الحق أبو كتاباتعاشر سادسمن

2014

بماهر : ! أنتلست ماهر بل

Bill Maher : You Are Not “ Mahir” !Edited By: Riadh Alayyoobi

I watched Bill Maher, Sam Harris and Ben Affleck discussing Islam on HBO talk show and wished that I was there supporting Ben’s disapproval of targeting Islam as a whole and blaming all the radical acts of ISIS and Al Qaeda on Islam as a theology rather than on radical streams like any other ideology where there is always right, left and main in-between stream . Maher’s accusation that Muslims approve of a death penalty for those Muslims who choose to defect off Islam was met by Ben Affleck’s reply that not all Muslims think so. In fact, Islam is supposed to dispense with this issue since there is a counter understanding brought in Holy Quran itself that those who opt to believe ( in Islam) and those who opt not to are both free to do so. A monotheism that had always been spreading in giant leaps( like is the case with Islam) is supposed to rely on quality not quantity. The idea of a percentage( whatever) of defectors is as harmless as falling fruits in windy days , In fact it is a healthy phenomena whereby Islam gets rid of malignant followers who do not contribute to any fruitful homage, not to mention the idea of Free Will that mandates allowing followers to choose their beliefs as they will . Still, I doubt it very much that Bill Maher and all outsiders who know quite a little of Islam ( camels, swords, tribal revenge and polygamy, that’s all !!) has any idea of how Islamic scholars ended a long tiring debate up rejecting Free Will since that Abbasid caliphate ( of Al Mutawakkil who erased the Mu’tazilites ) marked the domination of dogma over reasoning for the next centuries up to date. This is not Islam as it had been relayed to those first generations fourteen centuries ago, no wonder why declination accompanied that domination of dogma. It is only a derivative of that Islam infant image .Coming back to Maher’s comment, it is true that the majority of Muslims approve of a death penalty for defection but this is understood to be a Divine’s judgment , same as other punishments for robbery, fornication and else, the kind of things that are alienated by westerners and all liberals around the world. I recall an American fellow of Iraqi roots denouncing all those penalties but when I made fun in a sarcastic way of Hindus and their rituals of non-hygiene bathing in Gang river and leaving their dead bodies to rot in the river waters, he felt pissed and said that it is up to Hindus how they

view their relation with the Deity ! Like almost all other Muslims, I myself used to believe in defection penalty as an indisputable judgment, so we were taught as a one religious package that is not prone to fragmentation and picking. It was understood to be another form of an NRV( Non Return Valve) thing where you do not wish to lose anything ! Eventually, I grew up to understand that Islam does not need to force faith by any means and it is not hydraulics nor it is a plumbers issue ! I believe that the penalty was meant for those defectors who join those pagans in a context of war, a matter of life or death .The thing that Bill Maher missed to understand is that Yazeedies are also in it , not just Muslims. Each Islamic faction applies a death penalty for defection. Shiites assassin any Shiite fellow who shifts to Sunnie belief akthough both identities are considered Islamic , but Yezidies stone defectors till death . During the past few decades I had never known of any Muslim defector who had been executed . In stead, the only incident of applying a death penalty on a defector was by Yazeedies who stoned a girl to death in 2007 in a town that was wholly under Kurdish security control (http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AF%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%A1_%D8%AE%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%84_%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%AF ) . It was distributed on Youtube by then before the links were disabled (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcUMaQkkwI0 ) , and it caused a wide vengeance act that touched many Yezidie followers later to that . Actually the abhor felt by ISIL towards Yezidies is partly due to this brutal act . I think Bill Maher was acting as a comedian here when he tried questioning a faith adopted by billions and is the fastest spreading faith in the whole world, even in Russia, rather than a reasonable broadcasting guy who should follow priorities and view all human beings who are subjected to ruthless power plays . Here, he picked Islam & ISIL since it is a hot issue these days, avoiding Israel and Gaza massacres, the thing that is a top priority in stead . I am just wondering : does Bill Maher approve of subjecting Yezidies too to the same opinion of his regarding Islam and the “evil nature” of it ? Something that would rob the late US intervention in Sinjar mountain for the benefit of Yezidies against ISIL of any credibility ? A Bill, Yes for sure, who can say No, but a Bill Maher ( “articulated” in Arabic), I doubt it much ! http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/06/ben-affleck-bill-maher-sam-harris-islam-racist