An imposter...a fake god.

I’m turned off by Islam, I wrote in my journal in 1999. Yes, two years before the 9/11 attacks on American targets by Islamic loonies.

A Muslim, Egyptian Amin Kader, was the guest speaker in a class I was auditing in the graduate school at Hamline University in St. Paul on Nov. 4, 1999. At the time, he was a professor of business administration at Augsburg College. And he talked to us about the Islamic faith.

I came away with the impression that Kader’s god was terribly ghoulish. Certainly not my friendly god. My god of love. But then I suppose everybody imagines the god they want. And Kader favors a strict god. So strict that he wants severe punishments meted out to those who do wrong. Death for murderers. And having one’s hand chopped off for stealing. And I shudder to think what’s supposed to be cut off for a sex offense.

And even death, apparently, for blasphemy, as evidenced by the death sentence declared by at least one Islamic sect, for Salmen Rushdie, the writer, who allegedly slammed Islam in a book. Kader, however, was opposed to killing Rushdie. For a technical reason. Because he thinks Rushdie wasn’t ever a true Muslim.

Anyway, I tried to pin down Kader during the Q. & A. session.

Muslims think god wants political and social and economic “deterrents,” as Kader puts it, to encourage people to be more honest, more holy. He thinks chopping off hands works. Because, he says, in Islamic countries there’s a remarkably low rate of theft crimes.

Put the fear of allah (and the loss of a hand) in man, Kader argues, and man tends to live the way he’s supposed to live. By Islamic law, I guess. And among other things, that means no consumption of alcoholic beverages. And no gambling. And everybody is supposed to dress modestly. Men in loose clothing. Women with veils over their faces.

And let’s all go on pilgrimages to Mecca.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking I don’t want god to be Puritanical. Or overly strict. Instead, I’m holding out for a cheerful and friendly and joyful god. A god with a sense of humor. And not least, a forgiving god.

Oh, I don’t see anything wrong with following the 10 commandments. But I also don’t see anything wrong with having fun, with having a good time. With being sensual. And joyful. With just plain loving life.

I think a god who would have us chop off hands of thieves is a ghoulish god. More like a devil. Rather than the god of love. Anyway, I suspect that a ghoulish god is really an imposter…a fake god. –Jim Broede