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Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The Muslim Question with Adnan Husain
Share your thoughts about Adnan Husain's lecture. Add your comments by clicking on "comments" below.
I'm the person who asked the question asking how can we be expected to be tolerant towards Muslims when major Muslim countries are so intolerant towards Christian practices, not to mention Jewish practices.
Mr. Husain said that Christian worship was permitted in Saudi Arabia except in Mecca and Medina. With all due respect, this is ridiculous: o In the 1990's Christian religious observances were terminated in the US Embassy at the gov't.'s request. o Out of fear, 400 house churches have stopped meeting. These were attended mainly by expats, primarilty Filipinos. The International Christain Concern: "There is a silent, mutually understood moratorium on all gatherings in the country... Thet are staying underground." o In 1998 two expats were arrested for distributing pamphlets on Christian subjects.
As Mr. Husain said, I can believe that the Saudis permitted US Army bases to have religious observances (I can just imagine the religious police raiding these areas), but to my knowledge these bases are gone.
As to Turkey, I could not quickly verify my statement that Christain churches are not allowed to be built or even repaired. I read this in The Economist within the last couple of months. But there is a plethora of information on the internet as to the state of utter intolerance in that country at all levels.
Having just read "The Arab Conquest", a recently published book, I also dispute the description of a happy pluralistic society in Muslim Spain. For at least the first few centuries of the conquest there were many restrictions on non-Muslims including the requirement to wear distinctive clothing and not being allowed to ride a horse. Also, the head tax was a rather large burden. If Muslim rule was so nice I'm not sure why it was so thoroughly rejected.
I'm sticking by my point: many major Muslim countries, including those at the origin of the Muslim religion, are among the least tolerant on earth. Dr. Husain was a little too glib on these points.
In fairness, the foreign policy of this country has not helped the situation.
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Share your thoughts about Adnan Husain's lecture. Add your comments by clicking on "comments" below.
2 comments:
I am really looking forward to the discussion for the first hot topic of the season.
I'm the person who asked the question asking how can we be expected to be tolerant towards Muslims when major Muslim countries are so intolerant towards Christian practices, not to mention Jewish practices.
Mr. Husain said that Christian worship was permitted in Saudi Arabia except in Mecca and Medina. With all due respect, this is ridiculous:
o In the 1990's Christian religious observances were terminated in the US Embassy at the gov't.'s request.
o Out of fear, 400 house churches have stopped meeting. These were attended mainly by expats, primarilty Filipinos. The International Christain Concern: "There is a silent, mutually understood moratorium on all gatherings in the country... Thet are staying underground."
o In 1998 two expats were arrested for distributing pamphlets on Christian subjects.
As Mr. Husain said, I can believe that the Saudis permitted US Army bases to have religious observances (I can just imagine the religious police raiding these areas), but to my knowledge these bases are gone.
As to Turkey, I could not quickly verify my statement that Christain churches are not allowed to be built or even repaired. I read this in The Economist within the last couple of months. But there is a plethora of information on the internet as to the state of utter intolerance in that country at all levels.
Having just read "The Arab Conquest", a recently published book, I also dispute the description of a happy pluralistic society in Muslim Spain. For at least the first few centuries of the conquest there were many restrictions on non-Muslims including the requirement to wear distinctive clothing and not being allowed to ride a horse. Also, the head tax was a rather large burden. If Muslim rule was so nice I'm not sure why it was so thoroughly rejected.
I'm sticking by my point: many major Muslim countries, including those at the origin of the Muslim religion, are among the least tolerant on earth. Dr. Husain was a little too glib on these points.
In fairness, the foreign policy of this country has not helped the situation.
Will Darken
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