© Roger M Tagg 2010-2011
This book, related somewhat reluctantly by its author I feel, tells of the changed life and outlook of a woman, from a traditional Moslem background in Syria, as she became a psychiatrist in California, still married to her original Syrian husband.
She still feels herself to be a Moslem, but feels strongly that the emphasis, by the majority of Moslems, on the original literal Koranic depiction of God, is unhelpful and against the real essence of Good, especially in the world as it exists today. She also feels that most traditional attitudes of Islam to women are certainly evil rather than good.
It's interesting to compare this book with one with a similar background story, namely "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (who became a Netherlands MP).
Most of the highlights in the first list below are quotations from the text. A separate list collects quotations from the Hadith etc.
| Chapter | Page | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Islam has "canonized the Moslem's desert nature" | |
| 7a | Evil shrieks loudly, while goodness clothes the world in silence | |
| 7b | It is goodness, I believe, which has swept the world ever since it came into being | |
| 45 | The quest is for a God who respects human life and values every human being | |
| 46a | The "poison" of Islam - certainly for women, and indeed for some men | |
| 46b | The need for a God, for most people, is just a "Mr Fixit", or an attempt to fill an intellectual or psychological void that we can't cope with | |
| 48 | We (the human race) ourselves created God as a concept | |
| 52 | The God of Islam is a fear-inspiring ogre - a bogeyman. There's not much to suggest the compassionate or the merciful | |
| 68a | Islam has a culture of "raiding", the idea being to grab what you can and ignore the consequences | |
| 68b | Islam also has a culture of shouting - shouting down those you don't agree with [RT: a bit like "sledging" in cricket!] | |
| 81 | Abdullah al Qasimi ("The World is not a Mind"): "The Universe - what is its conscience?" [RT: seems like some people are trying to expunge anything about this writer.] | |
| 83a | Nawal el Saasawi (female Egyptian doctor) - wrote "The Female is the Source" | |
| 104 | The Moslem world lags behind because of its repressive culture that has no respect for the mind and refuses to acknowledge its failure to come to grips with science | |
| 108 | Under Islamic law, a woman can't be the guardian of her own children | |
| 115 | Life (as it is presented to us) isn't fair (RT: we shouldn't expect it to be) | |
| 119a | The viewpoint Islam requires of women is: "no man in my life can be better than the Prophet, so I cannot be less obedient to my husband than the Prophet's wives were to their husband" | |
| 119b | The Prophet was 50 when he married a girl of 6; he consummated it when she was 9. Today that would be child molesting | |
| 126 | The Prophet banned (or claimed God banned) adoption, in order to allow him to marry the wife of his "adopted" son | |
| 127 | The Prophet married a Jewish wife of a neighbouring tribesman, after killing the husband and many others, and swapping 7 of his captive women for this wife | |
| 129 | The prophet was a thoroughly bad example in his dealings with women | |
| 135a | A God who subjugates women in the ugliest ways possible cannot possibly possess the necessary quality of perfection | |
| 135b | An oppressed and subjugated woman cannot give birth to an emotionally well-balanced child | |
| 143 | Eleanor Roosevelt: "no-one can put you down without your consent" | |
| 145 | (Most) Moslem men and women who live in the west are hypocrites; they criticize the society, but expect its benefits | |
| 148 | To wear a veil is a decision for a woman, but not a choice | |
| 156 | Islam is a slave-property-totalitarian straitjacket | |
| 159 | The Prophet, in order to impose his authority, linked obedience to God with obedience to Him, and then delegated that authority to rulers | |
| 166 | Islam forbids the translation of the Koran into any other language. The majority of Moslems worldwide can't understand it anyhow, even though they may be able to recite it | |
| 173 | Islam is a culture of violence and negative words | |
| 174 | The Koran fails to distinguish between force and power | |
| 175 | Nabil Fayyad (Syrian): "The more fragile an idea is, the more terrifying its defenders are." [RT: looks like someone is trying to silence him too.] | |
| 177 | In the Arab world, the clock has stopped, and the calendar is still set at the 7th century. Moslems have lost everything except their original teachings. | |
| 181 | Fate is pre-ordained, so people don't have to take any personal responsibility (except to fight) | |
| 182 | The leader of Hezbollah claimed a monopoly on God as regards politics and military action | |
