The Idea Emporium

Deceptive Advertising?
Unfair and Deceptive Practices?
relating to
THE ISLAMIC RELIGION

I've just found there are millions of people who believe it's okay to deceive me - as long as it benefits them. It's part of their religion, the Muslim religion - part of a doctrine called taqiyya:

[T]here is in Islam a doctrine called "taqiyya"
which means the intentional, religiously-motivated
deception of infidels if doing so will lead to
an advantage for Muslims.
Vince Lombardo

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How come everyone doesn't know this? How come Westerners don't blast this from the rooftops? I don't know exactly what Muslims and Western non-Muslims will say. I rather suspect that there will be some kind of sweeping it under the rug.

I don't want this swept under any rug. Here is a major world religion which has as one of its doctrines that it's fine to deceive me - along with billions of other people - as long as it benefits them. So the only reason not to deceive me is if it's not of any benefit to them to do so!

To me this is like finding out that someone considers it fine to deceive their husband or wife - as long as it benefits them! Only it's not just one someone - there are hundreds of millions of Muslims around.

Of course not all Muslims live by this doctrine - though as the Islamic religious doctrines are supposed to be perfect, all Muslims are supposed to.

Still, though not all Muslims will follow taqiyya, I'm trying to imagine living in a society where there's the common mindset that it's okay - even good! - to deceive the majority of people in the world. What does this do to the people in the culture? What does this do to their capacity to feel for outsiders (infidels, is their term)?

I've also learned, very recently - again thanks to Vince Lombardo's writings - that there is no Golden Rule (love they neighbor as thyself) in the Islamic religion - the only world religion without such a concept. Small wonder, I'm thinking. The Golden Rule wouldn't fit with the doctrine that it's fine to deceive me.

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I've heard so much against deceptive advertising: it's immoral, unethical, we must have laws against it, and so on.

I had no idea that deliberate deception, deliberately deceptive practices, were an accepted integral part of a major world religion.

****

Actually, I have heard of this before, more than once. "They have one set of rules for themselves, and another for outsiders. They can lie and cheat ..."

I kept dismissing what I heard.

* First, I wasn't given any quotes, any proof. So it was easy to dismiss what I was told. This time I got lots of details

* Second, I didn't want to believe it was possible for a present-day major religion to have such a doctrine.

* Third, Muslims certainly don't go around proclaiming this doctrine.

* Fourth and maybe most important, this doctrine goes against some vague belief I have about religion: that religion has to have a core honesty about its beliefs. After all, that's what got all those early Christians fed to lions and otherwise martyred: they were open about their religious beliefs.

No, I've heard over and over, Islam is different.

And now I've been handed a bunch of research on some less than savory aspects of Islam (at least they're unsavory if you're non-Muslim and don't appreciate being considered someone to be hated and destroyed). All in one place, lots of information neatly together, like an assortment of delicacies on a silver platter - or more like a bunch of hot potatoes.

The thing that has stayed with me most is taqiyya.

****

Taqiyya may help explain the frequent Muslim claims that Islam is a religion of peace whenever anything is brought up about Muslim violence in the name of religion.

The news keeps bringing new images of Muslim violence done in the name of their religion: Muslims killing other Muslims; Muslims killing non-Muslims as well as any Muslims who happen to be in the area of a suicide bombing; people murdered by Muslims for speaking out about the Muslim religion.

Mention any of this violence and you're confronted with: ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE!!! It sounds like cigarette companies - confronted with statistics about the relationship between lung cancer and smoking - insisting: SMOKING IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH!!!

It doesn't make sense to most non-Muslims, because of our different religious and cultural heritage, that anyone would deliberately say theirs is a religion of peace when they know it isn't.

Most of us don't have a clue about the old Islamic texts, so we can't refute the claims - though we equally can't deny the violent reality of present-day Muslims done in the name of their religion.

****

Taqiyya explains why someone might insist their religion is one of peace when they know it isn't. I'm an infidel. All non-Muslims are infidels. We don't deserve the truth.

