It's hard to defend your faith against detractors because there are so many similarities between the Taliban / ISIS and traditional Islam
Quran ✅
Sunnah & Hadith ✅
Ijma' (consensus) ✅
Qiyas (analogy) ✅
Even the attestation of faith is the same ✅
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In Shafi'i-centric Malaysia, there is even some amount of support for the Taliban.
So how can you glibly say "They are not Islam" to non-Muslims?
Are you even allowed to declare others who call themselves Muslims "non-Muslims"?
The minutiae of faith and actions are opaque to non-practitioners. Even practitioners themselves quibble over matters (hence ijma'), so how do you expect non-Muslims to know these fine details?
There is no one to lay down the "correct" Sharia in the absence of an Islamic "governing" body such as the Papacy.
Even then, Christianity is still beset with kooks like the KKK and WBC, so there are no guarantees either.
The outcome, then, depends on who picks the "better" sunnah and hadith to follow, and "better" is subjectively dependent on the mullah in that specific locale or sect.
There is no doubt the Taliban considers moderate Muslims like Dr. Safi Kaskas or Mustafa Akyol insufficiently pious, never mind liberal Muslims, who are probably considered borderline apostates.
Considering Mustafa Akyol himself is (was?) banned from entering Malaysia, which side of the fence do you think Malaysia is?
So, in the absence of a proactive action like excommunication, we're left to defend our faith every time there is an incident.
And as more and more people find out about the sources and who decides who gets to pick what to follow, the protestations become progressively weaker.
The average Malay Muslim has been told so often that he is incapable of understanding the Qur'an on his own, that he is utterly dependent on someone else's interpretation to the point that the interpretation is now akin to the word of God Himself.
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As a result, these man-made interpretations cannot be questioned, and a different understanding of the verses cannot be comprehended or processed.
To be fair, there is no real basis for comparison, because he thinks he will not be able to understand a pure translation.
Because these interpretations have been accepted for centuries, the Qur'an is anchored to the period in which the interpretations were made, instead of being interpreted in light of the currently available evidence.
Actually, there is no specification of gender in the preceding verses at all - in fact, God mentions "For those who were mindful", meaning any and all genders get companions
Let's read from 78:31...
78:31 For those who were mindful of God there is a great achievement,
78:32 gardens and grapevines,
78:33 splendid companions, well-matched,
78:34 and a full cup.
And afterwards, we will find that conventional banking, with the policies that are reasonably good and equitable, is already Islamic, without needing specific labels.
And there is no need to compel people to use it either because the right way is clear from error.
But it's really difficult to get people to do so.
Even Islamic Banking experts who know there is something definitely wrong with it – and prefer to use conventional banking – are still not willing to find out what the Qur'an is actually saying.
So there's this huge flood one day, and an entire town looks like it's going to be swallowed up by the waters. And the Police and Rescue Agencies are running all over the place trying to get people to safety.
So they send the rescue boat over to this house where a guy's sitting on the roof with the water lapping around his ankles and they say "Come on, quickly, there isn't much time"
To which he says "Nah, it's ok, God will provide"
About an hour later they're zooming past in the boat again and they notice the guy's still there, only the water's up to his waist... "Quick" they say, get in the boat, it's going to get worse before it gets better.
"Nah, don't worry - God will provide"
Practical Solution from the Qur'an for the Palestinian.
The conflict that began after WW2 has not shown any signs of ending towards peace, but only continuous sufferings by both parties.
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Unfortunately, it is the Palestinians who are receiving the biggest blow in this conflict while Israel continues to dominate through its systematic aggression and expansion activities.
Hamas, Fatah, PLO have all failed to offer practical solutions to the Palestinians but remained with the same approach that had never delivered practical solutions, while the Israelis continued to expand their territories.