Sharia Hate ll

    The second thought while reading books about Islam is the issue of individualism versus collectivism. Individualism is warm for it is concerned with a real person. It is human and alive. Individualism is for people who love people and wish them well. Collectivism though is cold for it is not concerned with a real person but a mental concept that is often a misconception. It is not human or alive. It is artificial and has no life. It is for people who don't particularly like people and other animals. They don't have warm relationships with people but calculating ones. Having warm relations with your children does not count for children often are loved by these kinds of people as possessions or narcissistic reflections of their selves. Collectivists are always looking for a utopian or perfect person as they define that.
    From what I have read about Islam and what I have learned from living with a beautiful Druize Islamic woman for about four years and my experiences with her clan, I see Islam, especially Sharia Islam, as completely collectivist with the exception that someone or something in Islam has said there is free will. I don't know yet where that comes from but I certainly have seen no indication that free will is honored in Sharia Islam. To the contrary, it is hated, and the known possessor of it could be doomed to death. Obviously, there is a complete dearth of warmth in Sharia. People aren't religiously loved but highly controlled. "Islam" is said to translate to "submission." Submission to the Quaran, the hadith, the immans, the fatwahs, your father, and then your husband, if you are a woman. Submission is your life. While I believe that submission to my best values is my life, I decide what my values should be by reason. I also try to rid myself of unreasonable values I was inculcated with by parents, preachers, friends, society, etc. I understand that the Arabs, for instance, do not operate by reason when it comes to Islam although I personally know they are often brilliant people, and they can do things. How can you do things without reason?
I know that some Arabs can drive. How can Arabs have no reasoning and drive?
Are they divinely inspired in getting from point A to point B? I doubt that even they would claim that. They must have reason. So why does it stop at religion, at Sharia Islam, at Islam period? Would Allah demand that you put aside reason when considering him and what he is, if anything. Why would Allah not want you to use your mind in an evidence-based way? Do you imagine that he is afraid of that? Surely not.
    Peter Nickerson, Philosophy Major, Class of '68, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. peternickerson12@yahoo.com
    The measure of a man,
     Is not what he says,
     But what he does,
     And what he allows,
     To be done,
     In his presence.
       - Navy Seal Instructor