Sam Harris is no muslim scholar that's right. But saying he doesn't know anything about it is not honest as well. The guy has read the muslim sacred texts and has been writing about this for years. What he said is partially true? He mentioned the ludicrous part :an angel spoke to Muhammad in a cave". If he wrote the rest in the following 23y is irrelevant. Or do you expect every time someone speaks about islam to give a 5h conference about the history and doctrines in detail? The fact is that there's no authority in the muslim world as to what is the right way to interpret or to "read" the Quran. For goodness sake, even inside islam there are people killing themselves over difference of interpretation.
Trying to hide the fact that islam plays a major role in the jihad (and in the lifes ans acts of jihadists) is like christians denying the ressurection of Jesus.
I'm not a muslim and I'm ignorant about a lot of things concerning islam. But what I won't do is adopt a patronizing position and claim that I know what's inside the brains of those who blow themselves up in the name of Allah and because they believe is the right thing to do according to their faith and say they're just lying and the reasons are geo-political or socioeconomic.
I'll leave a text from an ex-muslim here. A iraqi man who lost a brother in the war and now dedicates his life to rescue people who live under the thread of muslim theocracies around the muslim world:
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I'm a Jihadist and I am tired of not being credit
It must be incredibly frustrating as an Islamic Jihadist not to have your views and motives taken seriously by the societies you terrorize, even after you have explicitly and repeatedly stated them. Even worse, those on the regressive left, in their endless capacity for masochism and self-loathing, have attempted to shift blame inwardly on themselves, denying the Jihadists even the satisfaction of claiming responsibility.
It’s like a bad Monty Python sketch:
“We did this because our holy texts exhort us to to do it.”
“No you didn’t.”
“Wait, what? Yes we did…”
“No, this has nothing to do with religion. You guys are just using religion as a front for social and geopolitical reasons.”
“WHAT!? Did you even read our official statement? We give explicit Quranic justification. This is jihad, a holy crusade against pagans, blasphemers, and disbelievers.”
“No, this is definitely not a Muslim thing. You guys are not true Muslims, and you defame a great religion by saying so.”
“Huh!? Who are you to tell us we’re not true Muslims!? Islam is literally at the core of everything we do, and we have implemented the truest most literal and honest interpretation of its founding texts. It is our very reason for being.”
“Nope. We created you. We installed a social and economic system that alienates and disenfranchises you, and that’s why you did this. We’re sorry.”
“What? Why are you apologizing? We just slaughtered you mercilessly in the streets. We targeted unwitting civilians – disenfranchisement doesn’t even enter into it!”
“Listen, it’s our fault. We don’t blame you for feeling unwelcome and lashing out.”
“Seriously, stop taking credit for this! We worked really hard to pull this off, and we’re not going to let you take it away from us.”
“No, we nourished your extremism. We accept full blame.”
“OMG, how many people do we have to kill around here to finally get our message across?”
Faisal Saeed Al Mutar
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