MISS WORLD'S VERY OWN ISLAM
BY HUGH FITZGERALD
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
If you google “Islam” and “news” this week, you will pull up from the Internet
the inspiring story of Esma Voloder, who has just been declared Miss World Australia 2017.
Here is her message to the world:
My heart is full Gratitude and joy overtook me last night as I was crowned @missworldaustralia 2017 at @grandhyattmelbourne
Last night re-affirmed that dreams really can become realities. We have
all heard this and some of us have been fortunate to not only think it,
but truly know it… though it has never prevented the doubt that creeps
up on us… it is faith in the best outcome provides us with the strength
and motivation to do our best and continue striving. So many people I
would like to give a whole hearted thank you to- My family for your love
and support. Miss World Australia team and @pageantqueenaus (Miss World
Australia director) for your kindness, understanding, faith and trust
in me. The judges who represented diverse and relevant elements and
industries in Australia that I admire- from an organisation dedicated to
helping those in need and giving women opportunity, comedy to keep us
light hearted, fashion that keeps us feeling who we are, health and
fitness which equips us with the energy to chase our dreams and send
positive messages, and reality which showcases bravery to be who we are
in front of a large audience. To @phuketpearls for the stunning crown
inspired by the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge-it is so
appreciated and considerate of you to have incorporated iconic
Australian culture into your carefully handcrafted masterpiece, it is so
beautiful and I love it dearly <3 The @hugthailand for your
partnership and hospitality- I am so very excited to travel to the land
of smiles once I have an extra big one to bring to your country
@ozwearaustralia , @novoshoes and all our other sponsors for their
generously donated gifts (products, thoughts, hospitality and love) .
Each time I received something I felt so spoilt and meeting some of you
has been a pleasure you are all so infectious and it really does
translate in your products. Thank you for having myself as your
ambassador. It has been a blessing to raise funds under
#beautywithaprpose and for @varietyaustralia . Thank you Australia- for
giving me a home and opportunity to do good #missworldaustralia2017
So far, so breathtakingly banal.
This crazed, cliche-filled stream of naively covetous consciousness,
by this pretty and mindless girl, who is grateful to, and is full of
love for, practically everyone, begins with her heartfelt thanks — in
the manner of someone accepting an Oscar at too great a length — to her
family, for their “love and support,” to the Miss World Australia team
for their “kindness, understanding, faith, and trust in me,” to the
judges “who represented diverse and relevant [?] elements [?] and
industries in Australia that I admire,” “from an organisation dedicated
to helping those in need” and “giving women opportunity, comedy to keep
us light hearted” and “health and fitness which equips us…” — possible
spokeswoman for gym equipment? — “with the energy to chase our dreams”
and “send positive messages” [?] and “reality [?] which showcases our
bravery [?] to be who we are.”
But there’s not just this blend of nonstop nonsense and banality.
There’s also the shout-out to, product placement for, the sponsors, for
all the gifts they’ve lavished upon her, from “ozwear” to phuketpearls
for providing her with a $58,000 necklace, and to an entire country,
Thailand, for its “partnership and hospitality,” which she hopes to
visit (and of course she will, it’s all part of her deal) — would-be
tourists, please take note of her endorsement — just as soon as she can
learn to give a smile big enough for that “land of smiles.” And then a
last little incoherent thrust: “you are all so infectious [!] and it
really does translate [!] in your products [!]. Thank you for having
myself [English is not her strong suit] as your ambassador.”
But that’s not the main reason to deplore Ms. Voloder’s newfound
fame. She doesn’t just want to be a brand ambassador for pearls and
ozwear and tourism in Thailand. She wants to be a brand ambassador for
Islam, the faith she was born into and which, she assures us, has been
getting a bad rap. Included in her acceptance speech was this:
“The Islam that I know, that is in the Qur’an, I don’t
associate that with any acts that are occurring around the world. People
tend to blame religion for the atrocities that are happening, but if we
do that we take responsibility away from the individuals.”
“A lot of things have been misconstrued about Islam. I feel that a
category has been created that is not really what the Qur’an actually
promotes. I believe Islam is about peace, unity, prosperity and
inclusion.”
The Islam that she knows may be in the Qur’an, but only in the most
misleadingly abridged of versions. Shall we yet again, as we always must
on such occasions, remind her of 9:5 and 9:29 and 8:12 and 3:151 and
47:4 and 98:6? Is it possible that her eyes glazed over when she came to
those verses, or did she somehow manage to ignore them and more than a
hundred others like them, that command Muslims to fulfill the duty of
violent Jihad against the Infidels, until such time as they are
everywhere subdued, and Muslims rule, everywhere?