Taqiyya doesn't explain something else: how does it benefit Islam to insist the Islamic religion is a religion of peace? It's clear how the deceptive advertising of the cigarette companies benefited those companies: cigarette sales.

Deceptive practices certainly make it harder for non-Muslims to know what is going on. Initially most of us - like me - probably don't even suspect anyone is trying to deceive us, as most of us don't come from ethical traditions (religious or secular) favoring the deception of outsiders.

So I come back to: how does it benefit Islam to insist I accept a vision of Islam that doesn't fit with what I'm seeing?

I think back to feminist issues several decades ago in the West - over and over there was denial of what feminists were pointing out - the prevalence of wife battering and incest, of discrimination against women, and so on. In this case, men were not brought up to knowingly lie to women. But still, the massive denial made change much slower. It was a wall that had to be broken through.

What if men had been brought up to knowingly lie to women? If there had been a religion they belonged to that taught them that lying to us - as long as it benefited them - was good?

My guess is that it would have slowed down change.

How does insisting Islam is a religion of peace benefit Islam? I'm suddenly dealing with a smokescreen, instead of reality. I'm thrown off track. Plus, Muslims do not have to deal with the reality of their religion with outsiders - and with insiders no justification is necessary.

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Why isn't our government (in non-Muslim countries) doing anything to protect us from deliberate deception, when done by the Muslim religion? We get protected from all kinds of deceptive advertising. Cigarettes are now required to post the dangerous outcomes of cigarette smoking on their packaging. Why is the Muslim religion not forced to acknowledge the content of religious texts which call for the hatred and destruction of non-Muslims, rather than allowing the insistence that Islam is a religion of peace? Why does the government not, at the very least, widely distribute this information? If a teacher denies the Holocaust, they get fired. Why may someone misrepresent their religion in a deliberate major way and not face consequences - at least the consequence of having the truth widely disseminated?

Nothing of the kind has happened - at least not in Canada. Instead there is widespread acceptance that the Muslim religion is a religion of peace. (And again, I know some branches of the Muslim religon are more for peace than others - but that does not change the texts.)

Have most Western governments been taken in by Muslim claims about their religion? Are they afraid because of the widespread dependence on Middle Eastern oil? Is it part of current Western tolerance? - politically correct platitudes like, we're all equal, everything is equal. Is there fear of being murdered - as many Muslims have been murdered for doing any questioning of their religion?

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I keep hearing about transparency: the government must be more transparent; the banks must have more transparent practices; everything must be open to everyone.

Much of Christianity was forced to become much more transparent over five centuries ago, with the Reformation. A core part of the Reformation - which resulted in the multitude of Protestantisms - was full access to the religious texts in the language of the people. Before that people had been assumed to be generally too stupid to be able to understand them without the intermediary of a priest. Then the Bible became available not only to all literate Christians but too all people. One thing that has irritated me, when traveling, is that I can't enter the cheapest North American hotel room without finding a Bible. In other words, the Christian texts are there, for all to see.

Why isn't this called for from the Muslim religion? You say you have a religion of peace. Prove it.

Most important for us (non-Muslims): to know that what comes across, to us, as unfair and deceptive practices are approved deceptive practices within the Muslim reliigon. We aren't considered worthy of any other treatment.

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By the way, I do hold that deception under certain circumstances is ethical. The time is 1940. You are hiding someone Jewish. Nazi soldiers come to the door, and ask if there is someone Jewish in the house. The clear moral choice for me is to say: No.

The Muslim religion seems to view all of us non-Muslims as Nazis - out to do evil - or worse, inherently evil.

***

And again, of course we know it isn't all Muslims who are like that. But we know of the silence of the vast majority of Muslims in the face of Muslim violence to non-Muslims. We know millions of Muslims protested a tiny Danish cartoon. But millions of Muslims have not protested the murders of Muslims and non-Muslims done in the name of the Muslim religion. Even with 9/11, while I heard much shock and horror from Muslims, I didn't see a general taking to the streets, a virtually unanimous denunciation of the suicide bombers.

