Understanding the Revolutions in the Middle East

thism is topic that i think should be discussed in detail. but i do think most westerners still do not understand islam concerning the middle east and israe. First of all i am going to say that i am an egyptain citizen who has lived in ireland for 9 years. i am only 14 years old but i am capable to really tell you about us muslims. this i think is the biggest problem in the middle east because westerners dont understand us.
in islam we follow the teachings of the prophets (peace be upon them) and the quran only.and in the quran it teaches us to be moral and generous to the people (it is compulsury for adults to give at least 2.5% of their profits, each year to charity). there are verses in the quran that say that muslim can resort to violence (jihad) if there in personnal threat or if their country is in threat or their religion. this has been exploited and changed by extremist groups.(wrongly)

i am going to mainly talk about egypt because that is my country. in egypt prisedent hosni muburak has ruled for 30 thirty years. in that time he has stayed in power through putting people in prison and were tortured in police stations and in many cases prisoner's wives and daughters and mother wre violated in the front of them to make them confess crimes they had not commited. mubarack planned to make his son gammal the president. he even stole 70 billion dollars from the tresuares.(the list can go on and on but it would be to long) i was sure there was a revolution coming up yet my egyptains friends tought differently they thought the egyptains were beaten down. and most protest were brutaully crushed by thousands of police (literaly thousands) on jan 25th tens of thousands of egyptain protested around egypt right after tunisia. i personaly thought this was a big event in history. (continued on next post)

Finally an actual Muslim to tell people the truth about Islam.

Yaaaa...That's a real nice belief system you got there, a true religion of peace. :roll:

You admit that the Koran prescribes violence against nonbelievers in defense of Islam. How the hell is that morally justifiable? Violence in defense of a religion? Those extremist groups are following what their holy book orders them to do, they are justified in what they're doing according to the Koran.

Why is it that the more extreme Muslims are about their religion the more violent they become? Why is it that the more extreme Jains (Jainism is a true religion of peace and nonviolence) the less violent they become? Extremist Jains wear mouth coverings to avoid accidentally swallowing and killing a fly. Extremist Muslims strap bombs to their chest and blow themselves up along with their civilian victims.

like he said they wrongly interpret it

He admitted the Koran prescribes violence in defense of Islam:

but he also said that the extremists misinterpret that as allowing them to suicide bomb themselves. The bible allows for crusades. The only difference is we dont have extremists who suicide bomb themselves because they misinterpreted it

There’s nothing to misinterpret. Violence in defense of a religion (not a country, not Muslims, but rather a fucking belief system) is morally indefensible.

Hello Ahmed while is it mostly true that people in the west don't understand islamic societies verry well, it is not really the main reason why they don't like islam. It is exactly because of theeese countries only follow the teaching of the prophet and the quran, and other older insttutions like sharia law (mostly old wahabit society rule) and this stuff is in parts really barbaric and outdated. The biggest problems of the middle east lies in their own oprresive governments and dictatorships. Theres just some things we in the west can't accept or shouldn't, although it doesn't seem to be a problem for some governemts(usa-saudi arabia), and theese things mostly lie in a judicial systems thats on the stand of the middle ages. It just doesnt sit well in a liberal society like we have in the west. And theese parts are actualy not just a misundarstanding and are not negotiable.

Actually the people of aegybt are seen as brave patriots who faught in the most noble way(peacful protest) for the highest of goals(freedom), atleast where i live. This event is equaly as historical as the protests wich lead to the downfall of the ddr. Actually i hope all of the muslims will eventualy rose up and form free and democratic societies.

This is a defense system to ensure the continued existence of Islam and all who follow it's beliefs. It is not intended to be a preemptive attack on those who may possibly threaten your religion like groups like Al-Qaeda are doing. In many times a Jihad has been necessary to protect Islam, such as the Third Crusade. If Saladin had not upheld the Jihad called by his father and united the forces of Arabia, the Holy Land, Egypt and the Caliphate then Richard, Phillip and Guy may have very well pillaged the Holy Land, conquered Jerusalem and nearly eradicated Islam in the Middle East. I went off on a bit of a tangent there but you get my point. Without the correct usage of the Jihad all the wonderful things that occurred as a result of Islam may not have occured, most noticeably their scientific contributions while the Christians bickered and accomplished nothing during the Dark Ages. Do not be so quick to judge a religion and it's beliefs without first understanding their meaning and importance, as well as how they may be misinterpreted. So there is something to misinterpret.

