'Islam is a Garbage Religion' —@lexiconical (Day 22)

in #poetry7 years ago (edited)

We live in unexemplary times, maddened by fear, murderous ignorance and mistrust of one another. I look at the lengthening shadow of violence and intolerance spreading across the Middle East, Europe, and, now, the Divided States of America and wonder why the moral crises we're all experiencing do not awaken us to the world’s collective suffering and our interconnectedness—instead of continuing to point the finger outside, and blame others for all our ills...

For those, such as Lexiconical on Steemit, who insist on vilifying Others I invite you to read my entirely unthreatening experience: Coming to America: My Story As A Lucky Immigrant, Poet And Muslim

Furthermore, to be painfully clear, hate speech is not without its cost. It is a proven fact that hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise--from bullying in the classroom, to racial slurs, as well as more serious offenses, such as mosque burnings and bodily-harm. Which is to say violence begins in the mind, finds its way to our lips, and soon enough, translates into action against (oftentimes, dehumanized) others.

I did not think that I, a recovering existentialist, would find myself one day slipping through the back door of a much-maligned, widely misunderstood religion: Islam. Yet, led by an abiding longing, I crawled like a refugee to Sufism (its mystical branch) for succor and inspiration. To paraphrase Rumi, I let myself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what I love, and it did not lead me astray.

I did not imagine that in doing so, I would have thrust upon me the role of apologist for an entire faith and unwitting activist for 1/4th of the world! But, as an immigrant, Muslim and writer living in Trump’s alarming America, as well as a citizen of our increasingly polarized world, I find that I must begin by stating the obvious (every chance I get): Terrorism has no religion and most victims of terrorism are moderate Muslims, around 1 billion bewildered souls.

I hope, in my capacity as artist and person, to serve as a type of witness, and make of my art a sort of peace offering, addressing our shared humanity. It is my wish, in some small way, to try and alleviate the mounting fear and loathing, directed at those of different backgrounds/faith traditions. One way of doing so is to attempt and communicate through my meditations (such as these) the great peace and beauty I have, personally, found in Sufism, and Islam.

“Ah, to be one of them! One of the poets whose song helps close the wound rather than open it!” — Juan Ramón Jiménez

Which is not to say that, as a Muslim community, I believe we are entirely off the hook either. I agree that we are in need of some serious housekeeping, to declare to ourselves and the world in no uncertain terms, Not In Our Name. To distance ourselves further from the blasphemous-murders-who-would-sabotage-faith, we need to embody the peace, love, forgiveness and sacrifice we find in the spirituality that sustains us, and extend it to those who do not know any better.

For those who wish to deepen their understanding of the faith and its mystical dimension, here is a link to a fine book that I might be reviewing shortly, by a respected scholar of Islam: Radical Love Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition

With so much institutionalized Islamophobia, it can seem overwhelming, at times, to think straight and keep our hearts open... Strange, how one hate enables another—how they are like unconscious allies, darkly united in blocking out the Light. Below, is a small poem of mine that, in the formulation of Emily Dickinson, seeks to: Tell the truth slant.
Dove.png

Visceral

I
The watering holes are contaminated
animals stagger, wounded and wounding
strangling fierce and bewildered keening—
there is word of a stranger in the village

Spreading like lengthening shadows
spilling into once safe, sunlit spaces
splotchy-blotchy, blemishing news
as expected as a natural disaster

All is wet with fear of the unknown
sky and earth quake and thunder
before the hard truth of a reality:
Hate has found its way to Steemit.

II
Is there enough poetry to address this?
How to reason with a mind made, a heart sealed?
I could begin by quoting Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

The ink from a scholar is worth more than the blood of a martyr.

The most excellent Jihad is that for the conquest of self.

Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.


Poem © Yahia Lababidi



(Images: Pixabay 1, 2)

sharp.png

The 100 Day Poetry Challenge. If you're looking to develop your skills (as a writer or Steemian) and discover a sense of community, please, consider joining Steemit School on Discord This is my entry for Day 22 of @d-pend's

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The Saudi govt. are the ones funding the extremist brand of Islam (Wahhabism) across the middle east.

Many Westerners don't differentiate between Wahhabism and other brands of Islam - they just lump them all together, which is a big mistake.

Thank you, brother, for making the distinction. Where others see "religion" I see "politics". And, because we are all connected, oppression and violence abroad, result in oppression and violence, at home.

