I find your posts on Islam and the Middle East very interesting. Your candour and openness are beguiling. If you had a higher public profile, you would doubtless have been included in Jasmin Zine's recent bogus "report" on the Islamophobia Industry in Canada as an "insider" who enables Islamophobia (Zine defines Islamophobia as first and foremost negativity toward Islam rather than toward Muslims: https://iphobiacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Canada-Report-2022-1.pdf.
I consider this report to be symbolic of another kind of industry for which Zine is a shill: the Islamo-grievance industry which seeks as its goal a blasphemy law in Canada. I am in her report. Irshad is in her report. Raheel Raza, a devout Muslim who believes in reforms that will encourage separation of church and state in Islam, and others who are honest writers grappling with certain realities you have been illuminating in your posts. My question is: You are a convert to Islam. Why? What do you see in this religion that you couldn't find, say, in Quakerism or Bahai or any of the other religions that offer both spirituality and liberal, peaceful practice. I get that many people who are dissatisfied with what they were given can't simply become agnostics and live a fulfilled life, I get that many people need to feel part of a religious community to feel whole, and they find the most comfort in what they grew up with.
But you had a choice, since you were starting anew. Can you tell me what the big attraction is? To me, what's good about Islam is old news from from Judaism and Christianity, and what's bad about Islam is what was new with Islam. I ask with disinterested curiosity, not to play "gotcha."
I have answered that question a few times recently. Am not a catholic because I don’t believe in the Trinity. Also because I know too much about the abuse that happened, my family was affected and we all pretended it never happened. I am not a Jew because I do believe Jesus is the Messiah. That leaves Islam.
Religious community has never been God for me, I actually was raised to loathe and suspect it. I am a DIY Muslim because I don’t need a confessor or a church or a temple or any damn thing. I have never been to a mosque and don’t plan on it tbh. Still, Islam as I see it makes sense to me (actual properly translated Rumi makes real sense to me) and provides me with the most sensible path forward. I thought about becoming a Muslim for the better part of 20 years. I used to stare in dreamy fascination at a picture of the Taj Mahal for hours as a little girl. Every moment leads to now. 😎
Fighting extremist thinking I suppose draws me—my mother, a very devout mystical catholic—HATED religious extremism, hated evangelism, hated spiritual abuse. Weirdly maybe I’m draw to the struggle because that’s the way I see to serve God, maybe worship is fighting extremist assholes and if I get myself on the fanatics’ lists blah blah oh well, maybe that’s part of being a changemaker.
I find your posts on Islam and the Middle East very interesting. Your candour and openness are beguiling. If you had a higher public profile, you would doubtless have been included in Jasmin Zine's recent bogus "report" on the Islamophobia Industry in Canada as an "insider" who enables Islamophobia (Zine defines Islamophobia as first and foremost negativity toward Islam rather than toward Muslims: https://iphobiacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Canada-Report-2022-1.pdf.
I consider this report to be symbolic of another kind of industry for which Zine is a shill: the Islamo-grievance industry which seeks as its goal a blasphemy law in Canada. I am in her report. Irshad is in her report. Raheel Raza, a devout Muslim who believes in reforms that will encourage separation of church and state in Islam, and others who are honest writers grappling with certain realities you have been illuminating in your posts. My question is: You are a convert to Islam. Why? What do you see in this religion that you couldn't find, say, in Quakerism or Bahai or any of the other religions that offer both spirituality and liberal, peaceful practice. I get that many people who are dissatisfied with what they were given can't simply become agnostics and live a fulfilled life, I get that many people need to feel part of a religious community to feel whole, and they find the most comfort in what they grew up with.
But you had a choice, since you were starting anew. Can you tell me what the big attraction is? To me, what's good about Islam is old news from from Judaism and Christianity, and what's bad about Islam is what was new with Islam. I ask with disinterested curiosity, not to play "gotcha."
I have answered that question a few times recently. Am not a catholic because I don’t believe in the Trinity. Also because I know too much about the abuse that happened, my family was affected and we all pretended it never happened. I am not a Jew because I do believe Jesus is the Messiah. That leaves Islam.
Religious community has never been God for me, I actually was raised to loathe and suspect it. I am a DIY Muslim because I don’t need a confessor or a church or a temple or any damn thing. I have never been to a mosque and don’t plan on it tbh. Still, Islam as I see it makes sense to me (actual properly translated Rumi makes real sense to me) and provides me with the most sensible path forward. I thought about becoming a Muslim for the better part of 20 years. I used to stare in dreamy fascination at a picture of the Taj Mahal for hours as a little girl. Every moment leads to now. 😎
Fighting extremist thinking I suppose draws me—my mother, a very devout mystical catholic—HATED religious extremism, hated evangelism, hated spiritual abuse. Weirdly maybe I’m draw to the struggle because that’s the way I see to serve God, maybe worship is fighting extremist assholes and if I get myself on the fanatics’ lists blah blah oh well, maybe that’s part of being a changemaker.