Muslims Gone Wild

I've been watching the protests in Egypt with a great deal of fascination. Not half an hour after learning about all of the violence and confusion in the ancient land, I began having a major episode of confusion myself. And I've decided that the Muslim world must be in the middle of an identity crisis, though I'm almost sure they don't see it that way.

Islam has a very basic tenet. It states that free will doesn't exist. There is NO free will for any individual. There is ONLY God's will. It's stated over and over again in the Koran, and Muslims themselves make a point of repeatedly using the phrase “God willing” as a continued reassertion that it's still true. God's will is one of the bricks used in the foundation of Islam. Or I should say, it's THE brick in the foundation of Islam. If one were to remove it, the entire system (notice I did NOT only say “religion”) would need to be reexamined. (More on this in a moment.)

So the illogical problem among the protesters has everything to do with the reason for their protests – the Egyptian leadership – which has been in power for more than 30 years, and a little thing called free will

My epiphany was this: None of the protesters can consider themselves to be truly good Muslims. If there's only God's will, then Hosni Mubarak's governing body must have been willed into power through God's desire – and then kept them there for the last 30 years. So any Muslim protesting against that regime, must also be protesting against God's will. And that would be a bad Muslim. Bad Muslim.

But on the other side of the protesting coin is this: Those same protesters must also believe that Hosni Mubarak has CHOSEN to stay in office, somehow, against God's will, or against the will of the voting public, people who we can simply call a group of individuals. And that implies free will for the individual(s). And that would be a double bad Muslim. Bad Muslim.

The only people left, those who can still consider themselves good Muslims, are the people NOT protesting, since they are the only ones left NOT objecting to God's will. Hmmm... What a conundrum. To protest, or not to protest? That's a HUGE question. Do we question God's will, or do we just question the very foundation of Islam? Or both? Bad Muslim. Baaaaad Muslim.

A moment ago, I stated clearly that Islam is not a “religion.” I don't mean any offense in that statement. I said that specifically, because it's not. It's a moral, philosophical, political, intellectual, ethical, business, educational AND religious system. It's an entire system for living your life, from the time you're born, until the day you die. It's taught as THE way for good, believing Muslims to live their entire lives. It encompasses everything.

So those protests have led me to think that Islam must be having some kind of massive identity crisis. And it's one that is nothing more than the entirety of life for all believing Muslims. Either they believe in something their belief system says specifically is not true. Or their entire system needs to be reexamined – which leads me to a funny statement I remember from years ago.

“If engineers built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy all of civilization.” But with Islam we could say: the first protest to come along would crumble the entire belief system.

I think the first brick has been removed. What follows should be a great deal of self-examination. Will that happen? Somehow, I doubt it.

This Just In

News headline:

"Russian President blames attack on lapses in airport security."

Everyone see the lack of logic in his statement? Head scratchers like that sometimes come at you one right after the other, and unfortunately, also at the speed of light. It's moments like the one above that force me to slow down, read, examine and THINK.