We have made the evil ones friends to those without faith.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_(Islam)

    • 7
      0

      which verse in Quran says for Sunni Muslims and Shite Muslims to kill each other. Rape each others’ women and children and bomb innocent children and their mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters!

      • 3
        0

        Rajash,

        “which verse in Quran says for Sunni Muslims and Shite Muslims to kill each other. Rape each others’ women and children and bomb innocent children and their mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters!”

        It is not in the Quran.

        It is in the “Bible” of the Wahhabies, Salafies, ISIS, Taliban, Boko-Haram and other clones, The Tricky book of Shytan by Abdul Wahhab, called Kitab Al Tawheed.(ISBN 978-603-501-078-8).

        An Example of Wahhabi Actions:

        Wahhabi sack of Karbala

        The Wahhabi sack of Karbala occurred on 21 April 1802 (1216 Hijri) (1801), under the rule of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad the second ruler of the First Saudi State. Approximately 12,000 Wahhabis from Najd attacked the city of Karbala. The attack coincided with the anniversary of Ghadir Khum event, or 10th Muharram.

        Wahhabis killed 2,000 –5,000 of the inhabitants and plundered the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and destroyed its dome, seizing a large quantity of spoils, including gold, Persian carpets, money, pearls, and guns that had accumulated in the tomb, most of them donations. The attack lasted for eight hours, after which the Wahhabis left the city with more than 4,000 camels carrying their plunder.

        Clearly, the Wahhabies follow the Devil, Satan, Iblis.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabi_sack_of_Karbala

      • 1
        0

        Rajash,
        Which part of the Hindu text empowered the Hindu terrorist LTTE to kill maim and injure people including innocent Tamils for the sake of an imaginary Eelam?Grow up man terrorism is terrorism who ever be its practitioners.

        • 2
          0

          Farhan Cader
          “Which part of the Hindu text EMPOWERED the Hindu terrorist LTTE “

          you are comparing a civil war between two nationhood to Muslims killing each other.

          To answer your stupid comparison:

          The Sinhala Racist Polices/Violence/discrimination EMPOWERED the civil war in Sri Lanka. I am not surprised you don’t know that.

        • 1
          0

          I Am leaving behind not putting a English Translation for the following lyrics, because I assume Muslims know Tamil. This is a simplified version of Geetha used in a movie. In case if you needed a English one, Geether is available in English on the web and you can thrive and read. Geetha said to be preached on the platform of the Chariot when Aruchuna dropped his bow overcome the sentiment of his relative he is going to fight against. Geetha explained to him as he as a Kshatriya, he needs to fight.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-MoMP1pmS0

          maraNaththai eNNik kalangidum vijayaa
          maraNaththin thanmai solvaen
          maanidar aanmaa maraNameydhaadhu
          marupadi pirandhirukkum
          mEniyaik kolvaai
          mEniyaik kolvaai
          veeraththil adhuvum ondru
          nee vittu vittaalum avargaLin mEni
          vendhu thaan theerum Ore naaL..aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

          ennai arindhaay
          ellaa uyirum enadhendrum arindhu koNdaai
          kaNNan manadhu kal manadhendrO
          kaaNdeebam nazhuva vittaai
          kaaNdeebam nazhuva vittaai
          mannarum naanae makkaLum naanae
          maram sedi kodiyum naanae
          sonnavan kaNNan solbavan kaNNan
          thuNindhu nil dharmam vaazha
          puNNiyam idhuvendru ulagam sonnaal
          andha puNNiyam kaNNanukkae
          pOtruvaar pOtralum
          thootruvaar thootralum pOgattum kaNNanukkae
          kaNNanae kaattinaan
          kaNNanae thaakkinaan
          kaNNanae kolai seygindraan
          kaaNdeebam ezhuga
          nin kai vanmai ezhuga
          ikkaLamellaam sivakka vaazhgaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
          parithraaNaaya saadhoonaam
          vinaasaaya chathushkruthaam
          dharma samsthabhanaarththaaya
          sambhavaami yugae yugae

          The above is only an answer of your question. But your question is created to wedge by hiding your real faith.

          LTTE was not a religious oriented organization. Its temporary tangling with Muslims was as they went against Tamils claiming that Tamils are converting them as Tamils. LTTE had proved if Tamils are out of the hands of Sinhalese government they can abolish even the Hindu caste system. LTTE proved it is government wedging as Hindus, Christians and Muslims. It is true Muslims easily succumbed to MMDA.

  • 1
    6

    Izzeth,
    The Quran is complete and revelation has ceased as stated by Allah himself in the Quran.
    To understand and know Islam and to practice it you must be conversant with the Quran and Sunnah.
    Your attempt to explain things which you are ignorant of is causing problems for Muslims and even
    among the others . You may be a good writer , but certainly not one who knows Islam.
    So write about politics and other matters. To say : ” To say I do not know ” is half of knowledge.

