# Are there parts of Islam that a secular humanist might agree with, morally? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 11, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148 "2015-12-11T04:15:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/1 "2015-12-11T04:15:57Z")
At a casual glance, religions like Christianity or Buddhism seem to offer compassionate moral guidance (“love your enemies”, “avoid harming living things”) that might seem compatible, or at least not entirely at odds with, modern secular humanist morals. It seems like the admittedly vague of idea of “love” is entrenched in (modern interpretations) of these religions and pretty broadly followed by its mainstream believers. My very limited and by-now-rather-biased knowledge of Islam\*, however, is limited to its unequal attitudes towards women, its hatred of gays, its acceptance of Muhammad’s rape and slavery of children, its encouragement of the killing of apostates, etc. I understand that it encourages good treatment of people in its “in-groups”, meaning other Muslims, parents and children, other Abrahamic believers, etc. Does it have humanitarian kindnesses and moral guidance that extends beyond that in its scriptures, meaning not because it adopted them from a modern host country? TLDR: What are the kinder parts of Islam? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/2 "2015-12-11T04:36:36Z")
If you kill one innocent person, it’s as if you killed all humankind. Paraphrased. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/3 "2015-12-11T04:59:01Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Does it have humanitarian kindnesses and moral guidance that extends beyond that in its scriptures, meaning not because it adopted them from a modern host country? > > TLDR: What are the kinder parts of Islam? One of the [“five pillars of Islam”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Pillars_of_Islam) is charity (along with faith, prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca). > [@](#): > > Zakāt or alms-giving is the practice of charitable giving based on accumulated wealth… Zakāt is obligatory for all Muslims who are able to do so. It is the personal responsibility of each Muslim to ease the economic hardship of others and to strive towards eliminating inequality.[12] Zakāt consists of spending a portion of one’s wealth for the benefit of the poor or needy, like debtors or travelers. A Muslim may also donate more as an act of voluntary charity (sadaqah), rather than to achieve additional divine reward.[13] ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/4 "2015-12-11T05:40:32Z")
Inclusion. Islam is not racist. There’s more diversity at the Hajj than in downtown Austin…by far. Learning. Islam is deeply respectful of science, art, and literature. Muslims adore poetry; the Arabic language, especially, is almost tailor-made for poetry. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/5 "2015-12-11T09:46:18Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Inclusion. Islam is not racist. Neither is Christianity, but plenty of followers of each are racists. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/6 "2015-12-11T11:10:12Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Muslims adore poetry; the Arabic language, especially, is almost tailor-made for poetry. I speak neither Arabic nor Persian, but I was under the impression that Persian poetry destroys Arabic poetry every damn day of the week, and twice on Friday. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/7 "2015-12-11T11:28:16Z")
[Good stuff in the Koran](http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/good/long.html) ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/8 "2015-12-11T11:52:49Z")
The life and ideas of Fatema Mernissi would be a good place to start to answer your question. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/9 "2015-12-11T20:43:48Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > I speak neither Arabic nor Persian, but I was under the impression that Persian poetry destroys Arabic poetry every damn day of the week, and twice on Friday. I’m sorry to say I don’t know. (I started studying Italian to read Dante in the original, and didn’t complete the course. Arabic and Persian would be much tougher: a whole new alphabet, just to start!) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/10 "2015-12-11T21:51:10Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Inclusion. Islam is not racist. There’s more diversity at the Hajj than in downtown Austin…by far. > > Learning. Islam is deeply respectful of science, art, and literature. Muslims adore poetry; the Arabic language, especially, is almost tailor-made for poetry. I’d venture to say that the language fits one type of poetry. After all, any language can be poetic; it’s all in the user’s gift, if you will, for how said user employs the language. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-parts-of-islam-that-a-secular-humanist-might-agree-with-morally/740148/11 "2015-12-11T22:00:52Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > I speak neither Arabic nor Persian, but I was under the impression that Persian poetry destroys Arabic poetry every damn day of the week, and twice on Friday. Poetry, it seems to me, is that expression of language least amenable to translation. Put differently, how could anyone who is not fluent in both languages possibly form an informed opinion? For that matter, even an informed opinion is still a subjetive judgment.