No Muslim Martin Luthers But Many Solzhenitsyns

By Ali Sina 

The Frontpage Magazine’s columnist Robert Spencer, reported several heart-wrenching stories of Muslims’ barbarities in the name of Jihad, from rape and genocide in Darfur to the rape of 15 year old girls and the massacre of children in Beslan. He reminded his readers that similar atrocious acts of crimes against humanity were perpetrated by Muhammad the founder of Islam too and then in a desperate tone cried out “Where are the reformers who will dare to say that Muhammad’s example must not be followed in this case? Who will acknowledge that the world has developed principles of human rights that must supercede those forged in seventh-century Arabia ? …The much-lionized “Muslim Martin Luther,” Tariq Ramadan, now banned from entering the U.S. , can so far only bring himself to call for a moratorium, not a definitive ban, on stoning for adulterers. Rape of captives? His sentiments are not known. Where is the Muslim Solzhenitsyn, who will speak honestly about the aspects of Islam that so desperately need reform, and call for the overhaul that the system so obviously needs?"  

My response to Mr. Spencer is that Islam does not have reformers. There are no Martin Luthers in Islam. But the Solzhenitsyns of Islam are everywhere. Solzhenitsyn was not a reformer of communism. He was a dissenter and he spent many years in exile for his opposition to communism. He would have been completely neglected and forgotten had it not been for the free world that remembered him and made his voice to be heard.  

Today the dissenters of Islam are ostracized and scorned by the ummah and they are in hiding. Nonetheless they are active and express their dissent unreservedly. The majority of Muslims are not going to hear them. They are ignored. It is again up to the free people to provide a venue for these voices of dissent to be heard.  

Don’t ask; “where is the Muslim Solzhenitsyn”. It is these Muslim Solzhenitsyns who ask; “where are the free people”. “Why no one is listening?”, “Why they are we ignored?”  

The truth is that Islam cannot be reformed. It is unrealistic to search for Muslim Martin Luthers. There are no Martin Luthers in Islam. But there are many Solzhenitsyns.  

Moderate Muslims do not exist. No Muslim can disagree with Jihad which was practiced by Muhammad and instituted by him as a pillar of his faith. No Muslim can support equality of rights between men and women for this goes against the teachings of Muhammad. No Muslim can support the secular laws vis-à-vis the “divinely” ordained Sharia law. Muslims can’t be for democracy or for human rights, because they are against the explicit teachings of Muhammad.    

The “Moderate Muslim”, is either one who lies to gain acceptance among the civilized people or is one who does not know Islam or does not care about it.

We can’t call tepid water, boiling because unless it does not reach 100 degree Celsius it is not boiling. Likewise we can’t call a moderate Muslim, Muslim because unless he does not agree with all the teachings of Muhammad, he is not a Muslims. A moderate Muslim is a person who does not follow, or does not agree with parts of Islam. This person is not moderate; he is a confused unbeliever. This is a person who has left Islam but cannot sever his umbilical cord from it yet. Unless he cut that umbilical cord and call himself proudly an apostate, there is a great risk for him to be sucked back into the womb of Islam.

People often make the mistake of comparing Islam to Christianity and assume that since Christianity underwent reform, Islam can do the same.  The problem is. Christianity had the potential for reform because the corruption was in the church and not in its teachings. Islam on the other hand cannot be reformed because the corruption stems from Muhammad himself and his teachings. There is an enormous difference between the two systems. Unless we see this difference, we keep searching in vain for mythological moderate Muslim reformers that do not exist.    

Communism and Nazism were also systems that could not be reformed. They had to be eliminated. Islam has even less chance for reformation than these two other fascistic ideologies because unlike communism and Nazism that were manmade philosophies, Islam claims to be divinely ordained and hence no man can change an iota of it. The only way to mitigate the danger of Islam is to oppose it and to eradicate it.  

That is why the free world should not waste its time searching for Muslim Martin Luthers. Rather it should find the Solzhenitsyns of Islam. They exist in huge numbers and they are growing very fast. We should not put our bets on the reformation of Islam. This will bring nothing but disappointment. Rather we should work towards its eradication. In this, lie our best hopes and excellent chances of success.  

During the darkest years of the cold war, it was the free world that lionized Solzhenitsyn and made of him the symbol of resistance against the Soviet dictatorship and the Empire of Evil. This moral support instilled hope in the hearts of other dissidents and the voices of discontent started to be heard even inside Kremlin. But today the Western Media is afraid of taking up the cause of the Muslim dissidents. They are afraid that their support of the Muslims dissidents, could stigmatize them as “Islamophobes”.    

Therefore the question is not, “where are the Solzhenitsyns of Islam”; they are everywhere. The question is why the Media is so silent about them. Why their movement is ignored? Why the major newspapers do not talk about them?  

One thing is certain and that is Islam cannot be reformed. Islam is a poisonous snake that will never become a pet. We can’t be safe by feeding it and pleasing it but by smashing its head and the only people who can do that effectively are the dissidents. They are the best hope the world has. They are the ones that have to be lionized, not the chameleon opportunists like Tariq Ramadan who give lip service to reform because this pleases the Westerners but in reality are Islamists to the core.