Asalam Alaykum....
came across this piece on saharareporters and i cant help but share...

It is true that truth is a burden. This is why i found something to agree with when i read the article " The Burdens of Islam " as written by Anthony A. Kila. In the said article, the author identified two " burdens of Islam " and at the end of the article you get an idea of what the whole talk was about: 'if you must be a Muslim, then let me be the one to define Islam' and indeed Anthony is not alone in this attempt to gag Muslims and redefine Islam.

When he spoke of the first " burden " of having to be sensitive when you speak of Islam so as to prevent Muslim reaction he did not speak of the burden placed on the Muslims so that when they speak of their religion, they too have to be " sensitive " because there is an army of non-Muslims always ready to assign derogatory titles to whoever from among the Muslims say the Islamic position on things without compromise. A Muslim cannot say he wants sharia without being accused of supporting violence: just in case you are looking for the correlation, that makes two of us. A Muslim cannot say our Government killed innocent Muslims in Maiduguri in 2009 without being called Boko Haram or boko haram sympathizer and a Muslim in our time cannot even ask the Lagos State Government to allow our women wear hijab without being called extremist, fundamentalist, bigot and all these popular mumbo jumbo. Simply put; a Muslim either acts like a Christian or he is called “extremist”

This explains why people accuse us of being " too serious " and they are also intolerant to appreciate the fact that, while they may find nothing wrong joking with their faith, to the average Muslim Islam is serious business. Hence do not expect to find a Gordons among us to " crack your ribs " by making mockery of his Creator and the faith he claims to profess. This concept of tolerance that says since the Christians are making jokes with Jesus Muslims must do the same with Muhammad is in itself massive bigotry. Even more crass is the attitude of a lot of Christians who think since Muslims won't joke with their religion, they will help them do it so that we now have " Holy Mallam ," " Aboki for Jesus " as well as a newspaper reporter who helped the Muslims joke about who Prophet Muhammad would have married during the Miss World saga and at the end of the day the same people nag about " Muslim reaction " . The question is. Why is it so difficult to leave us alone and make fun of your own stuff?

Now to the Second, and perhaps most ridiculous, a burden as suggested by Mr. Anthony. This burden is the burden of " do not generalize ." The gentleman speaks about how people are told not to blame the activities of a few Muslims on the general population of Muslims as there are good Muslims who will not do such. And then he asked a question in that tone of someone who suffers the self impressed impression that he is speaking intelligent.

" how come out of those millions or so Orisa worshippers in the world, that Christians and Muslims scornfully call pagans, we do not have cases of just a few Orisa terrorists? "

To answer the question we should simply inform the fellow that there is no Orisha land similar to Palestine, which has been under occupation and slavery for 66 years. There is no Orisha land similar to that of Afghanistan, which was operating peacefully before they were invaded to uproot their religion and sister of Government. There is no Orisha little girl called Abeer Qassim Aljannabi, who was raped at the age of 14 by a US soldier who afterwards killed her, her, five years-old sister and the rest of her family and said, " I did not consider them to be humans ." There is no Orisha land like Pakistan which Obama sends 2 bombs into every single week killing innocent women and children and there is definitely no Orisha land like Iraq, which was invaded for absolutely no reason leaving over 600,000 dead. Look at everywhere you find what you call Muslim terrorist, and you will always find they have been invaded by one force or the other while being hitherto peaceful, you will always find dead bodies of women and children killed by drones and you will always find that these deaths from these invasions and heavy bombardment is not an issue to the world because of the real burden: the burden of being called " terrorist " and " extremist " whenever you draw the attention of the world to this mess and the burden of being accused of being in support of extreme reactions to these evils whenever you mention the evil themselves.

