One of my favourite ex-Muslim commentators is Apostate Prophet. His backstory as a man highly educated in the theology and history of Islam makes him very different from some other public ex-Muslims who may not have the same level of theological knowledge.
Apostate Prophet is able to use his considerable knowledge of Islam and Islamic theology to show both Muslim and non-Muslim alike, the ethical and moral problems within Islam and highlight its inconsistencies and errors. He’s recently produced a video that I really want to share with this blog’s readers.
Many non-Muslims, myself included, have often wondered how and why so many Muslims can believe so literally in some of the guff that is found in the Koran and the Hadith? We may ask: Are they born evil to believe that the incitement to evil in the Koran is morally correct, or is it because Muslim populations are generally more stupid than other groups? The answer, one that I tend to agree with, according to Apostate Prophet is that there is a whole lot of brainwashing going on in Islamic countries and within Islamic communities.
Apostate Prophet in this video tells of Muslims who are only given selective parts of the Koran by religious teachers and leaders and rarely actually read or understand the Koran or the Hadith. There fore when they are challenged by either ex-Muslims or non-Muslims or even reformist Muslims on a particular and often nasty verse in Islamic scripture the Muslim questioned will have no answer. It is why when challenged on the actual text of Islamic scripture so many Muslims will go into denial or curse you or tell you that you are going to hell.
Apostate Prophet’s claim that there is mass brainwashing going on in Islamic societies seems to fit very well with what my experience has been of telling Muslims, exactly what is in the Koran and the Hadith. Unlike Jews and Christians Muslims are not encouraged and in some cases forbidden, to read Islamic scripture in their own language. This in my view hampers the sort of widely spread theological knowledge that allows open religious discussions to start up. Once religious knowledge is widespread and debate is allowed then things like reform and textual analysis are likely to follow.
Apostate Prophet reminded us that the book that is read the least in an Islamic household is probably a Koran and that there’s a lot of Muslims who have been brainwashed to believe that Islamic theology is something that it is plainly not. Please watch this video it is excellent.
If only that could be shown in every mosque!
Great video!
Now if only some moderate Muslim group would translate and distribute the Quran in everyday languages, we might begin to see changes. As happened when the Bible was first translated from Latin/Greek/Aramaic – moderation follows education and direct access to knowledge.
@Ed P.
“moderation follows education and direct access to knowledge.”
Not necessarily. We have all heard and read about those who “self radicalise”. Of course the MSM claims that this is the result of them accessing “extremist” literature, hearing “extremist” preachers etc., but this (in the words of the song) “ain’t necessarily so”.
Read any translation of the Koran in your native tongue (if it’s English you have over twenty to choose from – I know, I have that many) and you will see that it inculcates a hatred of non-Muslims and in places directly calls for their slaughter.
Thus what follows (Islamic) education and direct access to knowledge (the Koran etc.) may well be “extremism”, though this is better understood as orthodoxy.
Whilst I agree with you to a certain extent with regards self radicalisation, there are also a lot of Muslims who have been taught the Koran in a very selective manner with quotes taken very much out of context. It is these Muslims who go into denial when confronted with what the Koran and Hadith actually contains. There are also other Muslims who when they realise what is in the Koran either leave Islam in disgust or work to moderate it. However moderation and progressive change through increased religious and secular knowledge (something that has been undertaken by many Jewish communities and movements) can only work when there is freedom to do so. Open debate about religion and possibly the reform and moderation that may come from it is definitely NOT something that Islamic religious leaders wish to see occurring as it would reduce the power of Islamic clerics immensely.