Tuesday, March 30, 2021

#2457: I.Q. al Rassooli

I.Q. al Rassooli is an anti-Islam activist most famous for his youtube series “Idiots Guide to Islam” and as author of the book Lifting the Veil: The True Faces of Muhammad and Islam, which seems to be mostly a transcription of parts of his youtube videos. He does not appear to have any credentials in any field relevant to his “research”, but takes the fact that scholars don’t bother to engage with the claims in his book or videos to demonstrate that he is nevertheless right. 

According to al Rassooli, every Muslim supports violent jihad, and those who claim that they don’t – that would ostensibly include former President Obama – are simply lying. Moreover, anyone who disagrees with that claim, al Rassooli says, belongs in a “mental asylum.” And polls that purport to show that many Muslims in the US don’t support the imposition are of Sharia are false, because those who insist they don’t are simply engaging in taqiyya. In other words, that the evidence straightforwardly refutes his claims, is evidence that the polls lie, which is evidence that he is right. So it goes. “Every Muslim wants Sharia,” asserts al Rassooli, and when they say they don’t, it’s “a deception, it’s called taqiyya. Taqiyya is Islamic sanctified religious deception. What do you think Obama is? Obama is all about taqiyya. He lies to protect Islam. Eight years he has been lying to protect Islam. Eight years. This is called taqiyya,” because the more times you repeat an unfounded claim, the truer it gets.  

So what should Americans do? According to al Rassooli, “you have to close every single mosque. You have to remove every single imam. You must not allow sharia. You must not allow hijab … This is exactly what needs to be done.” All in the name of religious freedom, of course.  

Diagnosis: The boiling stew of anger, hate and paranoia that is the mind of I.Q al Rassooli seems to persist entirely insulated from reality. Yet, his books and videos do seem to have a number of (equally deranged) fans. One might be excused for being worried about what they might end up doing.

8 comments:

  1. To whoever runs this site, here is a man who would make for an outstanding entry: Zachary K Hubbard https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXH1C_R8Ltg0zQTubLojrdg/videos

    ReplyDelete
  2. GD It is obvious that you are either a Muslim or a totally ignorant person
    I have over $1,500,000 worth of challenges to be proven wrong on anything I state.
    Instead of being insulting, why not prove me wrong and get rich?
    www.alrassooli.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Prove you wrong ... according to standards of proof set by ... you?

      The relevant claim here is essentially that:
      - All Muslims supports violent jihad
      - Anyone who claims not to is lying
      - Anyone who acts as if they don't, is engaged in deception
      - Any evidence they might present that they are speaking truly is yet more deception.

      The hallmarks of a good conspiracy theory is that it is completely unfalsifiable. And no: being unfalsifiable doesn't make a theory *good*; it makes it silly. If any evidence against your claim can be interpreted as just evidence that there is lying and the deception goes deeper than anyone initially thought, then you've just created a closed epistemic loop for yourself and set yourself outside rational discussion.

      I'll give you an analogous challenge: Prove to me (or yourself) that you're not in the Matrix.

      [Note also that according to standard logics of confirmation in scientific reasoning, e.g. Bayesian reasoning, if a claim cannot be falsified, there can be no evidence *for* it either - if, for any e, the probability of e given h = the probability of e, P(e|h) = P(e), then for any e, P(h|e) = P(h)]

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  3. Again with insults BUT no substance?

    Do you really think that readers are so stupid that they cannot tell who the true imbecile is?

    After all, you still have not proven your case against me and never will

    Awaiting your next insults

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    Replies
    1. @Maryland Bear
      Who is this directed to?

      Delete
    2. It’s directed at al Rassooli.

      I’m giving him the chance to prove he is not a Muslim, and then to prove he’s not acting under the cover of taqiyya.

      It’s a trick question.

      Delete