Omatse " cult " of Niger state would have made the same claim that none of them is a " terrorist " some months ago, but they presently have the blood of 95 police officers on their hands because they tasted something less than a pinch of what it meant to be invaded and persecuted. In our case, we are murdered too and guess what, when those who murder us are discussed it is world-renowned psychologists we see on CNN trying to " understand " why they did what they did but when a single Muslim kills a soldier on the street of London, in a country where such exact kind of crime is recorded 350 times daily, the guests are different; terrorism experts; no post traumatic stress disorder excuse, everyone falls on each other to use the toughest world against the " terrorist " . Even the Muslim leaders do too, and this turns them against these youths who think they kept mute when the Muslims were at the reaching end and at the end of the day, there is an Oritsajafor screaming " call your people to order " , which people? The same people the man is alienated from by your arm-twisting-induced condemnations?

What we need is not to redefine Islam or find some modern interpretations as the author suggested. What is needed is honesty. The honesty that will make us remind ourselves that 37 MILLION people were slaughtered in the First World War, and Muslims were not involved. The second world war put an end to the lives of 2.5% of the then world population; almost 60 million people and Muslims were not responsible for these deaths. If not for want of space I would have gone through the wars of the last 150 years and wish Mr. Anthony goodluck finding just 5, which relates to Islam and Muslims, out of the 101 wars I am aware of. Some of these wars took millions of lives, and the Muslims were not mentioned in the whole narrative. Do we really want to generalize this list? I don't think so.

Today if I go to Maiduguri and with a broad smile on my face and face the JTF and shout " Allahu Akbar " i will be shot dead. If that is not enough generalization already what is?

Eseoghene Al-Faruq Ohwojeheri
Benin City

http://saharareporters.com/article/re-burdens-islam

What a beautiful masterpiece!
This Faruq is wonderful.

teniyi: What a beautiful masterpiece!
This Faruq is wonderful.

that was my conclusion too brother..

My brother let keeps the flame of Islam burning

smoy: My brother let keeps the flame of Islam burning

By Allah's Will

justaqad: Asalam Alaykum....
came across this piece on saharareporters and i cant help but share...

It is true that truth is a burden. This is why i found something to agree with when i read the article " The Burdens of Islam " as written by Anthony A. Kila. In the said article, the author identified two " burdens of Islam " and at the end of the article you get an idea of what the whole talk was about: 'if you must be a Muslim, then let me be the one to define Islam' and indeed Anthony is not alone in this attempt to gag Muslims and redefine Islam.

When he spoke of the first " burden " of having to be sensitive when you speak of Islam so as to prevent Muslim reaction he did not speak of the burden placed on the Muslims so that when they speak of their religion, they too have to be " sensitive " because there is an army of non-Muslims always ready to assign derogatory titles to whoever from among the Muslims say the Islamic position on things without compromise. A Muslim cannot say he wants sharia without being accused of supporting violence: just in case you are looking for the correlation, that makes two of us. A Muslim cannot say our Government killed innocent Muslims in Maiduguri in 2009 without being called Boko Haram or boko haram sympathizer and a Muslim in our time cannot even ask the Lagos State Government to allow our women wear hijab without being called extremist, fundamentalist, bigot and all these popular mumbo jumbo. Simply put; a Muslim either acts like a Christian or he is called “extremist”

This explains why people accuse us of being " too serious " and they are also intolerant to appreciate the fact that, while they may find nothing wrong joking with their faith, to the average Muslim Islam is serious business. Hence do not expect to find a Gordons among us to " crack your ribs " by making mockery of his Creator and the faith he claims to profess. This concept of tolerance that says since the Christians are making jokes with Jesus Muslims must do the same with Muhammad is in itself massive bigotry. Even more crass is the attitude of a lot of Christians who think since Muslims won't joke with their religion, they will help them do it so that we now have " Holy Mallam ," " Aboki for Jesus " as well as a newspaper reporter who helped the Muslims joke about who Prophet Muhammad would have married during the Miss World saga and at the end of the day the same people nag about " Muslim reaction " . The question is. Why is it so difficult to leave us alone and make fun of your own stuff?

Now to the Second, and perhaps most ridiculous, a burden as suggested by Mr. Anthony. This burden is the burden of " do not generalize ." The gentleman speaks about how people are told not to blame the activities of a few Muslims on the general population of Muslims as there are good Muslims who will not do such. And then he asked a question in that tone of someone who suffers the self impressed impression that he is speaking intelligent.