She may not “associate” the Qur’an “with any acts that are occurring
around the world” (by this she is demurely alluding to terrorist acts by
Muslims, of which there have been more than 30,000 since 9/11/2001),
but apparently many of those who commit these acts do not agree. Some of
them chant Qur’anic verses on uploaded YouTube videos showing the
decapitation of Infidels, or the blowing up of enemy vehicles. Others
show the warriors of the Islamic State, marching through Mosul or Raqqa
under the black flag of Islam, with the Shehada written on it,
apparently associated by these warriors not with peace but war. And the
two killers of Drummer Rigby, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale,
converts to Islam who after their attack proudly held up their copies of
the Qur’an, even quoting passages about violence — is it they who have
misunderstood Islam, or is it Esma Voloder? What was it that that vastly
learned Shi’a theologian, Ayatollah Khomeini, did not understand about
Islam when he issued his many calls for making war on the West and,
especially, on the archenemies Zionists and Americans? Was his
successor Ayatollah Khamenei calling for “peace” or “unity” or
“inclusion” when, a few weeks ago, he called for a Jihad against the
hated Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir? Was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
self-appointed caliph of the Islamic State, showing an ignorance of the
“real” Islam when he so often called for “jihad,” or for ‘more jihad” or
for “tornadoes of jihad to erupt,” with not the slightest doubt that he
meant endless war against the Infidels? Like the Ayatollahs Khomeini
and Khamenei, al-Baghdadi has had extensive theological training. He
obtained a BA, MA, and PhD in Islamic studies from the Islamic
University of Baghdad. Is it possible that all three were misinformed by
their teachers about the true peaceful Islam, the only kind of Islam
that Esma Voloder recognizes?
Esma Voloder, of course, has plenty of distinguished company in her
certitudes. Tony Blair, who claimed to never be without his copy of the
Qur’an, once praised that book as “practical and way ahead of its time.
The most remarkable thing about reading the Koran – in so far as it can
be truly translated from the original Arabic – is to understand how
progressive it is.” His successor David Cameron knew Islam, the real
Islam, could do no wrong, so that after the killing of Drummer Rigby, he
quickly denounced the attack, describing it as a “betrayal of Islam.”
Theresa May has repeatedly called Islam “peaceful” after every terror
attack — not just at home, but to an American audience in Philadelphia —
and described the Muslim attack on Westminster Bridge as a “perversion
of Islam.” Barack Obama has said, repeatedly, that “Islam is a religion
that preaches peace.” His predecessor George Bush produced his own
variations on the theme in a series of treacly Iftar messages: “Islam is
a vibrant faith. Millions of our fellow citizens are Muslim. We respect
the faith. We honor its traditions. Our enemy does not. Our enemy
doesn’t follow the great traditions of Islam. They’ve hijacked a great
religion.” And “Islam is a faith that brings comfort to people. It
inspires them to lead lives based on honesty, and justice, and
compassion.” And “all Americans must recognize that the face of terror
is not the true faith — face of Islam. Islam is a faith that brings
comfort to a billion people around the world. It’s a faith that has made
brothers and sisters of every race. It’s a faith based upon love, not
hate.”
For Pope Francis, who has somehow managed to overlook 1400 years of
war against Christians by Muslims, “all religions want peace” (this was
uttered shortly after an 85-year-old priest had his throat slit) and
“Islam is peaceful” and the “Qur’an is peaceful” and “Muslim terrorism
does not exist.” How many times must he say it, in how many variations
on the nonsensical theme, to make you believe it?
Credo quia absurdum — this should be the motto repurposed for this Pope — “I believe because it is absurd.”
Just repeat the Pope’s prescription for World Peace and Interfaith Outreach
ad libitum,
and surely something good will eventually come of it. Or will it? Lots
of people in the Western world have wagered not just their own
reputations, but the survival of their own peoples, on some version of
the ever-more doubtful notion that Islam is about “peace, unity,
prosperity, and inclusion.”
Esma Voloder has her precious crown, her ozwear, her phuket jewels,
her endorsement deals and brand ambassadorships locked in, with many
more no doubt to come. But she wants to do something for the good of
everyone. She wants to promote Islam. Pro bono, apparently. She claims,
and she may even believe, that Islam is all about “peace, unity,
prosperity, and inclusion.” Though Muslims have been purveyors of
taqiyya since 680 A.D., I don’t think that’s necessarily the case here.
She sounds like a political naif who is simply repeating a line she has
been fed. But perhaps I am being too kind. Whether she is misinformed,
or deliberately deceptive, given her new position as Miss World she will
undoubtedly have many occasions to tell interviewers her understanding
of Islam. As always, such an interview will make even a minimum of sense
only if the interviewer has properly prepared to question her by
reading the Qur’an, and some of the hadith and sira. It won’t be time
wasted; as a central subject of the age, Islam is here to stay, and
anyone who has actually learned something about it will find many
occasions on which such knowledge will come in not just handy, but
indispensable.
Such an interviewer ought first to allow Esma Voloder to have her
pollyannish say, all about “peace, unity, prosperity, and inclusion.”