I deeply admire your steadfast insistence on speaking from the heart, even in the face of heartlessness, Yahia.

In every culture, there are those of us who love life, and want it to be good. Not only for ourselves, and for our loved ones, but for all people. I'd like to think that most of us fall into this category.

Also, in every culture, there are those of us whose hearts, for whatever reason, are closed to others, to the world around us, to ourselves. Of course this has nothing to do with race, ethnicity, religion, or any of the other categories we human beings have tended, foolishly, to place so much emphasis on. But when a person's heart is closed, they often seem to want to look for someone or something else to blame, something to distract them from their own heartlessness.

It must be a frightening thing I think, not to be able to feel.

Thank you, brother, for your Big Heart & recognizing that the fault is in us, not faith.

Wishing you more Love, Beauty & Light to guide your way, dear artist✨🙏🏼♥️🕊💫

What a beautiful response

Bless your big heart, @beanz. I was moved by your principled and passionate response to Lex's post, and invite others here to visit it.

<p dir="auto">When we are silent in the face of hate, we are accomplices, and permit it to spread. Thank you, for daring to care and speak up <code>_/|\_ <p dir="auto">Also, if your/others are interested, here's a short Q&A about <a href="https://idriesshahfoundation.org/interview-with-yahia-lababidi/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" title="This link will take you away from hive.blog" class="external_link">what faith means to me:) Peace, all ways, Yahia

Wonderful post. This might interest you. A kids album I made to counteract Islamaphobia and foster philosophical comradeship.
https://steemit.com/dsound/@benleemusic/songs-about-islam-for-the-whole-family

_/|\_ Thank you, for your humanity and I hope we might be able to collaborate on something, one day. Please, reach me on discord, if you're so inclined. (It would be my pleasure to share my poetry/aphorisms with you).You're a cool guy, @benleemusic, and I'm really pleased to meet you. Compassion and interfaith dialogue mean a great deal to me, and I'm happy to see we face the same direction (the mystical heart) as fellow admirers of philosophy, spirituality and poetry.

Let's connect. Looking forward to it.

Cool, sent you a line or 2 via Discord :)

You took the high road. And this is the best response you could give. Keep spreading the love, bro.

Hey, thanks, for checking this out. Love is the only Way... Sending much in your direction ✨🙇🏻‍♂️♥️🕊💫

The greatest leader of the world The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said,

“The doors of goodness are many…enjoining good, forbidding evil, removing harm from the road, listening to the deaf, leading the blind, guiding one to the object of his need, hurrying with the strength of one’s legs to one in sorrow who is asking for help, and supporting the feeble with the strength of one’s arms -all of these are charity prescribed for you.”

Islam is a religion of Peace, no religion in the world promotes "Terrorism". Because terrorism has no religion at all. It is a production of evil politics just to rule over the weak through terror.

Islam says "Even a smile is charity" then how could the Muslims kill the fellow humans? impossible. This is just a propaganda to defame the Muslims or any other religions of the world. I repeat religion has no religion, money and terror are their core values.

May the supreme power of the universe The God bless us with the power of Unity, Brotherhood and Love Aamen!

MashaAllah, Ameen.

Powerful essay and crucial advice to which people of all faiths need to adhere. Great poem. I was especially moved by these words: “Strange, how one hate enables another—how they are like unconscious allies, darkly united in blocking out the Light.”

I was raised Catholic, but very loosely. I was always drawn to the teachings of goodness but when confronted by, and rebuking immediately, the idea that God would send most of the world to eternal hell for not being Christians my mother assured me that everyone was on their way to heaven, they were just different roads. I scoured all religions for their truths, and found that all of the pieces made sense as part of the whole . And it seemed obvious to that just like everything else we have learned here on Earth, the differences were just like differences in languages and scientific discoveries: the pieces were translated by peoples of different language and environmental context etc. But the single most 'shocking' thing I came across was a couple of years ago, i somehow started reading a book called 'No God but God' by Reza Aslan and in it he said the Mohammad very clearly said that he was speaking of the same God and teaching the same principles that Abraham and Jesus had. I had always known it, but to see how clearly it was stated was mind blowing. How are people STILL fighting, when it is not only obvious but stated by the teachers themselves? Every time a reformation comes, because the messages get warped or commandeered purposefully for political reasons, all spiritual teachers come back to very similar simple premises, and yet we are STILL killing each other in their names. People can recite and reiterate huge passages and prayers, follow strict behavioral guidelines, which are really just the fingers pointing to the moon, and yet they just do not hear what they are saying or really grasp it.