" how come out of those millions or so Orisa worshippers in the world, that Christians and Muslims scornfully call pagans, we do not have cases of just a few Orisa terrorists? "

To answer the question we should simply inform the fellow that there is no Orisha land similar to Palestine, which has been under occupation and slavery for 66 years. There is no Orisha land similar to that of Afghanistan, which was operating peacefully before they were invaded to uproot their religion and sister of Government. There is no Orisha little girl called Abeer Qassim Aljannabi, who was raped at the age of 14 by a US soldier who afterwards killed her, her, five years-old sister and the rest of her family and said, " I did not consider them to be humans ." There is no Orisha land like Pakistan which Obama sends 2 bombs into every single week killing innocent women and children and there is definitely no Orisha land like Iraq, which was invaded for absolutely no reason leaving over 600,000 dead. Look at everywhere you find what you call Muslim terrorist, and you will always find they have been invaded by one force or the other while being hitherto peaceful, you will always find dead bodies of women and children killed by drones and you will always find that these deaths from these invasions and heavy bombardment is not an issue to the world because of the real burden: the burden of being called " terrorist " and " extremist " whenever you draw the attention of the world to this mess and the burden of being accused of being in support of extreme reactions to these evils whenever you mention the evil themselves.

Omatse " cult " of Niger state would have made the same claim that none of them is a " terrorist " some months ago, but they presently have the blood of 95 police officers on their hands because they tasted something less than a pinch of what it meant to be invaded and persecuted. In our case, we are murdered too and guess what, when those who murder us are discussed it is world-renowned psychologists we see on CNN trying to " understand " why they did what they did but when a single Muslim kills a soldier on the street of London, in a country where such exact kind of crime is recorded 350 times daily, the guests are different; terrorism experts; no post traumatic stress disorder excuse, everyone falls on each other to use the toughest world against the " terrorist " . Even the Muslim leaders do too, and this turns them against these youths who think they kept mute when the Muslims were at the reaching end and at the end of the day, there is an Oritsajafor screaming " call your people to order " , which people? The same people the man is alienated from by your arm-twisting-induced condemnations?

What we need is not to redefine Islam or find some modern interpretations as the author suggested. What is needed is honesty. The honesty that will make us remind ourselves that 37 MILLION people were slaughtered in the First World War, and Muslims were not involved. The second world war put an end to the lives of 2.5% of the then world population; almost 60 million people and Muslims were not responsible for these deaths. If not for want of space I would have gone through the wars of the last 150 years and wish Mr. Anthony goodluck finding just 5, which relates to Islam and Muslims, out of the 101 wars I am aware of. Some of these wars took millions of lives, and the Muslims were not mentioned in the whole narrative. Do we really want to generalize this list? I don't think so.

Today if I go to Maiduguri and with a broad smile on my face and face the JTF and shout " Allahu Akbar " i will be shot dead. If that is not enough generalization already what is?

Eseoghene Al-Faruq Ohwojeheri
Benin City

http://saharareporters.com/article/re-burdens-islam

Why is it so difficult to allow people to joke with whatever they choose to without judging them according to your own standards.

The second world war had nothing to do with muslims so they were not mentioned. The players responsible for the crimes during the war paid the price.

What you need to do is live in the present. Boko haram Muslims are butchering, slaughtering, christians and soldiers in maiduguri. Who invaded muslims in maiduguri? stop looking for terrorist past evil acts to justify present evil acts. If you have a solution to a problem then proffer it and stop lamenting.


Yes honesty is required. Hold the people or the person who did a crime accountable. If someone says he is a muslim and kills in the name of Allah then we have no choice but to agree with him. If a group of people say they are muslims and kill in the name of Allah we have no choice but to agree with them.

