She was a bad Muslim for asking too many questions because the Qur’an actively discourages a spirit of inquiry:
“O you who believe, do not ask about things which, if they were made known to you, would trouble you…A people before you asked, and then became unbelievers.” (Qur’an 5:101-102)
“Staying could mean death. The escape nearly killed her. How one woman fled Afghanistan for freedom.” By Fatema Hosseini and Kim Hjelmgaard with Kelley Benham French, USA Today, July 11, 2022:
KABUL, Afghanistan – Every time I blinked awake, I would meet my mother’s eyes. My father, my brother and my baby sister were all asleep, sprawled across the floor in my dark apartment on the west edge of Kabul.
They had fled just before the Taliban ransacked their home in Herat, and now we were together for one more dusty sunrise. The Taliban had not yet knocked on my door, but we knew they would, the same way we knew that summer was cruel and the sky was brown and our freedoms were all a mirage.
I was 27, a bad Muslim, an educated, single woman who asked too many questions and rarely wore a hijab. I was a working journalist, a member of the Shi’a Hazara ethnic group, daughter of an Afghan national soldier. To a Taliban fighter heady with new power, silencing my voice would be a gleaming, golden step on the stairway to paradise.
In my dreams, which came every night now, I had tried to fight. I had tried to run. And at last, I’d pushed my way through chaos and smoke, crushed by crowds in a desperate surge toward the airport. Hands grabbed at me. Women were crying. Bullets hammering.
“What is it?” my mother said when I startled awake again. She had been up all night, watching over me.
“Just a nightmare,” I told her.
It was time now. I had to get out of Kabul….
tim gallagher says
“A people before you asked, and then became unbelievers.” What a great outcome for the entire human race that would be. If only all Muslims would look at their barbaric, crappy religion, with its child brides, its calls to kill non-believers, its honour killings, and all its other garbage, and pack up and leave the vile thing behind. That would be one of the greatest days ever for the human race. islam should have long gone the way of that dodo of the religions, the old hideous Aztec religion. Good luck to this woman who sounds as if she was merely living a normal woman’s life, which, of course, ain’t allowed in primitive islam.
somehistory says
It would be “great,” tim, if only.
However, too many, way too many, lust for the child to be with them in a rape-relationship; too many lust to shed some blood; too many are way too arrogant to even consider “asking: ‘what’s it all about, Alfie”? too many like it as it is for them to even ask any questions about this part or that aspect or “why”?
this young woman is a rarity for mozlums.
revereridesagain says
“Young girls are hemorrhaging in childbirth.’
“Butbutbut It’s Not The Baaaaaaaaaabeeeeeeeee’s Fault!!!”
Does anyone here care about those little girls, raped, impregnated, force to put their immature bodies through childbirth to appease the kind of men who will force them to do the same thing in Texas? (Are the girls and women there all whores who must “pay for their fun”?) If not, don’t complain about the Taliban. Those Texans are acting in the name of their Faith too. And it isn’t Islam.
Hypocrisy is an ugly thing.
somehistory says
You have a one track mind. It’s an ugly track. and that’s all I have to say to you.
gravenimage says
revereridesagain, your constant claims that Texas has legalized and promotes child rape is simply mistaken.
Even the claims specifically re abortion are incorrect:
“Texas governor says new law won’t force rape victims to give birth because they’ll have 6 weeks to get an abortion”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-abortion-law-governor-abbott-rape-victims-six-weeks/
somehistory says
You know g, I watched a video the other day…either Watson or Praeger U and a doctor was on there demonstrating how babies are removed…using an instrument to pull off the legs, then arms, then torso and finally, crushing the skull. A woman who was pro for this, and actually took part, left because she could stand no longer to see this done, and the little body parts stacked up on a table.
the whole “rape and pregnancy” thing is a “tool” too, because it is a tiny…less than a percentage …*reason* women use to kill the unborn. Most are by grown women, and almost 100 percent are for *convenience.* and the women give no other reason, but that they just want one. Many of these women are multiple offenders.