    • 3
      0

      AYMAN RE” Your Comment on Izeth Hussein’s Writings.

      1. “The Quran is complete and revelation has ceased as stated by Allah himself in the Quran.”

      2. “Your attempt to explain things which you are ignorant of is causing problems for Muslims and even
      among the others “

      Comments on the above, and additional thoughts for Information in Islam as currently practices, as confused by Satan, Devil, Iblis, Iblees.

      a) Remember, even during the time of Prophet Mohamed (Peace be upon him), there was reformation in Islam and in the Holy Quran, that was archived by the Abrogation of the earlier verses, because the environment and the times were changing.

      b) Can’t we interpret this as Reformation was inherent in Islam and Allah (“Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala,”) approved Abrogation and Reformation based on the environment and the times?

      c). True some reformations were misled by Satan, Devil Iblis (Iblees), such a the one by Ibn Taymiah, and their Satan misled followers such a Abdul Wahhab, the Wahhabies and their clones,, Salafies, Tauhidis, ISIS, Taliban, Boko Haram etc. as “Shaytan wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants” (5:90, 91), and also among the Muslims.

      The Saudi Wahhabis, Salafis and their clones follow the Devil, Iblis, Satan.

      Scholar from al-Azhar: Wahhabism is a Satanic Faith, the Horn of the Devil that Muhammad Predicted

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufxTUFapy1w&t=42s

      Hadith of Najd

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_of_Najd

      d) “Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists), He has created man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood) Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, Who has taught (the writing) by the pen. He has taught man that which he knew not. (Qur’an 96: 1-4).

      e) It was narrated that Anas bin Mâlik said: The Messenger of Allah said “Seeking knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim”. ”

      http://islamandpsychology.blogspot.com/2011/06/ayaat-of-quran-and-ahaadith-on-seeking.html

      f) “Shaytan wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants (alcoholic drinks) and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and from As-Salah (the prayer). So, will you not then abstain) (5:90, 91)”

      Shaytan wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants (Wahhabism) and Salafism, ISIS etc, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and from As-Salah (the prayer), So, that the Wahhabies Salabis, ISIS and clones can hinder those who remember Allah, such as Muslims such as Shia, Sufis, Ahmedias, and others who remember Allah such as Christians and Jews. (5:90, 91)

      g) The Tricky book of Shytan is by Abdul Wahhab, called Kitab Al Tawheed.(ISBN 978-603-501-078-8)

      h) Please Read Faith and Reason in Islam by Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd, known in European sources as Averroes, was born in Cordova, Spain, in 1126 CE. ( ISBN 1-85168-263-5)

      Averroes held controversial views about the relationship between faith and reason, arguing that religion should not be allowed to impose limits on the exercise of rational thought.

      • 0
        3

        AMARASIRI,
        You are a spineless Muslim and an ignorant one at that. Islam is good character. You have no character.at all.
        What you say here has been said by you earlier.
        Your comment does not deserve a response..

        • 2
          0

          AYMAN

          Just answer the issues and questions raised. If you do not know, say so, and ask a Muslim Scholar who knows. Amarasiri has given some references for your edification. With Philosophers and Scientists, ad hominem* attacks will bot get you anywhere, even though you can use that with your Ulema, Mulklahs, Imams, Alims and Politicians.

          “You are a spineless Muslim and an ignorant one at that.” etc.

          “You are a spineless Buddhist and an ignorant one at that” etc.

          “You are a spineless Christian and an ignorant one at that.” etc.

          There comes the ad hominem*. Address the arguments or issues raised by Amarasiri, giving the credible references.

          Should Muslims accept Judaism or Christianity with all their fallacies and errors, rather than reforming Islam, just the same way Judaism and Christianity were reformed? Whahhabism is not reformation. Wahhabism is submitting to the will of Satan, Iblis, Devil.

          Scholar from al-Azhar: Wahhabism is a Satanic Faith, the Horn of the Devil that Muhammad Predicted

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufxTUFapy1w&t=42s

          *Ad hominem (Latin for “to the man” or “to the person”, short for argumentum ad hominem, is a logical fallacy in which an argument is rebutted by attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.

          Fallacious ad hominem reasoning is normally categorized as an informal fallacy, more precisely as a genetic fallacy, a subcategory of fallacies of irrelevance.

        • 2
          0

          AYMAN

          “You are a spineless Muslim and an ignorant one at that. Islam is good character. You have no character.at all.”

          Standard ad hominem “defense”.Please read up on Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd. Averroes! for your edification.

          Read about Galileo, for your edification, and how After 350 Years, Vatican Says Galileo Was Right: It Moves. Read up on Averroes!