The question is and remains what is the cause of these acts? why is it reoccurring,why are the people doing it calling themselves muslims? who defines who is a true muslim and who is not?. When you are honest with yourself you will make a headway.

andromida:

Why is it so difficult to allow people to joke with whatever they choose to without judging them according to your own standards.

dont you get it.. respect what is Revered..how would you feel if someone joke about your Mummy's bosom?

andromida:
What you need to do is live in the present.

which i am currently enjoying..

andromida:
Boko haram Muslims are butchering, slaughtering, christians and soldiers in maiduguri. Who invaded muslims in maiduguri? stop looking for terrorist past evil acts to justify present evil acts. If you have a solution to a problem then proffer it and stop lamenting.

No sane person would support Boko's cause.. but what is happening in the middle east has some undertone except you are in oblivious

andromida:
Yes honesty is required. Hold the people or the person who did a crime accountable.

good..

andromida:
If someone says he is a muslim and kills in the name of Allah then we have no choice but to agree with him. If a group of people say they are muslims and kill in the name of Allah we have no choice but to agree with them.

agree with the group and stop generalizing... you said this

andromida:
Yes honesty is required. Hold the people or the person who did a crime accountable.

andromida:
The question is and remains what is the cause of these acts? why is it reoccurring,why are the people doing it calling themselves muslims?

there is always bad fruit in good a basket

andromida: who defines who is a true muslim and who is not?.

THE QURAN

andromida:
When you are honest with yourself you will make a headway.

i am HONEST, ARE YOU?

So will this not be in the Front page? Its is having the right qualification such as the liknks?

teniyi: So will this not be in the Front page? Its is having the right qualification such as the liknks?

cant decipher...
mind elaborating your post?
thanks

justaqad:
dont you get it.. respect what is Revered..how would you feel if someone joke about your Mummy's bosom?

No YOU don't get it. Because you revere someone does not mean everyone does. If someone were to make a joke about my mummy's bosom although offensive i would know the person is rude and avoid further interactions. I don't have to be friends with the person or teach the person a lesson. The person is not my responsibility to be taught or trained.

justaqad:
No sane person would support Boko's cause.. but what is happening in the middle east has some undertone except you are in oblivious

What is happening in Northern Nigeria has major tones. Why are you so focused on the middle east and less on the problem in your backyard.

justaqad:
agree with the group and stop generalizing... you said this

This is exactly the what we are doing. A group of people kill in the name of Allah, call themselves muslims and we agree they are muslims after all not everyone will come to nairaland to ask the true definition of a muslim. A reoccurring act by a particular group of people will define them. And this is what you call generalizing.

Normal peeps are not God to start shining spot light on the state of the heart to detect who is a good muslim and who is a bad muslim. Its not a case of generalizing but a case of a consistent action and speech over a period of time by a group of people. Agreed bad apples among good ones but bad seems to be louder.

andromida:

No YOU don't get it. Because you revere someone does not mean everyone does. If someone were to make a joke about my mummy's bosom although offensive i would know the person is rude and avoid further interactions. I don't have to be friends with the person or teach the person a lesson. The person is not my responsibility to be taught or trained.

ok

andromida:
What is happening in Northern Nigeria has major tones. Why are you so focused on the middle east and less on the problem in your backyard.

believe me i hate what they are all doing to Islam. but boko boys infact they are all crazy..
i am not justifying their barbaric acts, but they are fighting a war.boko boys are not.

andromida:
This is exactly the what we are doing. A group of people kill in the name of Allah, call themselves muslims and we agree they are muslims after all not everyone will come to nairaland to ask the true definition of a muslim. A reoccurring act by a particular group of people will define them. And this is what you call generalizing.

Judge Islam by the Quran.... ask yourself.
is Islam Tolerant?
is Islam progressive?
there are so many good deeds done by Muslims but they are hardly recognized, except the ones done by one crazy lunatic misrepresenting Islam.

andromida:
Normal peeps are not God to start shining spot light on the state of the heart to detect who is a good muslim and who is a bad muslim. Its not a case of generalizing but a case of a consistent action and speech over a period of time by a group of people. Agreed bad apples among good ones but bad seems to be louder.

not just in Islam its everywhere.
i rest my case