Let's be honest: Islam has a problem today
Watch "Fareed Zakaria GPS," Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN
By Fareed Zakaria
When television host Bill Maher declares on his weekly show that "the Muslim world...has too much in common with ISIS," and the author, Sam Harris (a guest on his show) concurs, arguing that "Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas," I understand why people get upset. Maher and Harris made crude simplifications and exaggerations.
And yet, they were also talking about something real. I know all the arguments against speaking of Islam as violent and reactionary. It is a vast world of 1.6 billion people. Places such as Indonesia and India have hundreds of millions of Muslims who don't fit these caricatures. That's why Maher and Harris are guilty of simplification and exaggeration.
But let's be honest: Islam has a problem today...There is a cancer of extremism within Islam today. A small minority of Muslims celebrate violence and intolerance, and harbor deeply reactionary attitudes towards women and minorities. And while some moderates confront these extremists, not enough do so and the protests are not loud enough. How many mass rallies have been held against ISIS in the Arab world today?
But now the caveat, Islam today, is important.
Watch the video for the full Take or read the WaPo column.
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Let's be honest: Islam has a problem today???? : )
NO MR. ZAKARIA IS TOO EARLY.........LET'S WAIT A FEW MORE YEARS TO MAKE SURE
THAT ISLAM HAS A PROBLEM!!!! : )
PLEASE LET'S NOT JUMP IN TO SUCH HASTLEY CONCLUSIONS!!! : )
Let's be honest: Islam has a problem today??? : )
NO MR. ZAKARIA IS TOO EARLY.........LET'S WAIT A FEW MORE YEARS TO REALLY MAKE SURE
THAT ISLAM HAS A PROBLEM!!!! : )
PLEASE LET'S NOT JUMP IN TO SUCH HASTILY CONCLUSIONS!!! : )
Too many muslims believe that religious RITES trump human RIGHTS. That is the major problem islam has.
Nobody noticed Islam until someone decided to take some oil – it happened back when they eliminated Mossadegh and installed the Shah of Iran. Yes, they liked Islam then, and some liked it even more as it seemed a bulwark against communism too. The jihadis of al Qaeda were encouraged as fighters against the Soviets in Afghanistan and the Russian-leaning Serbs in Yugoslavia as it was breaking up. Remember/
Fact is that honor killings (or the belief in same) have absolutely nothing to do with jihad. In fact they are old tribal ways which pre-dated Islam (even St. Augustine, a Berber, railed against it in his society, centuries before Islam existed).
But Moslems were used to chase out communists – and guess what? Their indoctrination was paid for by us and our allies in Saudi Arabia. Now they are treated like dirt. Go figure.
ISLAM STRONG !!
MUSLIM STRONG!!!
THE FUTURE BELONGS TO YOU!
THE FINISH LINE IS YOURS !!
I AM SO PROUD OF BEING A MUSLIM !!
ISLAM IS MY WAY OF LIFE!!
You wanna go deer hunting with me ? I would love to get you in my crosshairs ,you coward!
You are terrorists. Muslims are peaceful people.
How about a few tactical nukes down their chimneys just to liven things up?
Talk peace not war. Islam does not encourage such terrorist thoughts.
As long as worldwide Muslims poll near universal support for criminal punishment for apostasy and blasphemy, we can conclude it's more than a small minority of Muslims with a problem.
Correct. In Britain 36% of all muslim men favour the death penalty for apostasy, in Egypt it's 86%. That means that there is not a tiny violent minority that's causing problems, as Fareed Zakaria assumes. It's the majority, stupid!
The Koran stands in direct opposition to the New Testament, and presents a false version of God.
ISLAM STRONG !!
MUSLIM STRONG!!!
THE FUTURE BELONGS TO YOU!
THE FINISH LINE IS YOURS !!
I AM SO PROUD OF BEING A MUSLIM !!
ISLAM IS MY WAY OF LIFE!!
WHAT IS YOURS?
AMEN
meh. they're both fiction.
A false image of God? The Koran is, according to muslims, the word of Allah, God has nothing to do with it. And Jesus, as all Christians can tell, spoke the word of God. As it is obvious that the source of the Koran, with all it's calls to violence and jihad, cannot possibly be the source of the words of Jesus, it it clear that Allah and God are two. Allah is not God. (And this has nothing to do with the question whether Allah exists and whether God exists.)
So, the Koran doesn't present a false image of God, but rather a correct image of Allah.
Anyone so stupid to stay in islam is stupid indeed
there is no god but NO god
Islam is a religion stuck in the 6th century AD. It is a violent religion and obviously cannot coexist with other religions. Forcing women to completely cover themselves, not allowing them to drive, raping them whenever they want, killing others who don't believe as they do, etc., etc. it's time to end it once and for all.