That's it, all of the pieces made sense as part of the whole

<p dir="auto">As George Bernard Shaw put it: 'There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.' <p dir="auto">Even though I was raised 'culturally' Muslim, I never viewed differences in religion (or the lack thereof) as something to separate us: my best friend was, and remains, an atheist, my wife a practicing Catholic and friends I admire are Jewish, Buddhist, and everything, in between. <p dir="auto">Yes, Reza Aslan is a good point of entry to better understanding our similarities (as a Christian who converted to Islam) as well as wonderful scholars of religion, such as Karen Armstrong, Hamza Yusuf, and many others that I'm happy to share if someone is interested. <p dir="auto">Thank you, for sharing your experience, and for your trust <code>_/|\_

Thank you Yahia for a well-written and beautifully composed response.
Gladly many amongst us are capable of showing the tolerance of Islam and Muslims to such bad words and hatred speech, which unfortunately leads nowhere but to worsening the state of the world we live in.
Thanks again my friend!


Again, I'm grateful to you, @mcfarhat and @arabsteem for alerting me this unfortunate hit piece: https://steemit.com/life/@lexiconical/uk-murder-27-in-2017-govt-determined-to-ruin-what-s-left-by-embracing-islam

Yes, I hope through tolerance, we might show ourselves other than how the bigots hope to paint us...

Strange, how one hate enables another—how they are like unconscious allies, darkly united in blocking out the Light.

That's too kind of you. Extremist groups support one another, because they are what keeps the other side going. They both target the moderates. Nothing like hate to fuel hate, which fuels hate.

And far too often, hate is its own goal. That is to say, of the haters. Hate is not a living thing. It's humans who are responsible. That's why I am very much against calling people who do things you find inhumane "inhuman" or "monstrous," because that way lies, "That's not us. We'd have never done so."

Spreading like lengthening shadows."

I liked that one.

And far too often, hate is its own goal.

It's my belief that hate has another goal and is also the goal of more than just hate. Hate is the goal of the manipulator. People need to be manipulated to hate, and the goal of that hate is permission to destroy. The same people who manipulate us to hate are taking power over these countries and destroying the innocent lives of many. But what do they matter if we can be convinced to see them as the enemy.

Hate is the goal of the manipulator. People need to be manipulated to hate.

That's an interesting take, but I disagree, but perhaps not fully.

I think most people want the manipulation to be there, because then they have a "permission" to hate - "it wasn't me, it was the manipulator!" But people should take ownership of their decisions.

I actually think it goes even further than that. Most people want to be manipulated, in one way or another. Some people want to be manipulated by the hate-mongers, and some want to be judged by the love-mongers.
So what you judge people by is not whether they are manipulated or not, but what it is they choose to be manipulated by.

As for hate's goal? It's to make you feel closer to others, ironically. Some just find it easiest to feel closer to others by painting those they are unlike.

Thank you, for your understanding, Guy. But, I’m not being kind, it’s more a matter of pity. I do view hate as a form of soul corruption — Gibran said it’s a dead thing, which of you would be a tomb?

And, even at their very worst, I tend not to think of people as bad, or evil... but weak or sick.

They do not know better & would behave otherwise if they did. But, even the most apparently educated, cultured, or ‘spiritually’ refined do not examine their souls closely enough for what is ugly...

I say this because I believe that if we truly abide by the laws of Beauty -in thought, word and deed- we would not permit ourselves what is unbecoming 🙏🏼

I don't think of people as "evil," unless you think of evil as just on the spectrum of "bad," rather than the "inhuman/devilish" thing many paint it as, for the reasons said above.

Is it a weakness? I guess if you look at it as spiritual malaise, and one gives in to it, then probably yes. Though I think as someone with a long history of depression, that "weak" is a bad word as we do not always have a choice when sickness comes upon us. But "sick" is a good word, for the paradigm you hold.

And that begets the question, "If you knew it is evil, would you still do it?" And only psycopaths would answer yes. So now we get to the question of the source of knowledge and truth here. That whether it is a matter of disagreement, or of lack of knowledge.
The spiritual path, especially the deist side of it, is very clear on it.

I do not belong to that path. And yet I still hold you can tell what is "morally wrong." Always something to think of.

As for the "laws of beauty," that way lies many an atrocity, in those who think despicable things beautiful, or that an end-goal of beauty is worth despicable acts to reach it. Hm.