          The dispute between the Church and Galileo has long stood as one of history’s great emblems of conflict between reason and dogma, science and faith.

          After 350 Years, Vatican Says Galileo Was Right: It Moves
          By ALAN COWELL,
          Published: October 31, 1992

          http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/31/world/after-350-years-vatican-says-galileo-was-right-it-moves.html

        • 2
          0

          AYMAN

          “What you say here has been said by you earlier.
          Your comment does not deserve a response..”

          How can you respond, when you are devoid of reason, and the capacity of the brain is used exclusively for brainwashed root memory and not for reason as evolution or God, Allah wanted it to be used?

          Circumstantial support is given by the GMAT scores of Saudi Wahhabi Graduates who took the GMAT exam. They lack critical thinking skills.That is not what God, Allah wanted. May be that is what Satan. Iblis wanted.

          Quick Post: L&V’s National IQs predict GMAT scores across 173 nations

          The GMAT is a graduate entrance test used by more than 5,900 business programs offered by more than 2,100 universities worldwide. While the test is given in English, it is designed to be as minimally English dependent as necessary to predict successful completion of Business programs taught in English. Further, the test is carefully scrutinized for item bias.

          Yes, the GMAT test is administered in English and is designed for programs that teach in English. But the required English skill level is much less than what students will need in the classroom. The exam requires just enough English to allow us to adequately and comprehensively assess Verbal reasoning, Quantitative reasoning and Integrated Reasoning skills…

          Regression Plot: The regression plot for GMAT Test Graduates

          Wahhabi Salafi Saudi Arabia around 330, Shia Iran around 520 and Sunni Turkey around 530 as well, with Sri Lanka around 480.

          Do the Wahhabi-Salafis believe that Stupidity is a Virtue?

          https://humanvarietiesdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/gmatregressionplot.png

          http://humanvarieties.org/2014/02/02/quick-post-lvs-national-iqs-predicts-gmat-scores-across-173-nations/

        • 2
          0

          AYMAN

          “You are a spineless Muslim and an ignorant one at that.”

          Incorrect. Unfortunately, AYMAN, you have been thoroughly brainwashed. However, you did evolve from Primates and Apes.

          All Homo Sapiens have spines, courtesy of Evolution, including you.

          You do have 46 Chromosomes, but used to have 48 when your ancestors were primates, who had 48, and your chromosome #2 was formed by the fusion of two primate chromosomes.

          Reference:

          Ken Miller on Human Evolution

          Uploaded on Feb 14, 2007
          Dr. Ken Miller talks about the relationship between Homo sapiens and the other primates. He discusses a recent finding of the Human Genome Project which identifies the exact point of fusion of two primate chromosomes that resulted in human chromosome #2.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi8FfMBYCkk&t=6s

          Stupidest Muslim Vs Neil Tyson – How ideology can ruin intellectual power

          Published on Nov 10, 2014
          This is not a debate between some Muslim and Neil Tyson. But this video shows the thinking of some very well educated 21’st century Muslim (I don’t know he is ignorant, stupid or dishonest. But he is one for sure) and Neil Tyson speaking in a lecture about how Muslims intellectual power ruined by an ideology.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyCxrL9-C84

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          Forgive me, Ayman. Amarasiri appears to be a cultured and learned Muslim. He has much to offer the readership vis his knowledge of Islam. He, however, has a tendency to make a short thing long, very long. In his blind dedication to Islam he often ignores factual history and truth. He is one of those who believes the world is about to fall for Islam. Let us treat him with courtesy and understanding.

          Devanam Piyadasa

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            Devanam Piyadasa.
            If the words of Amarasiri were to be converted to sound, one can imagine what a big sound that would be! However we know that if a vessel was solid with substance then you would not hear much of the sound. On the contrary, an empty vessel will certainly bring the ceiling down. Aren’t we all tired of this noise pollution?

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        Amarasiri,
        Let us please give your incessant cut & paste, copy and quote practice a holiday. Why don’t you read on your own and give us your conclusions based on your knowledge of the Arabic Language, it’s etymology, the context of the revelation of relevant verses and a host of other complementary and associated sciences. I am sorry you exhibit a Machiavellian attitude towards discrediting true Islamic scholars by your obsequity to the the Iranians, and the sufis. This is further confirmed by your mindless parroting of the Hadith of Najed quoted by obscure scholars disregarding authentic scholarly explanations proving otherwise.

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          Jamal and others,

          1. “Let us please give your incessant cut & paste, copy and quote practice a holiday.”

          There is no need for Amarsiri to exert time and effort, when others have already discovered and figured it out. All Amerasiri has to do is quote, cut and paste, for those who have not yet heard about it. This is Altruism.

