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I'm not sure an article that presents a critical review is neutral or encyclopedic. ialsoagree (talk) 23:56, 10 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Just because something is critical, that does not make it "not neutral" or "unencyclopedic". there are plenty of critical articles on Wikipedia, espepcially on other religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism. They even go further and criticise sects such as Catholicism, Protetantism, Mormonism etc. Why should this article be treated any different. Especially when it is providing arguments from credible, respectable sources. We must not allow the fanatics to scare us into complacency or inaction.Atheistic Irani (talk) 00:10, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- With all due respect Ialsoagree, i believe you should remove the neutrality tag, since this surely cannot stand up to higher criticism, a part of which i have already provided.Atheistic Irani (talk) 00:37, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- I think it's questionable, no matter who does it, I just happened to notice this article. That being said, if consensus favors your opinion, then I'll admit to my own mistake and not object to the tag's removal. ialsoagree (talk) 00:41, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I also believe i am offering the chance for neutrality, by allowing those who are being criticised the chance to respond to the arguments against them. Hence, the reader can be swayed either way- for or against Twelvers. So where is the bias in that? The layout of the article is most appropriate for the oppurtunity for neutrality. I have seen other critical articles that lack this clear outlet for defense. Therefore, this article allows all stakeholders to voice their opinions. Let the reader decide which opinion appeals to his/her common sense of right and wrong.Atheistic Irani (talk) 00:45, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Sounds like a good plan. Give it 24 hours, if no one else has an opinion, feel free to remove the tag. ialsoagree (talk) 00:47, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds very agreeable. Thankyou, really appreciated.Atheistic Irani (talk) 00:54, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Instead of waiting 24 hours before removing the tag, i decided to wait 1 week. I thought this would allow a more comprehensive study of peoples opinions.Atheistic Irani (talk) 23:18, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This is most definitely a work in progress and hopefully i will be able to update it when i am not busy studying or partying. So please bear with me. Hopefully, the wider Wikipedia community will also get on board and support the growth and perfection of this article. I understand that this article is sensitive and provocative for some, and will definitely come under vandalism attacks from religious fanatics and the weak spirited. However, it is my firm belief that the knowledgeable and consensual Wikipedia community will counter these fanatics' attacks and enable the knowledge provided by this article to continue to reach the wider community.Atheistic Irani (talk) 00:21, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If i could just say; i believe the best format for the article is to have the heading of the twelver belief being criticised, followed by the actual twelver belief being criticised, followed by the reasons it is being criticised, finally followed by a concluding paragraph that also links the belief to the broader twelver history. This should then have a "Response to criticism" subsection. I believe this format is the easiest to follow, reduces bewildering clutter, and is the fairest for all stakeholders involved.Atheistic Irani (talk) 23:29, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
After some intensive research I have discovered that the statement in the article that “John the baptist (Yahya) was given authority (hokm) while he was a child according to the Koran (19:12 )” is in fact incorrect. This is due to a number of undisputable reasons:
- Firstly, the Arabic word used in this koranic quote was not hokm (authority). Rather, the Arabic word used is hokmah (wisdom). This is clear for anyone with even an ounce of Arabic comprehension and pronunciation. I would like to think this was an innocent rushed mistake, instead of deceptive trickery that was used due to the similarities in the words hokm and hokmah.
- Secondly, every single online English Koran translation I found (whether it be from an Englishmen, to an Arab, to a south Asian) translated the word in question (i.e. hokmah) to wisdom, rather than authority. Quite humorously, the person who incorrectly edited the section (at 19.33, 26th May 2010) as hokm (authority) also translated the koranic quote in question as wisdom. This further leads me to believe this editor has made perhaps an innocent mistake.
Therefore, based upon these discoveries I have changed the wording from hokm to hokmah i.e. “John the baptist (Yahya) was given wisdom (hokmah) while he was a child according to the Koran (19:12 )”. Whether this new correct rephrasing of the words is any longer a relevant rebuttal, I leave for the original editor or other interested parties to decide. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Atheistic Irani (talk • contribs) 23:00, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Don't you think Wisdom is the criteria why one shuold have authority. So if John the Baptist was the most wise person of his land, he should have been the ruler whether child or grown up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.32.212.11 (talk) 05:41, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
My answer: with all due respect, may I advice you upon not rushing into an argument when you clearly have not assessed the evidences and arguments in any depth whatsoever. This kind of hasty response can be very misleading. Let me answer all your points as simply as I can.
- Your statement “Don't you think Wisdom is the criteria why one shuold have authority” is really misguided. Wisdom is definitely one criterion, but definitely not the only criteria in order to have authority. Besides there are many people who are wise or have wisdom (perhaps you may know a few such people), but that does not mean they should all of a sudden have number 1 authority.
- Your statement “So if John the Baptist was the most wise person of his land, he should have been the ruler whether child or grown up” is simply untrue. The Quranic quote nowhere mentions “the most wise person of his land”. The Quranic quote only says John was given wisdom while he was a child. While he was a child there may have been people who had more wisdom than him (e.g. If his father Zachariah was still alive, or Mary mother of Jesus- if she was yet born and much older, or other older people) - so perhaps you believe all these people should have shared the leadership of the Israelites? How would they have shared it- on a monthly rotational basis?