She should then be asked what verses in the Qur’an she thinks support
her view of peace, or unity, or inclusion? Could she recite a single
such verse? If she offers 5:32, make sure to insist on reciting 5:33,
and explain how it modifies 5:32. And if there are some verses (early,
Meccan) she manages to recall, remind her of the doctrine of abrogation,
which she undoubtedly will never have heard of. Then suggest that there
are quite a few verses in the Qur’an that help explain the dozens of
military campaigns Muhammad took part in, just in the last ten years of
his life. What does Esma Voloder make of this verse (read out 9:5)? Or
this (read out 9:29)? Or this (read out 47:4)? Read them slowly. Explain
that there are more than a hundred such verses in the Qur’an, and that
you’ve posted them at your website, to which you then provide a link.
Piqued by Ms. Voloder’s display of confusion, which will be obvious as
soon as she tries to explain away just those three verses quoted by the
interviewer, others will want to check out these and other Qur’anic
verses for themselves. And with that link,you’ve made it easy for them.
Ms.Voloder will have a hard time explaining away these verses, but
make her task harder still. Even before she can offer the
“these-verses-have-to-be-put-in-context” excuse, the interviewer should
proleptically note that “the usual way” these verses are dealt with by
Muslim apologists is not to forthrightly acknowledge them, but instead
to “contextualize” them, to pretend they apply only to specific enemies
from 1400 years ago. “But,” the interviewer can add, “both the glosses
provided by the most eminent Qur’anic commentators, such as Ibn Kathir,
and the behavior of Muslims themselves over the past 1400 years, show
that these verses were meant to be prescriptive, applicable for all
time, and not merely descriptive, applicable to a particular time and
place and enemy.” And if that interviewer is in a take-no-prisoners
mood, even with one so winsome and mentally helpless as Esma Voloder,
then let Esma be asked yet again, by way of summary so far, to explain
why Muhammad’s life is so full of war, assassinations, mass
decapitations, and the Qur’an so full of commands about conducting
violent Jihad against, striking terror in the hearts of, the [Infidel]
enemies, if Islam is all about “peace, unity, cohesion”?
And then it may be time to demonstrate, in the most telling way
possible, how little Esma Voloder knows about Islam. Leave the Qur’an —
the point about its sinister contents has been made — and raise the
issue of the Hadith. Ask Ms. Voloder if she has ever read them, if she
knows why the Hadith are so important to Muslims. If she answers that
she has “never’’ read because she didn’t think they were that
important, or still worse, had never heard of them, that will make her
look not just ignorant, but idiotic. If she answers “yes” or “well, some
of them,” take this as the moment to recite the usual horrifying list
of events in Muhammad’s life that Muslims would prefer you never find
out about: Muhammad’s marriage to little Aisha, the murders of Asma bint
Marwan, Abu Afak, and Ka’b bin al-Ashraf, the rape (as it must be
called) of the Jewish girl, Saafiya, by Muhammad on the same day he had
her father, husband, and brother killed, the torture and murder of
Kinana of Khaybar, the killing of the 600-900 prisoners of the Banu
Qurayza. Don’t spare Ms. Voloder; ask sweetly, but ask, if she is
familiar with any or all of these events in the life of Muhammad, just
as you had asked her earlier about those Jihad verses in the Qur’an.
Either she will have to admit to knowing about them, and then have to
explain them away (just how do you explain away Aisha? Asma bin Marwan?
Saafiya? Kinana?) as best she can, which makes her look both sinister
and foolish, or she will claim she was not aware of those particular
hadith, which leaves her looking merely foolish. And then ask if she is
aware that Muslims consider Muhammad, the man responsible for that list
of atrocities that have just been recited, as “
al-insan al-kamil,” the Perfect Man, and “
uswa hasana,”
the Model of Conduct. Given what you have just told her about Muhammad,
would she describe him as the Perfect Man? What can she say?
And then, just one last question for beauty queen Ms. Voloder. Ask
her to imagine herself walking down a street in Saudi Arabia or Iran or
Afghanistan or Pakistan, her hair loosely flowing, as she wears it in
Australia, her makeup and dress just the same as she had for her Miss
World competition, with her shoulders bare, or dressed as she does for
her work as a criminal profiler. Then ask her what she thinks would
happen to her, wearing that sort of getup, in Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan. We all know she would at the very least be yelled
at, perhaps beaten by the
mutawwa (religious police), even
possibly taken into custody to be charged by the state, or might well
have to endure both curses and beatings administered by outraged Muslim
vigilantes. And don’t even ask what would happen to her in those
countries if she dressed as she would have had to for the swimsuit
component of the Miss World competition). She cannot deny the likelihood
of such mistreatment. Doesn’t that at least give Ms. Voloder a moment’s
pause as Defender of the Faith? And shouldn’t that be enough, along
with those 30,000 acts of Muslim terrorism since 9/11 for which she can
find no convincing explanation in Islam, to create, among the handful
still wanting to believe her, more than a little doubt?
