BRACE FOR BARF!!
Posted on 09/08/2011 8:05:08 AM PDT by bayouranger
Muslims’ portrayal in the media with covered faces and toting machine guns perhaps perpetuates a violent image that a quarter of Americans maintain. But locally, the decade following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has led to a period of a curiosity to learn.
“They are the most negatively thought about religious group,” Dr. Sanjay Nath, associate dean and director of the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University, said.
“There's a very, very strong bias that Muslims are violent,” he said, adding that the militant subgroup represents less than 1 percent of the religion. “There’s a lot of prejudice going on with these groups.”
Kamal Rahman, president of the 300-member Masjid Al-Madinah mosque in Upper Darby, agreed that the militants are a small percentage of his faith group.
“They just do things for their own purpose,” he said. “There’s a few in the religion and their group — that’s their own purpose. We follow laws and regulations.”
In fact, Nath said Islam condemns suicide, but a few radical groups make the situation extreme.
“Based on history, the terrorist has no religion and they just use religion for quick recognition,” Rahman said. “As you know, they use scare tactics and destruction to achieve their personal goals. Basically, they do not care for anybody but themselves.”
Nath said hate crimes against Muslims intensified following Sept. 11.
“I think there’s been an increased xenophobia of people who look different or foreign,” he said, adding that some of that can be linked to perception as seen in the media.
For example, when the shooting occurred in Norway, in the first 12 hours when the gunman was unidentified, news outlets announced it was a terrorist, Nath said.
“It was really sad,” he said. “There’s so much negative coverage.”
In 2006, the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued its “American Public Opinion About Islam and Muslims” report.
The results were garnered by Genesis Research Associates conducting 1,001 interviews in November 2005.
It found that about one in four Americans believe Islam is a religion of hatred and violence, a ratio unchanged from the previous year’s study.
It stated that those with the most prejudiced attitudes tended to be older, less educated, politically conservative and Republican.
A majority of respondents had neutral comments when asked, “When you hear the word ‘Muslim,’ what is the first thought that comes to your mind?” Sixty-eight percent associated it with “mosque,” “religion” and “desert.”
About 6 percent had positive comments like “good religion,” “good people,” “faithful,” “devout” and “misunderstood.”
Another 26 percent listed negative comments, like “violence,” “hatred,” “terrorists,” “war” and “guns.”
In the 2005 survey, one-fourth of Americans agreed with the following statements: “Muslims teach their children to hate unbelievers;” “Muslims value life less than other people;” and “the Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred.”
That was the same percentage as the preceding year’s findings.
About one-fifth of the respondents agree the civil liberties of Muslims should be restricted because of security reasons. Fifty-one percent disagreed with that.
In the 2005 study, 17 percent agreed with the statement, “It’s OK to lock up Muslims, just in case they are planning terrorist acts.”
It was a similar sentiment that led to the American reaction to citizens with Japanese ancestry during World War II.
“After Pearl Harbor, we really saw the Japanese as a threat to us,” Nath said. “We did take Japanese Americans who had lived here for generations and interred them.”
And while the suicidal nature of the Japanese attackers and the Middle Eastern organizers and executors of Sept. 11 are similar, there are some differences.
“It’s hard to compare,” Nath said, “because we’re in a very different place. One thing that has changed dramatically is we were a more homogenous society then.”
In addition, he said World War II was much more clearly a war.
Nath said the Sept. 11 attackers were part of a small fringe group that many of their own countrymen don’t support.
And, while he said the way the United States responded to both incidents was similar, the professor said the realities of who was in charge of those events, either the country or the people or the religion, were less delineated in the last decade.
Yet, the initial feelings following the tragedies were shared.
“I think some of the emotions have been similar in terms of being threatened and feeling scared,” Nath said. “The realities are we are afraid in the ways in which others could affect our daily lives.”
In situations like this, it’s sometimes easier to assess it in a simplistic scenario.
