Pondering Islam

Here are a two of my replies to Danesh D'Souza's "Letting Bin Laden Define Islam."

The ignorance level among the comments, both on Islamic history and increasingly on the Ismaeli astounds me but I know it shouldn't. World History is an unknown subject and few people consider checking references to insure that their off the cuff comments and half-remembered factoids have even a shred of truth to them.

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29. The problem is not Islam, it is the entire spectrum of concrete (in contrast to contemplative) relgion. The concrete forms of Islam have been the subject to extended critique by the contemplative Islamic tradition of Sufism, where in concrete Islam's more extreme adherents have been refered to as "Donkeys with Turbins" to show their stubborness and stupidity in their beliefs.

Foolish consistency, inability to adapt to changes and concrete faith in all faiths world wide, particularly in Islam and Christinaity, can be seen as the greatest overall danger to human survival at this moment in time. They transform powerful visions of transcendence into clubs to batter those who disagree and sword to kill those not subdued.

With regard to the original article your characterization of the Moghul Empire's attitude towards the Hindu inhabitants of their region seems more then a little rose tinted. The destruction and desecration of Hindu religious sites under the Islamic invasion was staggering. One of the holiest Shivalinga of the area was cut into bricks and transformed into pavement so that it might be desecrated at all times by those who walked upon it. Yet the Moghul from the time of Akbar and his "Din-i-Ilahi" in 1581 CE onwards hardly qualified as Islamic in the strict sense as their faith combined elements of Islam, Sufism, Zoroastorianism, Christianity and Hinduism.
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52. Dale Freeman's comments regarding the Assassins is incorrect. There was no "Guild of Assassins" but rather the Naziri Ishmaeli, an Islamic sect that split from the Shi'i over sucession issues resolving around the Sixth Imam. Their 12th Century leader, Hassan i Sabah, chose to establish mountain fortifications in Afghanistan and used some revolutionary espionage methods, including the first known incidents of "Sleeper Agents" in the West. They were not hired killers but acted to preserve their faith's way of life against Christian and Musilm attempts to supress them.

For those interested in learning more about the group _The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis _ by Farhad Daftary is a good place to start.