OPEN LETTER TO MAJOR NIDAL HASAN

            It is widely believed that the sentence of death handed down by a Court Marshal on account of your murder of thirteen people at Fort Hood would not cause you terrible anguish because you killed those people as part of a jihad. People think that as a jihadist you consider yourself a martyr and look forward to an eternity of bliss in Paradise. I am writing to advise you that there is no such thing as martyrdom, jihad, Paradise, or Allah. All you have accomplished is the brutal slaughter of innocent people. You have wasted your time, your life, and the lives of those innocent people. All you can look forward to once you die is eternal oblivion.

            If you look at what Moslems believe you will realize that the Moslem Paradise is an absurd myth. You believe that life in Paradise, where the martyrs go upon death, is (for men) eternal bliss where inhabitants live in palaces made from bricks of gold, silver, and pearls. Inhabitants of Paradise wear luxurious robes, bracelets, and perfumes as they recline on couches inlaid with gold or precious stones. Martyrs partake in exquisite banquets served in priceless vessels by immortal youths. Each inhabitant gets to have 72 beautiful young virgins with whom he can have sex. Paradise has lofty gardens, shady valleys, fountains scented with camphor or ginger, rivers of water, milk, and honey. Give me a break!

            It does not take too much insight to realize that this vision of Paradise was invented by a desperately poor nomadic desert people for whom the greatest things imaginable were green valleys, pure water, jewels, and wonderful food. Because there were so few women in the desert, the founders of Islam imagined a Paradise of sex with many willing young virgins. Modern Westerners would probably have a different image of Paradise. Moslem Paradise is a very earth-bound idea of sensual delight unlike the Christian belief in something more spiritual such as the “Beatific Vision.”

            It is hard to imagine that Allah would reward jihadists for slaughtering innocent people. It is much more rational to believe that there is really no such thing as Allah or Paradise.   Allah is a figment of human imagination. He is no more real than the thousands of local gods, witches, and ancestor spirits worshipped before the invention of Islam and by primitive tribes today in remote areas of the Earth. He is no more real than the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti, Greek satyrs, Hindu bluts, elves, fairies, and other assorted demons.

            If Allah is real, and if Allah is, like the Christian and Hebrew God, all-merciful, all powerful, all knowing, and all loving, and if Allah answers prayers and acts on our lives, why does he allow Moslems and others to suffer so much evil? In December 2004 an earthquake sent giant tsunamis across the Indian Ocean to wipe out hundreds of thousands of Moslems in the surrounding countries. After it happened, Moslem clerics declared that it was Allah’s punishment for the failure of people to strictly adhere to Moslem law (“Shariah”). Rational people asked, however, how an all-merciful God who interferes in human life, who answers prayers, could have let this tragedy happen. Why should you pray to such a God?

             Islam, like most faiths, presumes that Allah is infinitely good, loving, and all-merciful. The evidence would seem to the contrary. Is life on earth for Moslems perfectly happy? No, the majority of Moslems live in poverty, disease, war, famine, and misery. If a god was responsible for this, he would have to be some detached, ruthless, amoral scientist or demon who is conducting experiments to see how humans will respond to horror and tragedy.

            It seems obvious to me that the reason why Moslems believe in Islam is that their lives are so desolate that they want to believe that there is something better awaiting them after death. Look at the Middle East. It has always been a barren, ugly land full of poverty, war, disease, and hunger. Without some hope in Paradise, life would seem to be meaningless. Moslems just can’t bear the thought that there will never be any relief from their misery.

            It is a cornerstone of Islam that we should pray to Allah five times a day. I ask why? Does Allah answer prayers? There is no evidence that Allah ever answers prayers, but people go on praying anyway. Why do people need to pray to a god? If he is the eternal, omnipotent, and omniscient creator of the universe and knows our every thought, he should know what we want to pray for without our reciting any prayers.

            There is no rational, logical, or scientific reason to believe in Allah. Belief in Allah can be relegated to the realm of wishful thinking. When humans believe in Allah they violate every aspect of human rationality. But it is hard for people raised in the belief and brainwashed by parents, relatives, emirs, and imams, to critically examine these irrational beliefs.

            My dear Major Hasan; No intelligent person who carefully examines the question would think that there is a such an improbable place as Paradise, but even if there is, you won’t go there.