          2. “Why don’t you read on your own and give us your conclusions based on your knowledge of the Arabic Language, it’s etymology, the context of the revelation of relevant verses and a host of other complementary and associated sciences.”

          When, a large collection of evidence and support and data is already available, there is no need to for Amarasiri to exert effort and time.

          Amarsiri knows that the Earth Spins on its Axis and orbits the Sun in an elliptical orbit, and there is no need for Amarasiri to repeat the effort of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton over 2 centuries.

          In this day and age, Amarasiri has access to the writings of Various Islamic Scholars, Islamic Philosophers, and other non-Islamic Philosophers and others of wisdom and their and observations, and therefore there is no need to dwell on subjects already known and sorted out.

          Example: Hadith of Najd and Najd is in Saudi Arabia.

          3. ” I am sorry you exhibit a Machiavellian attitude towards discrediting true Islamic scholars by your obsequity to the the Iranians, and the sufis.”

          Let the Truth Prevail. Truth hurts those who are not on the side of the truth. The truth is that the Wahhabies, Salafies and theur Clones such as ISIS are misled by the Satan, Iblis, because Satan wants chaos. The Wahhabi-Salafi Islamic “Scholars” do not have the intellect for reason and and blinded by the literal interpretation of the revelations, forgetting the time and context in which they were revealed, and some abrogated.

          Per Islamic Theology, Satan misled Adam and Eve in the Garden in Heaven. Now Satan is misleading the Wahhabies, Salafies and theit followers on Earth.

          The true Islamic Scholars are few, and the most outstanding among them were Abdl Ibn Rashd and Al-Ghazali, even though Al-Ghazali made some errors in his Islamic Philosophy that was pointed out by Rashd.

          Please Read Faith and Reason in Islam by Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd, known in European sources as Averroes, was born in Cordova, Spain, in 1126 CE. ( ISBN 1-85168-263-5)

          Averroes held controversial views about the relationship between faith and reason, arguing that religion should not be allowed to impose limits on the exercise of rational thought.

          4. “I am sorry you exhibit a Machiavellian attitude towards discrediting true Islamic scholars by your obsequity to the the Iranians, and the sufis. “

          Truly, the Shia, Sufis, and Ahmedia Muslims who are closer to God, Allah, than the Wahhabies, Salafis, ISIS and their clones who are closer to Satan, Iblis, as shown by their actions and behavior.

          Wahhabi sack of Karbala and the destruction of Sufi, Shia and Ahmedia places of worship. Truly, the Satan, Iblis has got the Wahhabies and their clones, fully fooled.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabi_sack_of_Karbala

          WAKE UP MUSLIMS! Say NO to Wahabi destruction of Islamic civilization

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA0H4UWW_HY

          Saudi Wahabies are destroying every historical holy sites in Makka & Madina

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8CXmDBJHMk

          How can Wahhabi vandalism be stopped?

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knyPPrj0rAc

          Where is Najd – HORN of SATAN? In Saudi Arabia.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbHymIJWMfA&t=748s

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            Amarasiri, you say

            What happens when this Islamic Scholar does not posses the Common sense, intellect or reasoning abilities to arrive at the correct interpretation. Everybody is misled.
            Please substitute AMARASIRI for Islamic ScholarI

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              Jamal and Others,

              “Please substitute AMARASIRI for Islamic ScholarI”

              In this day and age, Amarasiri has access to the writings of Various Islamic Scholars, Islamic Philosophers, and other non-Islamic Philosophers and others of wisdom and their and observations, and therefore there is no need to dwell on subjects already known and sorted out.

              AMARASIRI is not an Islamic Scholar. Of course compared to the the many so called Islamic Scholars who claim to be Islamic Scholars, Amarasiri can detect their misleading the people, just like the politicians are doing today.

              However, there were quite a few good Islamic Scholars, the most outstanding among them were Abdl Ibn Rashd and Al-Ghazali, even though Al-Ghazali made some errors in his Islamic Philosophy that was pointed out by Rashd.

              All the Wahhabi-Salafi “Islamic” Scholata are all junk. They should be called Iblisic Scholars.

              Example: Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Aziz_ibn_Baz

              According to French political scientist Gilles Kepel, Baz was a “figurehead for institutional Wahhabism” whose “immense religious erudition and his reputation for intransigence” gave him prestige among the population of Saudi Arabia and he “could reinforce the Saud family’s policies through his influence with the masses of believers”, and his death left the government without a comparable figure from within the Wahhabite clergy to “fill” his “shoes”.

              In 1966, when Ibn Baz was vice-president of the Islamic University of Medina, he wrote an article denouncing Riyadh University for teaching the “falsehood” that the earth rotates and orbits the sun.

              Hello Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton, can you please guide Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz?

