{UAH} GEORGE OKELLO, THE MUSLIM HATER: ATTENTION REHEMA

Rehema,

I will respond to the evidence you have adduced to prove I am a hater
of Muslims sequentially; this is your point Number 2 below:

2.'I picked this wonderful piece by the journalist Mr Edris Kiguundu
posted on UAH-Facebook by a woman called Amina Hassan. If only Islam
took the same attitude as Mr Kiggundu, the world would be a much more
tolerant and safer place.'
--George Okello- quote by Rehema

My Response;

Rehema, please read Edris Kiggundu's article below with an open mind
and tell me how my comments on the article prove I am a "muslim
hater". In view my view, Kiggundu's article is one of the most
thoughtful and compassionate articles I have read from a muslim in a
very long time. Thats why I singled it out for comment. In my view, Mr
Kiggundu is praying for tolerance and world peace. Please give me your
own view on Mr Kiggundu's article. Would you condemn him as an
apostate or worse still, behead him?

George Okello

Rajab Ali and Comrade Robukui,

I picked this wonderful piece by the journalist Mr Edris Kiguundu
posted on Facebook by a woman called Amina Hassan. If only Islam took
the same attitude as Mr Kiggundu, the world would be a much more
toleramt and safer place. But just a few days ago, a Bangla Deshi
blogger was chopped to death by a baying islamic fundamentalist mob
for saying exactly the same things Mr Kigundu says here and
explaining why he had rejected Islam. They condemned him for being a
"traitor" to Allah.


George Okello


SO DISAPPOINTED IN JOURNALIST EDRIS KIGGUNDU FOR HIS REMARKS ABOUT ISLAM BELOW:

''My daughter's teacher called me sometime back saying there was
something urgent she wanted to tell me. I go to school and she asks
me: "What is the religion of your daughter?". I tell her to ask my
daughter because she can speak for herself. Before my daughter could
speak, the teacher interjected: "Your daughter today says she is a
Christian and tomorrow she says she is a Muslim." I told her that
whatever religion my daughter says believes in at that particular time
should be taken as the correct one. If next week she says she believes
in Buddhism, so be it. I told her in any case, there is no significant
difference in all these world religions (they all believe there is one
God). But I also warned her not to meddle in the religious affairs of
my daughter because that is not the main reason why I took her to that
particular school. If wanted my daughter to excel in religious
affairs, I know where to take her.

So if she feels she wants to belong to all religions at the same time,
so be it. If she wakes up and she does not want to belong to any
religion, that is also fine. I am not going to take the path of people
who are going to force my religious or my other world views down the
throat of my daughter. She will chart her path.if the teacher had
called me to tell me that my daughter is having problems understanding
her subject, that would be a different thing. I would give her all the
time and take her advice seriously and do something to rectify it. But
on matters of faith or religion, which are personal, that is not her
area of expertise. I decided to let all my children make a decision as
to what they want to believe in from my personal experience.

some years ago, I was a practicing Muslim. Very devout. But I started
questioning the sheikhs about some of the things in religion that did
not add up. I quietly did some reading and research about the history
of Islam and the various contending theories about how the various
strands of Islam (Sunni, Shia, Ahmadiyya) emerged. I also discovered
that there were many contradictions in the teachings of Quran and the
Hadith. Some sheikhs told me that the contradictions in the teachings
are about how one interprets them.Others simply shoved away my queries
and told me never to question matters of faith is I want to remain a
believer. At this point, i parted ways with religion even if i greatly
respect many people who believe in it. I never fill the section of any
form that requires me to state my religion or tribe.I have told my
children that they should relate to people first on the basis that
those people are human beings and desire respect and love. Not because
they belong to religion A or tribe Y.

We were all conscripted into various religions at birth and socialized
to believe that they are superior or the best, or the alpha and omega
of our lives. That without them, our lives would be very miserable or
even useless. For those who believe in a religion or a God of any
shape or colour, it is perfectly okay if it gives you some comfort in
the face of your troubles and if it gives you consolation that there
is life after death. But it also perfectly okay not to believe in any
of these world religions but to uphold the basic values of humanism.
That is to treat someone well as you would want to be treated and
respect for one another. You don't need any religion to tell you
that.''

----EDRIS KIGGUNDU

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