Muslim Apologists and Reality - an Introduction to Muslim Apologetics

Muslim Apologists and Reality

Theist, derived from Greek theos + -ist; theos is god and the -ist signifies “using, being, making”

The theist believes there is evidence for the existence of a god.

The a-theist does NOT believe there is evidence for the existence of any god.

There are many different possibilities regarding an epistemological approach to gods, but I am concentrating on only 1 thing: the atheist is the opposite of the theist. Nothing more.

It is belief (theist) versus lack of belief or non-belief in something (atheist).

I want to talk about apologists, who would very much like atheists to be more than just non-believers, who would like them to be evil and  baby-munching monsters, part of a faith-based belief. In reality both, theists as well as atheists, will automatically help if someone trips or a baby falls from the pram. Because we are humans.

Apologists, if I may generalise here for a moment, don’t understand this. Apologists don’t understand the arising consequences. Apologists can’t handle that atheists don’t make claims and don’t carry any burden of any kind of proof. Apologists somehow think that an atheist is a mixture of confused misperceptions, misconceptions, irrational notions and rejection of the obvious, a whole plethora of faith-based, weird, scientific “only-theories”.

Ok, here’s the next thing that gets me, the conflating of science and atheist:

Yes, religion is not compatible with science, they are opposites.

Religion is based on faith, science is based on facts.

Religion takes place in an imaginary world, outside the Universe, science is used in the real world.

Unlike religions, science does not provide certainties, but probabilities.

Science represents the knowledge humanity has regarding the natural world, 99% of which has been gathered in the last 200 years, in 0.003% of the existence of humanoids.

It describes the natural world after observing, measuring, testing, analysing and confirming data.

None of that is found in any religious books, least of all, the Koran.

Religion and science differ in methodology, processes, philosophy and results.

Religions are static and science, because it uses replication, falsifiability, logics, reason, rationality, predictions and embraces doubt, is the opposite, always getting more accurate and providing better explanations in the form of scientific theories.

Claims of the super-natural are tested scientifically all the time - but have never been demonstrated or verified. This means that science does not preclude or reject anything a priori.

But just because there is a philosophy of science and religions can be assessed philosophically, this word “philosophy” cannot be used to link the two.

So even though religion and science are opposites, I wish apologists would stop trying to link an atheist with science, a worldview or a belief system.

Next, there is no such thing as a neo or new atheist. The definition of “opposite of theist” has been the same since the word “theist” came around something like 400 years ago. Just because atheists are no longer a mini-minority and more vocal does not change the definition and information of the word atheist. And if theists would keep their beliefs to themselves and stop trying to oppress others, we would all get along just fine. That’s because atheists react. They react to claims, demands and actions. If there were no claims, demands or actions made by theists, there would be no atheists. No theist means no atheist. It’s THAT easy.

After this short introduction of the basics, let’s quickly turn to specifics.

Islam is a socio-political system, a religion and a worldview and a political ideology. The religion in Islam uses faith to propagate super-natural entities and occurrences which have never been reliably demonstrated or independently verified in the real world. The Koran instructs followers to rely on the Koran and to reject progress. It tells its followers to believe and obey and to reflect, ponder and gain knowledge only regarding the Koran and their god, never, the natural world. Islam has an Arabic expression, bid’ah, the innovation in religion, forbidden as was “Western” television in Communist Russia due to the detrimental influence of a free society. It is thus no small wonder that most Muslim apologists are backward, hopelessly uneducated, embarrassingly ignorant and rely solely on faith. They prefer illusion to reality.

They try and discredit both science and atheists, thinking that this will somehow elevate the credibility of their faith-based belief-system.

Militant Muslim fundamentalists, Islamists and conservative Muslims represent roughly 300 million Muslims. These followers of Islam can enslave, loot, occupy a country  and levy taxes on the locals or stone a woman to death for making love with a man not her husband. Their minds are not available to help solve the real problems we have on this planet. The majority of Muslims will not condemn this. And if Bill Maher with Sam Harris were to burn a Koran on the show, there would be riots and protests in the streets all over the world. These 2 could go nowhere without police protection. What is the reaction if Muslims kill, decapitate, rape and enslave? An open letter.

Why?

Everything I just mentioned is condoned in the Koran and possible anywhere you find Muslims. Luckily, most Muslims are better than their god and ignore all of this, just leading a peaceful existence, enjoying a fulfilled life with family and friends.

This is the scenario, this is the mixed environment in which Muslim apologists today create their videos, articles or pamphlets and propagate their beliefs, some with the aim of generating revenue by pimping young girls and others by recruiting fighters for their god in foreign countries. And some just to have more believers who will contribute bonus points for the one converting them and income from zakat. Just like a sales-team, trying to gain customers by luring them away from the competition and gunning for market dominance and ultimately a monopoly.

Their sales-pitch, the proselytising, providing dawah as it is known in Islam, is usually quite childish, embarrassingly bad, consisting mainly of stereotypes, claims based on ignorance and plain nonsensical statements. A huge amount consists of lies and deceptive statements.

The people responsible for this are uneducated Muslims who don’t know much of anything. The strict rituals of Islam are providing them with a framework for their sad lives. The social aspect of this system elevates their self-esteem and they derive mannerism and positive feedback from their social in-crowd so they don’t even see how limited and tedious their lives are. They don’t realise that this is artificial, as one of the covenants is that they don’t criticise each other, always deriving a positive response to their nonsense. This allows them to actually feel elated, fulfilled and even superior, an illusion, not reality.

