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Politicised religion – of whatever
denomination – will leave no place for
freethinking, reason, or the conscious
will of humans. This is a stark truth,
but one that needs to be stated. Instead
of the conscious ability of human beings
to shape their world, we are
subordinated to an imaginary “God”. In
the particular case of Islam, we are
meant to live our lives according to a
long dead “prophet” who has become a
symbol of the oppression of women and a
rigid patriarchy
A Danish newspaper -
Jyllends Posten -
has recently published a story about 12
different portraits of the prophet
Mohammed. This has provoked a backlash
from political Islam, both in the form
of groups and states. The common
denominator - whatever the relative size
or political weight of these protesters
- is that all preach that people cannot
use that most intrinsic of human
capabilities – our imagination – to
depict the prophet. Islamists assert
that Mohammed never sat for a portrait,
so – by definition – his pictorial
representation is an act against Islam,
a blasphemy.
The political
Islamists in Denmark have not been alone
in this: ambassadors of countries
including Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia, Morocco and Pakistan have
objected. They have fired off letters of
complaint to the Danish prime minister
and demanded he condemn this newspaper
and clamp down on it.
This is not
surprising. For those of us who have
bitter first hand experience of Islamist
groups and Islamic states in the Middle
East, it is a depressingly familiar
story. This is a template for how they
maintain their ferocious, anti-
egalitarian rule over the people of that
part of the world.
By making Islam the
“exceptional religion” – with the clear
implication no one has the right to even
mildly criticise it, let alone paint a
portrait of its prophet – effectively a
gag is placed on any radical, dissenting
voice. The people who want to raise
their voices against the suffocating
blanket of religiosity in their
societies are silenced.
The brutal truth is
that for the last two decades Islam – in
the contemporary Middle East – has
justified people killing, stoning,
imprisoning veiling and forcing women
into Borqa’s. Women are imprisoned in
the name of political Islam – a crime
against all of humanity.
Not only women have
suffered. Progressives and secularists
of all kinds have been persecuted simply
because they have challenged political
Islam’s intrusion on the private realm
of human beings, their right to decide
their faiths and how these might impinge
on their lives.
Islamalicists in
power rule according to the precepts of
sharia law. This institutionalises the
oppression of women and the suppression
of any kinds of democratic rights. Yet,
in Europe, where this reactionary
political trend has no opportunity to
come to power, so-called ‘freedom of
choice’ is cited to impose the veil on
young girls and ‘freedom of expression’
to open Mosques, religious schools to
bring up a brain washed generation of
young people, and to silence those of us
who want to tell the truth about them to
society.
Many of us secular
women live with death threats issued by
Islamists for the simple fact that we
are liberated, secular and use our brain
to think, decide and live the way we
want. We do not accept their rule, but
actually question and challenge their
power over us. They attempt to impose
their thinking on us even in a European
context; if someone dares to say
something critical about Islam they are
labelled an “islamaphobe” or even a
“racist”. This is a tactic to silence
criticism, not engage in a dialogue.
But now women like us
in Iraq have formed a women’s
organisation that is outspoken against
political Islam, despite the daily
threats from their terror gangs. Our
Organisation of Women’s Freedom of Iraq
(OWFI) has been exposing the Islamists
and their crimes against women in our
society. This shows the potential for
secularism and free-thinking among our
people. Activists of OWFI inside Iraq
and abroad are pioneering a movement
against political Islam and have been
exposing it on an international level
and telling the whole world about the
notorious nature of this dangerous
contemporary trend which is political
Islam.
The fact that women
in our society are standing up to
oppression, in the face of political
forces that force us to wear the veil at
a gun point, is an inspiration to
friends of freedom, equality and
secularism the world over.
In Europe, the
Islamists use every possible opportunity
to advance their agenda and to
de-sensitise people to its reactionary
inhumane content.
They refuse to accept
the fact that in Europe people have won
the right to criticize all religions and
political ideologies. So far Islam has
escaped this. They have used the western
states’ espousal of “multiculturalism”
to inflict violence against women and
girls and practise the most barbaric
“traditions” within these so-called
“Muslim communities”. This, we are told,
is part of the ‘traditions’ of people
from that part of the world. This must
stop! Islam, like any other religion,
must be a private matter and separate
from politics.
I see no reason why
ambassadors of all these countries and
Islamic exiles make such a fuss about
these portraits in Jyllends Posten.
Of course, I don’t have to agree
with or approve of how artists have
portrayed Mohammed – that is not the
point. I believe strongly that artists
should be free to create art without
threats hanging over them.
Freedom of speech and
expression should be protected.
Criticism of all religions and Islam
must be viewed as a normal right of all
people. The progress of any human
society can be measured by how free it
is from religion. Questioning,
criticizing and finally separating
religions from politics is the only
guarantee for a healthy, secular and
egalitarian society.
Date: 1st November 2005 |