Islam Is A Peaceful Religion
Islam Is A Peaceful Religion: Mehdi Hasan in an Oxford Union Debate following the murder of a British Soldier by an Islamist fanatic in Woolwich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy9tNyp03M0
By Mehdi Hasan: In an Oxford Union
Debate following the murder of British Soldier by an Islamist fanatic in
Woolwich.
Full Transcript.
Thank you very much mister President,
Ladies and gentleman, good evening, Assalmoalikum, lovely to see you all here
tonight. We are having a very entertaining night, are we not? With some very
interesting things being said from the other side of the house tonight. let me
begin by saying as a Muslim, as a representative of Islam, I would consider
myself an ambassador for Islam, as a believer in Islam, a follower of Islam and
its prophets, so in that capacity let me begin by apologizing to armory for the
Bali bombings, apologize for the role of my religion, me and my people for the
killing of fear and go off the seven yes. That was all of us that was Islam,
That was Muslim, that was the Quran, I mean astonishing, astonishing claims to
make in the very first speech on a day light today, whether conservative prime
minister of United Kingdom and the come out and point out that these
kind of these are not from and I believe you're trying to stand for the labor
party M.P. Election in Briton, if you do that and you make these comments, I’m
guessing you have the wit withdrawn from you but then again you keep on the
rise. They'll take heed the BNP they might have something to say about your
views. A lot of factual points as we had a lot of our second speak about that could
be Muslims.
On a factual point you said the Islam
was born in Saudi Arabia. Islam was born in six ten AD, Saudi Arabia was born
in nineteen thirty two AD, only One Thousand Three Hundred Twenty Two Years
off. Not bad, talking of Math’s by the way, a man called
Al-Qawarizmi , one of the greatest of all time mathematician was
Muslim, worked in the golden age Islam. He's the guy who came up with not just
Algebra but Algorithms, without Algorithm we won’t have laptops, without
laptops Daniel Johnson cannot print out a speech in which he came to break us
Muslims holding back the advanced an intellectual achievements of the west,
which will happen without any contribution from anyone else other than the
Judeo-Christian peoples of Europe.
In fact Daniel David Levering the author
of the Pulitzer prize winning historian and author of the Golden Prism of
Winter, that there would be no Renaissance in Europe, there would be no
reaffirmation in Europe without the role played by Ibn e Sina, Ibn e Rushd,
some of the great Muslim theologian, philosopher, scientist in bringing this
knowledge to Europe.
As for this being our university I will
leave that to the imagination as to who is our new is that our study here too.
Astonishing, astonishing set of speeches
so for making this case tonight and mixture of just cherry picked quotes facts
and figures self-serving selective a far goers, distortions misrepresentations,
misinterpretations, miss quotations, ... Daniel talked about my
article in the state from which will be a lot of flak great talked about the
anti-Semitism that is prevalent in some parts of the Muslim community, which
indeed it is. Of course I didn't say in that piece, that was imposed by the
religion of Islam in fact more than anti Semitism in the middle east
was imported from finish the sentence…. Christian Judeo-Christian Europe where
I believe some certainly bad things happen to the Jewish people. In
fact tom Friedman Jewish-American Columnist New York Times told me in the
French chamber in the last week, where he believed Muslims have mostly been
running Europe in the nineteen forties. Six million extra Jews would still be
alive today from the political lessons an anti Semitism from someone who's here
to defend the Judeo-Christian values on the continent of murder six million
Jews.
Moving swiftly on, moving swiftly on yes
exactly that’s what the point, I agree with you one hundred ten percent that is
my point. I don't think Europe is evil or bad, I am a very proud European. I
don't want to judge over this, but if we're goanna play this dealt a game well
we pull out the Bali bombing and we pull out examples of anti Semitism Simon
let's go to come back and say will hold on, I mean look let's be very clear
Daniel here was a last minute replaced with the Douglas Murray who have to pull
out and Douglas and I have a well-documented difference is that the defense
Douglas as to be sent and Marie, Peter atheist. All religions as evil, violent,
threatening.