Nearly 70 million in this county in the past 49 years, plus those in other nations that allow it.
Put that number…just from the U.S. against the little kids being raped and made pregnant who might not be developed enough to carry a child and give birth…although there have been cases in the past when this did happen and both children were okay…It shows more little girls are injured and killed before they can be born than are forced to give birth. Millions upon millions upon millions more.
I’m glad the Supreme Court decided to go with the Constitution. Morality can’t be legislated, but at least, the government doesn’t have to say killing is just okay no matter how innocent the victims.
Andrew Blackadder says
To equate The Tali Boys in Kabul with ANYTHING in Texas tells me you are mercifully free from the ravage of intelligence.
Hoi Polloi says
Taliban Texas? It’s this hysterical push abortion past all previous limits business that turned so many people.
Then there’s the undiscussed reality. Abortion due to rape and incest isn’t disallowed, as SH points out and notes that the issue is used as a shield. Which is appalling. If the amount of attention paid to those victims were anything approaching the level of hysteria in which they’re trotted out to justify the other 99%, the protesters would be perceived entirely differently. Find me one march of feminists against sharia in the west; such an easy target, but nope. Why not spend some of that time and money ending trafficking and rape at the border, but nope. “Safe, legal, and rare” has become its opposite and the push to extend to post-birth that they floated is now here.
The reality also includes the undiscussed rape victims who choose to raise the baby and see it all turned to good. Or the women who had post-Roe legal abortions and subsequent life-long infertility. Or the young girl whose family chose abortion after ignoring a previous rape and who lives to this day, and I think she’s right, feeling her entire future turned on that abortion. Burying the problem did not work. Or the mother who resisted her doctor’s efforts to drive her to an abortion. He said the baby would be born in a vegetative state. She saw the pregnancy through and now has a healthy, growing adolescent. Or the woman who accepted the same type diagnosis, aborted, and now wonders every day. She went on to suffer infertility and finally had one premature birth 2.5 decades later.
See, I know these women. I also know women who don’t conform to the hysteria, but rather, the statistics which say they’re often married, stable, and also in my experience, aborting without their husbands’ knowledge and/or agreement. Always in my realm it’s because the pregnancy is an inconvenience rather than a desperate situation, and that category includes those dangerously skewing the world’s gender balance.
Reality isn’t remotely connected to this movement and its hysteria. And the protesters seem not to want reality to be openly discussed.
I get the impression, Revere, that you are speaking from personal pain and I am sorry for it, but I’ve also seen pain that abortion doesn’t cure.
Hoi Polloi says
Let me add two more I know: the teenager who told his pregnant teenaged girlfriend that he would terrorize her if she didn’t abort; she did. The fellow student who bragged that he was responsible for 5 abortions. God alone knows how many he has added to his total.
This is the undiscussed reality of abortion today.
somehistory says
Hoi Polloi,
thank you for you two comments on the subject of baby-killing. what you have said is all true, of course, and could be multiplied by the thousands. Many women and girls decide to keep the baby even when pressured or advised to ‘get rid’ of him/her.
and I have known some who were highly blessed for making the decision for life. I don’t know any who claim a blessing or happiness who got “rid” of the baby.
As one doctor who helps high risk women and babies said he has not lost one since he decided to stop the killing of the unborn. He said…in testimony before Congress…that even when doctors say the woman’s life is at risk, he has found ways to help them safely carry the baby and all end up happy.
If the Truth was allowed to be told by the mobs calling for free access to all of the unborn for elimination, some young women would choose life. Many more would choose life than do now.
the ghouls who say even after the baby is born, they have killing *rights*…are never going to be blessed.
Hoi Polloi says
YW. They’re their own worst enemies, these mobs, because they bring all the stories from the other side into the open.
tim gallagher says
To my mind, somehistory, islam, apart from being a downright evil, violent creed, just seems like such a primitive load of crap. Truly a religion that should have gone the way of the dodo ages ago. I would think that, just as in that quote, a huge number of Muslims, would look at the backward content of islam and decide to leave it behind. It doesn’t belong in the modern world. I suppose the fear factor, since apostates are under threat of death, must keep many Muslims in the hideous old religion. Islam is a thuggish religion and a bunch of thugs threaten anyone who decides to leave it behind.
somehistory says
Yes, Tim, to the reasoning mind, reading that others questioned and then **left** should trigger all kinds of questions even if one didn’t have any before reading that line. And I believe the reasoning mind **would* have questions and more when reading that line.