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                The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: It is sufficient to consider a man a liar when he narrates everything that he hears.” [Sahîh Muslim]
                Here is Sheikh Ibn Bâz’s fatwâ on the matter:
                According to the people of knowledge the Earth is round. Indeed, Ibn Hazm and other scholars have declared that there is consensus on this matter among the people of knowledge This means that all of the surface of the Earth is connected together so that the form of the planet is like a sphere.

                Nevertheless, Allah has spread out the Earth’s surface in relation to us, and He has placed upon it firm mountains, the seas, and life as a mercy for us. For this reason, Allah said: “And (do they not look) at the Earth, how it was spread out flat (sutihat).” [Sûrah al-Ghâshiyah:20]

                Therefore, the Earth has been made flat for us in regards to our relationship to it to facilitate our lives upon it and our comfort. The fact that it is round does not prevent that its surface has been made flat for us. This is because something that is round and very large, then its surface will become very vast or broad, having a flat appearance to those who are upon it.”

                This is the fatwâ of Sheikh Ibn Bâz about the shape of the Earth. So do not listen to those who lie against him and try to make it seem as though he was some “old fool” who did not even know that the Earth is round. Such people are rumor mongers who narrate whatever they hear without verification the accuracy of what they say.
                Hello Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton, can you please snatch Amarasiri away from his father and friend, Iblees?

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                  Jamal

                  “This is the fatwâ of Sheikh Ibn Bâz about the shape of the Earth. So do not listen to those who lie against him and try to make it seem as though he was some “old fool” who did not even know that the Earth is round.”

                  The Correction, the Corrected Fatwa came only AFTER those who knew that the earth was round, made him correct, by the Wahhabi apologists.

                  Jamal, are you ready to give up Wahhabism?

                  In 1966, when Ibn Baz was vice-president of the Islamic University of Medina, he wrote an article denouncing Riyadh University for teaching the “falsehood” that the earth rotates and orbits the sun.

                  Recall what Galileo was told by the Church, Do not teach the Copernicus Hypothesis.

                  However, the world was round was deduced by Philosophy by Aristotle around 300 BC, from the observation of the roundness of the shadow of Earth on the Moon, by reason, not revelation., and Eratosthenes actually measured the diameter of the earth around 300 BC, by performing a beautiful experiment, demonstration, what Averroes talks about. So, Sheikh Ibn Bâz, was ignorant because he depended only on the literal interpretation of the Quran and Hadith, What about the Hadith of Najd?

                  Eratosthenes’ measurement of the Earth’s circumference

                  At noon on the summer solstice in the Egyptian town now called Aswan, the sun hovers straight overhead: objects cast no shadow and sunlight falls directly down a deep well. When he read this fact, Eratosthenes, the librarian at Alexandria in the third century B.C., realized he had the information he needed to estimate the circumference of the planet. On the same day and time, he measured shadows in Alexandria, finding that the solar rays there had a bit of a slant, deviating from the vertical by about seven degrees.

                  The rest was just geometry. Assuming the earth is spherical, its circumference spans 360 degrees. So if the two cities are seven degrees apart, that would constitute seven-360ths of the full circle — about one-fiftieth. Estimating from travel time that the towns were 5,000 ”stadia” apart, Eratosthenes concluded that the earth must be 50 times that size — 250,000 stadia in girth. Scholars differ over the length of a Greek stadium, so it is impossible to know just how accurate he was. But by some reckonings, he was off by only about 5 percent. (Ranking: 7)

                  http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/24/science/here-they-are-science-s-10-most-beautiful-experiments.html

                  The Problem Sheikh Ibn Bâz has, as many Wahhabies have, is that they are literalists. That required him, to say, and interpret, literally. Then, he had to be corrected by others later on the Quran 71:19, Yusufali: ‘And Allah has made the earth for you as a carpet (spread out)’

                  “The old blind sheikh was an easy man to mock. His pronouncements—that the earth was flat, that photography of a living thing was immoral, that women who studied with men were no better than prostitutes—embarrassed the more liberal princes. But no one else could give them the same seal of Islamic approval. During his long life—he was thought to be about 90—he had been a judge, a university rector, the head of the fatwa committee and finally was made grand mufti, an office revived in his honour.”

                  “He was a lifeline between the ruling family and its most important constituency, in Nejd, the conservative heartland of Arabia. Here the family had long ago formed an alliance with the Wahhabi religious revivalists, who espoused a puritanical Islam. They were against gold and silk and jewellery. They banned music and tobacco, as well as alcohol. They had a horror of bida (innovation). Yet, after the advent of oil in the 1930s, the new Arabia was full of innovation. How to preserve a true Wahhabi identity under an avalanche of petrodollars emerged as the great question of Saudi rule.”

                  http://www.economist.com/node/207229

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              Jamal and others,

              “What happens when this Islamic Scholar does not posses the Common sense, intellect or reasoning abilities to arrive at the correct interpretation. Everybody is misled.”

