A Question of ‘Agency’ in Islam

As some of you may know, I started a Substack to allow for some different materials and ideas to be published with also the hope that a few people might get a paid subscription as a few have mentioned they would like to support this work, but are allergic to PayPal. Substack has an excellent solution for this.

Anyway, so far the focus of the Substack has been to revive older videos I either shot myself, subtitled with the awesome team from Gates of Vienna, or just saved over the last 16 years or so that have been removed from the net and are now perhaps even more relevant and important than they were then. The problem with being too far ahead of the curve on a topic like leftism or Islam, is that the average sleeper cannot take it seriously since its effects aren’t within the 50mm focal length of the average human eye sight.

Since October 7th people seem to be a lot more willing to consider the issue of Islam than they were on October 6th though.

In 2016, ACT4Canada brought Robert Spencer to a secret location in Montreal, (yes it was already so bad in 2016 that you couldn’t have a gentle and scholarly critic of Islam speak publicly) to give a talk on the nature of Islam. Of course that has as far as I know, been removed from the internet.

The talk and full Q&A is available at the Substack post linked here. But below is one question to Robert from that talk on the Islamic view of agency, which I personally think is one of the most critical aspects of the difference between Islamic thought and Western Judeo-Christian-Greco-Roman thought. In other words, who do Muslims blame for events and why? Especially when it comes to criticism of Islam, and women on sexual matters.

Robert’s answer is very important. And again, the whole talk and Q&A is linked here.

This question of Agency cuts to the heart of much of the conflict between Western and Islamic thought.

Following are important verses of the Quran about wearing a Hijab in Islam:

“O you Children of Adam! We have bestowed on you raiment to cover your shame as well as to be an adornment to you. But the raiment of righteousness, that is the best. Such are among the Signs of Allah, that they may receive admonition.” (Quran 7:26)

“And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear therof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, or their brothers’ sons or their sisters’ sons, or their women or the servants whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex, and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O you Believers, turn you all together towards Allah, that you may attain Bliss.” (Quran 24:31).

“O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognised and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.” (Quran 33:59).

EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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