A message that i sent to Sam Harris in response to a debate he had with Robert Wright.



The link to the debate on youtube :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y2YidHb65A

My message in response :

Dear Mr. Sam Harris My name is Muhammad and I'm writing to you after watching one of your debates with Mr. Robert Wright. Since the debate was long and a lot was said, many thoughts came rushing through my mind as both of you spoke. Of course thoughts which are based upon my personal point of view which in its turn is based on what i know Islam and Muslims to be. I am no scholar in any subject, nor do i claim to understand every detail of my belief system ( Islam ). Sometimes i am not even able to explain to myself " why am i certain that there is a God?". However, I don't see why is it necessary to comprehend all the details and the rationals behind every law and tradition that muslims do or abide by. I have lived in three different countries in three different continents in four different languages and a diversity of cultures. I never felt the need to understand all the laws and traditions within those systems. And i got along just fine understanding only that which for me is both relevant and understandable. Under absolutely no circumstances do i support the killing or the harming of anybody. (except justly by the authorities and only to prevent further damages to other people that will certainly come from that person). The reason I decided to write this letter is that my wife and I are peaceful people. The thousands of muslims i personally know are wonderful people. My wife has a hair cover ( born to a christian mother and a communist agnostic father, and chose to embrace the islamic tradition willingly a few years before she met me, so that there is no way she did it for me or for anyone else except for herself). I was beaten by a bunch of racist thugs, who were jewish, because i'm an arab/muslim/Palestinian decedent, on a beach in the state of Israel. I am sure those guys also were certain that muslims are bad and dangerous and that Islam is a major danger to them because they are free and prosperous! My wife is terrified when she walks alone in the streets of Stockholm, Sweden, where she was born and raised, because not once, muslim women were beaten by racists who also are certain that muslims are a danger and harming them is justified. To support your claim you cited a survey that shows 34% percent of british muslims between the ages of 19-34 believe that whomever leaves the faith should be killed ! Well first i'm glad to hear that the majority does not believe so. and then later, very swiftly, you said that the vast majority of these 34% would not act upon this belief and would not kill someone who leaves the faith. It is ridiculous to what extent muslims, and religious people in general, have no clue about the context of things they believe in. Instead of using this statistic in making people aware of the danger of muslims, i would use it to explain that even muslims don't understand their belief system. Probably because they never dig deep in things which are not relevant to them. I read the Quran, in arabic, my mother tongue, among the 6000 verses, there were a handfull of verses ( that talk about violence )that did stop me and made me read them again. The impression i got from the context of these verses has nothing of relevance to me what so ever. They need to be discussed on a high level with theologians and linguists. But certainly with me, the average person, they have nothing to do. "Muslims are bad and dangerous" = Muslims portrayed in a negative way = Muslims killed, left to die, beaten, not hired, discriminated against, slurred, hated or at least looked at suspiciously. In your debate with Mr. Wright, you left me with this impression, and i am sure that many non-muslims got the same impression too and i can only hope that no one will act upon that impression in trying to harm those Dangerous muslim men, women and children. I heard many people who intentionally portray muslims as negative and dangerous, but i never bothered because they are doing it intentionally. But when i got this feeling from your discourse, knowing certainly that you have no intention in being either a racist or a discriminant, that's when i felt the need to share with you my genuine feelings. In the end i wanted to also point out that there are many things with muslims and arabs that are wrong. Did you know an arab (muslim or christian) might kill a person for referring to his sister in a slur? Most arabs ( muslims and christians ) that i know personally do not even dare to consider the option that God does not exist! While my western friends ( muslims and christians ) are more than willing to discuss God with an open mind. I personally detest arranged marriage. In many muslim societies arranged marriage is still dominant and girls do not get to chose their life partner. But this phenomenon is even wider spread in India among hundreds of millions of hindus. and not for a religious reason but for cultural reasons ( including throwing acid on the faces of women who are rebellious). therefore i would not dismiss these problems as " because of the religion ". I would rather treat these people with pity rather than hold them accountable for things they were marinated in and never even dared to reflect on. Thank you for your time and thank you for your work. i really appreciate your open mind. Muhammad Sweden

Reflection 2014.04.09 :

Yesterday I happened to listen to an explanation of one of the chapters of the Quran. ( Surah Alduha). And it struck me today that there are many verses in the Quran, in the Bible as well,  that require one to have a lot of life experience in order to understand what is meant by them. I had read this chapter many times before, and i understood all the words in it, but never reflected on it and never really got the context of it, which is the most important part ( Context ).

