John Howard’s favourite Muslim, Ameer Ali has detailed his beliefs in an interview published in today’s Australian newspaper. The former head of AFIC is reported to have said:
“Dr Ali, who is writing an academic paper entitled “Closing of the Muslim Mind”, said even Mohammed was not the “perfect model” as most Muslims believed. Asked if the prophet had character flaws, he said: “Of course – you must look at him as a human being also.”
He goes on to say:
“There are verses about slavery, and the Koran says you must be kind to the slaves. So are the Muslims saying we must have slavery to be kind?”
which I think demonstrates wonderfully, the depth of his own understanding of Islam.
The full article is here
If he has been fairly reported, it just highlights just how unrepresentative of mainstream Muslim opinion and belief, the Prime Minister’s Muslim Advisory Council is.
7 comments ↓
After duhr prayers at uni, the current president of the MSA showed us this article. Seriously, this guy sounds like one shallow nutter.
He has proved to be very self contradictory. Wasn’t he the same guy who was telling Michelle Leslie she either has to dress like a Muslim or not be a Muslim at all?
The trouble with these comments — assuming, of course, that he made them — is that it is difficult to know where to begin. The idea, for example, that Muslim extremism is simply the result of a literalist interpretation of the Qu’ran is a simplistic and flawed idea. The root cause of most extremist groups is in the very sort of thing that Ameer Ali is proposing: a reinterpretation of classical Islamic jurisprudence to suit “modern realities”. In Australia, those “modern realities” might be the demands of government but, in other settings, the realities by which the faith is reinterpreted might be the oppression of one’s enemies. Whereas the former might lead to a reevaluation of such practices as polygny, the latter might lead one to conclude that killing women and children is permissable because the state in that particular country is also killing women and children.
http://www.theaustralian.news......02,00.html
He did make the comments. I made contact with him. He said the prophet was not perfect because he turned the blind man away in surah abassa.
I also asked him since when does a man with an economic degree become an “islamic scholar”. He went on to compare himslef with Al Ghazali aka Gazel.
I think that there are so many things that one could say in response to Ameer Ali’s comments that, like Amir I don’t know where or even if to begin.
But to give one example, the situation dealt with in Surah Abassa is a critique by Allah on his Prophet(PBUH) for substituting one correct action for another correct action of lesser value. It does not even concern personal sinfulness or even a wrong action. To make the leap from that and say that this demonstrates “character flaws” is a remarkable feat. One should ask, what unique gifts of scholarship, insight, linguistic and textual analysis skills he has exercised to reach this conclusion? And if there is no other textual or historical evidence then he has made an error of logic.
There are other errors of logic, errors of history, errors of Quranic exegesis, errors of understanding. One would need to devote an entire post to it, and I’m not sure if I can summon up the interest to do so (unless there is a demand).
I am glad that he confirms the Australian’s report as this will allow Muslims to make up their own minds.
Baybers, i think you should author the post. It would be insightful.
[...] Following his recent comments, Ameer Ali, former head of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and current chairman of the Prime Minister’s Muslim Community Reference Group has written an interesting letter to The Australian thanking them for their role in the ‘debate’ about Islam. I WOULD like to thank the editorial team of The Australian for encouraging an open debate and analysis of religious texts (”Brave stand on Muslim honesty”, Editorial, 5/10). [...]
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