Emre, you may think that these posts about my forming a new version of Islam, now called Isliam, is disrespectful to Islam, and just mocking your views.This is not the case: I am actually making a serious point here.
If anyone can simply stand up and proclaim that they know the true message of Islam, and that a great deal of current Islamic belief is wrong, without giving any evidence or justification beyond saying 'because I said so', that is showing massive disrespect to the billions of Muslims around the world, whose faith incorporates so much of what you reject. You are telling all Muslims, from Grand Muftis to the average Abdullah on the street, that their faith is a sham, that they are misguided and wrong, and that only you have the real answers. That is far more insulting to Muslims than non-Muslims: we (non-Muslims) don't really care either way what Muslims believe, because we don't believe any of it. It is Muslims whose beliefs you are trampling on.
Moreover, your take on Islam is not argued from any great position of Islamic scholarship. You are not arguing your beliefs with Muslim scholars: you have instead chosen to try to spread your message on sceptics' forums, which are not generally populated with such academics. If you genuinely believed that your ideas had merit, you would be engaging with Muslim scholars and authorities. I am guessing that the reason you don't is twofold: you know you would lose such a debate, and you are scared of the consequences, in terms of fatwas and charges of apostasy.
As a final point to Emre, can I ask if you pray five times a day, and, if you do, do you face Mecca? I'm asking because of your earlier rejection of the Ka'aba as a focus of worship.
In a general point, going back to my satirisation of Emre's pontificating, if anyone can set themselves up as the founder of a new sect of Islam, a sect that rejects a great deal of current Muslim belief, and on such shaky foundations, what does that say about Islam, and religion in general? If you can stand up and say that, somehow, the omnipotent god failed to transmit his message properly, and that this time, finally, he's got it right, because I'm the only person in hundreds of years that could understand correctly, then it makes that god look pretty stupid. If this god, or any god, is so damned wonderful, why can't he just tell us what we should believe and how we should worship him, in plain language and in a form that makes it undeniable it came from god? Better yet, why can't he just appear in person- as, so we are told, he was more than happy to do in the past- and settle it all once and for all?
For me, the answer is obvious: because god doesn't exist. For the faithful, though, this is- or ought to be- a more troubling question.
