Daniel Maldonado's Wikipedia Page, Iran and Thoughts on an Islamic "Reformation"

Wikipedia is notorious for its Western apologist-filtered fantasy version of Islam. It follows something which they refer to as "verifiability, not truth". In regards to Islam, this has meant that they accept what "notable/reliable" Western commentators say about its religious text and Muslims over what the religious text and Muslims actually say themselves (Karen Armstrong, anyone?).

For anything even remotely "controversial" (i.e. politics or religion), it can be pretty useless. However, it still can be great as a starting point, even for topics related to Islam, and I regularly use it for non-religious related material. I was browsing it the other day and stumbled upon their page for Daniel Maldonado. This page left me thinking, "sometimes the truth is staring people in the face, but they refuse to acknowledge it ":

Daniel Maldonado, also known by his adopted Muslim name Daniel Aljughaifi, is a U.S. convert to a fundamentalist Islam who faces charges for an alleged association with terrorism.

Maldonado converted to Islam in 2000 in Methuen, Massachusetts. According to the Boston Globe his views became so extreme his mosque's imam asked him to either quit criticizing the mosque's other members, or to leave, according to a friend of Maldonado, Soner Uguz, of Lawrence, Massachusetts:

"He was arrogant; he knew the book [the Koran] better than anyone, He went from loving rap to hating poetry."

In mid-February 2007 Maldonado was charged with playing a role in terrorist activities in Somalia. Maldonado is notable because his charge, in a Houston, Texas court, was the first time a US citizen faced charges for participating in terrorism in Somalia.

The Boston Globe reported that, as a youth, Maldonado had minor brushes with the law, but nothing serious. Maldonado, his wife, Tamekia (née Cunningham) and three young children, moved to Egypt in November 2005. The Boston Globe reports that an FBI affidavit asserts he moved to Somalia a year later, where he undertook training in bomb-making and military skills.

According to a speech FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III delivered on March 28, 2007 at National Defense University

... such as the arrest of suspected terrorist Daniel Maldonado. Maldonado, an American citizen who converted to the Muslim faith, moved from Houston to Egypt in November 2005. He then traveled to Somalia to practice what he called 'true Islam'. According to the indictment, while in Mogadishu, Maldonado participated in a jihadist training program that included weapons and explosives. He said that he was willing to fight on behalf of Al Qaeda and even offered to act as a suicide bomber. Kenyan military authorities captured Maldonado in January. Members of the Houston Joint Terrorism Task Force transported him back to the United States.

If you read the underlined portions, you will note that, instead of correcting Maldonado's "erroneous" and "extremist" interpretations of  a "peaceful religion", his mosque's imam tells him to either shut up or leave. Could this have anything to do with the fact that Maldonado "knew the book [the Koran] better than anyone", a fact that left an imam unable to correct a mere convert?

The answer to that question is, in all probability, a resounding 'yes'. The cleric was unable to shut him up intellectually because that particular member of his congregation was the one who was interpreting Islam through it's actual texts and not filtering it through his own understandings of what is moral or not.

This is one of the many reasons why I believe that there is no hope in mainstream Islam reforming itself. The "extremists" have scripture on their side, whilst the so-called reformers only have the ignorant, agenda-driven Western media to repeat their claims to more ignorant, agenda-driven Western viewers/readers.

We've all heard of the American Muslim apologist, Laleh Bakhtiar, and her false claim that the Qur'an does not instruct men to beat their wives. The fact that her ridiculous claim has been completely dismissed by mainstream Muslims, has led to her translation being banned from the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) bookstore, and that the nonsensical lie is apparent to any Arabic speaker, doesn't seem to matter to Western media/apologists and sites like Wikipedia.

The same thing has happened with the claim of Aisha, Muhammad's child bride, being anything from 12 to 21-years-old at the time of her consummation. The fact that these claims were concocted by an Ahmadi (not a Muslim), have been completely dismissed by mainstream Muslims, and have even been refuted by Muslim scholars, doesn't seem to matter to sites like Wikipedia who devote large amounts of space (undue weight) to such silly and obscure apologetic arguments.