- Besides, for John to have had dominant authority while he was a child, he would have had to of been a divinely designated Prophet while he was a child (just as the Twelver Shia’s child Imams were divinely designated the Imamate). However, nowhere does the Quranic quote mention that John was a Prophet at this child phase of his life- it only mentions he was given wisdom- and I am sure if he was a child Prophet then the Quranic quote would have said he was given Prophethood (rather than wisdom) while he was a child, since Prophethood includes wisdom plus much more including: divine revelation, miracles, highest moral and spiritual standards etc.
Anyway, in my opinion, using the John example to justify the Imamate of the 3 children should be rejected and deleted from the article. Whoever added this argument did so based upon a Quranic quote that is too vague and in no way addresses the issue of the 3 children being the highest unparalleled authority for the Twelver Shia communities of their times. Plus, there are no references (of scholars, intellectuals, debaters etc.) that were produced for this John rebuttal, which leads me to believe that this was added based upon the poorly thought through reasoning of its initial editor. However, since this is a sensitive topic I do not intend to fan the flames and so will be patient until there is loud consensus for its deletion.Atheistic Irani (talk) 04:26, 3 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The User:Humaliwalay indirectly brought my attention to a very important issue, which I had lazily ignored. The issue being: to revise the ages of the child Imams (when they assumed the Imamate), in order to make them more accurate. I had previously recorded the 9th, 10th and 12th Imams as being 8, 5-8 and 5 years old respectively when they became the Imams. However, more accurate conversions, calculations and rounding-off (to the nearest 0.5 years) revealed their ages to be 7.5yrs, 6.5-8.5yrs, and 4.5 years old respectively. For those really interested, the values before rounding-off were 7yrs7months7days, 6yrs4months29days-8yrs4months27days and 4yrs6months24days respectively. These new values were also determined while being lenient and using the given values that actually gave these child Imams their highest ages possible (in order to placate any fussy or combative Twelver Shia readers and editors). My working out is too long and tedious to been shown on this discussion page. However, if anyone would like to work out their ages for themselves, then this can be done quite simply by following the Wikipedia link for each Imam then recording the birth and death of each of the last 5 Imams using their equivalent Islamic or Gregorian calendar dates throughout. This is then followed by subtracting the death of the preceding Imam by the birth of the succeeding Imam. This gives the age at which the Imam succeeded his predecessor. However, I would advise anyone who does not want to waste their time to not bother, because these values are as good as they are going to get. Regardless of the revised or pre-revised ages, these 3 Imams were still assigned the Imamate while they were children and while they were less than 10 years old.
- I have also removed the citation tags since the details are by no means “dubious”. In fact I was only using the details that were given by the Wikipedia article link of each Imam (which I would imagine were added by Twelver Shia editors rather than any polemicists) to determine their ages upon assuming the Imamate.Atheistic Irani (talk) 04:29, 3 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Atheistic Irani (talk) 04:29, 3 September 2010 (UTC) - Just Neutral and reliable citation needed, once the issue is addressed, you are free to remove the tags. Thanks - Humaliwalay (talk) 08:24, 5 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
The result was keep. Following improvement deletion votes have changed Spartaz Humbug! 16:40, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Criticism of Twelver Shi'ism (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View AfD • AfD statistics)
- (Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL)
Delete - "Criticism of Twelver Shi'ism" is a article without providing sources that help readers understand from who in particular is criticism recieved for Twelver Shi'i Islam, which is a strictly followed religion of about 200 million people in the world. I think the article may qualify under G-1 Wikipedia:Patent nonsense perhaps as the article is original research, POV, in bad faith and soapbox. References given are non-verifiable and out of sync to the matter which they are tagged to. Nothing in the article can be checked for verification, except few sources which are not related to "Criticism of Twelver Shi'ism". Those only help explain that Twelver Shi'i are up to 10-15% of total Islam and are the minority and few quotes from Khomeini and his criticism (You can't criticise whole community based on single person). When I read an article in which the faith of about 200 million people is criticised I expect the article to to guide me in understanding why this is and who in particular are criticising their faith. The article even contain quotes such as "Twelver Shia themselves undermine Ali’s authority", which is a strong indication that this article is made to bash Twelver Shi'i Islam.--Sayed Mohammad Faiz Haidertcs 10:27, 29 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If only you knew my frustration korruski but yes I will from now on only strictly criticize the contributions and not contributors. I will leavfe the judges tyo criticize the contributors. Thanks.Suenahrme (talk) 03:02, 1 December 2010 (UTC)
