From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 21:15:47 +0800
To: Sean Gabb <cea01sig@gold.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Online Zakat Payment: Religious tithe.
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960216105547.22887B-100000@scorpio.gold.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <199602161251.HAA29650@jekyll.piermont.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



I have tried sending people comments in private mail, but that doesn't
seem to work.

This is NOT IslamPunks. This is totally off topic. Can you guys
discuss this privately instead?

.pm

Sean Gabb writes:
> I never visited Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union under Stalin; but I 
> think I am justified in regarding them as nasty places, hostile to any 
> concept of liberal civilisation.  Equally, though I have done my best to 
> avoid visiting the Islamic world, I have seen enough *religious* Moslems 
> here in England, and read enough of their material, to know that Islam is 
> more often than not a force for evil.
> 
> Turning to literature, I have read my way through dozens of pamphlets 
> sent me by the Islamic Propagation Centre International of Birmingham - 
> the one that strikes me as most hilariously dishonest is "The Status of 
> Women in Islam" by Dr Jamal A. Badawi.  I will upload a review of this 
> tomorrow.  I also have a copy of the Koran, translation and Commentary by 
> A. Yusuf Ali; and I have read much of Al Ghazali and a French version of 
> "The Regency of the Theologian" by the late Ruholla Khomeini.
> 
> Of course, even if I list everything I have read about Islam or by 
> Moslems, and read three times more, you would still come on this list 
> questioning my right to form an opinion.  One tactic - used ad nauseam by 
> the socialists - is to dismiss whatever I have read as works 
> unrepresentative of the true essence and canon.  Well, I say that I know 
> quite enough about Islam to regard it as a horrible religion.  I still 
> disagree with Tim as to what response is appropriate.  But I agree with 
> him that it would be a nasty day for humanity if Islam were ever to 
> become the faith of a powerful and expansionist state.
> 
> Sean Gabb,
> Editor
> Free Life.
>