Piyalechi

“I just can’t believe it, awful, it’s just beyond comprehension,” said one woman about Rezwan Ferdaus, the educated 26 year old American bred true Muslim who strongly desired to and was excited about doing “Jihad” by attacking the United States and killing and maiming ”unbelievers of Islam.”

Well folks, Rezwan Ferdaus, whose first and last name is ironically all about the “Paradise,” became the case in point for what follows in this last piece on “There is No Such Thing As A Moderate Muslim” series.

You see, as a person of Islamic background who lived in the land of “Kuffars,” Rezwan experienced the same moments of soul searching and reckoning about Islam and his own identity as I, JJ, and many other people who once thought of ourselves as “Muslims” have.

In fact any person of Islamic background – with access to knowledge about Islam, the Quran, Muhammad, and everything else relevant – who is educated, isn’t involved with drugs or alcohol to the point of never finding the necessity to give a shit, will eventually arrive at those moments, and that’s when he or she decides what to do about his or her identity and place or purpose in life, if anything at all.

After that, though, he or she will be very clear about who a true Muslim is and how a true Muslim is supposed to function.

In my case, after I realized that the Quran’s effective commands to its believers in regards to the unbelievers are in its last chapter with all the peaceful proclamations of the preceding chapters abrogated - as Allah says frequently since he is the boss he can abrogate as he wishes - I decided that I was a human and that I valued human life and my individuality absolutely over ideology, and that I certainly was not a Muslim.

I was convinced of the fact and it was crystal clear to me that in reality a person is either a true Muslim, or not a Muslim at all. I saw that adjectives like “moderate” or “extremist” had no relevance in regards to a Muslim.

Well that’s my case and probably that of JJ and many readers of these lines who are from Islamic backgrounds.

But then again, there are those who like Major Hasan (the Army psychiatrist who killed his fellow soldiers in a fit of jihadist fervor) and this kid, Rezwan, who after becoming educated about Islam and learning the Quran as is, decide that they can’t be half assed about their identity if they want to be a true Muslim; because their Allah is watching and thus they lay all kidding and indecisiveness aside and adjust their path in their Islamic life accordingly.

I don’t know how valid are the points of those who blame Islamophobia on likes of Mr. Bernard Lewis, but I and many like me who aren’t Islam’s apologists and have read the Quran and know enough about Muhammad are truly frightened by what we know and of true Muslims like Rezwan Ferdaus.