A Rant...

Originally, I was going to write about an ignorant article about Muslims and valentine's day, but as I thought more about it, the broader the topic became, hence the title: a rant.

I receive emails from a conservative political site called Human Events. For the most part it is a pretty decent site/weekly paper with the exception of a couple of columnists; one being the Islamophobic kaffir, Robert Spencer (ie: Jihad Watch). Once a week they send out a top ten political stories of the week along with a lead in article.

This weeks article was written by Spencer denouncing, that some countries in the Middle East, set some laws in effect regarding valentine's day. Of course, the fact that Muslims don't practice christian "holiday's" means nothing to Spencer, who used this incredibly trivial matter to spew his venom against Muslims. In his twisted mind, Spencer equates Muslim countries enacting laws not allowing Muslims to commit shirk as strapping on a bomb and killing people.

While most of his article is trying to make something out of nothing, it was maybe his final paragraph which sums up his stupidity best:
"But will there be any Western leaders willing or courageous enough to cast off their multiculturalist shackles and give those people heart -- during this Valentine’s Day week -- by affirming that our struggle is one for simple joy in existence, against those who would rob us of that joy?"

Give me a break! As I posted in a couple of replies: "So what? What effect does Saudi Arabia's, or Kuwait's law have upon anyone else in other countries?" Answer: it has no effect. For those who want to read the whole article, and the subsequesnt replies from the lemmings, here is the link:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24996 . Masha'Allah, there were several sane replies backing Muslims and their right not to participate in pseudo-christian holidays. I cannot wait until next month, when Spencer most likely will write how bad it is that Muslims do not get drunk in "honor" of the christian saint patrick. /sarcasm]

As I read the replies, I was getting angry at the ignorance of the statements. Here are a couple, which will emphasize a point I will get to afterwards:

"I am not expecting the Muslim World to "embrace" our holidays-- but to merely RESPECT them!" Uh, we do...in all non-Muslim countries. Why should Muslim countries have to "respect" christian holidays?

"This is NOT about Valentine's day!!! this is about FREEDOM!" Uh, this article is about valentine's day. Maybe that poster should read the title again: "No Valentines For You!"

Now, a couple of posts from people who get it:

"There is nothing in their culture or religion that would suggest that it mean anything to them. It's Christian-based. How many of their holidays do we celebrate?"

"I'm not sure why anyone would expect the Muslim world to embrace a Christian psuedo-holiday based on a person who may or may not have actually existed and of whose works we know almost nothing. It's like expressing surprise that they don't keep a Christmas tree in Mecca."

...and finally, one Islamophobic post which sums up a majority of the posts from the article:

"The only way Americans and the civilized world can get back their freedom and peace is to go into world war three, nuke the middle east and ban islam forever in the rest of the world. Hopefully this might happen as early as 2010 AD. Islam is nothing but trouble and has been imported in this country by the evil Saudi Arabian desert bunnies."

Not withstanding the post above, the point that seems to make me particularly angry is the point that these people want, and would, impose their imperialist point of views on Muslims. They claim they are a christian, God loving people, yet the intolerance and hatred of Islam and Muslims is mind boggling. It is also not very christian-like. One might say it is a very hypocritical attitude!

My head hurts from having re-read 12 pages of replies, most from Islamophobic lemmings. As I stop shaking my head in disbelief, I realize that some of the replies from that article, and the many others on Islamophobe sites, come from complete ignorance of Islam. To make my case, here is part of a post from the valentine article: "their religion gets in the way of every thing they do. ..." It is clear from that post that the author has no idea about Islam, and how it is a complete way of life.

I guess, as my rant comes to an end, my final words are these: Muslims should try and continue to educate the ignorant, insha'Allah. As we debate them in the streets, may Allah hold our tongues from tossing out insults, which only works against us. Insha'Allah, may we be able to articulate our love of Allah to the non-believers in such a way that their hearts may become open.

Allahu Akbar.