Eboo Patel is a shameless lier. Shabaz Bhatti clearly predicted his death because he was warned by Taliban regarding his fight against blasphemy law, which is incorporated into Pakistani Constitution. It is not unique to Pakistan. Saudi Arabia, the land of the prophet has that law. You can get killed for changing from Islam to any other religion in so many Islamic nation. It is according to Islamic Sharia. Regarding, Muslims giving home to Jews down the history, it is another blatant lie. Mufti Hussein of Jerusalem openly joined hands with Hitler and sent Arab youths to send Jews to concentration camps. The Elders of the Protocols of Zion is still the most popular and best selling book across the Muslim world. 'Thank God for Hitler' is a common sign among Muslim protests. Christians are paying a high price for living in Islamic nations like Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Indonesia, the list is long.

Total lies. The man called Mohammed whom Muslims consider their prophet, according to Muslim biographies of that person, personally suborned murder of his political enemies. Eboo Patel is an untruthful apologist who intentionally avoids the ugly truths of the horrendous and repulsive history of his tribal faith and its morally repugnant leader. Eboo, you are fooling no one who is actually paying attention. Shame on you.

@Sajanas

I dont really understand what you were trying to say. I think its disingenuous on your part to credit all the crimes committed by muslims in Islam's account. Certainly there are criminal Muslims and terrorist Muslims, no one is denying that. But these people can be followers of any religion. No religion condones spilling blood of innocents and Islam is definitely not an exception.

You say things that are factually incorrect and speaks of a person who has only passive knowledge of Islam and yet makes an opinion about it. Prophet Muhammad never killed anyone for specifically blaspheming him. The one solitary incident after the fall of Mecca was the killing of a man for breaking pact. The whole city of Mecca was guilty of Blaspheming against the Prophet. They threw trash on him, stoned him, boycotted his whole tribe, killed his dearest companions yet he forgave all of them. He even forgave the woman who ate the heart of his Uncle and close friend, Hamza, after killing him.

You also speak about the Jewish tribe of Medina, have you really read about that incident from a neutral source? Here's one for starter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quraiza This might help you overcome some of the ignorance you have shown with regards to this event.

@yasseryousufi
I certainly approve of Mr Patel denouncing this violence, as really, anyone should. But I think its disingenuous to do that while white washing history so that no one who commits a crime is a Muslim, and Islam has always been a religion of peace. Clearly there are good people who are Muslims, but I feel like every Muslim I've spoken too about terrorism (admittedly not many) has just written it off as "well, they weren't *real* Muslims". Obviously something is wrong with the person when a person raised in a Muslim country, by Muslims, study the Koran, and still come out thinking that when Mohammad kills his enemies for blasphemy, that they should not do the same. Pretending that Mohammad and Islam did only good things is going to keep this pattern repeating.

Its funny all these anti-islamic whackos on this blog who blast Eboo for writing this article would be saying why dont muslims speak out against terrorism done in the name of islam.
------------------------------------------
The Pakistani assassination two months ago occurred within days of the attempt in Arizona. The latter generated a great deal of discussion about toning down overheated political rhetoric. The former motivated massive street demonstrations in favor of acquitting the killer.

Its funny all these anti-islamic whackos on this blog who blast Eboo for writing this article would be saying why dont muslims speak out against terrorism done in the name of islam. Damn if you do, damn if you dont. I really like your article and admire your efforts Eboo. Just disregard this usual crowd of hound dogs. They cant harm you one bit, they'll only make noise.

Eboo Patel is an Indian Muslim living in America. India and America are the only place these muslims can safely write their opinions. Just ask Fareed Zakaria, another Indian Muslim in America.

If Eboo wrote his "moderate" and progressive opinions in a country like Pakistan, he would be killed by a Muslim. Just ask the ex-governor Taseer and ex-minister Bhatti who simply stood up for weaking the blasphemy laws in Pakistan.

Yet again, Mr. Patel trots out vague anecdotal accounts of muhammad and his followers showing compassion for non-muslims in an attempt to convince said non-muslims that they have nothing to fear from islam.

Mr. Patel cites 4 instances over the 1400 year history of islam where muslims "protected" unbelievers; never mind that in many cases this "protection" was purchased through the payment of jizya, the poll tax levied on non-muslim dhimmis in a scenario not unlike paying Gotti family men to insure that "criminals" didn't burn down your business or home.

There are, without a doubt, cases in history where individual Muslims or small groups of Muslims of conscience selflessly put themselves in danger to protect innocent unbelievers. However, these examples are pretty thin in the face of near-daily reports of persecution and violence perpetrated by muslims against religious minority Jews, Christians and even other muslim sects just since 9/11.