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Where does this leave non-Muslims? It's important for us to have accurate information about the Muslim religion.

I think back to the fight-to-the-finish of the cigarette companies to deny the findings on the hazards of smoking.

For non-Muslims, getting our information on the Muslim religion from Muslims is akin to people getting most of their information on the impact of smoking from the cigarette companies. (A difference is that the cigarette companies did not have any religious doctrine upholding deceiving those outside the company.)

It makes sense to get our information from other sources as well - and fortunately translations of the old Islamic religious texts are available to all, if we only search hard enough.

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An observation: Christians have done a much better job acknowledging unpleasant truths about the Christian religion than learning about the Muslim religion.

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My conclusion?

It's only when we face what Islam is, know what it is from extensive research, that we can make up our minds about it. Many Westerners currently spout 'all religions are basically the same" without knowing anything much about any religion. That's like saying, all foods are basically the same, without knowing anything about the nutritional value of the different foods.

My conclusion?

You can't deal with what you don't acknowledge. Time to look closely - at Islam and also at our avoidance of looking closely.

To go from deceptive advertising
to seeing patterns,
click here.

To go from deceptive advertising
to The Rage of the Righteous,
click here.

Deceptive Advertising and the Islamic Religion.
Islam: Deceptive Marketing?
Unfair And Deceptive Practices?
Islam and the West: Painful Deceptions?

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WORDS USED MUCH ABOUT ADVERTISING:
DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING, UNFAIR AND DECEPTIVE PRACTICES,
PAINFUL DECEPTIONS,DELIBERATE DECEPTIONS

HERE, DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING IS EXPLORED
IN RELATION TO THE ISLAMIC RELIGION,
PARTICULARLY THEISLAMIC DOCTRINE T OF TAQIYY A -
WHICH ALLOWS THE INTENTIONAL RELIIGOUSLY BASED DECEPTION
OF NON-MUSLIMS AS LONG AS THIS BENEFITS MUSLIMS

Deceptive Advertising and the Islamic Religion.
Islam: Deceptive Marketing?
Unfair And Deceptive Practices?
Islam and the West: Painful Deceptions?

The Idea Emporium - why and what

One of my lifelong concerns has been trying to make sense of reality. What is happening? What is real?

Here I've been asking: what is real about the Muslim religion,
the Muslim faith, the Islamic religion. Is it engaging in deceptive advertising about itself? I have learned that the deliberate deception of non-Muslims is fine, as long as this benefits Muslims.

Quite some condoning of deliberately deceptive advertising.

Quite something - at least for this person from a background where deliberate deception is considered wrong, where it is considered important to stand up openly for what you believe in.

So, deliberate deception, deceptive advertising, deceptive marketing of Islam to non-Muslims, deceptive practices, painful deceptions - those are my concerns here.
.

***SOCIALIZEIT***

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THE IDEA EMPORIUM explores the possibility of
DELIBERATE DECEPTION, DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING,
DECEPTIVE MARKETING, DECEPTIVE APPEARANCES,
for once not in merchandise or medications
but in religion, notably within the Islamic religion

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Deceptive Advertising? Unfair and Deceptive Practices? relating to THE ISLAMIC RELIGION

Deceptive Advertising and the Islamic Religion. Islam: Deceptive Marketing? Unfair And Deceptive Practices? Islam and the West: Painful Deceptions?

Deceptive Advertising and the Islamic Religion. Islam: Deceptive Marketing? Unfair And Deceptive Practices? Islam and the West: Painful Deceptions?

Deceptive Advertising?
Unfair and Deceptive Practices?
relating to
THE ISLAMIC RELIGION

Deceptive Advertising and the Islamic Religion.
Islam: Deceptive Marketing?
Unfair And Deceptive Practices?
Islam and the West: Painful Deceptions?

Deceptive Advertising and the Islamic Religion.
Islam: Deceptive Marketing?
Unfair And Deceptive Practices?
Islam and the West: Painful Deceptions?