              Another example or demonstration by the “Islamic Scholar” Dr. Naik.

              Stupidest Muslim Vs Neil Tyson – How ideology can ruin intellectual power

              Published on Nov 10, 2014
              This is not a debate between some Muslim and Neil Tyson. But this video shows the thinking of some very well educated 21’st century Muslim (I don’t know he is ignorant, stupid or dishonest. But he is one for sure) and Neil Tyson speaking in a lecture about how Muslims intellectual power ruined by an ideology.

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyCxrL9-C84

              Ken Miller on Human Evolution

              Uploaded on Feb 14, 2007
              Dr. Ken Miller talks about the relationship between Homo sapiens and the other primates. He discusses a recent finding of the Human Genome Project which identifies the exact point of fusion of two primate chromosomes that resulted in human chromosome #2.

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi8FfMBYCkk&t=6s

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    Let Muslim women handle their issues themselves through the community.

    No thanks to advice from war fighting Tamils and Singhalese.

    We saw how you two communities sorted matters out from 1983 to 2009.

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      Fathima Fukushima

      “Let Muslim women handle their issues themselves through the community.”

      It was the communoty manned by men, Ulema, Mullahs, Wahhabies, Salafies and their clones, who have failed ti resolve issues over 14 centuries.

      They need help from inside as well as outside.

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    OBEY THE LAWS OF THE COUNTRY OR GET OUT. NO OTHER COUNTRY TOLERATES JUST ONE RELIGION PRACTICING ITS OWN LAW DIFFERENT FROM THE REST OF THE COUNTRY. HUSSEIN’S CRANIUM IS TOO THICK TO ABSORB THIS TRUTH.

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    Dear Izeth,

    I’m so glad that you have taken up this very important issue, and one which must essentially be handled among those in your community. You’ve realised it yourself:

    “(This issue) can certainly be expected to add fuel to the ongoing anti-Muslim hate campaign the proponents of which clearly hope to engineer another 1983 holocaust, this time against the Muslims.”

    The change of attitude that you advocate MUST be acceptable to the majority (at least!) of Muslims, and not seem to stem from fault-finding interference from other groups. Let’s hope that like the majority of Sri Lankans (how to assert this without undertaking an expensive opinion poll is what I’m hoping that EDWIN RODRIGO will not ask me) Muslims in this country will allow the EU to to be (an unacknowledged) catalyst of what we hope will be achieved by Muslim women.

    I know that I should not presume to tell you what to do, but I hope that you will stay with this issue, and ensure that tangible results flow from your advocacy. Sometimes I get the feeling that you write because you can do so with ease. Why not make this a mission you set yourself for the next few years. If there is a positive outcome, it’ll be of real benefit to life in the entire world. Let me also hope that you do not respond with vitriol when the ad hominems start coming at you, as you have already predicted. “Jo” has set the ball rolling already on December 17, 2016 at 2:56 am. Just ignore him.

    I hope that you will show us all that what you desire is persuading others to accept, rather than demonstrating your undoubted ability to blitzkrieg the muddle-headed. The main problem with that is that the merely muddled begin to get nasty and stubborn. May your technique of promoting discussion be that adopted by Richard Rajan Hoole, rather than that of Richard Dawkins.

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      Sinhala_Man

      “Let me also hope that you do not respond with vitriol when the ad hominems start coming at you, as you have already predicted. “Jo” has set the ball rolling already on December 17, 2016 at 2:56 am. Just ignore him. “

      Yes, do not respond with vitriol. Amarasiri can give support to protect from some of these ad hominems. However, they are so brainwashed by the Wahhabies and their clones and infested by the Devil, Satan, Iblis, one wonders, if it will make any difference at all.

      Hadith of Najd seem to have no impact on the Wahhabies.

      However, it will make a difference for those before they are brainwashed by the Wahhabis and infested by the Devil, Satan, Iblis.

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    I salute the Mohamed Azad line… “The common sense of the matter is that the law has to be adapted to the conditions of time place”. That must be our guiding star.
    I am not Muslim but I bow to my many Muslim friends who point to a long and winding road, and the going will be slow. Centuries of practice are difficult to correct overnight.

    Meanwhile, in my forays in the streets of Sri Lanka, and on public transport I see much everyday harassment to other women in general. We had better get our act together and remove the dust in our own eyes first.

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      “Centuries of practice are difficult to correct overnight.”

      The length of practice is not an excuse to grant a group people their denied rights. Further the foundation of this problem has less relevance with centuries old practices or that old history.

