Islam &Taking Responsibility for Your Actions
Q. How many true believers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. None; the Prophet (may peace be upon him) will take care of it.
I suspect that the Big Brother Corporation will take my show off the airwaves for that – without recognising that the joke, however weak, was being used for illustrative purposes only. So, having lost my job at the BBC in a Kilroy-Silk fashion & now having time on my hands, we can quickly look at what resides within those two lines- none other than the central difference between the West & the Islamic worlds.
The Western mind has been programmed over the last few thousand years, by Romano-Grecian logic, overlaid with Judeo-Christian teaching. One of the concepts that perhaps we should hold more dearly, is the idea of free will &the idea that we are responsible for our own actions – furthermore, one day we will be held to account for these actions.
Reading my Evening Standard on Friday night, the following item, shall we say jumped off the page;
“A (Christian) schoolgirl is to be publicly flogged in Sudan after being found guilty under Islamic Law. Unmarried Intisar Abdulgader, (aged 16) from Khartoum, has been sentenced to 100 lashes after she became pregnant. The farther of the baby went to the police after Miss Abdulgader’s parents asked him to marry their daughter.”
What a great place Khartoum must truly be – none of this nonsense about alimony payments – forget to use a condom, its OK, the state will beat this hapless child & her unborn baby to death - I wonder what the abortionists make of this?
As for the utter temerity of Miss Abdulgader’s parents to ask this man to accept the consequences of his actions-maybe they should receive 250 lashes each for raising such a wanton child that has so corrupted one of the faithful and caused him the stray from the one true path that leads to paradise.
Alternatively, maybe the good people of Khartoum should stop living in the dark ages - I would suggest that they might want to “smell the blue mountain” but that might be a little contentious, racial & religious profiling etc etc. There are of course, good muslims & bad muslims just has there are good & bad christians, but maybe Mr Kilroy-Silk has a point?
Comments
Predestination was Catholic? I had the distinct impression it was a Weseleyan innovation.
Posted by: GE | January 12, 2004 1:28 PM
You have a show?
Posted by: Phil | January 12, 2004 3:25 PM
GE,
You are completely right sir - post amended accordingly - please put the error down to post-weekend alcoholic haze !
Cheers
Mr FM
Posted by: Mr Free Market | January 12, 2004 5:19 PM
Predestination is a cental feature, not of Catholicism, but of protestantism, most especially in its Calvinist stripe.
Sixteenth century Catholics insisted-- and still do-- on the freedom of the will, which most protestants denied. Hence, the dispute over the place of good works with the Calvinist and Lutherans aruging that they are worthless, and that only faith --given to the Elect by inscrutable Providence--saves human souls. Catholics maintain that both works and faith contribute to salvation, that, in effect, an act of faith is a good work.
You might consult the medieval English morality play, Everyman, for a dramatization of the Catholic doctrine. It is famous.
To this day one hears protestants, walking around in the flesh on terra firma, speaking of already being saved. Catholics, on the other hand, believe you can lose your soul up until the last moment of breath by choosing to be separate from God. But it is your choice, not God's. He, they say, desires the salvation of all, not just an Elect.
Catholics do believe that God knows how each person's story turns out, but that a man's salvation depends on his cooperation with God's grace.
Though there are doctrinal subtleties that I have not mentioned, I can't imagine anyone getting all the basics backwards. How'd you do that?
Posted by: George Lee | January 12, 2004 5:19 PM
Just saw your self-correction! My post crossed with it. Read Everyman anyway, it's fun! It is late medieval, and midlands dialect, I seem to recall, and with a trot any modern English speaker can handle it in the original...
Posted by: George Lee | January 12, 2004 5:21 PM
George.....its the booze. I promise to stay off it for two days or until the purple spiders stop coming out of the walls, whichever in the sooner!
Posted by: Mr Free Market | January 12, 2004 5:22 PM
will do....cheers
Posted by: Mr Free Market | January 12, 2004 5:22 PM
Hehehehe, Mr. F.M, He turned water into wine, but you ain't supposed to drain every danged vessel! Ah, what the Hell, as they said at Cana, "Rock on!"
Posted by: George Lee | January 13, 2004 1:27 AM
In ref: Intisar Bakri Abdulgader
I have tried to follow this since I saw your story. Her sentance has been suspended (and she had a baby boy).
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/deliver/document/15130
Posted by: bjbarron | February 17, 2004 5:21 PM