Problem with Islam, is it doesn't have the "out" that the other Abrahamic religions do. Namely that Judaism and Christianity can say that what the bible says is merely interpretations of what god said and/or meant for a specific time/place. So they can change and adapt somewhat to changes in culture/morals.
Islam doesn't have that out. One of the foundations of Islam is that the Koran is precise dictation meant for all time. A lot of what ISIS is doing is a fairly precise interpretation of the Koran. This makes it rather difficult for muslims to speak out against it.
When the Koran says: "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." -Qur'an 9:29. That's precisely what muslims must do. Fight everybody who isn't muslim until they either convert, or pay tax (jizya). Guess what ISIS is doing? If you're in their territory you can convert to islam, die, or pay tax. True muslims can't say well, that was an interpretation meant for a certain time/place, or point to a certain sacrifice that effectively rewrote the rules. They're stuck with what the Koran says.
Could it be that the word "fight" in spiritual sense might mean differently, instead of killing the person ?
One can fight against temptations by avoiding occasions to sin,
fight against injustice by non-violence protests,
fight against non-believers by living the faith authentically by example with good deeds and do good for others and avoiding being bad influenced by the secular culture away from the faith.
It can definately mean that, but the part about them paying taxes more implies physical domination over them, not spiritual. Am I right?
Sounds just like the Republican Party
or an SEIU Union Protest.
Tell that to all the blacks the democrat party lynched during the Jim Crow period.
Then when LBJ embraced civil rights, most of the bigots fled to the Republican party. Guess you forgot about that.
Bob, your grandfather and great grandfather, who lived during the jim crow era, WERE Democrats. Go look it up.
AL QAEDA/TALIBAN AFFILIATED
TERRORIST GROUPS IN INDIA WITH GLOBAL REACH: MULTINATIONALS
RASHTRIYA SWAYAM SEWAK SHANG (R.S.S.)
VISHWA HINDU PARISHAD (World Hindu Council)
HINDU MUNNANI
ARYA SAMAJ
SHIV SENA
BHARATIYA JANATA PARISHAD (BJP)
SANT SAMITI
HINDU MAHASABHA
BAAJRANG DAL
LEADERS: Narendra Modi/ L.K. Advani/ Ashok Singhal/ Bala Saheb Devaras/ Bal Thackeray(EXTERMINATED)/ A.B. Vajpayee/ Savarkar/ Baikunnth Lal Sharma “Prem”/ Balraj Madhok/ The Shankaracharya of Puri, Niranjan Dev Theerth/ Rama Gopalan/ Variyar – Vishwan Hindu Parishad/ Dharmalinga Nadar/ Cho Ramaswamy
Do we have a trial date for Modi? At the ICJ, The Hague.
The story is about problems in Islam not in India. Stick to the story. Writing about other peoples problem does not solve problem in your religion. None of the parties in India is looking for international recognition or kidnapping foreign journalist and beheading them. Pointing out other people's problem does not justify the actions of Muslim terrorism. Religion is man made so does terrorism
Hitlers followers in the US had a rally that was well attended in Madison Gardens in the 1930s. Its just a repeat of history but as it was then, people are not paying attention to this growing terror until it is too late. Its a pity but we don't really learn anything from history, do we.
Raping, chopping heads off and stuffing bodies in wells is the hallmark of hindu culture and form of terrorism that has been in existence for centuries . That is why the entire region is reeling in terrorism for so long. The world needs to address the terrorism emanlating from India
Hindus and their gods wrote the book and the Standard Operating Procedures on terrorism::;:::
Lord Shiva is god of destruction in Hinduism. He is a head chopper in chief of India. He even chopped his son Ganesha's head. He is the fabric of Hindu culture.
This cult hindooism is sooo disgusting
At least five Indian leaders/prime ministers/presidents have been assassinated by hindu fanatics. Several genocides have either been undertaken in India or ongoing as we speak.
Indian immigrants in western countries are engaged in crimes of d espikable nature...doctors rayping patients, defrauding insurance companies, insider trading, and so on. Hinduism is an extremist and violent cult whose manifesto is so medieval and barbaric that it is causing all the terrorism
In the region.
I always knew hindus were terrorists. Just read Gita Bhagavad. It is an SOP on terror.
Terrorism is rampant in the region in part financed by Indians. We need to revisit our relationship with India. American taxpayers will not tolerate this anymore. We need to take care of our own populace going forward. We cannot be exporting jobs to India or giving it financial or technical handouts. It has become too big to govern or create any value for western countries or even for its own population. India needs to be carved up into smaller independent states to be a viable economically and geo politically.
And ye shall know the paki by his unoriginal talking points.
ISLAM STRONG !!
MUSLIM STRONG!!!
