An Atheist Muslim's Perspective on the 'Root Causes' of Islamist Jihadism and the Politics of Islamophobia
Ali A. Rizvi
Pakistani-Canadian writer, physician and musician
3 May 2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-a-rizvi/an-atheist-muslims-perspective-on-the-root-causes-of-islamist-jihadism-and-the-politics-of-islamophobia_b_3159286.html...
As an atheist Muslim (I'm not a believer, but I love Eid, the feasts of Ramadan and my Muslim family and friends),
I could be jailed or executed in my country of birth, the country I grew up in and a host of other Muslim countries around the world for writing this very piece. Obviously, this is an unsettling,
scary feeling for me. You may describe that fear as a very literal form of
"Islamophobia." But is that the same thing as anti-Muslim bigotry? No....
Our critical words aren't an attack on people. They are a challenge to what we consider bad ideas that drive bad behavior. Saying "smoking is bad" does not translate to "all smokers are bad people."...the "root causes" of jihadist terrorism are the same today as they were when Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja said those historic words* to Thomas Jefferson. We want to be honest about it so that we can actually do something about it.
For the fast-growing secularist/humanist movement, criticism of religion isn't a demonstration of bigotry but a struggle against it. To us, bigotry against bigotry isn't bigotry, and
intolerance of intolerance isn't intolerance.
*...it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.
Alex's comment: Intolerance to intolerance is not intolerance but upholding of tolerance. Tolerance to intolerance is not tolerance but letting loose intolerance. 不寬容不寬容不是不寬容，而是堅守寬容。寬容不寬容不是寬容，而是縱容不寬容。
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