Is the accusation of Islamophobia from the path trodden by those before us, a clone of the accusation of anti-semitism, as we follow them, step-by-step and inch-by-inch, even into the burrow of a fleeting reptile?
Author: t j bowes
Incubation
The way the masses respond to the claims of their peers and pass them on without attempting to verify them in any way has set off a chain of thoughts within. An idea that has been incubating for some time now. About group think, about taking sides, about the unimportance of the truth, about the effect of politics on beliefs. What I have encountered over the past few years — even amongst the most sincere and zealous believers — tells me a lot about our seriousness in conveying what really happened today, yesterday or in the distant past. Verification and reliability are very far from the minds of most people, most of the time — and often it is enough for us to consider our companion or our respected sages truthful for us to pass on anything they tell us without a pause for thought. The question I find myself asking myself is whether this is a phenomenon peculiar to these times, galvanised by these strange technologies, or if it has always been so. These are the thoughts in incubation.
The answer to everything
Islamophobia! Islamophobia! It’s the answer to everything. Everything is Islamophobia. Were it not for the fact that I know I will be held to account for my own deeds on an awesome and fearsome day, I would blame Islamophobia each time I succumb to the evil calls of my lower self. What does our Book say?
Liquidation
A wise sage, learned in both the sacred and medical sciences — and rightfully respected — tells his seventeen thousand followers on Twitter:
The French couldn’t refute/silence Professor Tariq Ramadan with ideas, so they’re literally trying to kill him and get away with it using a corrupt judicial system.
Morning prayer
Ya Allah, guide me back to the straight path. The path of those you have blessed, not those who incur your anger, or those who are astray.
With these words I start my day. A desperate, anguished prayer, recognising how far I have fallen. Never take your faith for granted. The act of uttering your testimony of faith does not transform you into a pure being, incapable of error after guidance. You have to strive on this path, otherwise it becomes mere ritual. Your prayers, five times a day, just brief pauses punctuating a life badly lived. I speak for myself, naturally, but I am sure I am not alone. Those of us who took our faith for granted and then raced headlong into sin, hoping for His infinite mercy.
Ya Allah, guide me back to the straight path.
Hope
Their messengers said, “Can there be doubt about God, Creator of the heavens and earth? He invites you that He may forgive you of your sins, and He delays your death for a specified term.” — from Qur’an 14:10
Fragile masculinity
Dear crusader against the times,
We hear you loud and clear: feminism is the great scourge of our times, apparently set to undermine our faith — along with modernism, scientism, liberalism and materialism. Thus must you argue at length in every post about the dangers they pose to orthodoxy, irregardless of your simplistic reductions. Continue reading “Fragile masculinity”
These scales
When I look back on my life, I see that I have spent most of it in sin. But for the mercy of my Lord, my balance stands against me. However will I turn things around, I often ask myself, so late in the day with so many evil deeds weighing down so heavily on one side of my scales? Yes, it is a frequent cause of despair. True, Ibrahim said: “And who despairs of the mercy of his Lord except for those astray?” (Qur’an 15:56) — but for one oft-repeating in the same sins, over and over as the years pass by, it is difficult not to lose hope, seeing the ruin I have built for myself. So many times have I stood at these crossroads, resolving to turn my life around and reform, but alas, alas, here I am once more, with all the same regrets and remorse, as if nothing ever changed. What I would give to be faithful and pure.
Letter to nobody
Sign the petition, they insist. But nobody ever asks to whom the petition is addressed. It has been signed now by nearly 160,000 people since it was launched in early November, three months before the one they want released was even incarcerated. Is it addressed to the French judiciary? The French government? The European Court of Human Rights? No, none of them. No, it is addressed to All Free Spirits / Citizens of the world. In other words, it is a public relations exercise, designed to convince hundreds of thousands of people of the innocence of the accused. It serves no other purpose, for otherwise it would be addressed to those capable of taking action. An MP perhaps. Or a senior judge. Or the editor of the most influential newspaper in France. Or the prime minister. Yes, but not Free Spirits — as lovely as they sound — who are incapable of effecting change.
The wrong perpetrators
The Red Cross claims that dozens of people including children under the age of 10 have been killed or wounded in an air strike against a bus, carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen today. Our activists shrug their shoulders.
