Muslim intellectuals debate Islam, Western society and Islam's faults and weaknesses

These must be serious Islamophones. Muslims indicating something is wrong with Islamic ideology? They are extremely few and far between, but those who do take the effort to pop their heads to the surface – have some valid statements to make. Of course, they are accused of being “puppets of the West” although that is hardly close to any accuracy. They are puppets to their own right to freedom from the middle ages.

.

1)  VIDEO: Former Dean of Islamic Law, Qatar University, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari | Bahrain TV

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari:  Our satellite channels deserve the name “media of terrorism”. They spread among the youth ideas that may not be outright terrorism but spread extremism. Such extremism is the beginning of violence and fanaticism, and violence lead to terrorism. Fanaticism – extremism – violence – terrorism.

2)  VIDEO: Former Dean at Qatar University Speaks Out against Suicide Operations | Al-Arabiya TV

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari:  Today, there is a lot of extremism, a wave of extremism. This religious discourse has not managed to improve the youth, and this crisis proves it. This (religious) discourse does not address human beings as human beings. We lack what I call the “culture of humanity”. The religious discourses generate a crisis. You go to a mosque, listen to the Friday prayer, and you return a bundle of nerves, feeling hostile towards civilization and society, because the sermon focus on the negative aspects of society, and inflate them.

3)  VIDEO: Former Deab of Qatar University: Our Culture Responsible for Terror | Al-Arabiya

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari:  I place most of the responsibility for terrorism on social factors. It is possible that the political factor plays a part. But I say that deep roots of terrorism are ideological, cultural, and educational. I oppose the claim raised by some religious leaders that (the terrorists) are just honest young men who went astray. They also claim that we must treat them kindly and guide them, and that their goals were noble but their means were wrong. I see this as a policy having it both ways. 

4)  VIDEO: Former Dean at Qatar University Speaks Out in Support of US Presence | Al-Arabiya

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari:  Unfortunately, the history of the Muslims has become confused with their religion. Some actions of the Muslims are not in line with the teachings of their religion. Some traditions have dominated Islamic society for over a thousand years although they run counter to Islamic teachings.

5)  VIDEO: Bahraini intellectual Dhiyaa Al-Musawai  | Abu Dhabi TV

Dhiyaa Al-Musawi:  We, I’m sad to say, are against creativity and civilization, and against any language that seeks a common ground in society. We must have the courage to get rid of the “backward” cholesterol of ideology, accumulating in the arteries of Arab awareness and the Arab mind. We suffer from backwardness. This is the truth.

6)  VIDEO: Liberal Bahraini Author Dhiya Al-Musawi: Muslims living in the past on “the drug of religion” | Al Jazeera

Dhiyaa Al-Musawi:  We Arabs and Muslims continue to pass around the biscuits of conspiracy theory. I have come to talk about the prison of history in which many Arabs and Muslims live. And many extremists sleep on the bed of the past. Who distributes the drug of religion through some mosques, by means of extremism? Who is responsible for hijacking the minds of the youth, and then booby-trapping them in Iraq and elsewhere?

7)  VIDEO: Debate on the state of the youth in the Arab world and the meaning of democracy  |  Episode 2  |  Episode 3  |

Debate:   The people who go and blow themselves up here and there, are a bunch of unemployed people.
The pan-Arab movements that have taken over the Arab nation forced a certain ideology upon the Arab citizens, upon the Arab youth, and they follow this ideology like sheep. When the youth encouraged globalization they found themselves new breathing space,
If these people had been brought up in an environment supporting human rights and love for the “other” an environment that glorifies love and brotherhood, rather than killing, we wouldn’t be seeing these …

8)  VIDEO: Former Saudi Shura Council Member Ibrahim Al-Buleihi  |  Al-Arabiya T

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi:  He (Muslim) is incapable of independent thinking, and of benefitting from the cultures of others. He is incapable of stepping out of the mold imposed on him since childhood. It is the west that produced prosperity. To this day, we are a burden on the West. Even Japan admits that without benefiting from the West, it would not have developed.

.