Mr. Patel, start submitting your columns to newspapers in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Somalia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc., and inform your co-religionists in these societies of their errors in interpreting the guidance of your "prophet", and stop trying to convince us kuffar that islam means us no harm. We, unfortunately for you, already have figured it out for the time being.

WE don't need any more of your convincing; your fellow muslims apparently do.

Geez, didn't Mohammad assassinate SEVERAL people for insulting him, i.e. committing blasphemy? (Asma Bint Marwan and Abu Afak come to mind, as well as the torture/assassination of Kinana . . . but that was for worldly plunder, now, wasn't it, Eboo?) And doesn't every country in the world governed by shariah include a severe, if not lethal, punishment for blasphemy per the instruction/example of Mohammad? Moreover, isn't the covenant of protection under which islam "tolerates" non-muslims like Bhatti contingent on accepting "with willing submission" (Q 9:29) their lot as second class citizens under the islamic yoke of dhimmitude . . . ? Thus, from an islamic perspective, Bhatti "merited" his punishment under two theories: 1). straight blasphemy; and 2). violation of the covenant of dhimma.

And the koranic/mosque driven acts of terror and horror continue:

The Muslim Conquest of India - 11th to 18th century

■"The likely death toll is somewhere between 2 million and 80 million. The geometric mean of those two limits is 12.7 million. "

and the 19 million killed in the Mideast Slave Trade 7C-19C by Muslim slave traders.

and more recently

1a) 179 killed in Mumbai/Bombay, 290 injured

1b) Assassination of Benazir Bhutto and Theo Van Gogh

2) 9/11, 3000 mostly US citizens, 1000’s injured

3) The 24/7 Sunni-Shiite centuries-old blood feud currently being carried out in Iraq, US Troops killed in action, 3,483 and 925 in non combt roles.
99,901 – 109,143 Iraqi civilians killed as of 3/3/2011/, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ and
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf

4) Kenya- In Nairobi, about 212 people were killed and an estimated 4000 injured; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85.[2]

5) Bali-in 2002-killing 202 people, 164 of whom were foreign nationals, and 38 Indonesian citizens. A further 209 people were injured.

6) Bali in 2005- Twenty people were killed, and 129 people were injured by three bombers who killed themselves in the attacks.

7) Spain in 2004- killing 191 people and wounding 2,050.

8. UK in 2005- The bombings killed 52 commuters and the four radical Islamic suicide bombers, injured 700.

9) The execution of an eloping couple in Afghanistan on 04/15/2009 by the Taliban.

10) - Afghanistan: US troops 1,141 killed in action, 242 killed in non-combat situations as of 03/03/2011. Over 40,000 Afghan civilians killed due to the dark-age, koranic-driven Taliban acts of horror

11) The killing of 13 citizen soldiers at Ft. Hood by a follower of the koran.

12) 38 Russian citizens killed on March 29, 2010 by Muslim women suicide bombers.

continued below:

13) The May 28, 2010 attack on a Islamic religious minority in Pakistan, which have left 98 dead,

14) Lockerbie is known internationally as the site where, on 21 December 1988, the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed as a result of a terrorist bomb. In the United Kingdom the event is referred to as the Lockerbie disaster, the Lockerbie bombing, or simply Lockerbie. Eleven townspeople were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where the plane's wings and fuel tanks plummeted in a fiery explosion, destroying several houses and leaving a huge crater, with debris causing damage to a number of buildings nearby. The 270 fatalities (259 on the plane, 11 in Lockerbie) were citizens of 21 nations.

15) Followed by the daily suicide and/or roadside and/or mosque bombings every day in the terror world of Islam.

16) Bombs sent from Yemen by followers of the koran which fortunately were discovered before the bombs were detonated.

17) The killing of 58 Christians in a Catholic church in one of the latest acts of horror and terror in Iraq.

18) Moscow airport suicide bombing: 35 dead, 130 injured. January 25, 2011.

19) A Pakistani minister, who had said he was getting death threats because of his stance against the country's controversial blasphemy law, was shot and killed Wednesday, 3/2/2011

20) two American troops killed in Germany Wednesday by a recently radicalized Muslim, 3/3/2011

Didn't Mohammad drive out the Jews from Medina, finally besieging the last enclave and allowing one of the men on the front line of that fight to determine the Jews' final fate (the execution of all the men, and enslavement of women, with Mohammad getting 1/5th of the spoils)?