oh and i just visited khomeinis wiki article and as you said faizhaider he was indeed interested in philosophy, poetry and literature. but it also clearly say he was intrersted in hadeeth as well and he wrote a book it says about forty hadeeth. just to note.Suenahrme (talk) 03:10, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Comment - I urge contributors to this discussion to remember that this nomination is not intended to be an argument, nor a vote, but a discussion to establish whether or not this article is suitable for inclusion. I understand that judging by your "tone" there are almost certainly personal (cultural and/or religious) motivations for your arguments. Try to be as objective as possible and coming across as being upset (by the use of multiple exclamation marks and overly long, repetitive statements directed at individual editors) only detracts from the weight of your opinion. If you are unable to keep your own cultural/religious affiliations separate you would be wise to distance yourself from this discussion as you would have an insurmountable conflict of interest. In short, if you cannot set aside your own beliefs or affinities leave this discussion to those with no involvement in the subject matter who can objectively evaluate the article's suitability. --§Pumpmeup 10:21, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- In addition do not, ever, mention another editor's cultural or religious background in order to discredit them, this is a severe personal attack. There are several blatant personal attacks present in this discussion and I would imagine this will cause the reviewing sysop to entirely discredit the attacker's arguments. --§Pumpmeup 10:27, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Keep, but major improvement needed. As a disinterested party, I don't find the article to fall under the "hate" umbrella, particularly as the primary editor has a done a relatively great job of phrasing the issue from an objective perspective: "XYZ commentator critices that yadda-yadda [footnote]" as opposed to "the following things are terrible about Foo". Is still lacks a solid lede, and the sourcing needs some tweaking (though not as much as implied by above opponents). I do join in cautioning the primary editor that links to hate sights aren't inappropriate because they're hate sites, but solely because drawing conclusions from primary sources falls under WP:OR (original research). It is, however, totally legitimate to cite academic sources which observe, rather than participate in, criticism of one sect or another. Plus we have plenty of articles or sections on "Criticism of X belief", so I don't see any particular reason the Shi'a should be exempted provided it can be done encyclopedically. Note also that a CV tag appears to have been maliciously added to block the text. The tag provided no URL for the alleged vio, it was not added to the CV notification page, and not even an Edit Summary was given to explain it. So I've deleted it (which would normally be an Admin issue only) do to lack of any attempt to comply with CV procedure. MatthewVanitas (talk) 19:26, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- I kindly ask you to have a fast look to what I wrote below about the references of this article. The whole article is just based on self-interpretation and cheating by distorting the content of sources. Thanks in advance. --Aliwiki (talk) 12:51, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Surely, no one discredits criticism but if you see the article does not provide clear sources which criticizes Shia Islam, it takes one chunk from here and another from there and draws conclusion (which I think is counted as Original research) in addition to it the article heavily resides on hate sites & non verifiable resources. If you'll search criticism of twelver Shi'ism you will get nothing except wiki pages. Also, editors primarily active on article keep on removing counter-criticism material and their actual feelings have been already demonstrated in their preceding comments. Just to point out article Criticism of Sunni Islam was deleted on similar pretext. Also CV discussion page exists for this article i.e., [Wikipedia:Copyright_problems/2010_November_30] and it is mentioned there on article's talk page. --Sayed Mohammad Faiz Haidertcs 20:04, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Regarding CV, please refer, The position of women from the viewpoint of Imam Khomeini ... By Ruhollah Khomeini, #15 & #37.--Sayed Mohammad Faiz Haidertcs 20:27, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- In total in the article there are six verifiable links, they are:
- http://www.northill.demon.co.uk/relstud/shiislam.htm#6 - used for child Imams criticism - This source fails to address the issue of child Imam anywhere, it just gives overview of Shi'a Islam and is irrelevant to issue of child Imam.
- http://www.archive.org/stream/910_shia/910_shia_djvu.txt - used for child Imams criticism - the source states His youth became a cause of controversy among the Shi*a, some asking how such a boy could have the necessary knowledge to be the Imam. Shi*i writers have countered such suggestions by relating numerous stories about his extraordinary knowledge at a young age and by referring to the fact that the Qur'an states that Jesus was given his mission while still a child... ... ... Once again the Shi*is were faced with the problem of a child Imam., although the article mentions criticism but fails to mention counter criticism mentioned in second statement. Is this balanced criticism or POV? if article history is to be seen the point of counter-criticism whenever entered has been removed by few editors, is this correct approach?
- http://books.google.com.au/books?id=qYmxdo_vX9oC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%E2%80%9CTHE+POSITION+OF+WOMEN+FROM+THE+VIEWPOINT+OF+IMAM+KHOMEINI&source=bl&ots=c_d4hppCPY&sig=Z6sAYMlwL8QqQeY7C8YQ7THq4Jc&hl=en&ei=SJq1TOqkN42usAPE2tmQCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false - used for divine revelations criticism - This source is used for CV as shown in preceding comment.
- http://www.al-shia.org/html/eng/books/hadith/al-kafi/part4/part4-ch40.htm - used for divine revelations criticism - This source is primary Shi'a collection of hadith as Bukhari, etc are for Sunnis.
- http://abdurrahman.org/innovation/fatwaonshias.html - used for divine revelations criticism - This source is basically a hate site. This source criticizes specifically Khomeini and not Shi'a Islam hence irrelevant for the topic.
- http://www.ahlelbayt.com/articles/shia-texts/shia-holy-books - used for divine revelations criticism - This source is also a hate site.
