A reply to: The search for Islamic solutions
by Shafiul Huq
http://dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2013/may/14/search-islamic-solutions
*The comments section for this article is still empty, even after I posted my reply...So I will post it here in its original form.
*Edit: The comments have since been approved. I will leave this here to acknowledge that I was wrong about the comments.
I would never allow women and men to be
separated in Australia, I would fight it with everything I had. I would also
support the right of any person in any country to do so. Everyone should have
the right to criticise anything that they feel it is fair to criticise, even if
I don't like what they are saying. Blasphemy? What is blashpemy exactly? Who
gets to decide? What is blasphemy to one person may not be to another and it's
particularly difficult to decide in the very interpretable field that is religion.
Does the Shia blaspheme against the Sunni because of the their differing
interpretations of the succession to Mohammed. Does the Protestant Blaspheme
against the Roman Catholic because they do not follow the rituals of the church
or believe the Pope is the head of the worldwide church? These are questions
that have come up many times in history and caused many deaths. This is Muslims
forcing their beliefs on other Muslims, Christians forcing their beliefs on
other Christians. That is what secularism is really about. Stopping any one
group from forcing their ideas on another. As a consequence some people
will also be free to stop believing, in whatever tradition they started
in. You live in Australia at the moment, surely you've noticed that you
are as free to follow your religion as a women is to uncover her head. What if
Australia was a strict Christian or even Atheist country, and we told you that
you had to mix with women, drink alcohol and eat bacon to prove your loyalty to
the Australian Christian or Atheist way of life, by law, not just some yobbo
yelling at you, but law. I'm guessing you would think that wasn't ok. Whether
Islamic Bangladeshi's like it or not, there are people in their country who do
not believe that Islam is the correct way of life, and they have a right to
be accommodated. That is why secularism is necessary. That is what
Secularism is about.
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