The New York Times published an article recently about how Islamic state fighters had institutionalized rape into their culture and had made it part of their recruiting pitch to potential volunteers.
The article described how these guys knelt in prayer, raped a 12 or 13 year old girl, and then knelt in prayer again. And, you know, explained to her how this is bringing him closer to God. Really.
That’s the sequence:
- Pray
- Rape
- Pray
And all of this is, of course, endorsed by their God. The God of Abraham. The same God that you, if you’re like most Americans, prays to as well. They explained this to the poor young women before they raped them.
And what does the God of Abraham do?
He stays silent. As he always does. Hasn’t spoken in about 2000 years.
He stayed silent for the inquisition.
He stayed silent for the crusades.
He stayed silent for the holocaust.
Apologists for God will explain that he “works in mysterious ways.” As far as I can tell, he doesn’t “work” at all. Oh, he may work little miracles now and then if you believe in that sort of thing. Bring someone’s cancer into remission. Answer a prayer for a desired toy. Help find a lost dog.
But for the big things — inquisition, crusades, holocaust, the rape of 12 year olds as a sanctioned religious event — God neither answers a prayer nor opens his mouth to suggest that maybe, just maybe, this shouldn’t really be done in his name.
he can’t say anything as he doesn’t exist. the devils (and Saints alike) are the humans. Having invented this god of theirs, however they call it, to justify, whatever the feel like doing….
Thousands of years ago, in the deserts of the middle east, a stone-age man saw something he couldn’t explain, possibly because he had been in the sun too long and was a bit addled, so he made up something to tell his kids and fellow tribesmen. He said he was smarter than the average stone-age man, so everyone believed him. After he died, his kids told their kids about what the old man had seen and how he explained it. They added their own two-cents, just to make it interesting or to justify something they liked to do. Then, when their kids were adults, they did the same thing, adding their four cents. After some years, and a few generations, halilooya! we have a church! But it doesn’t claim the same things the one down the street does, so they go to war with each other to see who is right.
Firstly, I’d like to know why people refer to ISIS as an Islamic State. If people took the time to properly find out what the teachings of Islam are, they would discover that the people who claim to commit atrocities in the name of Islam are radicals who misinterpret the Qur’an to suit their own agendas. The same with the Crusaders and Nazis – people perverted religious teachings to justify their crimes.
As a Muslim, I’d like to inform those who would be willing to listen – Islam urges us to fight against oppression, NOT to oppress others. Islam teaches us to respect and be tolerant of all religions, and not to force others to believe as we do. Those ‘men’ who raped the twelve year old girl would be put to death for his crime under proper Islamic Law (the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had rules for times of war, and one very specific one was that NO children or women were to be harmed).
Islam is perfect. Muslims are not, and the misguided ones even less so.
It is irresponsible to judge an entire religion and way of life, and millions of Muslims who try to live properly, based on the few who distort it.