To those on the right including Andrew Bolt

Going through the comments and the emails I have received after my opinion piece, it is good to see that there is an active interest in debating my point of view. There is very little sympathy from 105 people who commented on the article in courier mail and Andrew bolt’s response and 10 emails I have received so far. However, the encouraging aspect is that people are reaching out to communicate.

Unlike many Muslims, attack on me and my faith do not deter me or make me feel alienated. In fact, I am proud of this tradition of debating and expressing point of views, no matter how extreme. My inspiration to be civil against attacks is nothing else but my faith and understanding of Islam. There are many allegations made against Islam in the comments and I will try and give my response through this piece.

Many might say that free speech is only limited to Australia and/or West and most Muslim countries do not provide such opportunities and trust me I agree with that analysis without any debate. It is also true that many such regimes or groups use Islam as an excuse to stifle free speech and critical analysis, but I believe Islam to be the victim of such oppression rather than the cause of it. At this point I think I have lost many of you, but let me try and give you reasons behind this statement.

My first argument is that it’s not always the free religious thought which is suppressed using more conservative argument but anything which is seen as a political threat is suppressed by these regimes using anything including religion. This is not because they are Islamic, they are far from it, but free thought brings political and social change. There lies the problem. Most dictatorial regimes in the Muslim world are secular, yet they are happy to use religious justifications or proxies to stifle dissent. Some of those who are suppressed fall prey to terrorist groups which preach violent and extreme ways of bringing change.

Some have attacked Islam using Islamic texts, which when taken out of context indeed seem violent and aggressive. However, one can come to a similar conclusion if context is not applied to some verses of Old Testament or indeed the New Testament. Even our criminal code, when taken out of context may make the state look like a violent oppressor rather than a government. While all Muslims are obliged to learn Islam only certain scholars have a right to give religious dictates. Anyone can memorize few verses or Quran or Hadith but their application is based on Ijtihad (diligence) of renowned scholars with serious religious credentials.

The reason we are witnessing atrocities which are attributed to Islamic text is because the extremists, who have very little knowledge and acceptance, interpret these verses in the same way most of those conservative anti-Islam pundits do. One such practical argument of the falsehood of groups like ISIS is in the fact that while Iraq has been under Muslim rule since 7^th Century, no Muslim scholar or leader has ever destroyed Babylonian artifacts or driven out Christians and other minorities in the way ISIS has done.

It is a thing of great irony that there were comments by non-Muslims suggesting that Muslims like me are considered heretics by most Muslims. In fact it’s quite the opposite, most mainstream Muslims including scholars consider atrocities committed by ISIS as heresy and have openly and repeatedly condemned them. I am an elected president of Brisbane’s oldest Mosque and a spokesperson of Islamic Council of Queensland and have not received a single negative comment from any Muslim. This should be proof enough of the rejection of terrorism by overwhelming majority of Aussie Muslims. As far as the question of integration is concerned, the problem is that almost everyone has a different view on what Australian values are.

To me Australian values are to uphold the law of the land, believe in the freedom of religion and accepting diversity. So even if most Muslims don’t drink alcohol, grow a beard and females wear a Hijab, they are as Aussies as those who like to drink, wear bikinis and are clean shaved. Integration means accepting this fact and if anyone has a problem accepting this than they should seriously reconsider their own values or consider relocating.