Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Farooq Khan was a Muslim. So were his murderers.
MARDAN, Pakistan — Farooq Khan, doctor to the poor, scholar of Islam and friend of America, represented everything the Islamist extremists hated.
A week ago, two Taliban hit men, disguised in casual clothes and with stubble on their chins instead of beards, climbed the stairs to Dr. Khan’s second-floor office and, as he had lunch between streams of patients, shot him at close range.
The assassination of Dr. Khan, cool and quick, was the latest in what appears to be a sustained campaign by the Taliban to wipe out, or at least silence, educated Muslims in Pakistan who speak out against the militants, their use of suicide bombings and their cry of worldwide jihad.
At least six Muslim intellectuals and university professors have been killed or kidnapped in the past year in Pakistan, each death met with momentary notice in the media, promises of inquiries by the government and then a frightened quiet.
You may consult the late Dr. Farooq on matters of Koranic interpretation here.
I always strictly follow the teachings of Quran, Sunnah, and my conscience in pondering over all the collective issues and problems facing us. In my opinion, the Muslim Ummah needs a comprehensive discussion and consensus on the following issues:
- Status of Women in Islamic Society
- The real instructions of Islam regarding Jihad and Qital
- The true perspective of Islamic teachings in crimes and punishment
- Islamic instructions regarding relations between Muslims and Non-Muslims
The Washington Post asks: Could a deal with the Taliban end the war in Afghanistan?
And then the world asks why there are so few moderate Muslims.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
This goes on in the West Bank and Gaza also. That is why elections in these areas do not reflect the will of the people, as the population is "radicalized' by political assassinations.Which is also why anti-semitic filth is still taught in the classrooms of the Middle East, for what parent will raise an objection when it would instantly mark them as a target for assassination.
Edited on October 9, 2010 at 6:54pmAug '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Another martyr for human freedom, like a lamb to the slaughter. He's in Paradise now, and no doubt knew his killers would come for him. What a great man.
We must figure out a way to deal with these people that's more effective than the present strategy. Bribing and appeasing them is the worst thing to do.
Sep '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Claire: There are many westerners living in Muslim countries. If these countries were not populate by mainly moderates this would not/could not be so. I thought you made a similar point on Uncommon Knowledge. I find this to be irrefutable evidence that there are many moderate Muslims. Why are they silent? Dr Kahn appears to have been and extremely brave and generous person. Only such people will speak up in the current circumstances. They will always be a rarity in any culture.
Aug '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
And then the world asks why there are so few moderate Muslims. ·
I'm guessing a deal with the Taliban doesn't involve them promising not to bump off the moderate Muslims?
How does the ordinary Joe figure out how to support the real moderates without having that support diverted to pseudo-moderates? There's AIFD, Ni Putes... but sorting through who's real and who's maybe just pretending is confusing. Does anyone (perhaps Israel) publish a list of "really moderate Muslim charities -- no really, we're not joking, these folks really are moderate"?
Perhaps what the world needs is a "Claire's List" of aid organizations that support moderate Muslims while opposing the extremists.
Edited on October 9, 2010 at 8:41pmRe: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Perhaps what the world needs is a "Claire's List" of aid organizations that support moderate Muslims while opposing the extremists. · Oct 9 at 10:34am
Edited on Oct 09 at 11:41 am
I think that aid needs to come in form of armed guards.I suggest well-trained Israelis. But yes, Claire, give us some ideas of what we can do, where we should go. I'm about to sit down with my Rabbi to piece together our panels on Islam. My push will be to not let the super liberal clergy whitewash the dangers of Fundamentalist Islam (of which the smaller subset is violent Jihadist Islam) while reaching out to true, educated moderates...hopefully before they're all assassinated. This is a sad, sad development.
Sep '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
This relates to the GZM (really, it does). Mark Steyn has asked “What’s the justification for placing a tolerant, outward-reaching, moderate mosque near Ground Zero?” His point is that, until very recently, there has been no evidence of any intolerance toward Islamic belief or practice in New York City. And, that better candidate sites for a Western culture-compatible mosque might be Riyadh, or Karachi, or London for that matter.
The answer might just be that tolerant Islam is tolerated only in the U.S. However, as pointed out in "America Alone" a tolerant mosque can’t withstand a legal takeover by radical Islamists. Our U.S. judges don’t care who founded it, paid for it, or whatever.
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
As the cause of the original Berlinski Fairness Fatwa I must interject to say that Claire has said all of the things Steyn has said, and in every case has said them sooner, better, and with larger words.
Jun '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
In a world in which Obama can win a Nobel for thinking about doing something, it's real tragedy when someone who is actually doing something is struck down by barbarians. God rest the sweet soul of Farooq Khan.
Aug '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Don't these watch the previews ? Fear as an instrument always works too well in our sad "homo homini lupus est" world. The townspeople need to kill those wolves when they appear. Big town-little people
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Islam today is what Christianity would be like if Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist comprise 10% of Christians worldwide, and not 0.0000000010 %.
Sorry Claire, I've followed your protestations that there really, really, really are moderate Muslims. Maybe so, but that is of small comfort to people whose lives are shattered by Islamofascists.
How many moderate Muslims have spoken up for Molly Norris?
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: Farooq Khan was a Muslim. So were his murderers.
The New York Times said "Islamist."
I'm about halfway through America Alone now. It's a thoroughly depressing book.
Aug '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Nick Stuart:
Sorry Claire, I've followed your protestations that there really, really, really are moderate Muslims. Maybe so, but that is of small comfort to people whose lives are shattered by Islamofascists.
