What is it with Islam?
: The former archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, asks some touch questions about Islam, giving a lecture in Rome and calling it, the Telegraph says, “authoritarian, inflexible and under-achieving.”
In a speech that will upset sensitive relations between the faiths, he denounced moderate Muslims for failing unequivocally to condemn the “evil” of suicide bombers.
He attacked the “glaring absence” of democracy in Muslim countries, suggested that they had contributed little of major significance to world culture for centuries and criticised the Islamic faith….
He acknowledged that most Muslims were peaceful people who should not be demonised. But he said that terrorist acts such as the September 11 attacks on America and the Madrid bombings raised difficult questions….
Dr Carey said that moderate Muslims must “resist strongly” the taking over of Islam by radical activists “and to express strongly, on behalf of the many millions of their co-religionists, their abhorrence of violence done in the name of Allah”.
He said: “We look to them to condemn suicide bombers and terrorists who use Islam as a weapon to destabilise and destroy innocent lives. Sadly, apart from a few courageous examples, very few Muslim leaders condemn clearly and unconditionally the evil of suicide bombers who kill innocent people.
“We need to hear outright condemnation of theologies that state that suicide bombers are martyrs and enter a martyr’s reward.” …
: See good comments.
: Also, I’ve just started reading Irshad Manji’s The Trouble With Islam. Haven’t gotten far enough in to review yet but I like this perspective very much: a call for an Islamic Reformation.
