Islam is Against Paganism, Not Modernity

The Arabs during the time the Prophet received his appointment as Prophet were steeped in Paganism and pagan cultures. Part of the pagan Arab culture at that time is:
a. gambling,
b. alcoholism,
c. fornication (free sex),
d. adultery (free sex),
e. nakedness (hence we have the jilbab),
f. idolatry,
g. disregard for hygiene ( there is a hadeeth on torcher for those who do not
clean properly after urinating)
h. murder,
i. infanticide (otherwise known today as abortion)
j. homosexuality
and many more.



Many question why the punishment for alcohol in Islam is “harsh” like in the Kartika Sari’s case. In truth, the punishment is not meant for consumption of alcohol. The real enemy behind the punishment is pagan paradigm. The harsh punishment prescribed by Islam for the list above was meant to cleanse the Arabs ( and Muslims) from Paganism.

Islam views Paganism as a crime against humanity. So, there is a need to cleanse human beings from going back to their pagan ways and cultures. And it seems that humans, without guidance and enforcement will almost always slide back into paganism subconsciously.

We see now in the West that cultures like gambling, alcoholism, free sex, nakedness, infanticide etc is now considered as human rights and no legislation is allowed to be passed prohibiting them. This is where Islam will come into collision with the Western values and culture.

The West worships and upholds paganism while Islam strive to clean the human race from it. Islam’s struggle is made harder when Paganism is now masked as “human right” when it is nothing more than a deviation from human nature.

Islam on the other hand is painted as being unprogressive and repressive and not in tuned with modernity. Funny thing is that the detractors never seem to bother to mention the fact that 40 years after the law of caning for alcohol was passed, the “Pagan” and backward Arabs came out from the Arabian Peninsula and conquered the Persian Empire and 4/5 of the Roman Eastern Empire, including Spain and 4/5 of Gaul/France.

Muawiyyah was able to turn camel riding Arabs in the desert into fighting sailors and defeated the Roman navies thus preventing them from resupplying their garrisons in Alexandria resulting in the fall of the entire Northern Africa territory once belonged to the Roman Eastern Empire.

So, no. The harsh punishment for alcoholism, among others, helped the Prophet SAW to turn a backward, pagan, uncivilized people of the desert into one of the most prolific empire man has even known in less than 60 years while at the same time destroying the Persian empire and reducing the Roman Eastern Empire to 1/5 of their former territories.

Their emperor, Heraklius, went into seclusion and thus insanity after his army was decimated by Khalis Ibnu Walid in Yarmuk (Jordan).

So, I think it’s the other way round. The West is going back to Paganism. That explains their contempt to Christianity and their tolerance for anything that is not Christian including secularism. They even view progress as being anything that turns back Christianity or religion. Their most important vessel towards paganism is of course secularism.

On the hand, Islam despise and had worked tirelessly from day one to turn back the tide of paganism. This explains the tension between Western trends and Islam and I believe the tide will not subside and will forever continue.

The West are proud of their models/actresses who parades in clothes that exposes 4/5 of their bodies. It is exactly the culture of the pagan Arabs during the time of the Prophet where women were proud of exposing the cleavages. Hence, Islam prescribed the “jilbab” to cure this element of paganism. The West decides to ridicule the “Jilbab” and labels them as being backward and anti progress when it is them that is sliding into “cave men” mentality.

So, the way Western media responded to the Kartika Sari’s caning should not have been a surprise to any Muslim. Since, the Kartika Sari’s punishment is a step towards climbing out of paganism which the West despises so much, It is a slap in the face to Western hypocrisy and western media responded the only way they know, the Pagan way.

Tulang Besi
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