User talk:Farah

Add topic
Active discussions
Revision as of 20:39, 1 February 2014 by Sahab (talk | contribs) (→‎Rewrite: new section)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

New pages

Hi Farah. You cannot create pages for all Warner's short booklets (even if you did, you'd need to look at our other pages for books and bring them up to their standard). I would suggest creating a single page with a list of books available there, accompanied with a short description. --Sahabah (talk) 04:53, 9 January 2014 (PST)

I've deleted those pages you created for the booklets and moved the list page to a sandbox for you (see: User:Farah/Sandbox). You've no doubt viewed many of our articles, so do you really think what you created was an acceptable standard for us? Take a look at our Tabari page[1]. In comparison, the page you created was pretty useless, consisting of a copy/pasted bio and a few links. Wiki formatting was even largely ignored. You are free to carry on working on that page in your sandbox. --Sahabah (talk) 19:36, 9 January 2014 (PST)

Hello again Farah. I don't mean to be a pain but we are trying to keep opinions, sensationalism and politics out of our pages. This means that there are multiple problems with your summaries. They do not read like summaries but opinionated, sensationalist and politically driven essays. There should be no talk of "political correctness and multiculturalism" or calling Islam a "supremacist political system". Or you should not be providing your own take on each booklet's subject matter. These are not essays or book reviews. For example, take a look at this book summary. It's old, so it is not perfect. But it is a lot closer to what we are aiming for. It is not us making claims. We are simply describing what the author says and what the book is about.

Conversely, let me quote what you wrote for Self-Study Course on Political Islam, Level 1, 2 and 3 and see how many claims you make and how opinionated and sensationalist it sounds:

A great deal of the Qur’an, Ahadith and Sira is dedicated to discriminating between Muslims and non-Muslims by consistently stating the perverse, heretical nature of the latter. Islam codifies this hostile religious discrimination politically through Shariah. The supremacist political system of Islam is often obscured by religious overtones. Islam is a complete system containing religious, political, legal, and cultural components; it has no need for anything outside itself. Sharia makes no distinction between religious and secular law, or mosque and state: Islam is therefore is theocratic. Jihad is very important in spreading political Islam. Like most Islamic concepts the true nature of Jihad has become fairly obscured – violent fighting to defend or advance Islam is certainly jihad, but jihad has various other aspects, such as proselytizing, donating to Islamic charities and campaigning for Shariah in non- Islamic states. This three part course gives a thorough account of the politics found in the Qur’an, Ahadith and Sira. The author assumes the reader has no knowledge of these texts prior to reading the course. Level one provides the fundamentals of political Islam, and the other two levels build on that with more information. Upon completion of the course the reader will have gained a firm understanding of Shariah, and Muhammad. He will know what sources to turn to next to further his understanding. For someone who really knows nothing about Islam, this self-study course is one of the best places to start learning.

There is almost nothing there we could save. Or look at what you wrote for the introduction:

Many people do not understand the doctrinal basis of Islam; a lot of those who would like to educate themselves don’t know where to start, or are discouraged by their own assumptions, believing for example that only scholars, imams and those with knowledge of Arabic can understand Islam in any meaningful way. People that do attempt a study typically start with the Qur’an, only to find that they become confused upon reading it; they do not know where to turn next for reliable information, so their study comes to an end. Dr Warner’s aim is to make Islamic doctrine, particularly the political and legal system of Islam, understandable to any member of the general public, and inform those who would otherwise remain in a state of uncertainty. The booklets focus on particular subjects of Islamic law, and the canonical texts from which that law is derived. The author keeps Jargon to a minimum, so the prose is very readable. Warner is concerned with facts, not opinions; he uses canonical Islamic texts as evidence, which he quotes from copiously. Neither “experts” nor anecdotal accounts of how Muslims behave can be relied upon for an accurate account of Islamic politics: only the core texts of Islam provide a reliable guide to Islam’s political system. Two key principles are identified by Warner that underlie that system in all respects: duality (particularly moral dualism) and submission (to the hierarchies Islam imposes).

The bolded text is really all that would be acceptable. So all we would be left with is:

Dr Warner’s aim is to make Islamic doctrine, particularly the political and legal system of Islam, understandable to any member of the general public. The booklets focus on particular subjects of Islamic law, and the canonical texts from which that law is derived. He uses canonical Islamic texts as evidence, which he quotes from copiously

If the "Two key principles" is a major thing in Warner's writing, they should be mentioned somewhere, but not in the way you did it. You wrote:

Two key principles are identified by Warner that underlie [Islam’s political system] in all respects: duality (particularly moral dualism) and submission (to the hierarchies Islam imposes).

What you should have wrote is something like:

According to Warner, there are two key principles that underlie [Islam’s political system]: duality (particularly moral dualism) and submission (to the hierarchies Islam imposes).

--Sahabah (talk) 06:06, 15 January 2014 (PST)

Rewrite

Hi Farah. I only had a quick look through so far, but your changes look great. Thanks a lot. You've listened to the points I made and edited it accordingly. I will take a proper look and clean it up ready for the mainspace soon. --Sahabah (talk) 12:39, 1 February 2014 (PST)