Dear Subuhi,

Hearing from you is like a breath of fresh air. I wish there were more “atheists” like you around. I am fairly agnostic about religions, but get sick of the self-flagellation that so many Muslims indulge in, while living in the west, which has no dearth of Islam-bashers. It would be very different if we were speaking to/in Muslim majority countries, since treatment of minorities & women there leaves so much to be desired. I am one of those who tend to identify with the “underdog”, and challenge the “dominant”. Which group of people is dominant totally depends on the “environment” - for instance, while in Pakistan, the dominant class is “Sunni Muslims”, in North America the dominant class consists of white Christians & Jews. Perhaps I will write more about it later.  

A posting I liked was the one by Akber Choudry. A sentence that really caught my attention was: “Democracy is the awareness of the people on how power structures operate, their principles and self-respect, and their desire to effect change when they see the balance shifting towards the elite once again”. This is well worth reflecting on, since it brings into focus the important issue of the elites as well as power structures. While the power structures hampering democracy in Muslim countries may be religious hierarchy (which is not supposed to exist in Islam) the power structure in capitalist countries consists of corporations; and in all countries, money is a source of “illegitimate power” (in the context of democracy).

Masud Sheikh