As a Muslim born and raised within the world of Islam, I experienced the debilitating effects of the closed society on people, and how their aspirations for freedom are daily crushed by a culture suspicious of and punishing any new thinking as subversion of religious-based customs.
Most Canadians and Westerners are unaware of instructions drilled into the impressionable minds of Muslim boys at a very early age in schools by mullahs or religious teachers. They are taught that idolatry or associating a partner with Allah (shirk), unbelief (kufr), and apostasy (ridda) are crimes against God deserving of death, and that it is obligatory on Muslims to execute this punishment. They are taught any rule of law apart from Shariah is sinful and illegitimate, and that it is obligatory on Muslims to establish Shariah rule wherever they can and persist in the effort until the whole world eventually submits.
The result of such teaching, and the culture that perpetrates it, is the ideology of jihad that glorifies terrorism as the cult of martyrdom.
As a Canadian, I know the values of freedom and democracy are indispensable for the world of Islam if it eventually makes the transition from closed to open society. These values, especially freedom of speech, have to be vigorously defended and taught to immigrants from Muslim countries to embrace as citizens of a liberal democracy.
Salim Mansur« less
-----Comment from CBC
Most Canadians and Westerners are unaware of instructions drilled into the impressionable minds of Muslim boys at a very early age in schools by mullahs or religious teachers. They are taught that idolatry or associating a partner with Allah (shirk), unbelief (kufr), and apostasy (ridda) are crimes against God deserving of death, and that it is obligatory on Muslims to execute this punishment. They are taught any rule of law apart from Shariah is sinful and illegitimate, and that it is obligatory on Muslims to establish Shariah rule wherever they can and persist in the effort until the whole world eventually submits.
The result of such teaching, and the culture that perpetrates it, is the ideology of jihad that glorifies terrorism as the cult of martyrdom.
As a Canadian, I know the values of freedom and democracy are indispensable for the world of Islam if it eventually makes the transition from closed to open society. These values, especially freedom of speech, have to be vigorously defended and taught to immigrants from Muslim countries to embrace as citizens of a liberal democracy.
Salim Mansur« less
-----Comment from CBC