- Comment on possible improvement. I submit that the basic concept of the article is valid, though the above concerns do need to be addressed. The "child imam" criticism from the Archive link seems useable provided the counter-criticism is also recognised. So far as other legitimate additions, note here[1] one example, likely of many, of an academic source mentioning Sunni allegations of "disrespect of the Sahaba" due to Shi'a antipathy to the earliest Caliphs. With another source or two this could easily be used as to form a totally valid NPOV observation of the history of Sunni criticism on that issue. The article definitely needs some chopping, and we need to distinguish malicious CV from over-long cites, and definitely need to watch the OR issue, but I think a couple editors could knock in some pretty valid academic commentary in a day or two. I'm just concerned that the AfD might have too much emotional basis mixed up with the legitimate objections. MatthewVanitas (talk) 21:30, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Day or two? I have been watching that article for around six months and things never improved so I thought putting Afd request might do some magic but no original editor wants to admit that there is something wrong with the article. They will simply not allow the article to be cleansed. I hope some overnight magic happens. Meanwhile can you clear of the contested matter, it seems the editors on article will accept edits of a mediator.--Sayed Mohammad Faiz Haidertcs 21:51, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Well, it's good this was brought to the public attention then; I just ran across it on WP:ISLAM by happenstance. I'm a little jammed later today, but I'll try to put at least an hour into it tonight, primarily to cut out some OR, and put in a really basic section on criticism of "Sahaba disrespect" (which, incidentally, is one common criticism I've seen from Sunni radical groups). Again, disinterested party and hope that the original editor will recognise this and be willing to take some neutral input. MatthewVanitas (talk) 21:57, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- OK, cut out a possible CV (more like an excessively-long quote). Removed some of what appeared to be OR/presumption/ijtihad without secondary source backing. Also combined the footnotes so it's easier to see which sources are used repeatedly, and identified one article as being a personal homepage, though it might be the case that the author is still a recognised commentator. Also moved the shielded list of possible future sections to the top so folks can check for legitimate secondary sources covering those topics. I'm quite sure we can find something on Sunni criticism of temporary marriage. EDIT: I also submit we may be able to move the article to Criticism of Shi'a Islam, for the simplest title possible, unless the criticised beliefs (or many of them) are non-applicable to other Shi'a denominations like the Ismailis, etc. I take it they also believe in the young imams, Fatima's revelation, do not support the first caliphs, etc? MatthewVanitas (talk) 22:25, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Thanks, I hope so things will change for good. BTW there is entire article Shia view of the Sahaba.--Sayed Mohammad Faiz Haidertcs 22:47, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
1.Most of the sources are Wahabism and Bahai' Faith sources which their animosity to Shi'ism is obvious.
2.That a child was Imam is true, but who has criticized this fact?If you again pay attention to the sources, the accusation is one behalf of Wahabis sources. W.Madelung is just reporting this, and as far as I know he hasn't criticized it. It's notable that there were thousands of other child who became kings. Or there were several Sunni child Caliphate in dynasties. Moreover, Jesus was considered a religious figure since he was born, but in Criticism of Jesus and Criticism of christianity we don't see that this fact be criticized. Fatima's devine relation is also easily comparable to Mary (mother of Jesus)'s divine relation. Taqiyya and Ashura are part of religious traditions, and in none of the other religion criticism articles, traditions are not criticized.--Aliwiki (talk) 11:15, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Comment: A fast analysis of the references of this article reveals many facts:
Ref 1. It is a Shia book which explains What is Taqiyya, there is no critism!!!!!!
Ref 2. A Sunni source which I explained above. If you open the link, you'll recognize the author used the impolite word of Rafidi which is a common word that Wahabis are using against Shia.
Ref3.Again a Sunni source, and if you read, it is talking about that Shias are not agreeing on Sunni's ideas, which is a fact. Is this criticism???In non of the religious criticism articles, the poit that one religion doesn't accept the other ideology is not criticized.
Ref. 4:Bernard Lewis is reporting Rukn al-Din Khurshah was chosen as Imam while he was a child!!! Ruk al-Din Khurshah was not a Twelver-Shia Imam (See The Twelve Imams to verify)
Ref. 5: An unrelibale Bahai' website whose animosity is obvious with Shia.
Ref. 6:Just a paper from a Sunni author.
Ref. 7: Madelung is relibale, but there is distortion here: Madelung is discussing Ismaili Shia not Twelver. In page 114-115 he has just reported who is the 12th Imam and his specification including that fact that he was a child (He is not even talking about the other child Imam, 9th). You can easily verify this obvious cheating here. Just a report, but self-interpretation has changed it to criticism.
Ref8.A RS but has the problem of Ref.7. Just need to content of chapter 4: [2]. The author is only reporting what are ideas of Twelver-Shia.
Ref 9.It's not verifiable.I didn't find any book with that tile in Google books. Also Google search reflect Wikipedia's article and Just I found that this book exists, but what is the content? and if it's criticizing or just reporting? It's notable that the author is a Shia.
Ref. 10:Just reporting the Imam was child, no criticism and obvious self-interpretation.
Ref. 11: the source is website that is just reporting Fatimah's divine relationship. No criticism and self-interpretation again! It's notable that Sunni's also believe Umar had devine relationship.
Ref. 12: It reports that Sunni's don't believe Fatima's devive relationship. Is this Criticims?!!