What the problem I have with Daniel
speech is a Daniel comes here to Robust defense of Christianity forgetting his
fellow Christians people who said they were acting the name of Jesus, gave us
the crusades, the Spanish inquisition, the anti Jewish pogrom, European
colonialism in Africa and Asia, The Lord's resistance army in Uganda, not to
mention countless arson and the bomb attacks on abortion clinics in the United
States of America to this very day. I would like a little bit of humility from
Daniel first before you begin lecturing other communities of how the faith on
violence terror and intolerance.
But I would say yes to address the
gentleman's very valid point here I’m not gonna play that game. I don't
actually believe that Christianity is a religion of violence and hate because
of what the NRA doesn't Uganda all what MBA what crusaders did to Jews and
Muslims in Jerusalem in the tip of the city in the form from Thirteenth one of
the century was. I believe the Christianity like Islam like pretty much every
mainstream religion is based on love and compassion and faith. I do follow a
religion in which hundreds thirteen out of a hundred and fourteen chapters of
the Quran begins by introduced in the god of Islam as a god of mercy and
compassion. I would not have the any other way. I don't follow a religion which
introduces my God to me as a god of war, a some kind of Greek god of wrath, as
a god of hate, and injustice, not at all.
As Adam pointed out that you go through
the Quran, you see the mercy, love and the justice and yes you have the verses
of, to refer warfare and violence of course it does. This is non motion about
passivism; I’m not here to argue that Islam is a pacifistic faith. It is not.
Islam allows military action, violence in certain limited context and yes the
minority of Muslims do take it out of that context, but is it religious?
We talked about which Daniel in Ann
Maria suggested that is definitely religion that's behind all of this well
actually. What I find so amusing tonight in the debate on Islam and the
opposition tonight have come forward we have a graduate and Law graduate, in
modern history graduate, in chemistry. Do you know and my role of the intellect
in their abilities but we don't have anyone is actually an expert on Islam, a
scholar of Islamic historian of Islam, a speaker of the Arabic even a terrorism
expert, security expert or a pollster let alone to talk about what Muslims
believe all think instead we have people coming here putting forward these
sweeping opinions listen to professor Robert pape, professor at the university
of Chicago one of America’s leading terrorism experts go on like our esteemed
opposition tonight study every single case of suicide terrorism between
nineteen eighty in two thousand five. Three hundred and fifteen
cases in total and he concluded and I quote,
“there is little connection between
suicide terrorism in Islamic fundamentalism or any of the world's religions,
rather nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific
secular and strategic goal to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces
from territory but the terrorist consider to be their homeland,” and
the irony is when we talk about terrorism, the irony is that the opposition and
the Muslim terrorist al-Qaeda types actually have one thing in common because
they both believe that Islam is a war-like violent religion, but I
will not they have everything in common. Osma Bin Laden will be …….. along He
agrees with them. The Problems is that mainstream Muslims don’t, the majority
of the Muslims around the world don’t, and in fact the gentleman quoted the
poll Gallup carried out the biggest poll of Muslims around the world. Fifty
thousand Muslims in thirty five countries ninety three percent of Muslims
rejected nine eleven in suicide attacks and the seven percent who didn’t that
they all went polled and focus groups sited political reasons for their support
for violence not religious reasons. And as for Islamic scholars mostly say,
well Daniel talks about our university of oxford will go down to Oxford centre
for Islamic Studies.
Get hold of a man Sheikh Afify Al-Akiti
who is massively well credentials and most respected Islamic scholar who
studied across the world, who in the days after seven seven published the fatwa
denouncing terrorism in the name of Islam, calling for the protection of all
non-combatants at all times and describing suicide bombings as an innovation
with no basis in Islamic law. Go and listen to Sheikh Tahirul Qadri, one of
Pakistan’s most famous Islamic scholars who published a six hundred page fatwa
condemning the killing of all innocent and all suicide bombing unconditionally
without any ifs and buts. There's nothing new here this is mainstream Islam,
mainstream scholarship, which is said this for years and you don't go on kill
people willingly in the high street or anywhere else on a bus or a mall based
on verses of the Quran, you cherry pick without any context, any understanding
any interpretation or any commentary.
