The Muslim view of morality: Muslims' understanding of morality can be summarized in one sentence: If you do not fear Allah, there is nothing that can stop you from committing crimes. Therefore, morality is the natural result of the fear of Allah, which keeps people disciplined. Those who do not believe in Allah, and those who do not fear him, can commit any sin when the circumstances are right. Consequently, non Muslims are not moral and would commit crimes if they can get away with it. They only fear the penalty of the man made law which is easy to evade, but who can evade Allah? (Read in Bangla)
Muslims attribute all their family and social values to Islam. Ask any Muslim of any age or gender “why you do not steal” and you are almost guaranteed to get an answer like: because of the teachings of our religion. This conviction is so deeply rooted in the Muslims’ minds that most of them do not comprehend that morality can exist outside Islam. Such views help to condition the Muslims’ minds to despise the others and reject them.
It is important for westerners to understand this way of Islamic thinking, because it explains many of the Muslims’ social behavior. For example, Muslim men who seek sexual pleasure, automatically assume that non Muslim women are easier prey because they lack the Islamic morality deterrence that protects Muslim women. Sadly, very often they prove their point.
With signs of western decadence all around them, it is difficult to prove to Muslims otherwise. A Muslim cleric in Australia once described western women as uncovered meat that invites predators. The cleric was actually speaking the Muslims’ minds in general. The dissolute western family contrasts with the strongly bonded Muslim family where all members support and care for each other. Respect to parents and the elderly and social commitment towards the immediate as well as distant relatives are basic duties accepted and expected by all. In a Muslim family, parents often do not have to worry about retirement and pension because they know they can count on their children, or other close relatives, for full social and financial support.
The fear of Allah is called “takwa”, which means “to avoid confrontation with Allah”. “Takwa” and “fear of Allah” are frequently used expressions in the Quran and in the Arab societies. Whenever the issue of morality comes up in disputes, the Arabs say: Don’t you fear Allah? which is a reminder to the other party that he is on a collision course with Allah.
In general, the concept of morality in Muslims’ minds is mainly about being good to family and abstinence from extra marital sex. Things like theft, lies and cheating, although still acknowledged as moral values, come at the very end of their morality lists.
The Arab Morality before Islam: Islam is mainly a reflection of the seventh century Arabs’ culture. After the Islamic conquests in Arabia and the subsequent subjugation of the entire peninsula, the Arabs continued to live with their pre Islamic traditions and culture, which were largely unaltered by the new religion. Actually, many of those traditions were automatically incorporated in Islam, being an Arabic religion. A significant part of pre Islamic poetry celebrated the Arabs virtues like generosity, honesty, bravery of men, loyalty to family and tribe as well as female chastity. The Arabs cherished those virtues before and after Islam and they still do to this day. In sessions where the Jahiliya (pre-Islamic) poetry is being discussed, the Arabs are happy to speak for hours, with evident pride, about their ancestors’ virtues only to claim that its all because of Mohammed if the discussion moves on to Islam!
By crediting Islam for their morality, Muslims of all breeds offend their ancestors, because they imply that their ancestors had no, or low, morality.
Islam did introduce some changes to Arab morality, but for the worse. A few examples are cited here:
- Adoption was normally considered an issue of high morality but was abolished by Mohammed for a selfish and evil purpose.
- Family and tribal loyalty was redefined because of the Islamic teachings, which ordered Muslims to disown, or kill, their own close relatives if they become critical to Islam. Abu Bakr’s son was still a pagan at the time of the battle of Badr and deliberately stayed away from his Muslim father to avoid killing him. In later years, the son reminded the father with the incident, Abu Bakr’s response was: ‘I would not have hesitated to kill you for the sake of Allah and his prophet!’ Abu Bakr’s response says it all about the morality of the pagans versus the morality of Muslims.
- Sins like cheating and lies were made relative; Muslims can cheat or lie to non Muslims if they think that is helpful to them. Muslims are frequently caught shoplifting in western supermarkets and department stores, because they believe that stealing from the infidels is not a crime, or not a big crime. For the same reason most rape crimes in the west are currently committed by Muslims who believe raping infidel women is not that bad, unless they carry HIV. Muslim men regularly lie to western girls and lure them to accept relationships or marriages to obtain financial gains or visas. Young Arabs are known to do this with the blessings of their religious families.
- Equality is non existent under Islamic law as the non Muslims and slaves are treated as inferior subjects to Muslims.
And the list can go on...
Just like in today’s secular societies, the pre Islamic Arabs denounced theft because they believed theft was morally wrong. For the same reason they denounced lies, cheating and committing adultery. After adopting Islam, the Arabs still refrained from committing any of the above crimes but now for a different reason- the fear of Allah. Some may argue that we don’t have to worry about the reason because at the end of the day the sins were not committed. Far from true, the people who avoid sins because they believe they are wrong are people with high morality who would never commit those sins under any circumstances. On the other hand people who avoid sins because they fear Allah are people with no morality; they only abide by the rules and would commit sins once the rules relaxed. Muslims do not steal as long as the rules of Islam say “do not steal” but when a cleric issues a fatwa that stealing is permitted, for example stealing from the infidels, they would steal. When a cleric issues a fatwa to inflict harm on the infidels, burn their churches or commit other crimes, the Muslim masses would do it all because of the fear of Allah. Like soldiers, they wouldn’t even dare to question the wisdom or morality of their orders. But Muslims do not always need a fatwa. Being Muslims they know the general pattern and usually can make a good guess.
The Islamic Etiquette: You cannot expect high morality in a religion where the prophet orders his followers not to start the greetings if they meet the non Muslims on the road. Even when the Christians start the greetings, Muslims are not supposed to respond in kind. There was a time, before the current Islamic resurgence, when the Muslim and Christian Arabs treated each other in civilized ways. Nowadays, both mosques and madrasas are working hard to teach, or remind, Muslims with the proper Islamic protocols in dealing with the others. Ideally, Muslims should, discretely, avoid handshakes with others; you never know what those hands were doing a few minutes earlier. The Arab Christians try to be polite and nice to Muslims and greet them in the Islamic way “assalmu alaikum”, meaning peace be upon you. The Muslim etiquette is NOT to respond in kind by saying, “waalaikum assalam” meaning: and peace be upon you. Instead they should say “wassalamu ala mani ittaba al huda” meaning peace be upon those, who follow the right path, which is Islam. The Muslim response is evil and insinuates a declaration that there can be no peace with those Christians. The Christians often do not understand what is behind the Muslim response, and just accept it as a greeting. I also noticed that Muslims apply this etiquette to the Internet. They often start their debate with ex-Muslims by that evil greeting – the only difference is: this time they get an equally harsh response.
Another aspect of the Muslim social etiquette is their reaction when they hear of the death of a Christian, who was a neighbor or colleague. Instead of the usual response in such circumstances, which is saying “Allah yerahimahu” meaning ‘may Allah forgive his sins’, Muslims are told to remain silent or express their personal sadness in other words. Behind this response from the Muslims is a belief that Allah will never forgive Christians for what they have done!
Conclusion
In terms of morality, Islam is inferior to other cultures. It does not teach morality, it teaches obedience and forces its followers to abide by the rules of Allah, which do not always agree with morality as we know it. As long as the law of Islam happens to be in harmony with morality, Muslims are well-disciplined, but only like wild animals in a cage; once released they become like unstoppable wild beasts.
Through a loudspeaker from a nearby mosque, an Imam was heard explaining the necessity of Islam: “if there are no afterlife punishments for sins, then we all would be out committing all kinds of sins.”
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