By ali Sina, Faith Freedom
Friday, February 3, 2006
It is ironic that we want to build democracies half a word away on sand dunes while the foundation of our own democracy is chiseled away at home.
Last Sunday in London, the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the election results of the Palestinian authority surprised just about everyone.
"I don't know anyone who wasn't caught off guard by Hamas' strong showing," she said on her way to London for meetings on the Middle East, Iran and other matters.
"I've asked why nobody saw it coming," Rice said, speaking of her own staff. "It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse."
Democracy cannot be imposed
But the handwriting was on the wall for those who had a good enough pulse. What the U.S. administration fails to grasp is that democracy cannot be imposed on people who have no desire for it.
Democracy is born out of political maturity--out of recognition and acceptance of diversity. Democracy means diversity of opinions and not diversity of prejudices and freedom to crush opposing choices.
The Bush administration must be lauded for their commitment to bring democracy to the world. But in their enthusiasm, they seem to be putting the cart before the horse.
Muslims, have no tradition of democracy and no understanding of it. They confuse democracy with the dictatorship of the majority. They exploit democracies to gain power. Once they come to power, they get rid of democracy and establish Islamic theocracy. Once they come to power, they keep it. a good example of that is Iran, where its Islamic rulers came to power in a referendum and with that democratic vote, they ended democracy.
Before we can build democracy, we have to lay its foundation
Freedom of speech, freedom of beliefs, respect for the rights of the minority, and separation of religion from government are the foundations of democracy. Without these you can't have democracy and yet none of them exists in any Islamic country. Democracy must be built from the bottom up, starting first with the foundation.
also it must be established gradually allowing people to gain experience. Start with municipal elections. Let people learn the process and then move to provincial elections. National elections should be called once the foundation of democracy is laid and taught in schools.
Yes, democratization must begin at school. Most school textbooks in Islamic countries teach nothing but hate. Children in math classes are given problems like: "a Jihadi boy sees 8 Jews. He kills five. How many Jews are left?" How can you have democracy with this much hate and intolerance?
Instead of calling for plebiscites and elections, the West should help the Islamic countries to build the foundation of democracy first. Insist on freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Protect the freethinkers, the distinct-thinkers, the religious minorities and the non conformists so they can express their views with immunity. This means people must be allowed to criticize the views of the majority without fearing for their lives. There can't be democracy without freedom of expression and without opposition.
Muslims have no regard for democracy
The whole concept of freedom of speech is alien to Muslims. They are shocked and perturbed by it.
Last September, Jyllands-Posten, the Denmark's largest daily circulated newspaper, invited the country's cartoonists to present drawings depicting Muhammad. This traumatized the Muslims all over the world who condemned the cartoons as "blasphemous".
Ministers from 17 Muslim countries including Turkey and Bosnia urged Denmark's government to punish Jyllands-Posten for what they described as an "offence to Islam".
Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated this week in the Gaza Strip, burning Danish flags and portraits of the Danish prime minister.
Saudi arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark, while Libya said it was closing its embassy in Copenhagen, and Iraq summoned the Danish envoy to condemn the cartoons.
The arab League and countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) criticized the Danish Government for its refusal to take action against the newspaper and condemned it of "intolerance".
arla Foods, one of Europe's largest dairy producers, said that its customers in Saudi arabia appeared to have stopped selling its dairy produce and had begun a boycott of Danish goods.
The incident hurt the Danish business forcing The Confederation of Danish Industries to appeal to Jyllands-Posten to print an apology for having commissioned the drawings.
The Muslim media kept fueling the fire. aljazeera was up in arms and in an angry article entitled "Has defaming Prophets become Freedom of speech?", "wrote: Religion is people [sic] - People's ideologies and beliefs should be given great respect. and what journalists call "Freedom of expression" should not by any means hurt the feelings of people; from any religions or sects" and:
"In order to allow ‘Freedom of Speech', governments and organizations must first understand what freedom of speech is," elucidated aljazeera patronizingly, the concept of democracy for the rest of us who according to them don't know its meaning.
Religion is not people. This is sophism at best. Maybe it's time that these "grand gurus of democracy" descend from their high horses and take a closer look in the mirror to see how Muslims treat the non-Muslims wherever they are the majority.
In Saudi arabia , even the possession of a copy of the Bible is a crime and if Christian workers are caught meeting in their own homes praying with fellow Christians they could go to jail and be deported. Saudi arabia, bases its constitution on the Quran and the sayings of Muhammad. Public practice of any other religion is banned.
In Saudi arabia a court sentenced a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes for discussing the Bible in the classroom and for telling his students that the Jews were right. He was taken to court by his colleagues and students and was flogged in public charged with promoting a "dubious ideology and mocking religion".
aljazeera concluded: "The Islamic religion does not allow offensive remarks by both Muslims and Non-Muslims."