Hmm... If you agree that truth is beauty & vice versa, then it’s pretty clear what I’m saying & irrespective of your belief system, also what is morally right. 🙏🏼

compact greetings from Aceh, I am very salute of the poem that you Utarakan, really amazing you are very great in living the ark of life in response to the problem

What beautiful quotes from our beloved Prophet Muhammad (May peace be upon him) especially

Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.

Smiling is also the way of the Prophet or the "sunnah" to soothe the feelings of others. Upvoted!

Bless you, for your warm support, brother.

May we be the change we hope to see. 🙏🏼

Wow. I can't even imagine what it must be like for you but yeah, ignorance and intolerance suck some serious eggs. I'll stand by my brothers of any faith, and hopefully we can reverse this awful trend.
The line "Is there enough poetry to address this?" was absolutely heartbreaking. It reminded me of a poem by Langston Hughes I read yesterday called "Johannesburg Mines." It goes:

In the Johannesburg mines
There are 240,000 natives working.

What kind of poem
Would you make out of that?

240,000 natives working
In the Johannesburg mines.

Sometimes words don't do it. Sometimes awareness beats impassioned speech and human nature needs be allowed to take over and call out hatred and oppression for what it is.

I really don't have it so bad, Caleb, and when I encounter fear or hatred, I try not to take it personally-- telling myself that they don't really know me... just a bogeyman caricature.

<p dir="auto">Thank you, for your passionate support and the Hughes lines which, in turn, remind me of Adorno's: <p dir="auto"><em>There can be no poetry after Auschwitz. <p dir="auto">But, maybe, that's precisely when we need poetry, on paper and off, as a reminder of our angelic nature... after the demonic has struck. <p dir="auto">Heaven help us to help ourselves <code>_/|\_

Powerful message , Makes me want to learn more about Islam !
I remember a few months ago I went for a walk by the river and did my usual talking to the creator. While walking back I saw a fellow walking my way and so I greeted him. He was from Pakistan. He was asking me if I went to the river often and so I told him yes , to talk with the creator and he said he does the same thing . We had a good conversation about religion and life and then went our separate ways. The world would be such a better place if we all realize we are ONE & the same✨🙏🏾✨

Bless your heart for sharing this uplifting experience, brother. We're all taking a walk by the river, talking to the creator (whether we recognize it or not). Or as Ram Dass says, We're all just walking each other Home.

<p dir="auto">It makes me happy that you say you want to learn more about Islam--the more we know, the less we fear <code>_/|\_

You took the high road.

You have to... try, at least. 🙏🏼

Thank you for this brilliant response.

I really appreciate your support on this, @didic 🙏🏼

This is an incredible response. I love that you chose to respond with kindness and empathy--offering up your own experience and life as an example. It’s brave, and beautifully written.

Much appreciated, @lilyraabe. My feeling is that if more people meet non-scary, non-hateful, non-mad Muslims then they might me slower to judge and generalize. I've been in situations, off-line, when I've seen such prejudice fall off like so much dead skin in the face of authentic human contact.

It’s really great of you to be a representative of your faith, I’m sure that must be challenging at time though. Kudos to you for reacting with love and empathy, and sharing your own experience!

Oh, I don't have it so bad... We each do what we can with what we have. Thank you, for all your artivism, Lily :)

this is really an interesting response, let's awake those who have slandered us and turned the facts

Shokran, ya Ahmed, at times like these we must try to speak up & it helps if we are reasonable & kind. Peace, brother. ✌🏼

Love you <3 sufism has a lot of beauty. Screw them and their small bigoted minds. I am not a fan of religion per say ae it is always abused but I very much can respect faith <3 If there is a GOD/ Goddess he she it is the same force everywhere and under every name. Our religious understandings have nothing to do with the divine but with which human observed facet of the prism we resonate with... all life is sacred all gods/goddesses are one <3

he who knows himself, knows his Lord and as mystic poet Gibran puts it:Thanks, for the love, dear @tygertyger, and sharing your views. As a Muslim, I believe that

Your daily life is your temple & religion
when you enter it, take with you your All.

Smiled at your paradoxical, contrarian assertion that ‘our religious understanding has nothing to do with the divine’ — but I think I know what you mean ;)

I love gibran I have a first edition of his "The Prophet" I have carried with me all over the world since I was 15 :)

Oh, I am delighted to hear this! I discovered him around this time, too-- his was a deep and abiding influence :) (If you've not read it, already, I highly recommend his book of aphorisms, Sand and Foam, echoes of Nietzsche, Blake and, of course, Bible).

