Posted on 09/02/2002 11:58:31 AM PDT by Pat Bateman
Critics of Muslims, Quran showing their ignorance
By CARY ICHTER
A debate has recently erupted at the University of North Carolina over the requirement that incoming freshmen read a book about the Quran, the book that Muslims believe to be the revealed word of God. Like most issues of the day, the television talking heads have monopolized the discourse -- if that is what you want to call self-declared experts on everything screaming at one another.
Of particular interest were the observations of the biggest head of them all, Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly allowed as how students should not be required to read or to learn about the Quran because "these people are our enemies."
Comments such as O'Reilly's reflect not only an intolerance that is reprehensible, but they also betray considerable ignorance regarding the Muslim faith and Islam. I am not Muslim; I don't even think I could be called religious, but that is no excuse for ignorance or bigotry regarding one of the most widely practiced faiths in the world.
Before classifying Muslims as enemies because of their faith, O'Reilly and others who share his views should read the Quran, or at least read an analysis of the book.
Most Americans probably would be stunned to see that the Quran advises Muslims to "be courteous when you argue with People of the Book [Christians and Jews], except with those who do evil. Say 'We believe in that which is revealed to us and that which is revealed to you.' Our God and your God is one." (Quran 29:46)
This and other language from the Quran reveals that freedom of thought and conscience are, among rational thinking Muslims, highly regarded Islamic values.
Although Islam is often depicted in Western thought and popular culture as "a religion of the sword," the Quran condemns war and violence. The Quran instructs the followers of Islam to take up arms only to defend themselves, but not to initiate hostilities: "Fight for the sake of Allah those that fight against you, but do not attack them first. Allah does not love the aggressors." (Quran 2:191)
Mohammed observed these tenets in leading his people. In 622 AD, the Muslims led by Mohammed left Mecca and settled in Medina. In spite of the tradition of that time of religious intolerance, there was no attempt on the part of the Muslims to convert others because to do so would intrude upon the freedom of thought and conscience that was so highly prized in Islam.
No doubt many readers will find it impossible to reconcile these teachings with the savagery we have witnessed in the name of Islam. True enough, but such savagery is hardly unique to Islamic fundamentalists.
Indeed, Jews have, and still do, make war in the name of God. Likewise, Christians have, and still do, make war in the name of God.
Soon after his death, Mohammed's successors began to spread Islam through conquest in manner that was inconsistent with Islamic teaching. But holy wars are hardly an Islamic innovation. Holy wars have been vogue since Joshua led the Israelites. Nor is brutality an Islamic invention. In Joshuan times, when a town or settlement was conquered, each and every man, woman, child and even animal was exterminated, and all structures were reduced to rubble.
Christian society expressed its religious fanaticism through holy war in the time of the Crusades. From 1096 through 1291, Christian armies, heeding the call of popes and prophets, marched off to slaughter and to be slaughtered in wars that killed millions. All of this, of course, was done in the name of God. The fact that crusaders justified their brutality by reference to the Bible does not make the Bible evil or wrong, just as the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists do not make the Quran evil or wrong.
As with every religious group, Islam has fanatics. And like most other religious groups, the madmen attract the most attention.
Today, radical Muslims have perverted the teachings of the Quran to serve and support their own twisted view of the world. But that does not make the Muslim world our enemies. The radical factions of Muslim society no more define modern Islam than Timothy McVeigh defines Christian values.
If we are to avoid the suffering and inhumanity that intolerance breeds, we need to be more careful and thoughtful in who we declare to be our enemies. Being a Muslim does not make you a terrorist or an enemy any more than being a Christian makes you a good person or an ally.
Cary Ichter is an Atlanta attorney.
I'm no defender of the Crusades, but the initial reason for them was retaliation against Moslems who had brutally attacked Christian nations and gave them the choice between converting to Islam or death.
Islam sucks, I dont care what anyone says, especially a liberal weenie lawyer.
Perhaps in his inarticulate way, he objected to the imposition of the book because he observes it to be an attempt to brainwash students into decreasing their support for this nation.
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The Koran is a document stating mixed messages. My advice regarding mixed messages in religion or politics is the same as I give regarding romantic entanglements. When confronted by mixed or contradictory messages, always believe the worst ot the two messages because that is the real one you will end up facing.
So, there's the possibility that the author doesn't know as much about Jesus as he does about Islam...or to paraphrase his own words "Before classifying Christians as intolerant because of their faith, Cary Ichter and others who share his views should read the Bible, or at least read an analysis of the book."
The Koran is not hard to read--and it has two very different "voices" of Mohammed. One is the early Mohammed in Mecca who had little power--this is the peaceful Mohammed. As soon as he got an army together he started lopping off the heads of Jews and running off with their daughters. That's the Medina Mohammed. I disagree with O'Reilly on one front...students *should* read the Koran because they *are* our enemies. The more you read, the worse it gets. However, the book at the UNC was not the Koran but a Muslim apologia.
Where? When? Where was I?
Besides, one of the big issues for alot of people is the hypocrisy of the University forcing the reading of a book about the Quran, but let a student get caught with a Bible and all hell breaks loose. Never mind students being forced to read the Bible. That thought would never cross any leftist mind at Chapel Hill.
I myself have read books on the Quran and would have no problem reading another. But not if I'm forced.
On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children's mothers. So I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists.
But I need your help.
As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist. How do I differentiate between the true Arab-Muslim-Americans and the Arab-Muslims in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter those very same good neighbors and children?
The events of September 11th changed the answer. It is not my responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of it's religions, with ALL of it's different citizens, with all of it's faults. It is time for every Arab-Muslim in this country to determine it for me.
I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know whether or not you love America. Do you pledge allegiance to it's flag? Do you proudly display in front of your house, or on your car? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation, that He will protect and prosper it?
Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it in one of your "Jihads"? Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America?
If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it. Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of America.
Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent because I worry about who you regard as innocent. And no more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks because I worry about what is unprovoked to you.
I am not interested in any more sympathy ...I am only interested in action.
What will you do for America-our great country-at this time of crisis, at this time of war?
I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I want to hear you chanting "Allah Bless America". I want to see young Arab-Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment of money, time, and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole.
The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and socialize in Muslim communities. You know them. You know where they are.
Hand them over to us, now!
But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action.
Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals. The very few Arab-Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United States prove who was responsible before taking action. They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing "leaders" like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat.
If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good and pure and true when your "leaders" are teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance. It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if large numbers of the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion.
A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members defended Johnny Cochran and O. J. Simpson after the latter butchered his wife and murdered an innocent friend. A form whose members (some as young a five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of America, the country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.
Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because our women proudly show their faces in public rather than cover up like a shameful whore? Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because we drink wine with dinner, or celebrate Christmas? Do you and you fellow Muslims hate us because we have befriended Israel, the ONLY civilized democratic nation in the entire middle-east? And if you and your fellow Muslims hate us, then why in the world are you even here? Are you here to take our money? Are you here to undermine our peace and stability? Are you here to destroy us?
If so, I want you to leave. I want you to go back to your desert sandpit where women are treated like rats and dogs. I want you to take your religion, your friends, and your family back to your Islamic extremists, and STAY THERE! We will NEVER give in to your influence, your retarded mentality, your twisted, violent, intolerant religion.
We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us: Our rights under the greatest constitution in the world.
I want to know where every Arab-Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family. I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand." "
Until then ... you worry me." ""
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