En sån där dag man inte glömmer!

Den 10 september 2001 skulle jag ha flugit från Dubai till Colombo och sedan vidare till Bangkok. Men planet till Colombo var för ovanlighetens skull fullt till sista plats – också i business class – och jag fick återvända till Golden Falcon Hotel, tillsammans med mitt sällskap, i väntan på nästa plan som skulle gå tidigt på morgonen.

När jag en dag som idag tittar i min dagbok för denna dag, finner jag denna passage från den kvällen för sex år sedan:

In the evening Martin says something about Islām and Nazmy starts talking about Western miscomprehensions… I’ve never discussed religion much with him – basically of course because I find it useless, and since we are doing business together since almost one year, it’s no point in offending him. But now I say to him, that these common complaints about ‘misun­derstandings’ are not misunderstandings at all, but our experiences of Islām.

– It’s not what media writes, I said to him. In every major city in Europe people have neighbours who are Muslims nowadays, and It doesn’t matter at all what the Qur’ān says, in the real world we meet Muslims all the time, who feel they can cheat, steal, rob, commit adultery and rape and even murder, as long as they show God their butts five times every day and don’t eat pork. And we think it’s silly! What kind of God is it that they believe in, if the only thing he really cares about is what people eat?

– I agree with you. Of course it’s silly, he says. And the Qur’ān even says that if you are invited to eat with neighbours that are non-Muslims, you should eat what’s given to you, and not ask what it is, so that you don’t offend their hospitality, but that if they tell you it’s pork, you should politely decline.

He goes on talking about what a tolerant religion Islam is, and of course he is correct – in theory! But the reality is very far from this ideal. Then he talked about the Qur’ān, saying he’s been told that the Arabic language of the Qur’ān is so beautiful, so that it must be a book of God.

– How could a simple man as Muhammad have made it all up by himself?

I almost blushed, and to tell the truth I felt pity for him! This well-educated and devoted young Muslim knows about as much Arabic as I do, and he just believes what the stupid mullahs tell him! And they are stuffing the believers with crap all the time!

So I said to him:

– I’m quite familiar with the history of Islām and the Qur’ān since the years when I studied comparative religion at the university. And it’s an uncontested historic fact that the Qur’ān mainly was an oral tradition and existed in many conflicting versions, since the Arabic language hardly existed as written language in the time of Muhammad – and that the suras were gathered from those who knew them by heart, and whatever parts that had been written down was collected from all over the Muslim world, edited and released in its definitive version during the time of ‛Uthmān, the third caliph. The process is described in some hadīths. Then the conflicting written material was burned, and the myth created that this is a single book received by Muhammad in its entirety, and in its present form.

– If Muhammad received the Qur’ān, and it was written down according to his dictation – where is the original? I asked him.

He was stunned; he had never thought about it! And then I dropped it.

But then he went on talking about Islamic terrorism, and says that he believes CIA is secretly financing the Talibans and Osama bin Laden (Usāmah ibn Lādin).

– It’s common knowledge that CIA supported, armed and trained the Talibans at the beginning, because they wanted them to fight the Soviet troops in Afghanistan, I said to him. But that was many years ago. But for what reason would CIA support Osama bin Laden today, I asked him.

– To discredit Islām, he says.

– But why would they want to discredit Islām? I asked him.

He had no answer for that, of course. It’s just a general feeling shared among Muslims around the world, that they are misunderstood, and that the West – and the US in particular – is hostile to their faith.

Then in the early morning we went back to the airport and caught the morning flight to Colombo.

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Efter att ha anlänt till Colombo och sovit några timmar, skriver jag texten ovan i min dagbok. Så hämtar jag dagens tidning utanför dörren. Det tar mig några ögonblick innan jag fattar att bilden jag ser på förstasidan inte är från någon hollywoodproduktion: New Yorks World Trade Center finns inte längre!

En timme senare kommer Nazmy över. Vi dricker te och pratar lite. Han är påtagligt skakad, och frågar mig:

– Who do you think is behind it?

– It’s Osama bin Laden of course, säger jag. He has this kind of terrorism on his agenda, and there is simply nobody else you can suspect.

– How do you feel about it? frågar han sen.

– I don't condone killing of innocent people, svarade jag. But I can appreciate the insult to an arrogant superpower!

– I guess that's what we all feel, säger han.

På kvällen kommer han över igen med min biljett till Bangkok. På flygplatsen ser jag CNN. De har fått hjärnsläpp som vanligt när något stort inträffar, och det finns bara en nyhet – och den är redan mer än ett dygn gammal: man visar samma filmsekvenser om och om igen och tuggar om samma kommentarer med minimala variationer…

Men jag förstår varför man visar dessa filmsekvenser! De är absolut otroliga! Hollywood har aldrig varit i närheten av någonting så fullständigt förstummande!

It’s awesome! It’s a masterpiece of deconstruction!

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Londons muslimska befolkning har ökat explosionsartat på senare år: från ca 600 000 år 2000 till 1,5 miljoner år 2006. (Statistiken som jag sett redovisar inte fördelningen mellan födda och invandrade.)

Jag försöker inte antyda att detta innebär 900 000 nya potentiella terrorister, men myndigheternas naivitet i sitt stöd till moskéer och islamiska skolor av olika slag har varit fullständigt häpnadsväckande!

Det finns ca 1 350 moskéer i Storbritannien. Av dessa är idag knappt hälften (ca 600) kontrollerade av Deobandi – den rigida islamiska skola i vilken talibanerna har sina rötter. Av de 26 statsstödda islamiska seminarierna kontrollerar de 17, och de utexaminerar 80% av de inhemska, brittiska mullorna.

Majoriteten av de brittiska muslimerna har sina rötter i Indien och i Barelwi – en sufisk riktning som är Deobandis absoluta motats: medan Deobandi förbjuder all musik och dans, utgör just musik, dans och poesi en central del av Barelwis tradition.

Barelwi kontrollerar ca 550 av Storbritanniens moskéer.

Två andra fundamentalistiska skolor kontrollerar ytterligare 90 av moskéerna.

Allt enligt THE TIMES.

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