I didn't say it doesn't happen at all
... I don't …….I don't blame this on Islam, that’s a very good point and a lot
of us a lot of us campaign against it, campaigning against in the name of
Islam, campaigning against various interpretation of Islam. Armory came with
the scales of the talk of Sharia law. I would like to see the book of Sharia law.
It doesn't exist; people argue what Shria law is? And you empower the
extremists by saying that there is only one version.
Here we are dealing with a fourteen
hundred year old global religion followed by one point six billion people in
every corner of the world a quarter of humanity of all backgrounds cultures
ethnicities and yet the opposition wants to generalized, stereotype, smear in
order to desperately win this debate and here's my question for the generalized
and smear, if ok people say yesterday's bomber that we've to be careful, the
trial going on well yesterday attacker a sorry motivated by Islam, big debate,
I do not believe that, let say they were, let's say Faisal
Shahzad the times square bomber was motivated by Islam, let’s assume
for the sake of arguments... that Richard Reeves the shoe bomber. Is Islam is
responsible for this. Is Islam is motivating these people, and therefore Islam
is not a religion of peace but of a war, and then ask yourself this question,
what rest of us is doing? Why it is such a tiny minority of Muslims are
interpreting their religion in the way that the opposition claim they are.
Let's assume they're sixteen thousand of
suicide bombers in the world, they are not? Let's assume there are for the sake
of argument that zero-point zero one percent of the Muslims population
globally, what about the other ninety-nine-point nine percent of Muslims who
the opposition tonight ignore or smear.
The reality is that rest of us are
blowing ourselves up tonight, the reality is that the opposition came into not
worried about the fact that mean, pull out the jacket and blow up us, because
who have followed the warlike Moria religion which wants to take over Europe
and Daniel’s university, the issue is this, unless the opposition can tells us
tonight and Peter is here, one of our great atheist intellectuals can tell us
tonight that why don't the vast majority of Muslims around the world behave as
violent in aggressively in a tiny minority for politically motivated extremist
than they might, as well get up and stop pretending that anything relevant to
Islam and Muslim as a whole.
Ladies and gentleman, let me just say
this to you, think about what the opposite of the motion is, if you vote
tonight opposition’s motion, Islamism is the religion of peace, is religion of
war, of violence, of terror, of aggression but the people who follow
Islam me, my wife, my retired parents, my six-year-old child but one point
eight million of your fellow British residents and citizens of one point two
billion people across the world, your fellow human beings, are all followers,
promoters, believers in the religion of violence? Do you really think that? Do
you really believe that to be the case, they say that in the Oxford union the
most famous debate was in nineteen thirty three when Adolf Hitler lookout for
the results of the King country motion, where they voted against fighting for
the King country and Hitler was listening out for the result, well tonight's
eighty years on, there are two groups of people around the world, who I would
argue waiting for the result of tonight's vote, there the millions of peaceful
non-violent law-abiding Muslims UK, Europe, Asia, Africa and beyond who see
Islam as the source of their identity as a source of spiritual fulfilment of
hope, solace and there are the fobs, the hates, the bigots out there, who wants
to push the clash of civilizations, who want to divide all of us
into them and us and ours and theirs.
Ladies and gentleman I urge you all not
to fuel the arguments of the fobs and bigots, don’t legitimate their divisions
that legitimized their hates, trust those Muslims who you know, who you've met,
who you here, who don't believe in violence, who do want to hear the peaceful
message of Quran, as I believe it to be taught to the majority of Muslims,
Islam of peace and compassion and mercy, Islam of Quran, not of al-Qaeda.
Ladies and gentleman I beg to propose a
motion to the house. I urge you to vote tonight. Thank you very much for your
time.
Irshad Manji vs Mehdi Hasan: Head to Head Debate on Al Jazeera
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