Ref 13: OR as it's primary source. It is also a Sunni source. further more, it's just reporting, on behalf of Sunnis, what Sunnis think and beliieve. No relationship for this article
Ref. 14:Obvious OR of a primary Sunni source
Ref. 15:OR from a primry Sunni source.
Ref. 16: Sunni's Fatwas against Shia beliefs. OR, unrelib
ale sorce.
Ref. 17: Just reporting belief of existence of the Fatima's book from a Shia website. No criticism.
I think these explanation are enough to prove the whole content is just based on self-interpretations.--Aliwiki (talk) 12:38, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Comment - I agree with Aliwiki, the way he has explained its apparent that this article is a mere anti-shia proaganda by the Sunnis and Wahabis rather than being an encyclopedic material.- Humaliwalay (talk) 12:29, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- I can only answer for Refs 1-3 and 12, which are the ones I added. And note too that I removed several portions which were non-encyclopedic, so I'd argue the article continues to improve. Further, the basic concept of the article is a valid one, so I wouldn't necessarily be against removing the last two sections until they can be improved, given the sensitivity of the issue.
- I would argue that Aliwiki's list of comments above present some "moving goalposts", in that he appears to be against quoting Shi'a books or Sunni books, and against scholarly commentary or quotes from sectarian commentary. So if a book mentions criticism, it's not in-and-of-itself criticism. And if it criticises, it's sectarian? In response to cites 1-3 which I added:
- Ref 1. It is a Shia book which explains What is Taqiyya, there is no critism!!!!!!
- Click the link, third paragraph down starts "Some have criticised Shiism by saying that to employ the practice of taqiyya..."
- Ref 2. A Sunni source which I explained above. If you open the link, you'll recognize the author used the impolite word of Rafidi which is a common word that Wahabis are using against Shia.
- "If you open the link"? The quoted text itself uses the term, so any implication that the biased nature of the quote is concealed is incorrect. The point is that it's quoting an example of Sunni objections to Shi'a belief. Since the sentence is about noting bias, the use of the quote is NPOV since it's in context.
- Ref3.Again a Sunni source, and if you read, it is talking about that Shias are not agreeing on Sunni's ideas, which is a fact. Is this criticism???In non of the religious criticism articles, the poit that one religion doesn't accept the other ideology is not criticized.
- Ref 7, thanks for the link, will add to the article. Note however that despite the word "Ismailism" in the title, in the specific cited section the author is discussing Shi'a Islam overall (Imamiyya).
- The word "criticism" is explicitly used, and further I don't think it's even slightly stretching to consider "rejected the idea...", "opposed unity until XYZ belief was dropped.." as criticism of those beliefs.
- Ref. 12: It reports that Sunni's don't believe Fatima's devive relationship. Is this Criticims?!!
- Definitely. If group A disbelieves a major precept of group B's religion, I don't see how that could fail to be seen as criticism.
- Glancing at your other points, I've not too convinced that the others are correct either. You portyray #17 as Ref. 17: Just reporting belief of existence of the Fatima's book from a Shia website. No criticism..
- 17 ref is most clearly not a Shi'a website, and is quite clearly a criticism of Shi'a belief in revelations post-dating Muhammad. If you mis-portray such an obvious source here, how are we to believe your opinions on any of the above? Did you not actually look at the link, or are you intentionally misrepresenting it? I do, however, note that it's a non-authoritative sectarian site (non-authoritative in that it's not like it's Al-Azhar or Darul Uloom Deboand issuing an official criticism), so I'm fine removing that one.
- Again, we have a page-full of "support" for deletion which is mostly two posters, and then one who arrived today. I appreciate the listing out of specific objections, but as noted I don't think the objections to 1-3 are valid. So far as the two following sections, I can't speak to them as immediately, but a spot-check shows flaws already. The latter two sections need substantial work, but the two earlier sections I added I think are pretty decent. More importantly, I'd say the overall concept is quite valid and educational in helping readers understand the differences between different segments of Islam. Following WP:BEBOLD I'm going to go chop out the non-authoritative references, to include, unfortunately, several books that might be correct but which we can't easily access online. MatthewVanitas (talk) 19:17, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Okay, I've made some pretty sweeping cuts to the article, including removing several non-authoritative authors, and several inaccessible books, as well as some long stretches of text that verged on POV, or were simply too exhaustive. Again, adding to my concerns over bias being a motive in this AfD, I note that many of the criticised sections may have indeed had poor footnoting, but also were pretty inarguably true. When someone wants to remove a pretty basic fact for "poor referencing" rather than find a better ref, I do tend to suspect they want the fact removed more than they want it to be proven. Major Sunni commentators and institutions undeniably criticise temporary marriage, the Imamate, "disrespect" to the Sahaba, etc. Attacking those very basic points over footnoting, rather than working to improve footnoting, is rather suspect. MatthewVanitas (talk) 19:40, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Mr MatthewVanitas, thank you very much for your comments. There are some points that I need to discuss in more details: Twice, in your last post and in the first one after my post, you have mention the matter of Majority/Minority of Shia/Sunni. The question is that Majority is a base for reality?Can majority beliefs affect reality? By a simple comparison, Christians are majority ovr Muslims, so can you conclude Christianity is right and Islam is wrong? Or, compare the idea of around just 10 millions Armenian about Armenian Genocide in which the other parts are Turks and Arab-Sunnis with about 300 millions population. Can you conclude the majority idea can affect this undeniable fact that has occured? We must consider the density of groups to be able to compare them. 8 centuries prior to the Fatwa of the Shaykh al-Baz, the grand saudi Muftih that the earth is