Congratulations, by the way, on your recent win!

Thank you love :) I have missed you in class. I hope you are ok and not too influenced by those horrible people.

O, I hardly let any of that nonsense get to me 🤪 Good to hear you’re still showing up to class, after posts of yours I read about dialing back social interaction.

Our class is different it's sort of family ...

But you don't have to call it a gabbage religion. Not even the fact that they kill people in the name of their God, let's not forget that amongst these people are aleo people that help others, care for others and do not discriminate.
Nice poetry by the way, so deep.

I’m not calling it that, I’m quoting someone who does (look more closely).

Thanks, for your kind words and appreciating poetry.

I'm not saying that you are, I was just giving my own response in respect to yours. Please don't get me wrong.

I understand, @adebayopaul and to be clear, those who kill 'in the name of God' blaspheme and are murderers--no more, no less.

Tht guy shld be ashamed of his quote..!

No religion techs hate, no religion tells to murder innocent people..! We all are just mis-presented by the media and we believe everything on internet without even checking..!

We need to embody the peace, love, forgiveness and sacrifice we find in the spirituality that sustains us, and extend it to those who do not know any better.

This is what religions teach..!

This is how we should spread the word of our God...!

God bless us all...!

_/|\_I appreciate your solidarity, dear @christinaa. Despite all the 'evidence' to the contrary, I maintain that the fault is in us, not faith. Bless you

All religions teach hate. Some believers choose to ignore it. Some choose to embrace it. Some don't choose anything and simply accepts what they are taught by their leaders, or parents, or priests.

Very nicely written!!! Muslims are not terrorists!

_/|\_Thank you, for the vote of confidence, @appleskie. We all want to live in peace

I admire you, you are a brave man. Greetings.

Thank you, but I don't know how brave I am... We all lose, when hate wins :(

Your voice is heard against hatred. That is the first step.

I hope, I pray... We each do what we can with what we have. Thanks, again.

I'm not religious at all, since religion in general is about belief and belief is only a weak substitute for real experience. Regarding Islam, which I consider a huge problem for the world at the moment, I think it has been perverted, like Christianity has been too.
The main problem is though, that religions like Christianity have gone through lots of reformation since medieval times, and most of the main premises of Islam are still very fascistoid and chauvinistic and (at least to the public). Islam is on the level Christianity has been 500 years ago. If you consider yourself a Muslim, I guess, you have lots of work ahead and I hope you are not alone in this.
I love Rumi and his prose is very dear to my heart - a religion based on the premise of Love would be something new for humanity, since Love has become just a shallow word uttered in them, but forgotten of its real meaning. Religion has just become another way to play the game of power.
In my view, it would be better for all religions to end and a new era of Love to emerge - maybe this is, where all this is heading anyway...
So we don't need to identify with religious believes anymore and become the living embodiment of Love in action. Blessings and thank you for bringing up this important topic! 🙏

I appreciate that you wear your biases on your sleeves so that some of the context of your assertions belayed by your experiences show, and I can see that you have read and educated yourself on some of the principles of Islam, which, having been born and grown up in the propaganda machine of Western cultures, I agree is critically important.

This is why it is so surprising to me to see these assertions are heavily rooted in Western perception and culture, and, while I am also someone who wouldn't claim a religion, the efforts to invalidate the progress of entire religions spanning geographies, peoples and cultures by attempting to compare them in progress against each other seems incredibly western in perspective and not rooted in any universal truths.

I agree that a religion of love must exist, why can't that be any of the religions of love that already exist such as Islam? I don't agree that the game of power disappears with religion. In fact, even as a person who doesn't claim a religion, without religion, I truly believe our world would be a less miraculous place.

Well, I didn't say that religions couldn't bring forward more Love in the world, I was just saying, that they don't at the current time.
It's a nice thought, but there is a huge gap between what is claimed and what is done in the name of religion.
Yes, taking history as a lens to view things maybe routed in western culture, but I think that religions have to proof themselves on the same level they are acting on. If it were really about universal truth, there would be no war in the name of any religion.
I guess, you have to separate the tiny parts that are universal truth from all the other rules, that are made by man to control and preserve their power.