I think Mr. Patel is glossing over centuries of forced conversions, massacres, and conquests. The Muslims in Pakistan weren't always Muslim, they had to be converted by the march of Islamic armies. Certainly other monotheist religions have been tolerated in Islamic countries (but were the pagan religions tolerated? no), but at the cost of being second class citizens who had to pay special taxes and had no real protection from their Muslim rulers.

And honestly, why *shouldn't* we blame Islam for having death penalty offenses for blasphemy, idolatry and apostasy. These 'crimes' hurt no one except a philosophical world view. Granted, the greater blame falls on people foolish enough to continue to use these arcane rules in today's age, but they are in the books, and they are from Mohammad's teachings, and in the spirit of his rulership. You can cherry pick that away if you want, but its not quite the same thing as the religion Mohammad made at that point.

ENOUGH, EBOO, ENOUGH.
Quit while you're behind.
This is getting embarrassing.
You're entitled to your opinion, but not to your facts.

You have become a pathetic apologist for Islam. Your internal psychological need to believe that Islam is not as bad as it seems is your personal issue. However, doing this self-psychotherapy under the guise of interfaith is not just irritating, it is getting in the way of people who genuinely care about creating a more peaceful world.

Islam HAS NOT, WILL NOT, and CANNOT help in making a more peaceful world. Why?

1. It is and has been inherently supremacist.
2. It is and has been inherently violent.
3. It is incapable of reform.

We can go through these points in detail, but you know the basis of these statements in the Koran & Hadith as well as anybody.

The important point is the lack of available methodology for reform in Islam. The simplicity and rigidity of Islam makes it attractive to the masses. This lack of complexity and subtlety also make it inadequate as a true spiritual/philosophical system. It is a political religion of the masses that brings out the worst tribal tendencies in humans, without an adequate method for allowing individual or collective spiritual evolution.

Most other "religions" allow their systems to modernize and reform with time. Islam does not. That is why it is stagnant or going backward - like killing children in schools in the Caucuses or burning children in a train car in Godhra, India.

I know you don't want to hear this or believe this, but think about the following. If your sincere efforts to put a positive spin on Islam is doomed to failure, then all you will have accomplished is having been an apologist for violence, intolerance, supremacism, and terrorism. Think about it. Think about it seriously. Everyday, people you consider your "brothers" (for no good reason except that you share the historical accident of Islam), these "brothers" are bringing violence and injustice to the world.

You are partly responsible, unless you stop.

Eboo:
These Pakistani people knew what they were doing. They know as much of Islam as the
Turkish Caliphate that colonized North Africa and the Middle East for over 400 years (1514-1917). The Turkish Caliph was the successor of the Muslim prophet and the “shadow of Allah on earth” and no one could claim he did not know the rules of Allah. It is a common knowledge among the people of that region that in those dark days that ended only after the armies of Britain and France brought about their end, any person having a grudge against any other person, especially an ‘infidel’, would claim that person blasphemed the Muslim prophet. The penalty would have been quick and final: pouring molten lead down his/her throat.

E B O O

What is a Southern Arab Doing In an (Sinai; MOSES Territory) Northern Aegyptian Territory 628 AD/CE?

Why Did ISLAM Invade GAZA 632 CE/AD (Same Year Mr. Muhammad Died who was killed via FOOD POISONING, by a Jewish Girl). And

Why Invade JERUSALEM 637 AD/CE?, Then Holocaust the PERSIAN 639 AD/CE (via Mass Conversions & Atrocities, Slavery, Kidnapping, Property Damage, Theft Of CULTtures etc..)?

How is it that Souther Arab's Can Build the AL AKSA Dome, Mosque in JERUSALEM 691 CE/AD.

What is WAHABBI MECCAN's Islam's Doing in INDONESIA (tantamount to "Indian"s or Savages there of) and MALAYSIA (Indian's aka Savages there of) today?

Soo, Instead of KAFIRS come to The Mountain (Muhammad), the Mountain (Muhammadans) will come to KAFIRS. Is That It?

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Unfortunately for the prospect of democracy, the people of Egypt reflect closely the attitudes of the people of Pakistan on the use of harsh Islamic punishments (like death for apostates):

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/02/egypt-vs-indonesia-in-attitudes/

Support for harsh punishments (affirm action)
1.Stone adulterers
2. Whip & amputate hands of robbers
3. Death penalty for apostates
Indonesia 42 36 30
Turkey 16 13 5
Egypt 82 77 84
Pakistan 82 82 76