An Alternative View on the Koran

[Everett]

I have read various articles and texts on Islam (many of them trying to portray the religion in a very positive light, some bashing the religion) and also studied a portion of the koran while performing religious studies. To be honest, I'm still not convinced that Islam is fundamentally equal with the sexes. A lot of people that go through great trouble to sympathize with Islam never seem to have an answer when I ask them about gender inequalities, and for the most part the only answers that I have ever received are 'What do you mean, inequality?! What are you talking about?' and 'Well, Christianity and Judaism are far worse, aren't they?'. I couldn't care less if Islam is, as someone insisted to me, a 'women-friendly religion', because if they don't prove thus, I have no reason to believe it. Of course Muslims will praise their own religion, much like any other religious person will praise his or her own religion. Neither am I convinced that Mohammed is really a great role-model. Compared with Jesus Christ, for example, he is greatly the inferior; Christ didn't teach violence, didn't make a number of contradictory comments about men being superior to women and then insisting that women were equal to men, didn't molest children, didn't take multiple wives for whatever reason, et cetera.

The main reason why I am a little suspicious of Islam is because of the sheer number of contradictory beliefs that seem to plague its large userbase. It is very confusing. I have no idea what to believe. And before anyone says that I am only exaggerating its flaws, note that like a car salesman, many people can make something that is inherently undesirable (not to say that Islam itself is undesirable; I am merely referring to its negative traits) appear otherwise. Some Muslims claim that their religion is peaceful and very eglatarian (sp?), others are proud to boast of their religion being sexist and obsessed with jihad. Some are peaceful, others are not. Some do not value the hijab and restrictive dress codes, others are quite arrogant about their attire somehow being superior to what other non-Muslims wear. Some seem to be very accepting of non-Muslims, others seem to have extremely annoying oppression complexes. They come in all varieties. In the States, some are nice, others are as obnoxious and snobby as what wealthy conservative Christians are stereotyped as.

Personally, I have encountered far more of the latter than the former. That isn't to say that there are no kind-hearted Muslims out there. That isn't to say that Muslims are somehow not like the rest of us. I fail to understand the resultant shock when people discover that there are plenty of Muslim strip-dancers and harlots, for example. I suppose that the underlying belief is that all, or perhaps almost all, Muslim women are good-mannered, timid, bundled in traditional clothing, and happy to be locked up inside their houses, isolated from males. No religion's userbase is free from variety.

I disagree with the religion in general, though if people are willing to practice it peacefully and without causing harm to others, there is no reason why I should complain about it. If they truly are bent on oppressing each other and their women, let it be so; as long as they do not oppress other non-Muslims. If they honestly felt that the 'oppression' taught by their religion (whether it actually exists or not) was really worth eradicating from their religion and/or culture, leave them the opportunity to correct their problems. It only angers Muslims in the Middle East that Westerners look down on their beliefs, and unless Westernized Muslims make a loud outcry against negative traditional beliefs, the problems won't go away of their own accord. Either way, I don't see much point in criticizing the religion and its followers to shreds or praising them both to excess.

People who ardently defend the religion when the voices of those who seriously have issues are louder than the voices of those who are fairly normal, law-abiding citizens amuse me greatly. If anything, those kinds of people annoy me far more than Muslims themselves. People who are perfectly fine with bashing Judaism, Christianity, and Catholicism over the head while passionately defending the slightest bit of discrimination against Muslims are, simply put, obnoxious and trollbrained. I have heard less BS (to my face) from Muslims about how terrible and oppressive Christianity is than from presumably atheist sympathizers of Islam who apparently have nothing better to do than troll religions they disagree with and attempt to uplift the 'oppressed' in this country.