Islam
needs to be challenged
As far as the problem of, what you call, Islamophobia is concerned I won't repeat myself because I have briefly discussed it in my previous post. What I want to mention here is something different. I do not know if you are aware that there are many Muslims - ex-Muslims in fact - who have been exposing Islam for what it is. Have you ever heard of people like Ali Sina, Ibn Warraq, Anwar Sheikh, Abul Kassem, Mrs Homa Darabi, Mrs Taslima Nasreen? Mrs Pamela Bone may not know a lot about Islamic societies because she is a Western woman and she is writing from, according to you, a Western perspective. But these people come from Muslim societies and some of them even come from very religious fanaticized families and they probably know better than any of us. Have you read any of their books?
The above mentioned ex-Muslim authors write from their own personal perspective. They have their own Islamic "experience" behind them. They know what it means to live in Muslim societies, how oppressive and intellectually stifling these societies are, how they fail to respect the most basic human rights. Mrs Taslima Nasreen has been sentenced to death. Bangladesh is not - not yet - an Islamic republic but it still sentences writers to death. Mrs Taslima Nasreen has been sentenced to death because she criticized the opression of women in Islam and the persecution of Hindus by Muslims. You don't need to commit murder in Bangladesh to be sentenced to death. In fact, there is more leniency in Bangladesh for a man who throws acid in his sister's, wife's or daughter's face in order to "save his honour" than there is for people who criticize - and rightly so - the barbaric customs and traditions of Islamic religion. Mrs Taslima Nasreen is lucky that there are freedom loving countries in this world and so she has found refuge in Europe. But even in the West she is not safe any more because many Muslims in the West, Mr Manne, do not think the way we do but they cling to their typical Medieval bigoted way of thinking which compels them to persecute people who dare to think independently. At least in the West Muslims could try to learn and practise some tolerance but this is not the case - thanks to our unlimited multiculturalism which has allowed, among other things, the creation of Koranic schools where Medieval mentality of many Muslims is being systematically encouraged and strengthened by the mullahs imported almost always from outside.
Islam will never change if it won't be challenged. One of the reasons why Christianity underwent so many changes is because there were people there who started to challenge it, to challenge its teachings, challenge its traditions.
regards,
Magdalena