Irshad Manji writes in Do Riots Save Islam’s Honor?
Newsweek has retracted its report about the defiling of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. But it’s too late. Muslims everywhere are questioning America’s respect for all religions. Yet even if the Koran was mistreated, are violent riots justified?
Let me pose another question. Are Mohammedans so insecure about their god and their religion that they feel it must be defended to the death with hysteria, self-flagellation, homicides and suicides? I argue that if Mohammedans had faith in their god, they would rest assured that their god would solve their problems, in peace, in the same way that Hashem has promised and protected the Jewish people for the past 5,000 years. Because the truth of the matter is, that Hashem has protected us. I ask you: where are the Babylonians? The Phoenecians? The Mayans, another human-sacrificing culture? The Assyrians? The Romans? The Mesopotamians? They’re all gone. Vanquished and disintegrated. Yet, the Jews have survived for thousands of years. We must be doing something right, like believing in something real and authentic, not conjured and re-invented.Just one more reason why the Mohammeden’s god and my God could not possibly be the same.