Keith O says
Yeah Tim, that telling little statement caught my eye too.
I remember when I was growing up in a rural area in NSW, the local priest would come to the school once a month to berate the kids about Jesus and I always copped the bible across the head for asking inconvenient questions, little things like, Adam and Eve had 2 kids, Cain killed Able, So where did we all come from?
Some religions simply discourage an inquiring mind.
somehistory says
they also had sons and daughters. the Bible only names three of these, Cain, Abel, and Seth. but she was given the name Eve because she was to “become the mother of everyone living.” It does mention Cain having a wife and she giving birth to a son, it just does not name her or say that she was his sister…or from where she came. If Eve was the “mother of all” then she had to have been a sister.
I don’t mind making an attempt to answer questions about the Bible, but I admit that since it doesn’t say every single thing about what one might ask, I have to say that I have no answers for some questions. I have some of my own, but not enough to doubt what it does tell me as being true
You should not have been “copped” for asking questions. He could just have discussed what he knew and admitted to not being all-knowing.
Hoi Polloi says
I can’t imagine retaliation for curiosity in the Presbyterian church in which I grew up. We got honest, full answers to questions that were taken as normal and a sign of interest in the subject. It’s a shame if anyone ever handles children’s curiosity any other way.
somehistory says
I was never in trouble for asking questions and those people I asked, did their best and even admitted when they didn’t know. There is no shame in not knowing, but there is plenty in being unwilling to answer honest questions and making kids feel bad for asking.
Asking questions is the best way to grow in understanding and knowledge on any subject. And questions about the Bible, God, etc. should be encouraged.
gravenimage says
When I was a wise-*ss teenager I went with a friend to her Bible study Church group, because she was bored.
I wound up regularly accompanying her even though her Church was not my domination. I questioned everything I could think of, and the Minister running the group was *very* patient. The few questions he couldn’t answer immediately he researched and covered the following week.
At the last class before summer began I thanked him and said I hoped I hadn’t been too annoying with my constant questions and challenges, and he said that he had loved it, and that everyone was the most engaged they had ever been!
Keith O says
Well it was a long time ago and it was the Roman Catholic church.
Of course, when they discovered I am Pagan, the result was for them to show a huge amount of tolerance, understanding and Christian values by flogging me so badly that my father tried having charges laid against the priest.
We moved house and a different school.
somehistory says
That’s terrible, Keith. It should not have happened and it is definitely going against the teaching and commands of Christ. It was very unChristian and very wrong. I’m sorry it happened to you, but glad that you got free of the abuse.
Fitna says
Well said Tim, but the opposite needs to happen. Muslims should leave Islam and then kill off the Taliban and their supporters.
I think there will be a future war between Muslims and non-Muslims in the coming decades, maybe even going on for a few centuries.
As more people wise up and realize Islam is a steaming-pile of horsecrap, then our side will just grow that much stronger. Those who don’t join us will be on the losing team.
I just hope I live long enough to see that battle eventually take place, because it is unavoidable. Evil cannot coexist will the ‘Good’ (freedom).
Fitna says
*with
tim gallagher says
I agree, Fitna. As enough people wake up to islam and as they get thoroughly fed up with the endless trouble it causes there is bound to be a showdown. I agree with you that islam is a “steaming pile of horsecrap”. I am amazed that it is taking so long for non-Muslims to wake up and get really tough with islam. Should have happened ages ago. gravenimage, that pastor, or whatever, would probably have enjoyed having you question things as it would result in him flexing his intellectual muscles a bit and thinking over issues that faced his religion. It would have helped him develop answers to such issues which other people might raise with him.
Hoi Polloi says
A bad muslim but a wonderful human being. God Bless.