I think you might mean there is a huge difference in what is claimed by western media and sensasionalists looking to push forward extremest examples of what is done 'in the name of religion' and the common perception of the goals and cultures that make up the majority of that religion.

but yes, I can see here that your argument is rooted in western media, culture and understanding. For me, I never forget that winners write the history books, my friend, not to say that it is in any way wrong, but that lens will always be passed from writer to reader.

Also, and this is just my opinion, to have read Yahia's writing and simultaneously say and hold that religion, which is often held between palm and pen for him, does not bring more love into the world at this current time is an insult to the wisdom and grace with which Yahia strives to bring light and joy into the world. And, again my opinion, he's not the only muslim to be doing so. nor hindu. nor bhuddist. nor taoist. nor jew. nor christian. etc.

Thank you, dear Alain, for your elegance of spirit. I'm grateful for the unfortunate post I read this morning for what it brought forth from generous souls such as yourself.

<p dir="auto">Just as extremists don't represent a faith, so the narrow-minded and narrow-hearted don't define the human experience. <p dir="auto">Thank goodness, we have poetry to expand consciousness and possibilities... <code>_/|\_

I can't say I'm grateful to the post, but I am certainly grateful for you and the community here on Steem who actively dedicate time to allowing people to meet and open dialog with people and cultures they otherwise may never interact with.

Allow people to learn that, behind the masks we (most often politically) paint for foreign cultures to wear, is a person; much like our friends; much like family; much like ourselves.

Being human isn't as rare an experience as we sometimes want to make it out to be.

Thank goodness at that, my friend ^_^  <3

✨♥️💫

Here, @carmalain7, is a beautiful quote by a poet friend of mine, Joe Weil, that I thought you might appreciate:

Prayer is also an action: to give bread to someone who is starving is a prayer. To sit with a friend who is grieving is a prayer. The actual is the room of prayer. It exists only for prayer. It is empty of all excpet prayer. Every part of being prays through the breath and when the breath is gone, we have left the room of the actual, and we have become prayer itself-- which continues through the bodies of those who are in the room. Eventually, there is no life, no death, no inside or outside, no actual and imaginary-- only prayer which is the dynamic between all these distinctions-- that which makes and gathers them as one.

There is nothing new about a religion based on Love, my friend, that is the foundation of all faith, practiced by countless souls, for millennium.

Strange to hear you love Rumi, yet have such difficulty with religion, in general, and Islam in particular. Rumi is deeply rooted in Islam and regarded poetry as a distraction if not addressed to the Divine.

As you know, I respect Taoism, and would have thought that the peace you found there would entail extending tolerance to other spiritual traditions 🙏🏼

Well, I'm not a Taoist and I have tolerance for all spiritual traditions, but I don't think that they are leading to Love - that's why I made the remark about religions being routed in Love to be something new.
I know, that they claim that, but their actions over history have spoken another language - and with that I don't mean Islam alone.
The fact, that I resonate with Rumi, but not with the religion as it shows itself in present time, is for me a sign for the perversion over time.

I try not to throw the luminous baby out with the sordid bathwater. Similarly, I do not overlook the great good that religions continue to do, quietly, in the hearts of people of faith, worldwide. I think it would be arrogant to do so.

It's important to know history, and if we do, we know that Rumi, too, lived in a time of violence turmoil and religious persecution and, as a Muslim, spent part of his life as a refugee and a migrant. So, it does not help to glorify the past.

The problem, as I see it, is not with religion, but with us - the violence and certainty of our views which translate into bigotry and worse...

The headline shocked me and the post to which this poem was written was as a response shocked me even more.

It is shocking, but we live in shocking times, where even heads of state might make similar statements...

Thank you, @momzillanc and @salmanbukhari for your compassionate and valuable contributions. Those who have an axe to grind with faith, in general (such as “Lex”, the author of the unfortunate quote & post I link to) cannot hear the hate they put out in the world, in the name of reason and love...


شكرا للمشاركة المميزة فعلا يحيى!
أمر مؤسف بعض المقولات و الاراء البذيئة اللسان, التي لا تفيد سوى باضافة التحريض و الشرخ بين الناس!
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Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.

True say , Islamic people is very violence . But very few people on Islam who are not violence .

That’s not what I am saying, at all. I’m sorry to hear that a spiritual person like yourself feels that ‘Islamic people are very violent.’ ☹️

Actually all religion peoples are violent . Soul has no religion . So am not like religion , human religion is humanity not anything else like islamic , cristian , hindu etc .

what a great reply .... good post

Hermoso post amigo, gracias por compartirlo.