Genesis' Folly (Part 4: Face the Crescent !)

Atheism is just about not believing in a god or gods, but most atheists criticize religion. But remember, criticism is different from just being stupid.

Before answering this, I just like to present to you this article that I found in a very interesting atheist blog.

When atheists criticize Christianity, we get accused of being cowards for not criticizing Islam. But when we criticize Islam, we get accused of cultural insensitivity.

Why this is untrue and unfair: And I say yet again: It's neither fair nor reasonable to assume that the atheist critique you're reading right that second is the only one this atheist has ever written. If an atheist is criticizing Christianity today, that doesn't mean they didn't criticize Islam last week.Most American atheists do focus our attentions largely on Christianity -- mainly because it's the religion that's most in our face on a daily basis. But I don't know of any serious atheist writer who hasn't criticized Islam...

As for cultural insensitivity in criticizing Islam... well, given how Islam and Islamic theocracies have historically treated women and gays, I'd call it culturally insensitive not to criticize it...

(Hey...you can visit Greta Christina's Blog to read her witty but very educational posts.)

Now let us start the ball rolling...

Genesis (Written: 2009 December 30)

I just wonder why Atheists are so much enthusiastic to disprove God and attack only the Biblical and Christian belief system? I haven’t seen anyone so boldly scrutinizing other religious books like the Qur’an.. in the first place.. Muslims are the second largest denomination in the world and are god believers too, except that their god has a different name, sets of prophets and doctrinal laws.

If Genesis is asking for atheists like me to do the same stunt Mr. Eliseo Soriano did – calling Muslims as “murderers”, well forget it. That’s not criticism, that’s just being ought right foolish.

Now look at how Genesis here is trying to portray Muslims in general. Why would Muslims wipe out all atheists in the earth in a jihad just because an atheist doesn’t believe in the existence of Allah? Is Genesis implying that Muslims are savage, animalistic, back-stabbers who rely on wanton killing just to prove their point?

Could it be that Atheists are afraid that an attempt to do so will spark strong condemnation in the Muslim world, eventually resulting to a Jihad to wipe all Atheists on earth?

Genesis, for your information, a jihad is not about killing atheists. Al- Jihad or holy fighting is about fighting those who fight Islam and sad to say, even you and your religion are included (See 2:190, 2:191 and 2:193). In Islam, the term non-believer ("kaffir") doesn’t only speak of atheists but with Christians as well (5:51, 5:56 and 9:30).

But you must understand, jihad is only done to those who mock Islam (5:57)

According to the Qur’an, those who wage jihad are enjoined not to attack first (2:190). Also, Muslims are commanded to offer an unbeliever asylum so that he can hear the word of GOD, then send him back to his place of security (9:6) or to pardon and turn away (5:13 and 7:199) which is a likely appeal for toleration and peaceful co-existence.

And…unlike what Genesis was implying, Muslims can even debate courteously with other belief-system (29:46). So I don’t think a Muslim will blow me out of my pants with bombs in his jacket, just because we’re discussing the existence of Allah.

Just try Atheists! Haha. Muslims have their way of defending their faith that is based on Qur’an. Al Qaeda believes in Allah too, remember. If Atheists are brave enough to tell the world that “There is No God, We can pRove It!”, then it wouldn’t be fair enough to target Christians only since there are even much larger god-believing denominations in the world that you can convert, as you hope so.

Your belief system lacks “balls”…. 

Now let us have enough of jihad and continue Genesis ravings.

Are atheists afraid of criticizing Islam?

Well…to prove my point all we have to do is to visit some large bookstores here in metro Manila like National Bookstore, PowerBooks and Fully Booked…Oh I forgot…we can also scan the Amazon.com website and look for the following books: End of Faith, god Is Not Great, The Portable Atheist and Atheist Manifesto. They have chapters regarding Islam. There are also books like Leaving Islam : Apostates Speak Out and Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq. You can also visit this website to see how atheists scrutinized the Qur'an.

Its really a matter of location. Since here in the Philippines, the most predominant religion is Christianity, a lot of Filipino atheists are more familiar with Jesus Christ and the Bible than Muhammad and the Qur’an. Only few got a copy of the Qur’an and the Hadith.

There are no Muslim TV evangelists. Philippine TV has more “Sorianos” and “Quibuloys” than “Barcelons” (Ahmad Barcelon is a known Muslim commentator in AM radio here in Manila.)

We have no bookstores that sell Islam related books, unlike these Christian bookstores (like St. Paul, Philippine Christian Bookstores, OMF Literature - Evangelical Christian Books Philippines and Philippine Christian Literature Inc.) around downtown Manila and…

Christianity (Roman Catholics especially) are more visible in politics and government meddling. That’s why Filipino freethinkers and secularists are more busy on them that in Islam.

So I guess Genesis’ accusation is baseless. We atheists got balls!