What rights Muslims should have on non-Muslims to allow or disallow them anything? Isn't that preposterous? also the claim that Muslims do not make offensive remarks of other faiths falls flat on its face when we read how Muhammad mocked the religion of the Meccans and at the first opportunity; seized their temple, Ka'ba and destroyed their idols. What right did he have to do so? Isn't this violence? He even disparaged the Jews calling them apes and swine, and the Christians whom he called idle-worshippers for believing in Trinity.
Has aljazeera asked the Baha'is to see how Muslims insult their faith and persecute them? Why aljazeera does not protest when ahmadinejad, the president of Iran says he will stop Christianity in Iran? Islam does not respect any other belief. This claim is hypocritical and a patent lie.
First things first!
Before we can establish democracy in any country we must lay its foundation. First we have to fight the censorship of thought. You can't have democracy without freedom of speech. Freedom of speech means freedom to criticize any belief. Beliefs do not have to be protected. It's the right to criticize them that has to be protected. Beliefs must be scrutinized and if found wanting discarded. Right beliefs don't need protection and fallacious beliefs don't have to be protected.
How can you respect the faith of someone who believes it is his God given duty to kill you because your faith is not "right"? Should you respect the belief of one who thinks God has rendered your wife and property halal to him? The very notion of respecting beliefs is absurd. Belief means acceptance of a postulate without evidence. Why should such a fallacy be respected?
Muslims threaten the Media when a journalist or a broadcaster casts doubt on the "peacefulness" of Islam. They demand apologies and resignation. Often they get what want and the "offending" journalists are forced to apologize or lose their jobs. Sadly the public, like sheep, watches this violation of rights and does not intervene or protest. What they don't know is that it is they are the ones who are losing their freedom.
Say NO to appeasers and the useful idiots
We are destroying our own democracy with our own hands. Our own tax funded but misguided politicians are hard at work chipping away our democracy. It is regrettable, to put it mildly, that the Council of Europe (CoE) should criticize the Danish Government for its refusal to impose a ban on freedom of speech in Demark in order to appease the Muslims. They said:
" Denmark has a tradition for tolerance and respect for others. Notwithstanding this tradition, a strong seam of intolerance has developed in Danish society, particularly towards immigrants and also Muslims."
Shouldn't the CoE demand tolerance from Muslims and condemn them for bullying Denmark to violate the freedom of speech?
The CoE has become so dhimmi (servile to Muslims) that they even condemned Denmark for prosecuting Muslims who incite hate. That is unbelievable!
This council even organized a seminar to condemn the criticism of Islam and equated it to anti-Semitism. In another place they called criticism of Islam "islamophobia" and said it is a "dangerous inclination".
How can they be more wrong? Semites are people; Islam is a belief system. This is comparing apples to oranges. Shouldn't people in such high positions be intelligent enough to know the difference between a race and a creed?
People have to be protected, not beliefs.
You can't change your race and ethnicity but you can change your belief. Destructive beliefs that preach hate and discrimination must not be protected. They must be criticized and banned. Prohibiting the criticism of such beliefs, or any belief, is insane! are the Christians or the Jews demanding the ban on criticism of Christianity and Judaism? Has anyone suggested the books of Bertrand Russell or Thomas Paine who were critical of Judeo- Christianity be banned? The believers of no other religion demand apologies or threaten to boycott you or kill you if you slight his religion. Why should the word apologize to Muslims when it is they who have to explain the violence and the hate that is in their holy book and the crimes committed by their prophet and apologize?
Before taking democracy to Islamic countries, let us save our own democracy at home. Our own democracy is under attack. We are afraid to talk in our own "democratic countries". Most Media are scared to publish articles critical of Islam. Those who do publish them deserve praise. If you speak the truth, the way you see it, you can lose our job like Michael Graham, be forced to apologize like Paul Harvey and Lowell Greene, face lawsuits like Oriana Fallaci, or be stabbed to death like Theo Van Gogh. Where is our democracy? Where is our freedom of speech?
Why spend so much money and sacrifice the lives of our young men and women to bring democracy to a people who have no appreciation of it and are not grateful of our sacrifices. "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs."
Get rid of those despots who threaten our world and let the Muslims sort out their differences. They must learn democracy on their own. Often democracies are born out of bloodshed. If that is how they want to proceed, let them. We have a model of democracy that works and they are welcome to use if they want, and yes it was born out of bloodshed too. But if they want to have it their way, who are we to stop them? We must protect our own freedom, which is in grave danger.
Today we must stand by Denmark that is hurting because of the boycotts imposed on it by the Muslims. Stop feeding the pedestrians who bite your hand a billion dollars a year. Use that money to save Denmark and the other victims of Islamic bullishness. Say no to Islamofascism and defend our own freedom of speech and our democracy.
ali Sina is the founder of faithfreedom.org, the organ of the ex-Muslims who strive against political Islam. "Only truth will set us free". Please promote faithfreedom.org
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