Tariq Nelson

The Brothers at Austrolabe have a couple of excellent articles…

The first one is on the topic of “Islam and Democracy”. Baybers writes:

Most Maggi five minute fundamentalists reject out of hand any idea that a legitimate Islamic government can have the features of a democratic polity. They automatically equate an Islamic state with their own authoritarian and proto-fascist tendencies. Thus the more “Islamic” a state is, the more it is controlled by a small “purified” cabal of elite figures who do so via a mix of disproportionate police action, government control of markets and of trade, banning everything and turning out the street lights after Isha (evening prayer), because everyone should be in bed anyway.

The profound irony is, of course, these same people are generally the first and loudest refugees fleeing from such a society to set up camp in a much more congenial open democratic one. Often this same civic society pays for their food, accommodation, telephone and medical expenses whilst they perform the worthwhile and utterly commendable public service of advocating the violent overthrow of the same said society, so that they can turn it into the authoritarian hell hole from which they escaped.

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Those “Islamic fundamentalists” who implicitly favor authoritarian government controlled by a small elite, should realize that their concepts are rooted in radicalization of Islam by Marxism. And as a consequence, that their own politics are those of Marxists with cosmetic Islamic embroidery

They also had some interesting thoughts about what Muslims can learn about from how the Catholic Organization Opus Dei responded to being villified in the movie:

Given the rather negative portrayal of the group, one might have imagined Opus Dei to have responded to the film with a barrage of law suits and chants of ‘vilification’, ‘hate speech’ and a few angry protests at the front of cinemas. However, the reaction has been rather different and provides an interesting lesson to Muslims who often face the problem of equally bad press. It seems that Opus Dei saw the film, and the associated hysteria, as an opportunity to explain to people what they see as the truth about their organisation.

[...]

Perhaps Muslims can learn something from the Opus Dei response. Both the Catholic Church and Opus Dei were faced with what they see as both an heretical assault on their faith and a gross misrepresentation of the organisation. They didn’t burn down some embassies, set fire to some effigies of Tom Hanks or reach for some boilerplate about the ‘evil media’. They saw an opportunity to use the rush of interest to their advantage and they seem to have, at least in part, benefited from the exposure. They invited people to their organisation, offered speakers to anyone who might want to listen to their side of the story, and actively engaged the media to get their message across.

When faced with a similar crises, there is no reason why we can’t do the same

Couldn’t agree more…

Put Austrolabe is your favorites folder. It’s on my blogroll

Link: Islam and Democracy: Contention 1

Link: What Muslims Can Learn from The Da Vinci Code