Bombings by the number, Fatwahs by the score.. Islam’s slow race to the bottom.

However transitory, it is always a pleasure to see a glimmering of understanding of the low esteem Islam has in the West. So it was when I discovered a piece by a Kuwaiti journalist and former university lecturer Su'ad Fahd Al-Mo'ajel

Ms Mo’ajel begins her journalistic effort by quoting the Egyptian reformer Sheikh Muhammad 'Abduh:

It is said that, when he came back from a conference in Paris in 1881, Sheikh 'Abduh, stated:

'I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I returned to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam.'

Mo’ajel goes on with:

“This statement reflected the reality back then, but it is a hundred times truer today, when most of the Arab countries are seeing corruption and deterioration in terms of morals, values and conduct. This begs the question of whether there is any connection between the increase in preaching, religious instruction and mass religious guidance that we have witnessed in the past four decades and the flawed morals, values and conduct of the (Muslim) public we are witnessing today.”

"When Muhammad 'Abduh made this statement, our (Muslim) countries were not in the dire situation we see today. He no doubt said what he said after witnessing up-close that the conduct of non-Muslim peoples was guided by lofty values like truth, honesty, order, cleanliness, loyalty, work ethic, etc.  It is not fair to blame religion for moral deterioration. The rebuke in Muhammad 'Abduh's statement was not directed at Islam, a religion that is essentially grounded in morality… but against the Muslims and the conduct of most of them, which violated the religion, its principles and its terms”.

So far so good but then it all goes horribly WRONG because her next point is:

“That is why Arabs in Western countries stand in queues, obey the traffic laws, dispose of their garbage only in the designated places and perform their jobs sincerely and honestly.”

Really?

The first thing that stands out is not only the temerity of the writer in calling out the mullahs for their corruption of a noble faith – Islam, but that had such a piece of journalism been written by a Westerner, that person would have been reviled by fellow Westerners as an ‘Islamophobe’, as well as being banned and cancelled and just as likely likely deprived of their livelihood.

The second thing to note is the outright falsehood of the ‘law-abiding bus queuing Muslim’, referred to above, which is blatantly untrue:

What Ms Al-Mo'ajel avoids mentioning is that Muslims moving to Western countries bring their baggage along, comprising both mosques and mullahs and the bloody results can be seen in the havoc they cause. Here’s the total of killed (58) and wounded (410) of instances of ‘obeying traffic laws’ and ‘orderly queuing’ by Muslims, in the West in 2016. I have chosen 2016, because it includes the slaying of an 80+ years Catholic priest as he said Mass in Northern France and the 49 shot dead in a gay nightclub in the US.

Islam certainly provides equal opportunity