flat, the shia scholar, Biruni estimated the circumference of the earth.If you want, it will be my pleasure to discuss this matter in more details. You mention the case of Shia negative view on some of Muhammad's companions. I wonder how much you know about these companions? They were among greatest criminals of the Human's history; Umar ordered the two greatest libraries of the ancient word, library of Alexandria and Ctesiphon be burnt. AbuBakr gave the title Sword of Allah to Khalid ibn Walid upon his shameful raping to Malik Ibn Nuwayrah's wife. Uthman subjected the whole Islamic nations to his family and established nepotism. Now talking about the one who has negative view of these great historical criminals must be criticized? Can you be kind to show me some example about criticism of some people who has/had negative view on Hitler, Gengiz Khan, or...... Maybe you don't know who was Judas Iscariot, or maybe you haven't read about that when Moses left his companions for 40 days, they started worshiping a golden goat. Any way, there are much to be said in this case, but logically this matter can not provide any base for Shia criticism. About the ref 17, it's my duty to apologize for my carelessness. About Ref 1, you have just read the first sentence of that paragraph, but seems you haven't read the rest which is its clarifications. If you say some I reserve the right for the author to ask who is this some. To discuss more about this Ref, the author is a Shia and he is defending Shia's idea in his book, I can not understand how his words can be interpreted as criticism. the whole Taqiya section is based on this source. About Ref 2, i explaned a bit above, and I would like to add according to WP:NPOV this source can not be used because the source is a Sunni source. Everything Sunni or Shia say about the other one, can be called only and only accusation not criticism. Criticism must be on behalf of a third neutral party. Ref. 3 has same situation. Ref 7, Madelung is discussing the 12th Imam and his characterizations, and says twelver shias are believing to him!Where is criticism??About Ref 12,I guess my explanations above should be enough. Thank you again.--Aliwiki (talk) 23:30, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Couple points here:
- 1) Yes, Tabatabi is writing from the Shi'a perspective. However, he is noting things the Shi'a have been criticised for and is responding to them.
- 2) Yes, Ref 2 is a Sunni source, but the whole point is that it's being explicitly, directly quoted as an example of the kind of argument Sunnis use against Shi'a, not as a neutral authority on the subject, but as a case-study.
- 3) Same thing with Madelung as Tabatabi: he's pointing out an argument used against the Shi'a and then explaining how the Shi'a respond to it.
- 4) As for the first bit, I have zero idea what argument you're making. Where have I ever said that the Sunni are right based on numbers? Are you mistaking the word "major" (as in a recognised authority understood to speak for at least a portion of the Sunni community) with "majority"?
- 5) On the bit about the Sahaba, it's not in the slightest a legitimate argument, and frankly is the sort of POV attack on the article that drew me into this debate in the 1st place. Your response to the simple statement "Sunnis believe Shi'a disrespect the Sahaba" is to give some lengthy argument that "persons XYZ should be rightly criticised, and nobody can criticise the Shi'a for criticising them?" It's as though you are, yourself, literally just reiterating the Shi'a argument rather than arguing the validity of the statement. Again, several critics of this article appear to recognise that the Sunni criticise the Shi'a, but are simply against any mention thereof; replying with arguments that "the Shi'a are right, Abu Bakr was evil and shouldn't have been caliph" is completely outside the scope of this argument, and again shows a lack of neutrality on this issue. MatthewVanitas (talk) 02:16, 6 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Thanks again, about your points:
- 1) For sure you are familiar with the following structure in Wikipedia: Somewho? claimed that ..... This section has one source and that source is defending Shia idea, the author is a Shia and he has discussed the answer to any possible criticism.
- 2)Argument of Shia/Sunni is not related to criticism of one of them. Criticism must be on behalf of a third neutral person, and the involved parties can not criticize eachother. As I told before, any party claim against the other one is ACCUSATION not CRITICISM. To verify this fact, you can have a look to other religious criticism like Criticism of Christianity. It can be a good idea to start two articles with titles Sunni views of Shia and Shia views of Sunni.
- 3)About Madelung, as it's a RS I need to clarify it better. in page 114, Madelung is reporting Twelver Shia beliefs, such as temporary marraige and other beliefs including the Shia 12th Imam (Who became Imam when he was a child), then he is explaining Shia's doctorine in this matter very well and clear and says:Shi'a belief the knowledge of an imam comes from "inspiration, not acquisition", and thus that even a young imam is not considered unprepared, receiving revelation upon the death of his predecessor.. In fact, Madelung's explanation is a clear answer to any criticism. Here I would like to explain about the other RS of this section, which is from the famous orientalist, Bernard Lewis. Mr Lewis in that book has provided a detailed study of Assassins which was a Nizari Ismaili movement and its founder was Hassan-i Sabbah. It's notable that Hassan Sabbah was inventor of Suicide attack and now if you pay attention to the title of the book Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam , you can easily realize what's that. I don't know how much you are familiar with the Islamic topic, but it would be worthy to mention that the word Imam has two meanings here: Imam, a general word which means leader;Second is confined to 12 persons see this. Now, Mr. Lewis is describing the Assassins movement, and that they chose a child Rukn al-Din Khurshah as their leader with the title Imam which here is in its general meaning. (Just search the word Rukn al-Din Khurshah inside the book to verify this fact). Now if you have extra time, you can reat the following to understand how a 9-years-old child Imam overcame a debate in the presence of several educated persons [3]
- 4)The word Majority which you used twice made me to understood that. My mother tongue is not English, so if you say you didn't mean that, again it's my duty to ask you to accept my sincere apology.
