Du'a of Sheikh Muhammad Al Mohaisany

July 9, 2003 9:28 AM

Du'a of Sheikh Muhammad Al Mohaisany (warning: flash, sound) The singing is beautiful, the images disturbing, the worldview very different from what we're used to in the rational west. I've only found this linked from Zionist sites. Questions of provenance? More on Du'as here.
posted by alms (13 comments total)

While it can be argued that the islam religion is in fact the correct path or not, I am certain of one thing: the man who prayed these things has no doubt in his heart.

Quite powerful and moving, making me want to take my own faith a little more seriously.
posted by woil at 9:56 AM on July 9, 2003

Faith? I wonder. The struggle of Islamic extremists against western influence is the most hopeless conflict of our time. I argue against those who supported the war by refusing to lump all Muslims together. This flash presentation shows what some hawks point to as the rationale for war. Another presentation could be made (by Michael Moore no doubt) showing our own intolerance and hatred. For myself, retribution and hatred and wishing harm on anyone, even my "enemies," can never be an article of faith. It is merely a betrayal of my own compassion. It's the easy choice. But I suspect the purveyors of this presentation feel a sense of outrage no less passionate than that conveyed by their subject. I wish I understood why it's so difficult to protect oneself against the dangers of others' mistakes while being proactive in support of their virtues.
I guess I'll always be naive.
posted by divrsional at 10:34 AM on July 9, 2003

Quite powerful and moving, making me want to take my own faith a little more seriously.

I honestly can't imagine why. It appears to be mostly multimedia hate to me, complete with endless pictures of their one recent "triumph", the murder of thousands in the World Trade Center. It makes me want to take everyone's faith, and especially this person's, much less seriously, or certainly less respectfully.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 11:25 AM on July 9, 2003

We should not confuse the ranting of a fundamentalist as any representation of an entire religion, sect, race, class or people. This man is obviously confused in his faith, the faith that teaches of Allah the compassionate and Allah the just. This prayer is full of hatred and bigotry, but little Islam. The use of this as a tool by other Fundamentalists to point at all members of a group is equally distasteful and bigoted. Sad that with all this information and centuries of knowledge at our fingertips and we still take things like this at face value.

Personally, I pray that both the author of this prayer and the webmaster who puts it on display to drive a wedge between peoples find compassion and wisdom.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:27 AM on July 9, 2003

I know of no faith based on hatred. So I'd say this was a particularly faithless little clip.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:35 AM on July 9, 2003

Ah, a crusade against an evil empire. How original.
posted by carter at 11:38 AM on July 9, 2003

Sorry, forgot the sarcasm tags. That was an interesting post, alms; thanks.
posted by carter at 11:41 AM on July 9, 2003

Hey, thanks for the link! the Ayn Rand one, of course. The first one is pure fundamentalist garbage, and yet another good evidence of why the West should harbor no naive illusions regarding some so-called muslims. I'd like to see this Mohaisany drivel properly handled at LGF or something like that.

woil, if you find this shameful glamorization of terror and the misuse of a respectable religion "powerful and moving", you're a failure of evolution. That's harsh and I don't often resort to personal remarks, but how come people insist in courting their own destruction? That has nothing to do with religion; it's outright criminal lunacy, and as such it has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
posted by 111 at 11:53 AM on July 9, 2003

Newsflash: Both sides in 1200 year old conflict consider their point of view justified. Onlookers shocked, awed.

It wasn't a bad poem, though the visual portion was so-so. As a propaganda tool to the faithful? Great stuff. As a proselytic tool? Not so great. I give it a B-, where A is Triumph of the Will or "The Political Doctrine of Fascism", and F is GWB and Colin Powell's speeches about weapons of mass destruction.

Perhaps I need to actually point out that most people do _not_ look at Western Civilisation and say "Wow, what a great set up!" and as a result, don't feel particularly fond of us. Hell, most Westerners aren't that fond of the West, let alone someone who looks at us and considers the separation of Church and State to be just a plain awful way to run society (as a certain Mr. Qutb did famously), regardless of imperialist adventures and whatnot. So why be shocked at this fact? We aren't everybody's best friend.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 12:06 PM on July 9, 2003

its akin to a flash montage of pictures of troops getting on the ol aircraft carrier and saying farewell (probably with a touch of the towers tumbling as well, per american tasteless patriotism) all set to 'proud to be an american' and with the blaring tagline GOD BLESS AMERICA. etc. the only difference here *is* worldview. i find it very enlightening that members of the american public think we are any different than this.
posted by c at 12:20 PM on July 9, 2003

Both sides in 1200 year old conflict consider their point of view justified

Firstly, I'd just like to say that there's far more than two sides in this issue and secondly 1200 years is a bit short sighted in the scope of this situation. How long ago did Jericho fall exactly? Where were those slaves from that built those Pyramids 6000 years ago? Anyway, not nit picking, I get your point.

C, I think you're right on, fundamentalists are fundamentalists are fundamentalists, whether its Taliban, Iranian Imams, Falwell on "sodomites", Zionist settlers in the West Bank, Ulster Unionists, IRA bombers, Uber-Nationalists, unbending faith in hatred and separation is no different in the base level no matter where it rears its disgusting head.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:57 PM on July 9, 2003

I actually concur in the idea that the level of devotion and faith is inspiring in a way. I think it's poorly directed. There's a phrase (I think) from the Bible where Jesus criticizes "zeal without knowledge."

How do they really believe that random acts of terrorism are going to achieve a goal? How do they believe this kind of stuff is justified? It's not just religion: I know many religious people who don't think that way, who don't get trapped into an "us versus them" mindset. I think there's a set of underlying cultural problems combined with latent but nearly omnipresent human weaknesses.
posted by namespan at 3:31 PM on July 9, 2003

How do they really believe that random acts of terrorism are going to achieve a goal?

namespan, cuz they think they are not random acts of terrorism, but contributions to a freedom struggle. From watching the imagery in the video, it seems as if whoever put the clips together thinks that random acts of terrorism are what Muslims are suffering from (e.g. Muslim women getting kicked by kids in the street).
posted by carter at 4:50 PM on July 9, 2003