      MMDA is an act of 1951. The Muslim Women in this forum have written, citing of the victims of this law they worked with or interviewed, directly pointing their sufferings attached to this law. True that some of them have argued against 16A which revive any law that is not covered by the 1978 constitution. But the cases cited were the direct victims of MMDA not any of the the past. I am not in the law field to cite any cases to show that if the past practices harassed Muslim women equally or more than MMDA. But all the cases cited are more than enough to first, focus on MMDA rather than past practices.

      MMDA is unique to Lankawe. Women’s dowry is clearly a Tamil custom. MMDA is neither Sharia from Middle East nor age old ceylon custom or common law.

      Millenniums old Practice of Lankawe women is wearing sari. It has been wiped out by the Middle East’s financial incentives within last 10-15 years, where men and women started to go Middle East for Job. For centuries Tamil Christian are in touch with West. Other than the religious professional and it is dresses only, their men and women still have not switched over from Tamils’ customs to pure eastern styles. They are clamorously celebrating Sari Ceremonies shoulder to shoulder with Hindus in its ostentatiousness. I am not against any dress. That is personal freedom, if it is not imposed by male members. In Europe it is not the case. This harmless practices has been directly connected to terrorism. In school when teachers and students stand hidden to each other, it is psychological downfall of the education. Further these not centuries old practices and liberal Muslims, including Izeth, though he is only pretentious liberal accept that.

      The entire havoc is created by Sinhala leaders and Muslim leaders. Earlier parliaments, after the freedom, had enough minority members to contest pure Buddhist – Sinhala based statues. Indian Pakistani citizenship acts were the start to destroy that minority strength in the parliament. MMDA followed it to divide and rule. Once DS died SWRD directly hit with Sinhala only, without this type sophisticated camouflaged statues. Unless Muslim leadership realize this and stand up for Unique ID, which not visible many Indian communities, they will surface as the destroyers of the minorities in Lankawe.

      The problem is not the centuries old Muslims customs. It is the appetite or crave to rule minorities and the pettiness of being to be sold off for money. DS is a person who had clearly identified this human nature and had used it for his fullest advantage. Those two category leaders have more than needed shrewdness and capacity to come out with idea to circumvent EU’s GSP+ requirements. It is an A-B-C of Aappa Diplomacy to fool the Western diplomats who are ignorant of Lankawe history in “showing Portuguese the Kotte”. This is what happened to the UHRC revolution to investigate War Crime and constitutional amendment to grant Tamils rights by devolution.So without realising this even if the MMDA repealed 100% it is not going to bring freedom to Muslim women.

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      Spring Koha

      “Meanwhile, in my forays in the streets of Sri Lanka, and on public transport I see much everyday harassment to other women in general. We had better get our act together and remove the dust in our own eyes first. “

      A Muslim teenage female student said that she like to wear the Salvar Kameeze, the Punjabi dress, but going by bus, was subjected to various kinds of harassment by men, that she decided to wear the Abaya, the long black dress.

      Wonder as to what extent are the non-Muslin girls and ladies, not wearing the Abaya subject to such harassment in public transportation in Sri Lanka? Any statistics?

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    The blindfolded woman walking on the railway track reminding me the Chavakachcheri accident.

    What kind of lane markings they have in Lankawe? Aren’t they are more dangerous than MMDA to children, women and elderly to walk or cross them? Isn’t it the confusing lane marking made the Hi-Ace van to hit that the bus?

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    Izeth Hussain,

    What does it matter now? Present life, or next life? Let religion take care of the next life. Meanwhile let national laws take care of present life. Make religious belief personal, not forced upon anyone, not compelled to follow. No need to execute, cut the limbs, stone to death, circumcise whether male or female, just because some scriptures tell. Ordinary persons intelligence is superior to those lived thousands of years ago. Even animals have taken a liking to associate with its arch rivals with kindness and love. Why cannot ordinary human think so positively without banging their heads onto the earth?

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      Adrian

      “Why cannot ordinary human think so positively without banging their heads onto the earth?”

      Because there are the Devil, Satan, Iblis, Mara infested followers like Wahhabies, Salafis, Tauhidis, ISIS, Taliban Boko-Harams, BBS etc, who cannot comprehend, Good, and follow the Evil Devil and Mara.

      It takes distorted Religion or at at least Devil infested religion to make good people do bad things.

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    In his article, Brother Izeth attempts to build a case for a re-interpretation (Fiqh) of divine Shariah laws pertaining to Muslim personal laws. He emphasizes the fact that this process necessitates the use of independent reasoning. If the ensuing discussion is to make any headway at all, then it is essential that Commentators confine their comments to his primary proposals by discussing it’s pros and cons or remain silent. Drawing red herrings and making ad hominem arguments are the intellectual sanctuaries sought by Commentators who for reasons best known to them, wish to kill the chances of such discussions developing into meaningful, widely accepted narratives among the Muslim Community.