Fitna says
+1
mortimer says
BAD? That is whatever Allah FORBIDS … and he FORBIDS asking questions.
Muslims are required to SWALLOW WHATEVER THE MULLAHS SAY and have PERFECT FAITH … but most Muslims actually do have doubts.
‘Taqlid’ is Unquestioning Faith and Sharia law requires it iln the Reliance of the Traveller (RoT)
see video of Lloyd De Jongh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVccxcQ85mc
Muslims are required to believe EVERYTHING that Islam teaches and refrain from asking the explanation … this is called ‘TAQLID’ (blind following)
@A4.2: A Muslim’s Responsibility in Tenets of Faith
As for the basic obligation of Islam, and what relates to tenets of faith, it is ADEQUATE for one to BELIEVE IN EVERYTHING brought by the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) and to credit it with ABSOLUTE CONVICTION FREE OF ANY DOUBT. Whoever does this is NOT OBLIGED to learn the evidences of the scholastic . The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) did not require of anyone anything but what we have just mentioned, nor did the first four caliphs, the other prophetic Companions, nor others of the early Muslim community who came after them.
Rather, what befits the common people and vast majority of those learning or possessing Sacred Knowledge is to REFRAIN FROM DISCUSSING the subtleties of scholastic theology, lest CORRUPTION difficult to eliminate FIND ITS WAY into their basic religious convictions.
Rather, it is fitter for them to CONFINE THEMSELVES TO CONTENTMENT with the above-mentioned ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY.
(i.e. Muslims are required to eliminate critical thought from their Islamic compliance and practice BLIND FOLLOWING)
Infidel says
Please tell me that in addition to fleeing Afghanistan, she’s fled islam as well
somehistory says
I would like to know that she did. Perhaps she’ll follow up with that info.
Westman says
Islam education system course, Ignorance 5:101 – “O you who believe, do not ask about things which, if they were made known to you, would trouble you…”
No further evidence is needed to explain why Islam remains backwards, watches the world innovate, then buys its products.
This institutional ignorance only provides a good life where there is oil to sell or dhimmi to exploit.
mortimer says
Sharia law forbids learning or listening to anything that creates doubt in the Muslim:
FORBIDDEN OR IMPERMISSIBLE (HARAM) KNOWLEDGE
*2*Chapter A7.0: Subjects that are Not Sacred Knowledge
@A7.1 (Nawawi:) Having mentioned the categories of Sacred Knowledge the subjects it excludes are those that are unlawful, offensive, or impermissible.
@A7.2: Unlawful Knowledge
Unlawful knowledge includes:
-6- and ANYTHING THAT IS A MEANS TO CREATE DOUBTS (n: in eternal truths), Such things vary in their degree of unlawfulness.
…………………………………………………………………….
This is why millions of Muslims are dropping out of Islam every year. The mullahs can’t convince Muslims to have blind faith anymore.
gravenimage says
‘I was 27, a bad Muslim, an educated, single woman who asked too many questions and rarely wore a hijab’
…………………………..
I hope this brave woman stays safe.
Kayode Oyelekan says
A book you can’t question it’s authority can’t be said to be a good book. Nothing should not be shrouded in mystery especially when it comes to universal salvation for every man.
Walter Sieruk says
Islam Isn’t really thinking persons religion . With Islam everything is put forth what to do and what not to do , So with Islam “No independent thinking or questions should be asked” Blind unquestioning firm faith is required or wanted nor encouraged
Asking many questions is strongly discouraged in the “House of Islam.”
That indicates that there must be many things that are wrong with Islam since asking a lot a questions is viewed as a “sin.” As in it ,in essence , forbidden.
It has been said that “An unexamined is not worth living” Likewise, it’s also fitting and wise to declare that “An unexamined religion is not worth believing in.”
gravenimage says
Somehistory, I am *not* making a case for abortion, especially ugly late-term abortion. I also agree that pregnancies from rape make up a small percentage of cases.
I was just replying to revereridesagain that abortions are indeed allowed in Texas in cases of rape.