Westerners love to say how Islam is no different to other superstitions, that all it needs is a "reformation" like Christianity. But they fail to consider two very important points:

1. Individuals who criticize mainstream Islamic doctrines are labeled by apologists and "moderate" Muslims as hate-mongering "Islamophobes", and the so-called "reformists" almost never admit there is anything wrong with Islam. You cannot reform something if you refuse to acknowledge that there is a problem with it. These "reformists" usually make excuses and pass on the blame to "Wahhabis" (who are in fact not a part of a deviant or innovative Islamic sect, but strict orthodox followers of the Qur'an and Sunnah). They also conveniently spend all of their time trying to "refute" critics rather than actually attempting reform by discussing problems within Islam with fellow Muslims.

2. The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century schism within Western Christianity. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to ("protested") the doctrines, rituals, and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led to the creation of new national Protestant churches.

The split between Sunnis and Shi'ites resemble that of the split between Catholics and Protestants. The historic background of the Sunni–Shi'ite split lies in the schism that occurred when Muhammad died in 632, leading to a dispute over succession to Muhammad as a caliph of the Islamic community. Some Muslims sided with Ali and believed he was the rightful successor to Muhammad, leading to what we know today as Shi'ite Islam.

So, the Islamic equivalent of the Protestant Reformation has already taken place, and if you want to see what post-reform Islam looks like.... go to Iran.

New York Times‎ Op-Ed: "Moderate" Indonesia Not so Moderate

I've made several posts about this in relation to Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey who are all continually mislabeled by the media and apologists as "moderate".

Their logic goes something like this; what? Malaysia has banned homosexuals and the portrayal of homosexual characters from appearing on television, radio or in movies? Well, Iran has executed 4,000 homosexuals between 1979-1999, so Malaysia is moderate!

As you're probably all aware, apologists often try to paint critics (even non-white critics such as myself) as racist bigots. But the truth is, it is them who are the bigots for holding followers of Islam and Islam-dominated governments to a much lower moral standard than the rest of us.

Thankfully, the tide appears to be turning.

Someone else (I forget who) noted that Turkey had recently been referred to as "semi-democratic" by a mainstream media outlet, and now this by Andreas Harsono (a researcher for the Asia division at Human Rights Watch) on Indonesia.

As another blogger pointed out, "yet again, the mainstream media is behind the game, for the trampling of minority religions by this, the largest Muslim majority nation in the world, has been regularly reported in blogs for years now. Still, it's good to see some straight reporting from 'the newspaper of record'"

From The New York Times:

IT is fashionable these days for Western leaders to praise Indonesia as a model Muslim democracy. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has declared, “If you want to know whether Islam, democracy, modernity and women’s rights can coexist, go to Indonesia.” And last month Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, lauded Indonesia for showing that “religion and democracy need not be in conflict.”

Tell that to Asia Lumbantoruan, a Christian elder whose congregation outside Jakarta has recently had two of its partially built churches burned down by Islamist militants. He was stabbed by these extremists while defending a third site from attack in September 2010.

This week in Geneva, the United Nations is reviewing Indonesia’s human rights record. It should call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to crack down on extremists and protect minorities. While Indonesia has made great strides in consolidating a stable, democratic government after five decades of authoritarian rule, the country is by no means a bastion of tolerance. The rights of religious and ethnic minorities are routinely trampled. While Indonesia’s Constitution protects freedom of religion, regulations against blasphemy and proselytizing are routinely used to prosecute atheists, Bahais, Christians, Shiites, Sufis and members of the Ahmadiyya faith — a Muslim sect declared to be deviant in many Islamic countries. By 2010, Indonesia had over 150 religiously motivated regulations restricting minorities’ rights.