“The nature of prejudice is you take some group, you put something onto them and express some type of hatred onto them — ‘I hate Jews,’ ‘I hate some other group,’” Nath said. “It’s some type of hatred you’re dealing within yourself that you have to put on some type of group.
“Why do we have to hate these groups to deal with this trauma?” he asked rhetorically. “What role does the hatred have? I think it’s easier to get people to think in black-and-white.”
That’s because, Nath said, it’s painful in trauma to evaluate the responsibility on both sides.
“It’s easier to say we’re the victim,” Nath said. “We were right.”
But, to achieve understanding, he said society needs to look at why we were targeted.
“They felt humiliated at the hands of the West,” Nath said. “We did play a role in humiliating them, whether want to admit that or not.”
He said these countries have 40 to 50 percent unemployment and accessibility to join these groups while the United States takes their oil.
“They have no money, they’re poor and they’re frustrated,” Nath said.
What begins to change this dynamic is knowledge.
And while the CAIR report listed almost 60 percent of respondents saying they “are not very knowledgeable” or “not at all knowledgeable” about Islam, at least one local leader said interest has begun to widen because of the events 10 years ago.
Rahman, who’s lived in the United States for 32 years, said people have become more inquisitive about Islam since Sept. 11.
“We’ve seen people are more interested nowadays,” he said. “They want to talk to us. They want to understand Islam. That’s the difference I see — it’s more open, more understanding, more interested to know.”
He said he himself did not experience any anger or discrimination against him based on religious beliefs.
“I believe this is the best country to live in, even though we’re facing some financial instability today,” Rahman said. “On this day, I urge every religious group to offer a special prayer for the deceased and the survivors and their families.”
BRACE FOR BARF!!
And again - everything I wanted to know about Islam I learned on 9/11 plus all those honor killings. If that makes me an Islamaphobe so be it.
islam is violent. Since 9/11 there have been 17,000 islamic terrorist attacks world wide. (17000/3650 = 4-5 per day) Yep I am going with violent.
Gee, now why would one think of "religious" people running around with AK47's and bombs strapped to their bodies screaming for "JIHAD!" as violent?????
Just imagine that you woke up tomorrow and there were no more muslims on earth. No prisoners in jails. No liberals. No fascists. No communists. No socialists. No liberal media on TV. All gone. Man, the champagne would flow!
For example, when the shooting occurred in Norway, in the first 12 hours when the gunman was unidentified, news outlets announced it was a terrorist, Nath said.
“It was really sad,” he said. “There’s so much negative coverage.”
Really, a terrorist can’t get an even break...
Feh.
The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims
Read Lee Harris' outstanding work to get a sense of why and how the West's days may be numbered. We are our own worst enemy unless we face up to the hard choices necessary to remain free and prosperous.
The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam's Threat to the West
If anyone is still having trouble wrapping their minds around the fact that Western civilization does in fact have mortal and existential enemies, take a quick turn through Lee Harris' Civilization and Its Enemies
Islam is not so much a religion as it is a supremacist, totalitarian political ideology, a destructive meme impervious to moderation or change, and with a narrowly circumscribed set of rituals that define every aspect of its followers’ lives. As for 'tolerance', here's a quote from the Muslim Brotherhood and their mission in the U.S, calling for...
"...a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions."
Speaking to the 'religion of peace," assertion that we hear from Muslims and ignorant (yes, ignorant) Westerners, when Muslims assert that Islam is a “religion of peace” they are not engaging in al taqqiya, they are actually making an assertion in good faith.
The problem lies in the fact that Islam has, from the Western point of view, a defective concept of peace. In semitic languages like Arabic, the consonants are the “root” of the word: islam = submission, and salam = peace have the same root, slm.
