Should Islam be blamed for ‘barbaric’ acts?
Al-Jazeera television on March 9 apologized to viewers after a talk-show guest, Syrian-American psychologist Dr Wafa Sultan, described as “barbaric” the response of Muslims to a Danish newspaper’s cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed. “The Muslims’ barbaric reaction added to the value of these cartoons. It simply proved their rightness,” said Dr Sultan on the Qatari network. “The Muslim is an irrational creature, and the things he learned overpower his mind and inflame his feelings. That is why these remarks have turned him into an inferior creature, who cannot control himself and respond to events in a rational way.”
Despite the network’s hasty apology, Dr Sultan’s presence on the show is a sign of the times. The issue of Muslim “barbarism”, including honor killings and other forms of violence against women, has risen in prominence in Europe’s political agenda. The question appears to be: Do Muslims commit barbaric acts because they are bad Muslims or because they are good Muslims? Does Islam as such promote barbarism or suppress it? Within the vast collection of hadith, or apocryphal sayings of Mohammed, are to be found explicit support for female genital mutilation and wife-beating. Are such barbaric acts a residue of traditional society that persist despite Islam, or because of it?
I shall argue that this is the wrong question, for Islam by its nature cannot be separated from primitive life.
/works for me