Suddenly i came to think of many things that my parents or my teachers used to ask me to do when i was younger. They would ask me to study and do my homework and help at home. But in my then immature mind never did I understand why is studying more important than playing with my friends, or why is helping my mom with cleaning the house more important than playing computer games!

I'm 31 years old now and i'm studying and doing the courses i should have done 14 years ago at school! so i do understand now why was it important to study. And i think this is the case with many verses in the Quran, the Bible or even any other ordinary yet sophisticated book. One needs to go through certain experiences and observe certain phenomenon in life/society/oneself in order to understand the context of them!

The explanation to the verses mentioned above can be watched in this link. Even though my point is more general than these specific verses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoqhNz7wD3I

Hi Everybody and Peace be unto you .

As a Muslim who is observing this crazy world , i thought i would share some thoughts with you !

1. It is May , 24th , 2013 and i Would to start by sharing my sincere Condolences from my heart to the family and friends of the British soldier who was murdered in Woolwich , London , UK , i can not think of anything that justifies his murder and i wish everyone does his best to punish those responsible of killing him .

2. I am appalled and worried of the ignorance , arogance and blind hatred of people both Muslims and non-Muslims , who do not feel obligated to be fair to others regardless of their color , race or religion or sex orientation .

3. hatred is a cancer , that should be uprooted , there are 1.7 billion people all over the world who either call themselves or referred to as Muslims ,quite natural (unfortunate but natural) that among every group of people there are bad people , bad includes ignorant , arrogant , haters , extremists , destructive psychopaths etc. , andI as a  Muslim feel betrayed by so many of these bad persons who hijack the name of our religion and act in a horrible way , even though the Quran says that whomever kills one innocent soul is as if he killed all humanity, in many places in the Quran , one of them is Chapter 5 ( Almaida ) , verse number 32 , and those who commit those acts are mainly driven by one of the reasons mentioned above , the Quran is 6000+ verses , has in it many stories , it is so easy for arrogant or haters or ignorants to quote verses and words and put them in a bad and destructive context and act upon that to justify hatred and harm , unfortunately this is done by so called muslims , and non muslims alike ,  who also have their agenda and personal baggage , this leads to a situation where there are hundreds of millions of people who are suffering the worst , and have very serious problems such as to  have no access to clean water in africa , or  people that are being killed and chased out of their homes unjustly , or resources that are being stolen leaving the locals in poverty , and the reason these problems are not addressed is because of the hatred that is being spread , a small example , afew weeks ago i was chatting with a person who holds different views than mine , he is trying to explain to me that muslims are terrorists , and he gives me a list of places where Muslims are part of local conflicts , among the places he mentions was Burma , Myanmar , and he is blaming Muslims , of course he has never been to Myanmar , neither were I , however , in that same day , i saw on a video , an old lady telling the interviewer about how some buddhist extremists have killed muslims in front of her eyes and took her grand son and started to cut his body while he screams and calls his grandmom to help him but she ran for her life , and in the same day , the Dalai Lama was in the USA and during a speech of his he condemned what the Budhist extrimests are doing to the muslims , yet this guy in the chat says muslims are to blame for violence all over the world and gives burma as an example  so please people , it hurts me to my soul that people  write/say/do things , without a real knowledge and without thinking of the consequences of it .

4. i wish and hope for every single person on this planet to live safe , secure , happy and a peaceful life , and i wish people will start investing their energy in spreading peace rather than in promoting hatred and war . Peace !

5.I am aware of the lack of proffessionalism in my writing , hope to get better with the time  , and please dear readers , comment and share your thoughts .

Thanks for reading 

Muhammad

Peace Test

Peace !