- 5)I know that It's not directly related to here, but that you mentioned the negative view of Shia on Muhammad's companion, made me to clarify this point. I gave example of Judas Iscariot who was an apostle of Jesus, I am proud to say I have negative view on him and I believe if the whole over 6 billion todays human tell me that they love him, won't affect my negative view on him. The case of Muhammad's companions are exactly same. Can we criticize someone who has negative view on Hitler? The answer is No. We can never accept the title Sword of God to a woman raper. If any group including Sunni wants to criticize Shia's negative view on some of Muhammad's companions, first they must prove their loyalty towards Muhammad and Islam, which they failed to do after 1400 years. Now they want to solve this problem by their higher number, but their lower density (which I mentioned above) has limited them.
- I guess till now, our debate has covered all the points of article content except the Fatima's book. For more clarification, I will add the following point as-well:
- 6)Fatimah divine relation: This section has 2 sources. first one (Ref 9) is just an informative source, which informs the shia belief of existence of Fatima's book and her divine relation. The second source (ref 10) exact wording is this:The Shi'ahs believe that at this time God made special revelations to Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter, ...It need scarcely be added that the Sunni writers deny every word of these traditions.. Obviously there is no criticism here, just informative sentences. That's all. Further more, that Sunni's believe non-Prophets do not have divine relation is an obvious lie, because Quran chapter 19 verses 16 to 21 and Quran 3.45 are clearly mention Mary's divine relation, In addition, Sunni's reports shows ordinary people also can have divine relation and here I just give two examples of their most authentic book:[4],[5][6]. Now, when such people can have divine relation, but Fatima can't?Sunnis must criticize Quran and their books prior to criticizing Shia.
- Now, is there any unclear point? or is there any point which needs more explanation or clarification?--Aliwiki (talk) 04:16, 6 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I do agree with Aliwiki. - Humaliwalay (talk) 08:49, 6 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Delete An article can be written, but without the purely negative tone of the present one, which is pervasive it would be better to start over. criticism of articles are always a problem. In this case, the dispute between the two sects is notable enough to support an article like this--and I suppose the opposite also, but it should discuss not just the negative criticism made, but the positive response to it. It is not anyone's concern here which side has the better of the argument; the purpose of an article like this is to inform someone who comes here knowing very little of this what the argument is about, using sources from both sects, and also from outsiders. DGG ( talk ) 02:13, 7 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Comment: I disagree that it's a "tone" issue. The subject is negative, in that it is criticism, but I think the article makes it quite clear that it's about criticism of Shiism, not the article criticising Shiism. I agree that more classic/standard rebuttals from Shi'a commentators would be good, though unfortunately some of the responses were removed (along with the criticisms themselves) due to sourcing issues. Note that in the newly added material, such as the taqqiya section, I added a common rebuttal from the Shi'a perspective, and the child imams section mentions the rebuttal that there is instantaneous transfer of knowledge upon assuming the imamate. I would also like to point out that these debates have cropped up earlier in articles such as Criticism of Islam, and that there are several similar articles such as Criticism of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I appreciate your NPOV comments, DGG, as overall I'm very concerned about POV pushers deleting religious criticism, and this debate had been a bit emotional earlier on. That's been a major problem on articles of various Sunni sects and figures, where properly-footnoted and neutrally toned paragraphs of "Mullah X of ABC Institution took issue with Mullah Y's assertion, citing that yadda-yadda-yadda, and ultimately issuing a fatwa declaring Mullah Y's views invalid." Then IPs come in and nip it out, or editors remove it and then argue forcefully that criticism in a bio is "disrespectful" and Mullah X is an amazing figure beyond criticism. I still submit the basic topic of this article is valid, and I'd welcome any concerns on tone issues in the current article, though again it being a criticism article an NPOV depiction of negativity seems the order of the day. MatthewVanitas (talk) 15:27, 7 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Comment: I agree with Mathew in the point that the tone of the article doesn't have severe problem. in addition, we must take into account that the article is about criticism of a system not individuals, and the article aimed to criticize a system called Shia not individual mullahs; for example criticism of G.W.Bush is different from criticism of US's foreign policy, while they are related together. As I have pointed out before, the main problem of the current article is that absolutely non of the provided sources supports the given idea in its related text, and I discussed this matter in details in my previous comments.--Aliwiki (talk) 16:34, 7 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Again, I dispute the claim that footnotes and text don't match up. They match up quite closely, so I'm baffled by the allegation.