THE FUTURE BELONGS TO YOU!
THE FINISH LINE IS YOURS !!
I AM SO PROUD OF BEING A MUSLIM !!
ISLAM IS MY WAY OF LIFE!!
I for one am not an apologist for Islam. Islam has been around for thousands of years. Many books have been written and translated on Islam. It is one of the, if not the largest, religion in the world. It is the fastest growing. It is a way of life. Islam has a rich legacy that is out there for everyone to see.
Muslim-on-Muslim killing in Syria and Iraq is a fine example of that legacy.
Fareed Zakaria is an insult to the Americans and CNN. He is an extremist and a zealot. Plus he is incompetent.
He must go.
There are two balls of fire globally. Israel and India. One larger than the other just like my sweaty balls.
All you have to do is map out terror on a map and you will see these two cults right in the center.
You start four wars and lose them all. Good going.
Islam is a trash religion. Muslims eat my feces. Butch is an idiot. Islam must be destroyed.
Don't know about that but it surely is the least tolerant one.
And how can they say that Allah is the only God when Islam was only founded around 1500 years (Prophet Mohd. lived between 570 to 632 AD). Christianity existed much before that (Jesus lived between 7-2BC to 30-33AD). And Hinduism has been known to have existed for over 500 years!
So clearly other religions existed before Islam and so did other Gods. It is ridiculous to say that those Gods do not exist!
All terrorists will be eradicated from the earth like the Nazi, sooner or later !
While I always appreciate Mr. Zakaria's efforts are impartiality and sober analysis, soft peddling the threat posed by Islam is disingenuous and has proven wrong (for all the reasons listed in his article). All religions are goofy, and as Mr. Zakaria points out Christianity had its brutal period but has since "mellowed". At this juncture Islam, be it the radical end or not, has a problem with self determination, the corner stone of modern western societies. This fundamental flaw makes it incompatible with the modern world and denying this fact merely prolongs confronting reality and dealing with it. To Mr. Zakaria's point, no we cannot just outlaw a religion, but we can drag it into the full light for critical analysis and begin the process of either changing it, isolating it (see where that got us), or destroying it. This is a battle over ideology and will last for generations. Take Care!
If you took away the threat of death for so many things in islam, there probably would be an exodus of 90% of adherents. That would cure islam the ham
If this is the Keith Sealund I know hello my friend and I completely agree with your views here
To all my Muslim commentators here:
The chief of Hezbollah said that he would prefer if all Jews moved to Israel so that he doesn't have to hunt them down around the world and can kill them all in one place.
My question to my Muslim commentators here is this... Are you For It or Against It?
I fart in your general direction.
Your Allah did not give you brain or what?
The story is about problems in Islam not in India. Stick to the story. Writing about other peoples problem does not solve problem in your religion. None of the parties in India is looking for international recognition or kidnapping foreign journalist and beheading them. Pointing out other people's problem does not justify the actions of Muslim terrorism. Religion is man made so does terrorism.
Let me offer some advice to the Muslims who may be disparaged by all the comments on here. Do not apologize. Do not make excuses. Do not feel as if you owe anyone explanations. The world is full of degenerates that place an exceedingly high level of importance on the few thoughts they have. You'll be better served not to play into their hands.
Does anybody know when Fareed's last day will be at CNN. The Afghan guy replacing him is in town.
A 10-year-old tribal girl was raiped by at least 10 members of a hindu kangaroo court in a Birbhum village, India on Monday night as punishment for having an affair with a youth from another community. She is in critical condition after the assault and is clinging to life in spite of the raipists stopping her from reaching a hospital. Welcome to
to the world of hinduism. ISIS will have a blast in India.
Hindus doing what they do best .... Raipe!
Send ISIS to India and see how they get bombed back to stone ages by the Indian Armed Forces
Been saying for years, the deafening silence of the "moderate" Muslim is as good as a confession of their complicit guilt.
Want to know the difference between a moderate and an extremist Muslim? An extremist Muslim wants to chop your head off. A moderate Muslim wants the extremist to chop your head off!
Islam would be better thought of if the Muslim states would band together and stop the ISIS threats to each of their countries. But, ISIS is the base of their religion. It's the militant tea-party of ISLAM.
ISLAM STRONG!!
MUSLIMS VERY STRONG!!
VIVE LE ISLAM !!
THE FUTURE BELONGS TO ISLAM!!
hey butch...
no more virgins available. how about some sheep and a jar of grease.
They must all have been raiped by your hindoo cousins in India. Go est some curry ya smelly s kunk.
While Catholics are busy banging boys on the altar... While the hindoos are raiping underage girls on running buses, while the jews keep on indulging in i ncest.... The muslims are building this world. Islam is the future of this world.