| 184 | The concept of responsibility has no place in Islam | |
| 193 | Islam defines its relations with Jews and Christians by their attitude to the Prophet, not to God | |
| 194 | From the dawn of Islam until the present day, mistrust of Jews and Christians has reduced Moslems to a state of paranoia, recently peaked again in relation to Israel | |
| 198 | If learned Moslems could replace the enormous quantities of hate contained in their schoolbooks with studies that focus on loving other people regardless of religion, race or nationality, they would help to save the entire Moslem world from its backwardness, hunger, poverty and ignorance | |
| 199 | Hatred is like an acid that burns the container that holds it more than it damages the surface it spills on | |
| 207 | The most important traditions handed down in Islam are about raiding; very little is about morals. Morals are a common code, almost identical worldwide | |
| 211 | It's not the WMDs that are the threat to the world, it's the hatred in Islamic books | |
| 221 | Moslems have been reduced to programmed automatons unfit for either time or place | |
| 240 | Islam is not just a religion; it is a political doctrine that imposes itself by force |
| Chapter | Page | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| 83 | A man's prayer is nullified if a dog or a woman passes close beside him | |
| 100 | Teach your children to pray at the age of 7, and beat them if they don't at the age of 10 | |
| 115 | The Islamic view is that women are defective; marriage will conceal one tenth of the defect, the grave will hide the other nine tenths | |
| 138a | "O ye women, you are the majority of those who dwell in Hell, for when you receive you express no thanks, when afflicted you show no patience, and when I keep aloof from you, you complain" | |
| 138b | A woman must not feed anyone without her husband's permission, unless the food is about to spoil | |
| 139a | If a man summons his wife to his bed and she refuses, the angels will curse her until morning | |
| 139b | A woman shall neither fast nor pray without her husband's authorization | |
| 139c | A man has the right to expect his wife, if his nose runs with blood, mucus or pus, to lick it up with her tongue | |
| 148 | (A perverted vision of women in Hell threatens women who don't conform) | |
| 155 | When entering a room, one must put one's right foot in first, unless it's the bathroom, in which case it's left foot first | |
| 159 | Obey your Emir, even if he flogs you and takes your property | |
| 160a | If a ruler passes judgment and it turns out he was right, he is rewarded twice. If it turns out he was wrong, he receives a single recompense | |
| 160b | A Moslem cleric may only protest against a ruler if that ruler is of a different denomination (e.g. Sunni versus Shi'i) | |
| 171 | He who engages in usury is like one who copulates with his mother, or one who fornicates 33 times, or swallows a snake | |
| 181 | If something happens to you, do not say "if I had done X, it would not have happened". Say rather, "God has ordained it and whatever He pleases He does." | |
| 208 | Drink camel urine - it contains the cure for all ills. Some Moslem professors feel that they have to profess this, for fear of otherwise being killed |
Islam - and also Christianity to some extent - does not seem to have moved to accommodate the evolving fact that many more individual people today are well read, educated and experienced enough to think for themselves what is "good".
To such people, no religion (or ism) can be good if it decrees second (or lower) rank to some humans on grounds of gender, race, skin colour, nationality or language. Nor can it be good if it justifies violence or persecution against anyone, except maybe against aggressors in life-and-death situations - this ought in some way be extended to animals and the environment. Nor can it be good if it shouts down (or "sledges") other humans. Nor can it be good if it denies knowledge, burns books or censors ideas. Nor can it be good if it practices - or preaches - the controlling of others by fear of death or imprisonment for disagreement.
There are some modern ethicists (e.g. Peter Singer) who believe in the potential for a worldwide, largely consensual (but not absolutely fixed) scale of values; one that is based on fairness, compassion or pity, consideration for others and general pragmatism - not threats of hellfire. Of course they would have to admit that there are many areas where we have yet to reach consensus on how to tackle specific new situations or borderline cases.
I am reminded of Robert Pirsig's line from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (p 389): "What is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good - need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"
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This version updated on 13th January 2011