There’s nothing to misinterpret. Violence in defense of a religion (not a country, not Muslims, but rather a fucking belief system) is morally indefensible.[/quote]

but they misinterpret it as bombing innocent civilans and terrorist attacks. When they mean violence they mean war as in an actual war against a nation or religion that is actually destroying them. They just take the radical view of it because they misinterpret the meaning

i myself was in the egyptain revolution and endured great hardships there i saw many people die from being shot by the police. yet we were ready to die. not for terrorism not for 72 virgin(which is untrue) but for our rights. it started as a peaceful revollution untill the police started to shoot at us with live ammunition. in islam dieng as a matyr isnt by being a sucide bomber but by standing up for the weak and standing up for both your country and rights
i posted this topic to give you a chance to ask me about my religion and about the events that happened in the middle east revolts.
also i recommed going on you tube and seeing some heroic acts in the revolution.

Jihad just means struggle, I don't think he knows English well. Struggle isn't always violent.

What I think people misunderstand is that the Quran allows for violence but does not require it. It is an important difference. Our law provides for the use of violence in self defense, but according to many stereotyped interpretations of Islam, that is morally indefensible because is "promotes" violence.

Your personal interpretation. Al-Qaeda believes that the West has been invading and occupying Muslim lands, according to the Koran they have every right to kill the infidels and send them to hell. It isn't difficult to come to Al-Qaeda's "interpretation" from reading the Koran.

They were protecting their land. That's arguably a justifiable use of violence. Violence in defense of a religion can easily be interpreted to mean violence if someone insults or criticizes Islam (much as I‘m doing now).

Edit: I'm making so many typos. I'm all worked up over this. :\

voilence in defence of a religion means standing up to religous racism.

I can find you passages from the Koran that say violence is required or at the very least encouraged.

Edit: "Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it. But you may hate a thing although it is good for you, and love a thing although it is bad for you. God knows, but you know not" -2:216

Religious racism? What the hell does that even mean?

Alright i have some questions for your more regarding the revolution and less about islam(the local imam is a friend of mine)

-How did you manage to organize protests after the communications got shut down(internet,cellphones etc)
-As you are still young i imagine you had discussions with your family, where your family ok with you going to the streets?
-What was the main concerne of you and your family other then a crackdown and the old regime staying in power?
-How important where the fridayprayers for the organisation? (in the ddr the churches where really importent because it was a large gathering of people)
-Was there a large consens for revolution among your friends or where there also some who wanted the regime to stay in charge?
-In wich direction will eagypt head, will we see a open democracie after western model with egyptian touch, or will we see a second iran?
-What will happen to the muslim brotherhood now that opposition parties are officialy allowed, will they splitt up in a multple parties with different spectrums of policies or will they stay together in a more modest way?
-What will happen if the military government doesn't step down in a few month and forces its will once more upon the people?

I am looking forward to hear how one of the young generation of the egyptian people sees the situation.

what the verse means that you can defend yourself. but the terrorists attack civilians which is a sin in the quran

to sirdust
Q1
when communications were shut off i was not there in that time in the first 3 days but i know that most of it was from word of mouth. church bells rang and mosque microphones beckoned. and usually everyone knew that everyday there was a protest and it would be in the city square.
Q2
my parents would have wished to have come with me but my mom has ms(a serious illness) and my dad couldnt because he would lose his job.
they allowed me to go cause for a family there isno greater honour than to be a martyr and to be assured a place in heaven.
Q3
our main concern was that if the egyptain army turned against the protesters it would be a full scale civil war like libya but instead they were neutral through the whole event.
Q4
the friday prayers and the churches served asrally points for those to join in force and numbers in fears of a police attack.
Q5
no one wanted the regeime to stay in charge except those wealthy people who profited from it.
we all hated the regeime but never said anything for fear of prison.
Q6
yes the people just want a fair democracy not like iran
Q7
no one likes the muslim brotherhood as they wanted attacks on the christains and even supported the regeime
Q8
that is what is currently happening at the moment as they do not want to put hosni and everyone else on a free tail and are trying to free him. it seems i will be needed once more to go to egypt.

An other question more personaly then the others. My brother plans to go to egypt this summer with his girlfriend, I told him he better waits till next year, but he wouldn't listen, he argued the best way for us to support egypt is by going there and spending money. How secure is it in the egyptian tourist cities and do you think that it can become dangerous if the protest will come back.