This is where I get irritated and outright angry. It’s like the guy next to me, who doesn’t know analogue watches, is being sold a fake Rolex on the beach. My moral values provide me with compassion, so I speak up and inform the guy of the scam. The same is the case with Muslim apologetics. As I am not part of any religious crowd, I can openly and objectively criticise this nonsense and show the nonsense for what it is and inform potential victims of the consequences.

Let’s get even more specific.

Take, for instance, LDM, or London Dawah Movement. These people were, to a large extent, trained by the convert Hamza Tzortzis, a dishonest, ignorant loud-mouth who damaged Islam and the perception of Muslims quite substantially with his half-baked philosophy and bad copies of Christian apologists who were since also silenced by facts and reason. LDM pretend to be providing modern arguments for an ancient ideology - and fail badly. Yet they constantly pump out more lies and childish rhetoric, then demand more money and sponsorship, in other words, donations.

They spend this money on technical equipment and trips to the football championship in Brazil or the Formula1 race in Bahrain to give dawah to Muslims and convert them to Islam, I suppose. Utter and incredible nonsense. A waste. Of everything.

When they started out I tried contacting them through their weekly program which allows for some viewer interaction. Not free and open like the Jinn & Tonic show or MSS, but some interaction was possible, albeit monitored and tightly controlled.

I was actually naïve enough to think we could find a common, rational basis, but this proved to be impossible. They soon broke their promises and eventually banned me for making critical remarks instead of embracing constructive criticism. Today, I just receive insults and personal criticism from them. They don’t understand concepts, least of all logical fallacies, so an insult is an ad hominem and a refutation a strawman. They don’t know better and choose to remain ignorant and uneducated. But at least I tried.

They constantly talk about the false perception of Islam and making positive engagements with the community. Then they rock up with their long beards and long dresses, demonstrating vividly that they don’t respect the local culture one bit. The female Muslims are not allowed to talk to strangers and if they do it is through layers of covering, also not respecting the local culture.

They constantly talk about atheists - and don’t understand what atheists are.

They constantly talk about the Big Bang - and don’t understand what the Big Bang is.

They constantly talk about morality - but lack even the ability to condemn the stoning of women.

They constantly talk about incest - because they misunderstand what people say and forget their own Islamic rules about this.

They don’t understand that a car, a book or an ideology can’t be “truth” - yet constantly use these words in combination.

They don’t understand what Prof Krauss, Dr Harris or Prof Dawkins say - but incessantly talk about them.

They set up tables across the UK and then loudly demonstrate their ignorance and backward ideology expecting more followers and income. All they manage is scraping the barrel, finding extremely credulous people with low self-esteem and lacking education. Then they hug and pat each other on the back - for stealing candy from a baby.

Allow me a brief break here. Just to set the stage, if I am taking a video by or with Imran Hussein, you need to protect your brain by lowering its activity.

This is a person who publicly claims that an atheist, the person who lacks a belief, has this lack of a belief as their worldview. Like not accepting James Bond - is a person’s worldview.

This is a person who is shocked that the theory of evolution is taught in schools, as a fact.

This is a person who admits that he, being a Muslim, does not understand science and the scientific method, he freaks out.

To make up for this and to provide him with comfort, he has his favourite god with him wherever he goes and a lot of truth. I will not waste time on counting how many times the word truth is used, but trust me, it’s substantial.

This is a person who correctly asserts that an atheist has no basis and thinks he’s made a profound statement.

This is a person who finally manages to do something which any kid would take to be obvious, the detachment of science from the atheist. Wow! Brilliant.

This is a person who thinks the Koran tells followers to look at nature, when it does no such thing.

This is a person who thinks the Koran tells followers to “do science”, which is completely untrue.

He spends time talking about camels, probably completely ignorant about the fact that they came over from America - the others wandered South as Llamas, Alpacas, etc. something like 6000 years ago. They arrived in Africa, where just a few countries around Somalia hold 60% of today’s world population of dromedaries, not Arabia. The two-humped Bactrian camel stayed behind in the colder regions of Asia.

This is a person who calls a drop of semen “dead” or “dead water” when the total opposite is true.

I accept the possibility that

- evolution is correct

- evolution is wrong

- a god exists

- a god does not exist

I am willing and prepared to change my mind instantly. As is Prof Dawkins, who might be arrogant, the fact is he does NOT claim he knows all the answers.

So, maybe it’s time to spend a few days to invest an hour here and there and check what the contents of these videos is and expose the childish and deceptive disposition of their messages.

Since all members of LDM are, well as are all apologists I know, as they are cowards and too afraid to chat, talk or have a civilised discussion with someone who knows Islam a bit, I will select a couple of their videos and make some short replies where I will show the approach they use and then provide my comment and what I think of it, showing the lies, falsehoods and deceit. I will try and show that their playing pretend is not reality and that it is based on mere faith, not facts. This hopefully will present a counter-balance to their claims and level the playing field a bit and maybe give potential converts a 2^nd opinion. The counter-apologetics, as it were, to their 101, my 102 or 201 or 1001.

And who knows, maybe even LDM can come to their senses and provide real arguments for Islam from Islam instead of what they are doing now, choosing an immensely disingenuous approach, damaging the credibility of Islam and Muslims.

See you later when I will reply to some of their videos.