What is with Islam bashing? Really, what are you trying to accomplish? I, along with other readers of this site, are unfortunate enough to witness, on pretty regular basis, blogs and articles written that quote Quranic verses that advocate violence, and try to imply that these verses somehow taint the whole religion and everyone who follows it. That is simply not the case.
True that Quran has some pretty scary stuff in it. But so do other religions. Have you read the Old Testament? Simply quoting those portions of the book and try to make a general point about the whole religion is at best unintelligent and at worst intentionally disingenuous and offensive.
Is it lost upon these writers that the overwhelming majority of Iranian people are Muslims? Do your really think that all of a sudden they are all going to drop the religion that has been practiced by their family, and ancestors, for the past 1400 years and convert to something else? And do you really believe that this is the path to Iran’s salvation? Islam, and especially Shia Islam, are deeply rooted in the Iranian culture and are inseparable parts of the Iranian identity. Being an Iranian Muslim is not a sign of “Arabization”, as Iranians have created Islam in their own vision and have infused it with their unique culture. The Islam that is practiced by Iranians is vastly different from what it was 1400 years ago. It is a mixture of Islam, elements of Zoroastrianism and ancient Persian mythology. It is insane to think that Iranians will let go of this deeply rooted part of their identity because someone quotes a few passages from of the Quran.
And for those who say that Muslims are not “reformed”, please take a look around you. There are almost two billion Muslims in the world. How many of them are orthodox jihadists? How many of them are even observant? As Iranians, take a look at your own families. If they are anything like mine, they don’t wear the hijab, don’t do the daily prayers, they drink, dance and hardly, if ever, attend mosque. But when Ramadan comes, some, not all, of them fast and some also go to Hajj. And when you ask them about the violent stuff in the Quran, they either ignore it (rightfully so) or they try to put it in context in the terms of the time, place and circumstances under which they were written. If this is not “reformed” in the sense that they don’t follow every rule religiously (no pun intended), then Muslims are the most reformed of all religions in the world.
The path to Iran’s freedom from mullah’s tyranny is not bashing people’s religious beliefs. It is empowering the masses, the young and old that we see on YouTube with green bandanas facing the Basiji thug. Please remember that those masses are Muslims, and they shout “Allah’o’Akbar” at nights from rooftops. The question that you have to ask yourselves before you write another Islam bashing piece is this: are you going to help those brave souls get their voices out to the world or are you going to waste your energy and write another garbage article quoting a bunch of verses out of the Quran and essentially tell those people that they are a bunch of savage, terrorist jihadists for being a Muslim?