I share your dismay.
Naturally, the mere existence of moderate Muslims is of small comfort to those whose lives have been shattered by Islamofascists. (Likewise, the rarity of gallbladder cancer is of small comfort to a person with gallbladder cancer, the heritability of asthma of small comfort to asthma sufferers, and in general the Y of any X is of small comfort to those suffering from X.)
I wouldn't expect those whose lives have been shattered by Islamofascism to take particular comfort in the existence of moderate Muslims, nor would I expect these unfortunates to bear the burden of seeking out the moderate Muslims. They have enough to bear already.
But what if those of us whose lives haven't been shattered by Islamofascism could do something to coax the moderates into speaking up, so there is a little hope of breaking the domination of the Islamofascists? How little must the hope be in order to be safely ignored?
When should dismay win?
Aug '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Aaron Miller
I'm about halfway through America Alone now. It's a thoroughly depressing book.
I found America Alone oddly cheery, myself. At least it has an insouciant pessimism going for it.
Mark Steyn: Tap dancing at the end of the world.
Edited on October 10, 2010 at 2:07amMay '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
More mentions of America Alone in one of Claire's threads -- I hope you're all prepared to join me here in Siberia!
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
If Ricochet can't manage to get Claire and Mark together to talk about this soon, I will be bitter, I don't mind admitting. It's so obvious that they would illuminate each other's thoughts and the result would be pure gold.
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Aaron Miller
I'm about halfway through America Alone now. It's a thoroughly depressing book.
I found America Alone oddly cheery, myself. At least it has an insouciant pessimism going for it.
Mark Steyn: Tap dancing at the end of the world. ·
Oh, don't get me wrong. I'll be cracking jokes right alongside him as the world burns.
The book's brilliantly written... so much that I might reread it immediately to compile a collection of quotes for future reference. But my outlook on the future gets darker with each page.
I don't place my hope in institutions and events, anyway. I place it in God and the people who will respond to any future with courage and kindness.
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Of course, the US has no business getting involved in this stuff, as Kenneth keeps reminding us. We shouild roll up the sidewalks, train big guns on the seas and airports, and get on with living in the US. This appalling gangsterism and third world failure is none of our business. Doesn't affect us, we can get oil from Canada.
In Minneapolis, there is a section of town, the Near North Side. It is a problematic, quite "diverse" neighborhood. Drug peddling abounds, there are gangs on every street corner, drive-by shootings are common. There are more unwed births than children of married parents. Girls get pregnant at a young age, drop out of school, and live with their unmarried mothers and grandmothers.
This area of the city really doesn’t bother the limousine liberals who live in neighborhoods like Linden Hills, Kenwood, around Lake of the Isles, Lake Harriet, Lake Calhoun, or along West River Road toward Minnehaha.
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
As long as the bad people stay in their own area with their Own Kind, and away from the million dollar stone mansions owned by second and third generation families who are the backbone of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party, and don’t either burglarize the homes, peddle drugs on the corner, or physically assault those Upstanding Citizens in their Virtual Gated Communities, they are happy to leave the ignorant riff-raff to their own self-destructive devices ten miles away on the other side of the Mississippi River.
The cancer can grow, of course, and spread out a bit; the Cedar-Lake area is uncomfortably close to West River Road and Minnehaha, creeping South toward Lake Nokomis, but if the moles lift their heads, the police patrols that protect the denizens of the ritz areas will slap them down. If the natives get restless, spend a few days blanketing the fringe areas with police coverage to push the rowdies back toward the North Side where they belong.
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
But. What about the people- probably a majority- who live in the combat zone, who are not criminals or junkies? They live there because their families always have, they may have inherited a house, they have friends and neighbors, and they can’t really afford to move to a safer place?
Well, who cares about them- that’s their problem. Let the United Neighborhoods send in a strike force and clean out the baddies, as though they ever did anything useful beyond criticizing the city.
And, obviously, since the residents themselves have not risen up and overthrown the gangs, and some of their kids have babies very young, or join the gangs because of peer pressure, they are not doing the things necessary to free themselves from the bad environment. Just because the last six people who tried to resist the gang leaders were killed in drive-bys, and the neighborhood kids who refused to join the gangs were beaten, disfigured, raped, or murdered, well, they just seem to want to live in that squalor. If they had any strength of character, they’d free themselves.
RIP, Dr. Khan.
Sep '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
Jason (and Claire), someone once said that good writers were influenced by earlier works, and great writers steal blatantly.
May '10
Re: Authentic Moderate Muslim Killed by Authentic Islamist Monsters
@Midget
OK, how about "affected" instead of shattered? The fact that there are moderate Muslims is small comfort to those of us who are affected by Islamofascists. Would that be broad enough. Those of us who have to look over our shoulders and wonder if we insult the prophet in a silly way like Molly Norris we'll end up like Molly Norris?
Those of us who could find ourselves in the middle of a dirty bomb incident. Or just plain old sabotage (some C4 on one of the tank cars of chlorine or ammonia that go by my house every a couple times a day would ruin everyone's day for a couple miles around).
Those of us who had to pay for the billions of dollars of damages both directly, and in consequence of (think shutting down the New York financial district for days after the 9/11 attacks) islamofascist jihad.
Those of us whose children in the military are in harm's way (which would include Ft. Hood and outside a recruiting office). Those of us in the sights of a deranged sniper (which was pretty much every resident of Virginia)?
Is that broad enough?
Edited on October 10, 2010 at 3:50am