- 1: Article "The Shi'a have been criticised for this practice [taqiyya], deemed cowardly"
- Source: Some have criticized Shiism by saying that to employ the practice of taqiyah in religion is opposed to the virtues of courage and bravery
- 2: Article text is a footnoted direct quote from a published Sunni book of answers to religious questions, from a question regarding the Shi'a.
- 3a,b: Article describes ecumenical movement which stalled out due to Sunnis being displeased with Shi'a "disrespect" of the Sahaba.
- Source: All of these writers followed the same line, rejecting a dialogue with the Shi'a clerics until those ulama began to purify their education and writings from all profanity accorded to Sahabah.. Likewise source specifically states following footnote, that self-flagellation during Ashura was banned by Khameini.
- 5: On this iteration I can't get a preview of the page quoted, but Madelung specifically says that child imams were not considered problematic because their knowledge, as I directly quote, was derived from "inspiration, not acquisition".
- 10: Article: "Sunni critics argue that Fatimah never received divine revelations"
- Source: It need scarcely be added that the Sunni writers deny every word of these traditions [revelations to Fatimah]
- Okay, so how can you claim that the footnotes and the article text don't match up? This isn't some matter of pasting some arbitrary footnote on to a sentence to make it look legitimate. The page numbers are hyperlinked, and the texts I've included specifically support those arguments; or better yet, I read the texts and then encyclopedically summarised the arguments while footnoting. So wherein lies the referencing problem? MatthewVanitas (talk) 17:50, 7 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- It seems you haven't reviewed my comment on 04:16, 6 December 2010. Also in my previous comment I said the sources don't support the given idea.
- About Taqya:It's enough to write: Some[who?] have criticized Schiism...... In addition I noted the author is a Shia who is explaining Taqya in that paragraph. Fortunately the preview is available.
- About Sunni sources, I told you many times, whatever they say is accusation not criticism. Just check some other criticism articles. Can Muslims criticize Christianity? Criticism must be on behalf of a Academic research, not uneducated Sunni Mullahs. Yes, Shia believes in Fatima's divine relation and has negative view on some of Muhammad's companions. What's the problems? which academic source has criticized this matter?
- About Madelung. Follow this structure to verify what he is saying: first see the content, pages 111-115 is about Imamya (=Twelver) Shia, and he is just reporting Twelvers beliefs, such as temporary marriage is permissible untill day of resurrection and many things else. Among this report he is mentioning Mahdi, the 12th Imam, who became Imam when he was a child and he is continuing that Shi'a belief the knowledge of an imam comes from "inspiration, not acquisition", and thus that even a young imam is not considered unprepared, receiving revelation upon the death of his predecessor.. Just you need to search the some words like temporary marriage, Mahdi, inspiration, acquisition and .... to verify this fact. Changing this report to criticism is just self-interpretation. Isn't this? I gave some examples before which you didn't pay attention; Jesus had divine relation as soon as he was born, but we don't see criticism of this matter in criticism of Christianity. For sure studies about Christianity is tens of times more than Twelver Shia. Or consider the case of people like Adam or Noah; according to Judaism, Christianity and Islam they lived more than 1000 years; A normal human will become fool after around 130 years-old. Have you ever seen any criticism says Adam or Noah were fool due to their age? --Aliwiki (talk) 21:57, 7 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Comment: More about Taqya: Two historical examples, one Shia and one non-Shia, can help to have a better understanding: Two great scientist in the history of the world, Avicenna and Galileo. Both were sentenced to death by uneducated foolish Mullahs of their time (Christians and Sunnis), so they denied what they were believing in the court to save their life. It's clear who must be criticized in this matter.--Aliwiki (talk) 12:07, 8 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Spartaz Humbug! 11:24, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- The article is changed lot (for good as now it looks like a criticsm article & not a bashing one) and imo we can have article stay for now as it is getting improved each passing day (Thanks to efforts of Matthew). I'll try to contrubute to the article but as of now I have other priorities (both on WP & real life). --Sayed Mohammad Faiz Haidertcs 12:06, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Comment This article should be included in [Criticism of Islam]. As a stand alone article it appears redundant and creates and air of "bashing" Islam. By the way, encyclopedias are not known for there criticism, they are known for presenting generalized information that is accurate about a diversity of subjects. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Warrior777 (talk • contribs)
- Comment: I believe this article should be kept separate from Criticism of Islam, as this article is primarily focused on criticism internal to Islam between the two major denominations. If it would make this distinction clearer, I'd be willing to support a title-move to Sunni criticism of Shia Islam and a slight tightening of focus. MatthewVanitas (talk) 14:51, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Keep: I appreciate Matthew's edits on the article, and I am changing my opinion about deletion and vote to keep, as I believe the space which this article can provide for criticism points and related responses can benefit readers. I will make an analysis section on the article talk page to discuss improvement of the article and I invite others to join.--Aliwiki (talk) 15:56, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
Hi, this template seems to have been added without explaining where the problem is and where the content is a copy vio from, is there some discussion somewhere about it? No worries, found it . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyright_problems/2010_November_30 - Off2riorob (talk) 14:22, 30 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]