Muslims Riot Over Exam Question

In a New Delhi university a riot broke out over the wording of an exam question on Mohammed's life for a graduate level history course. Fortunately the authorities quickly took stern actions:

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Chief Minister, Madhu Koda has directed Ranchi University Vice Chancellor, A A Khan to inquire into the question paper scandal.

Koda said he would talk to the university authorities and urge them to initiate action against the question paper-setters.

He expressed concern over the issue, saying such an act could hurt the sentiments of a community and affect communal harmony. Meanwhile, the University administration cancelled the History examination and set up a committee to inquire into the matter.

Apparently disclosing the entire question in the article would be too "inflammatory," but the paper does mention:

Students allege that the question was an insult to Prophet Mohammad as it refers to the Prophet as a 'businessman' and a 'raider' in his early days.

The facts around these aspects of Mohammed's life are well-known and beyond dispute:

He was a successful trader
He did lead his followers in attacks on caravans and cities

So it's hard to discern exactly what part of the undisclosed question was misrepresenting his life.

The discussion thread attached to the article is also interesting reading. Evidently the trials and tribulations faced by the poor Muslims at the hands of infidels are the same the world over, regardless of the identities of the "oppressors."

Root Cause of Terrorism

Dr. Tawfik Hamid, a onetime member of Jemaah Islamiya, an Islamist terrorist group, writes in OpinionJournal about the inherent propensity to violence in Islam. Dr. Hamid now lives in the West and describes himself as a Muslim reformer.

It is vital to grasp that traditional and even mainstream Islamic teaching accepts and promotes violence. Shariah, for example, allows apostates to be killed, permits beating women to discipline them, seeks to subjugate non-Muslims to Islam as dhimmis and justifies declaring war to do so. It exhorts good Muslims to exterminate the Jews before the "end of days." The near deafening silence of the Muslim majority against these barbaric practices is evidence enough that there is something fundamentally wrong.

The grave predicament we face in the Islamic world is the virtual lack of approved, theologically rigorous interpretations of Islam that clearly challenge the abusive aspects of Shariah. Unlike Salafism, more liberal branches of Islam, such as Sufism, typically do not provide the essential theological base to nullify the cruel proclamations of their Salafist counterparts. And so, for more than 20 years I have been developing and working to establish a theologically-rigorous Islam that teaches peace.

Yet it is ironic and discouraging that many non-Muslim, Western intellectuals--who unceasingly claim to support human rights--have become obstacles to reforming Islam. Political correctness among Westerners obstructs unambiguous criticism of Shariah's inhumanity. They find socioeconomic or political excuses for Islamist terrorism such as poverty, colonialism, discrimination or the existence of Israel. What incentive is there for Muslims to demand reform when Western "progressives" pave the way for Islamist barbarity? Indeed, if the problem is not one of religious beliefs, it leaves one to wonder why Christians who live among Muslims under identical circumstances refrain from contributing to wide-scale, systematic campaigns of terror.

We don't know whether or not Dr. Hamid's efforts to create a non-violent Islamic theology will succeed, but we wish him the very best of luck. Read the rest of his excellent article here.