    We must thank Jo for enlightening us as to what the compulsory attributes of a Mujtahid are. It was the Mujtahids who interpreted the Quran and the Sunnah, using the methods of ijtihad (independent reasoning), qiyas (analogical deduction) and ijma (consensus), to develop the doctrines which were subsequently compiled and referred to as Islamic Laws.

    Unfortunately, with the closing of the doors of ijtihad, the need for Mujtahids declined over the centuries that followed. In fact during this same period, the very absence of Mujtahids meant that there would not have been anyone who was qualified to even question the appropriateness of existing Muslim Laws. This then raises the question as to whether there are any Mujtahids at the present moment in time to whom the Ummah could make an appeal regarding the continuing relevance of specific personal laws in the present context. To my knowledge, there are no Sunni Mujtahids at the moment. I may be wrong.

    Does this mean then that since there are no known Mujtahids, the Muslims have no option but to continue with existing personal laws for ever, even though such laws may not be compatible with the existing times ? If so, why are we expending time and effort discussing the appropriateness of Muslim laws ?
    Was it the absence of Mujtahids over the centuries which has resulted in the Muslim Community being perceived as being ‘stuck in medieval times’ ?
    Is it practically possible for a Muslim to become a Mujtahid today ?
    Who or which religious body has the authority today to judge a Muslim as being qualified to be Mujtahid ?

    These are questions that need to be discussed under a different post on another day. Our focus at the moment should be on the main issues raised by Brother Izeth without attempting to ‘pul-fie’ him (to use a local term) into silence.

    If a person has a serious heart condition and if there are no cardiologists available, does he simply ignore his condition and get on with his life ? Or does he consult the next best qualified medical professional ?

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      ekelbroom

      Thanks. Very sensible comments.

      Those Ad hominem attacks on Izeth Hussein, the writer tells us that, they want to silence their critics.

      “Is it practically possible for a Muslim to become a Mujtahid today ?
      Who or which religious body has the authority today to judge a Muslim as being qualified to be Mujtahid ?”

      There was one 900 years ago. The Theologians wanted him silenced as well.

      The true Islamic Scholars are few, and the most outstanding among them were Abdl Ibn Rashd and Al-Ghazali, even though Al-Ghazali made some errors in his Islamic Philosophy that was pointed out by Rashd.

      Please Read Faith and Reason in Islam by Abdl Walid Ibn Rushd, known in European sources as Averroes, was born in Cordova, Spain, in 1126 CE. ( ISBN 1-85168-263-5)

      Averroes held controversial views about the relationship between faith and reason, arguing that religion should not be allowed to impose limits on the exercise of rational thought.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes

      Aristotle and Averroes Lyrics

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOlzx4_FSQE

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      ekelbroom.
      Is there a textbook on Shari Law?
      I doubt it.

  • 3
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    Pardon me for saying this Izzath Hussein,

    I wish that most of these so called Islamic scholars that includes you will simply go the whole hog and stop beating around the bush.

    All religions are not great. All what religions expound are silly to say the least. There is nothing that does not defy logic in all religions. Buddhism is also not too far behind.

    So instead of trying to find what was said when and how to apply that to this and that time era just drop the matter. Humans would have been far ahead in civilized living if not for religion’s deadly interference in everything that is progressive.

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    During the Bangladesh Liberation War, a fatwa in Pakistan declared that the Bengali ‘freedom fighters’ were Hindus and that their women could be taken as the ‘booty of war’. Imams and Muslim religious leaders publicly declared that the Bengali women were ‘gonimoter maal’ (war booty) and thus they openly supported the rape of Bengali women by the Pakistani Army. Numerous women were tortured, raped and killed during the war. In the second phase of the war, women were singled out. It is thought that at least 200,000 women were raped by the Pakistani forces and their collaborators… There are eyewitness accounts of “rape camps” set up by the Pakistani forces.

    • 5
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      I agree, there were widespread rape during the Bangla Desh/Pakistan war. Rape conceptions were permitted to be aborted by the new state of Bangladesh – though such permission conflicted with their religion.

      But during the 30 years war in Sri Lanka there was widespread rape against Tamil women as well. Difficult to acknowledge if you are a Sri Lankan but we must admit it and take some form of action against repeating such despicable acts.

  • 0
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    b) Can’t we interpret this as Reformation was inherent in Islam and Allah (“Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala,”) approved Abrogation and Reformation based on the environment and the times?

  • 0
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    “b) Can’t we interpret this as Reformation was inherent in Islam and Allah (“Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala,”) approved Abrogation and Reformation based on the environment and the times?”
    Well said Mr.Amarasiri. I fully endorse your statement

  • 0
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