Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US, Dutch Green Left MP Tofik Dibi is launching an internet awareness campaign aimed at making Muslims think for themselves.
Presented in Dutch, English and Arabic, his campaign, entitled “The Last Fatwa”, aims to “free Muslims from top-down decrees issued by a handful of scholars”. Muslims, the Dutch MP says, “should learn to think independently and make their own choices”.
The move is intended to create a movement that will end “the kidnapping of the Islamic faith”. Those who hijacked the planes on 11 September 2001 and destroyed 3,000 lives, Mr Dibi maintains, also “took our deepest principles hostage”.
A politician rather than an Islam scholar, Mr Dibi says he is aware his campaign has its pitfalls. “Fatwas can be sincere answers to sincere questions from individual Muslims”, he admits, alluding to welcome “anti-terrorism fatwas”. At the same time, however, he argues that fatwas “reduce Muslims to unthinking subjects of fellow faithful who think they are Allah.”
Mr Dibi says he has received a great deal of support as well as words of caution, alerting him to the risks he is exposing himself to. He’s not too concerned about any potential threats, he says. “I’m appealing to common sense and refer to individual freedom. We all experience Islam in our own way.”
He has deliberately chosen to use the term “fatwa”, he says, because it’s such a “powerful symbol” and is likely to provoke debate, both at home and abroad.
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© Radio Netherlands Worldwide
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It's about time for people to think for themselves. I applaud MP Dibi's initiative.
I'll don't understand how non-American governments use 9/11 as examples for effecting change in their countries.
It was my 13th birthday and I was sitting in my middle school geometry class when the principal made an announcement and the rest of the school day was spent watching the whole thing on TV. I knew from the very first moment that I had completely lost my birthday.
I know, I know. Something bad happens every day. I, however, had joined a very select club of people- I share my birthday with the day thousands of innocent people lost their lives on 9/11. It's not like a name that you can legally change (I did that too when I was 16). You're stuck with your birthday.
Ten years later and I really don't feel *that* much safer. It doesn't matter where I am. 9/11 changed how Americans saw the world. We were suspicious of everyone. Still are. But it is time to move on and look forward, not back. Just like December 7, 1941, we'll always remember that day but we don't dwell on it and let it hold us back. Not so with 9/11. As a country we can't seem to move forward. The media sure doesn't want to move on... we've been saturated with the 10th anniversary since January. It really picked up on May 1st when bin Laden was killed.
So, in 10 years what have we learned. We learned our government now has the "right" to monitor our phone conversations, internet chats and emails. Like I'm part of the solution to their national security problems. We learned how the rest of world really feels about us and it isn't good. Apparently we're spoiled selfish people who don't care about anyone but ourselves and our needs.
America hasn't gotten better the past 10 years, we've gotten worse. And until the majority of us decide to move on we're going to stay that way.
“Dibi calls for a new religion that has nothing to do with Islam. A true muslim submits to the Koran and religious law.” - Sheik Fawaz Ineid"...If a person believes the Koran is true and valid as written, then the person is a "true" Muslim. Prophet Muhammad was the last of the prophets and there have been none after him and neither will there be one in the future. Therefore, MP Tofik Dibi is going into a boxing match with the Prophet and his present day religious leaders. Who do you think will win the match? Mr. Dibi needs to prove his case by showing how Islam's deepest principles were taken hostage and how they are taught in the Koran. In closing, Muslims not only attack non-Muslims. They are constantly at war with other sects. Why? Because they all perceive themselves as "true" Muslims or they wouldn't be Muslims. Anyway, I, too, wish him the best but the odds are stacked against him. P.S. Justaguy, you are right, my friend!
This sounds nice and I wish Dibi success in his initiative. If he could get the likes of Salafi Sheik Fawaz Ineid to put a sock in it, Geert Wilders could retire. Here is how each responded to this initiative:
“Dibi calls for a new religion that has nothing to do with Islam. A true muslim submits to the Koran and religious law.” - Sheik Fawaz Ineid
“Dibi wants a last fatwa to free Islam from extremists. What we need is a fatwa to free us from Islam.” - Geert Wilders
This should get Hiram off the hook!!
But it won't shut him up!