An Introduction to Real Islam
07 Jan, 2006
How Islam Stupefy Muslims?
Islam's fooling the Muslims
[From It is Islam, Dummy by Amil Imani]
Islam is stamped on the impressionable mind of the child from birth. The parents and immediate members of the family are the ones who make the very first impressions on the tabula rasa of the young mind. These early impressions are the grid-work for further formation of the person’s mind and belief system. It is by far easier, as life goes on, to incorporate “items” that readily fit into the grid-work, than to modify it or dismantle it altogether and begin anew.
Another reason is the herd mentality—stay with the group, be one of them, and don't strike out on your own. This strong disposition to belong is reinforced by privileges that the group bestows; social pressure, as well as the fear of castigation by the wielders of power. There is security and power in numbers—in any numbers.
Islam is also appealing for giving purpose and order to the person’s life—both the life on earth as well as an immortal life after death. Islam is omnipresent and omniscient father figure for the followers’ entire life which draws the boundaries, maps out the path, dictates the terms, holds the carrots and the sticks. Accept Islam as your guide, follow its path and you will never have to suffer the agony of knowing having to make decisions by yourself; you will be guided along the path of eternal happiness and salvation. Just follow the unerring divine guide given to mankind by the seal of the prophet, Muhammad.
An elaborate package of mostly illogical and bizarre prescriptions and proscriptions comes with the package of Islam, covering every imaginable aspect of human life. In the matter of being a good Muslim, nothing is left to chance that one needs to figure out for himself. “I don't think, I faith; therefore I am an automaton,” says the Muslim in absolving himself of the need for independent thinking.
Even the minutest detail of the Muslim’s life is rigidly structured. Being a good Muslim, particularly a good male Muslim, is indeed a full-time job. Male Muslims are obligated to go for Hajj—women don't have to do so. Islam is a man’s religion, through and through. Women are to please men erotically, to attend to them like chattel and birth them boys in order to attain there own salvation, albeit of lesser privileges than the men.
In short, Islam treats its believers as children irrespective of age. An extensive cadre of mullahs and imams, who themselves are thoroughly indoctrinated, minister to the children. These professional leeches—the mullahs and imams—systematically program the mind of their charges through unrestrained use of fear, threats of hell, and occasional promises of eternal life of bliss in Allah’s paradise if they be obedient good children.
A Muslim is born Muslim, yet he acts as if he independently and through his own labor has discovered the great find. He clings to it as his cherished security blanket and would rather part with his life than giving it up. Most Muslims are Muslims by being born to Muslim parents, and none of them are Muslim by their choice. Among the ordinary Muslims, one can find a very negligible percent, who are really knowledgeable in real theological features of Islam. Although the Quran and hadiths are the two pillars of Islam, non-Arab Muslims in general never read them, or if they read, never understood them. Because most of them read the Quran in Arabic, which they do not understand. Therefore, all those Quranic flaws, incongruities, contradictions, unethical and intolerant scriptures and hadith are unknown to common Muslims. And from the childhood—Muslims are taught by Mullahs methods of pick & choose scriptures and Hadith—giving them a totally different pictures of Islam by which they become completely brain washed. This childhood poisoning by the Mullahs continue to prevail in their mindset even in the adulthood. They have been taught that, “Islam is the only true religion; Allah is the only true god. Quran is the pure words of Allah”!
Thinking Errors of Muslims
[From Thinking Errors of Muslims by Dr. Babu Suseelan, in Pathways to Jihadi Terrorism]
Religious, psychological, educational, and historical factors are implicated in Jihadi terrorism. Static variables (age, ethnic religious background) and dynamic variables (cognitive distortions, thinking errors, negative emotions, maladaptive behaviors, deviance amplifying community networks) also specifically lend itself to the identification of dynamic risk factors of Jihadi terrorism.
Muslims think Islam is a perfect religion. It has perfect answers for science, politics, government, economics, psychosocial problems and human life. As far as the doctrinal tenets are concerned, Islam maintains that Muslims must unquestionably follow the tenets. Muslims should shun everything that is opposed to Islam. Muslims consider Koran, Hadith and sura, which are called "Nusoos-e-Qatiyah", are perfect and have no place for criticism.
Muslims are indoctrinated at an early age into the rigid, closed, reductionist Islamic dogma, demanding full faith and devotion and separation from all competing philosophies. They are kept ignorant of the world and other rational thought systems. Islamic schools focus on the rote memorization of Koran and discourage critical thinking. Islam regards thinking as a part of worship. Questioning Islamic concepts is the biggest crime, called blasphemy, and is punishable by death.
From the beginning, Islamic education starts formulating a conceptualization, which logically connects automatic Islamic thoughts and beliefs. The education system fails to see the larger picture and jump from one core belief to another. It provides a cognitive map that is limited, hostile and untrue. The faulty cognitive map generally resonates with the students for life. These rigid Islamic cognitive schemas have a profound impact on their thinking, feeling and behavior. Muslims have a common narrative history, cognitive schemas, social scripts, and kind of desire, attitude and cultural values. The whole thought system lacks critical thinking, rational analysis and personal responsibility, and Muslims are just content to stay the same and blame every one but themselves for their thinking errors. For their failings and shortcomings, Muslims hide behind alibi and denial. Everything happens is "Allah's Will" and "non-believers will burn in Islamic hell fire". Such automatic expressions influence their subsequent emotion, behavior and response. Since their automatic response is based on their pre-conceived Islamic thought, they often misconstrue neutral situations to fit their closed model thinking. Thus, Muslim's automatic thoughts are with full of thinking errors and biased.
Since Islam is a closed dogma and Muslims are forbidden to test its validity or utility, and required to maintain the equilibrium at any cost, Muslim's thinking errors are overwhelming. Dysfunctional automatic thoughts coexist with various thinking errors in Islam. Typical Islamic thinking errors include:
- Polarized or all-or-nothing thinking (e.g.: believers and non-believers, daru-ul-Islam, dar-ul-harb)
- Catastrophic thinking (all infidels will go to hell)
- Discounting the positive, accentuate the negative (all kafirs are trying to get Muslims)
- Emotional reasoning (emotional justification for bombing, beheading, terrorism)
- Labeling (put a global label on non-believers as kafirs)
- Minimization (blame the victim, denial, alibi)
- Mind reading (Muslims know what non-Muslims are thinking)
- Mental filter (Failure to see things holistically)
- Over generalization (making sweeping negative conclusions, Jews are pigs, Christians are rats)
- Personalization (Muslims believe Kafirs are behaving negatively because of Islam)
- Tunnel vision (only see things in the Islamic way)
Muslims erroneously think Islamic absolutist paradigm is designed to be adaptable to existing, new and future applications for all the time. It restricts Muslims to seek viable solutions to life's problems. They refuse to reform or incorporate critical elements with Islamic thinking as a means to achieve a better society by utilizing new concepts to reach a more accurate assessment to produce more accurate judgments. Out-of-the-box thinking, logical reasoning, higher order thinking, and scientific thinking are really not intellectual pursuits of Muslims.