In 2006, Mr. Yudhoyono, in a new decree on “religious harmony,” tightened criteria for building a house of worship. The decree is enforced only on religious minorities — often when Islamists pressure local officials not to authorize the construction of Christian churches or to harass and intimidate those worshiping in “illegal” churches, which lack official registration. More than 400 such churches have been closed since Mr. Yudhoyono took office in 2004.

Although the government has cracked down on Jemaah Islamiyah, an Al Qaeda affiliate that has bombed hotels, bars and embassies, it has not intervened to stop other Islamist militants who regularly commit less publicized crimes against religious minorities. Mr. Yudhoyono’s government is reluctant to take them on because it rules Indonesia in a coalition with intolerant Islamist political parties.

Mr. Yudhoyono is not simply turning a blind eye; he has actively courted conservative Islamist elements and relies on them to maintain his majority in Parliament, even granting them key cabinet positions. These appointments send a message to Indonesia’s population and embolden Islamist extremists to use violence against minorities.

In August 2011, for example, Muslim militants burned down three Christian churches on Sumatra. No one was charged and officials have prevented the congregations from rebuilding their churches. And on the outskirts of Jakarta, two municipalities have refused to obey Supreme Court orders to reopen two sealed churches; Mr. Yudhoyono claimed he had no authority to intervene.

Christians are not the only targets. In June 2008, the Yudhoyono administration issued a decree requiring the Ahmadiyya sect to “stop spreading interpretations and activities that deviate from the principal teachings of Islam,” including its fundamental belief that there was a prophet after Muhammad. The government said the decree was necessary to prevent violence against the sect. But provincial and local governments used the decree to write even stricter regulations. Muslim militants, who consider the Ahmadiyya heretics, then forcibly shut down more than 30 Ahmadiyya mosques.

In the deadliest attack, in western Java in February 2011, three Ahmadiyya men were killed. A cameraman recorded the violence, and versions of it were posted on YouTube. An Indonesian court eventually prosecuted 12 militants for the crime, but handed down paltry sentences of only four to six months. Mr. Yudhoyono has also failed to protect ethnic minorities who have peacefully called for independence in the country’s eastern regions of Papua and the Molucca Islands. During demonstrations in Papua on May 1, one protester was killed and 13 were arrested. And last October, the government brutally suppressed the Papuan People’s Congress, beating dozens and killing three people. While protesters were jailed and charged with treason, the police chief in charge of security that day was promoted.

Almost 100 people remain in prison for peacefully protesting. Dozens are ill, but the government has denied them proper treatment, claiming it lacks the money. Even the Suharto dictatorship allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit political prisoners, yet the Yudhoyono government has banned the I.C.R.C. from working in Papua.

Instead of praising Indonesia, nations that support tolerance and free speech should publicly demand that Indonesia respect religious freedom, release political prisoners and lift restrictions on media and human rights groups in Papua.

Mr. Yudhoyono needs to take charge of this situation by revoking discriminatory regulations, demanding that his coalition partners respect the religious freedom of all minorities in word and in deed, and enforcing the constitutional protection of freedom of worship. He must also make it crystal clear that Islamist hard-liners who commit or incite violence and the police who fail to protect the victims will be punished. Only then will Indonesia be deserving of Mr. Cameron and Mrs. Clinton’s praise.

Shi'ite Sect in India: The Removal of the Clitoris is the Will of God

From The Straits Times:

Eleven years ago, Farida Bano was circumcised by an aunt on a bunk bed in her family home at the end of her 10th birthday party.

The mutilation occurred not in Africa, where the practice is most prevalent, but in India where a small Muslim sub-sect known as the Dawoodi Bohra continues to believe that the removal of the clitoris is the will of God.

'We claim to be modern and different from other Muslim sects. We are different but not modern,' Ms Bano, a 21-year-old law graduate who is angry about what was done to her, told AFP in New Delhi.

She vividly remembers the moment in the party when the aunt pounced with a razor blade and a pack of cotton wool. The Bohra brand of Islam is followed by 1.2 million people worldwide and is a sect of Shia Islam that originated in Yemen.