It is problematically misleading to think of Islam as one item in a class whose other items are Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Not inaccurate, of course: Islam is a religion, like those others. But Islam might just as validly be considered as one item in a class whose other items include communism, parliamentary democracy, fascism, and the like, because Islam is a social project like those others, an idea for how politics and the economy ought to be managed, a complete system of civil and criminal law. Then again, Islam can quite validly be seen as one item in a class whose other items include Chinese civilization, Indian civilization, Western civilization, and so on, because there is a universe of cultural artifacts from art to philosophy to architecture to handicrafts to virtually every other realm of human cultural endeavor that could properly be called Islamic. Or, as I have tried to demonstrate, Islam can be seen as one world history among many that are unfolding simultaneously, each in some way incorporating all the others.

So, what to do? Which stance to take?

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لسان حالهم:

اني وياك حرب
ثنيننا نشيل سلاح
لو تكتلني لو اكتلك
بالحالتين ارتاح

أيها القمر
يا سيدَ الحزن وإله السهر
لستُ أعجَبُ أنّ القدماءَ عَبَدوك
إذ تراكَ مِثلَ أُمٍّ حانية:
عينٌ حَزينةٌ تَرقَبُ أولادَها مِن بعيد
تَسمَع شكواهم، تهوّن وحدتَهم
وتغسل بنورِها قلوبَهم التي أتعبَها الحبُ والحياة
وتُدثّرهم بالليل، تُغطي به تجاعيدَ العمرِ وتعبَ الأيام.

"أما إنّه ليس بين الحق والباطل إلا أربع أصابع."
فسُئِل عليه السلام عن معنى قوله هذا، فجمع أصابعه ووضعها بين أذنه وعينه ثم قال: 
"الباطل أنْ تقولَ سَمعتُ والحق أنْ تقولَ رأيتُ"

- الإمام علي بن أبي طالب (ع)

لاتَزِيدُنِي كَثْرَةُ النَّاسِ حَوْلِي عِزَّةً وَلا تَفَرُّقَهُمْ عَنِّي وَحْشَةً

- الإمام علي بن أبي طالب

الْفَقِيهُ كُلُّ الْفَقِيهِ مَنْ لَمْ يُقَنِّطِ النَّاسَ مِنْ رَحْمَةِ اللهِ، وَلَمْ يُؤْيِسْهُمْ مِنْ رَوْحِ اللهِ وَلَمْ يُؤْمِنْهُمْ مِنْ مَكْرِ اللهِ

- علي بن أبي طالب (ع)

بما تَرَدّد في ضِلعَيه [النبي] من قَلَقٍ
على الصبيِّ الذي في فَرشه رَقَدا

هذا عليٌ يقولُ اللهُ دَعهُ وقد
باتَ العدو له في بابِه رَصَدا

بَدرٌ وَضيٌ رَضيٌ من جراءتِه
لنومِه تحتَ أسيافِ العِدى خَلَدا

تلكَ التي امتحنَ اللهُ الخليلَ بها
هذا ابنُه وسيوف المشركينَ مُدى

بخوفه عن قليلٍ حين أبصَرَه
فتىً يذوقُ الردى مِن راحتَيه رَدَى

يُديرُ في بدرٍ الكُبرى الحسامَ على
بني أُميّة حتى مُزِّقوا قِدَدا

وعنده تربةٌ جبريلُ قالَ له
بأنّ أولادَه فيها غدًا شُهَدا

— بُردة تميم

الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَ‌ضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا

[سورة المائدة]

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT)

the mob is the most ruthless of tyrants; it is always in a democratic society that heresy and felony tend to be most constantly confused.

Democracy and free speech are not facets of one gem; democracy and free speech are eternal enemies. But in any battle between an institution and an idea, the idea, in the long run, has the better of it.

Politics, under a democracy, reduces itself to a mere struggle for office by flatterers of the proletariat; even when a superior man prevails at that disgusting game he must prevail at the cost of his self-respect. Not many superior men make the attempt.

— H.L. mencken

My view then is that having a mind means that an organism forms neural representations which can become images, be manipulated in a process called thought, and eventually influence behavior by helping predict the future, plan accordingly, and choose the next action. Herein lies the center of neurobiology as I see it: the process whereby neural representations, which consist of biological modifications created by learning in a neuron circuit, become images in our minds; the process that allows for invisible microstructural changes in neuron circuits (in cell bodies, dendrites and axons, and synapses) to become a neural representation, which in turn becomes an image we each experience as belonging to us.

— Descartes' Error

He was basically saying that the center of neurobiology is to link biology to psychology; to find the chain of neural events and structures that lead to mental images and ideas.