Dear Mutaal Mooquin and FOTH at large,
I don't dispute the value of 'dialogue' as you describe
it.
The danger, however, lies in our hard-wired response
mechanism, the mind, which automatically steers us toward pleonasm, a type
of writing or speaking that is diffuse and repetitive.
When that happens, as it often does in human
transactions, we go round in circles endlessly, like a dog chasing its
tail, or barking up the wrong tree.
When I say we should seek the answer within the
question, I am simply saying the answer to our question more often than not
lies within the question that we formulate.
If you truly listen to your question without trying to
answer it, the truth, howsoever you perceive it, will reveal itself.
Your answer, believe it or not, will emerge from the
question, for that's where the whole truth lies buried.
What I am saying, in effect, is that the very
intelligence that enabled us to formulate the question is capable of
knowing what the answer is, so let's not pretend that we're helpless to
know. We know far too much than is good for us.
I will go out on a limb and say we know the answers to
all our questions -- the who, what, where, when, how and why of everything
-- but wittingly or unwittingly we remain unsure of ourselves and seek the
agreement of authority (of some ayatollah, president, or God himself) or
the approval of others (whether on this forum or in the United Nations).
If this kind of reasoning on my part frustrates you to
the point of thinking I am dishing out "misplaced Muslim bashing"
or that I should pose my question "to the champions of democracy aka
USA and their [allies] who funded these madrasses
just to keep illiteracy flourishing and to produce Mujahadeen
to fight with Russians" . . . then let me assert that I've no wish to
state (or know) the obvious . . . .
In fact you've said it all. "[T]he irony [is that
the] same madrassas are now producing Mujahadeen for Al-Quaida and
such organization[s]. Even a child knows this much by now, unless it is a
case of amnesia."
I agree.