The only concept of peace in Islamic jurisprudence is the peace between the conqueror and the conquered, between master and slave. There is no concept of a negotiated peace between nations in Islamic law (and note that law is the defining property of Islam—their clerics are jurists, schools of Qu’ranic interpretation are called fiqh, a legalistic term)—Muslims may negotiate a “hudna” or armistice of limited duration with non-Muslim, but not a definitive enduring peace.
In that regard, Islam was, is and will be a serial murderer of entire cultures and peoples. This is what Islam has done throughout its entire 1400 year history. This is what it has done whenever it has finally gotten the upper hand in whatever culture is has opposed. This is what has been inextricably interwoven into the 'DNA' of its operating system. Those whom Islam does not destroy, it enslaves, diminishes and impoverishes. Islam strives for the conversion, enslavement or death of all who do not conform to its sadistic and cruel vision of Mankind. Islam cannot be ‘reformed’ in the light of our Western values of humanity and freedom. Were that so, it would no longer be Islam. For its psychopathic and cruel misogyny alone, Islam is an abomination and worthy only of extinction.
Finally, here's a wakeup call that will chill you to the core. And if anyone from the West is still defending Islam after this, then they deserve what Islam has in store for them: dhimmitude, slavery and death.
“the militant subgroup represents less than 1 percent of the religion.”
BS
Even if only 1% is actively engaged in killing, the majority of muslims are fine with it. Besides, 1,400 years of history proves that islam is one of the two most murderous systems ever devised by the devil (Marxism is the other).
I agree with what you have written here but I’m afraid to click the “wake up call” link. What’s on the other side? Some kind of horrific photos?
No - it's a short story by the reknowned writer Dan Simmons. Highly recommended, as is anything he writes. And bone-chilling.
Radical Islam will kill you. “Moderate” Islam will stand by and watch you die - and secretly applaud the killers later.
Feb.26,1993- First Islamic bombing of the WTC; June 25,1996 Islamic Bombing of the Khobar Towers; Aug 7,1998 US Embassy bombing in Kenya and Tanzania; Oct.12,2000 USS Cole attacked by Islamic terrorists. Plus all those honor killings —and related act— Lest we forget the lessons we should have learned on 9-11-01. One source asked a relevant question Why did we elect a guy who was educated in Islamic Schools—who has never said anything against Muslims—who refuses to speak of Islam- Terrorism —Jihad-even when speaking of Major Nidal Hasan-or any other slave of Allah ?If he is not Muslim but has indeed converted then WHY have the devout Muslim NOT honored their religion of Peace and Why have they allowed the convert to live?
The tale of a time-traveler.
And a three-word puzzle.
The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.
Our voices need to be heard not only at Town Hall sessions or Tea Party demonstrations but in the very halls of Congress. We have to speak out to stop the desecration of September 11th.
NEVER FORGET
"Every 'moderate' Muslim is a potential terrorist. The belief in Islam is like a tank of gasoline. It looks innocuous, until it meets the fire. For a 'moderate' Muslim to become a murderous jihadist, all it takes is a spark of faith.
It is time to put an end to the charade of “moderate Islam.” There is no such thing as moderate Muslim. Muslims are either jihadists or dormant jihadists – moderate, they are not."
Ali Sini
Ali Sini is head of Faith Freedom International. FFI is a grassroots worldwide movement of ex-Muslims and all those who are concerned about the rise of the Islamic threat.
Faith Freedom International Forums ______________________________________________
NEVER FORGET
Watch 'Remembering 9/11' on the Geographic Channel. Repeating Thursday 3PM CST: 'Inside 9/11: Zero Hour'- EXCELLENT.
Also, on TLC, 'Heros of the 88th Floor', 9PM CST Sat 9/10/11
_______________
Watch this moving video. It is the most viewed of any of the 9/11 videos and is now in the Smithsonian.
Be sure to read (at the site) Anatomy Of The Attack and the moving essay,’That Day’ by Steve Golding, a New Yorker who lived through it.
I guess you’ll have to ask those 50 something percent who voted for him plus the media who drank his Kool-Aid and continue to do so.
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