Posted on 06/05/2004 12:13:36 AM PDT by rdb3
How about that white American kid who went over to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban (and got caught)? (Just saying it does appeal to some white folks).
Why? Well, imho, it seems like Islam can be taught as a religion of hate. So if one is inclined to hate America, or the West, or whitey, Islam could be attractive. As long as you get on that prayer mat 5 times a day, and Allah/Muhammed say it's OK to kill all the infidels, well let the games begin.
That's precisely why it is so attractive to black communities that are racked with illegitimacy and drug use: it offers structure that is often missing, and which often Christian churches have failed to provide. We can't defeat the evil if we can't be honst about it. Trying to make Isalm an "equal opportunity employer" in this regard is the same thing the homosexuals tried to do with AIDs, and lost, which was to make it a "threat" to all people in the same way. Islam IS a threat, but not of convering white suburbanites.
ISLAM IS NOT A CENTRAL THREAT TO INDOCTRINATE SUBURBAN WHITE KIDS.
Agreed - just citing an interesting counter-example.
But if anything, suburban white kids are going the other direction, away from ALL forms of social/religious control.
I myself am pretty clueless about young america, but your words ring true.
That's precisely why it is so attractive to black communities that are racked with illegitimacy and drug use: it offers structure that is often missing, and which often Christian churches have failed to provide.
Perhaps a bigger question is why Christianity is (seeming to) fail in America today in general. Too complicated? Too confusing? Breakup of the american family? I don't know.
Want proof? In a recent episode of the show JAG (conservative show, right?) Harm, Mac and eveyone else COULD NOT BELIEVE that someone (unmaried) had gone 3 years without sex. Note that, in the plot, none of the parties were married. But the idea that sex was for within wedlock was foreign to them all.
Kids today want everything the law allows and want it now. This is anathema to Christianity.
So you were in jail? A men's prison no less?
(I know, I know. Heh. Ambiguous reference.)
LOL no I attended a church with a big prison ministry :)
Though there is plenty of stark evidence that Al Qaeda has in fact been successfully converting young white folks. How many black American natives have been arrested as members of Al Qaeda compared to white folks? There are a couple prominent young white American converts, and a bunch more less prominent ones.
WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
Featured in Vibe Magazine this month
In 1999, I began work as a researcher/ghost-writer for Frederick K.C. Price, a well known black televangelist with a massive LA congregation. He had been called to deliver a series called "Race, Religion, and Racism." It was a year-long series. I have to admit that he said a LOT of things I disagreed with (and probably most Freepers would). But he was also right on about the satanic origins and legacies of slavery in America, and its impact on the body of Christ.
(I'm getting to your answer). In the course of researching background for this book for him (he researched all his own sermons, but then hires researchers to "flesh out" further the material, moving sermons to true book form), I got deeply involved in the failures of the Christian church in America to deal with racism. This was especially true in the 1800s, where SOUTHERN churches cultivated a doctrine that blacks were not quite fully human. (My own take on this, as a historian, is that they had to do so because of the Declaration, because if blacks were "men," and "all men were created equal," then there was no way Christians could reconcile slavery with the Declaration.) So you saw a DRAMATIC change in the doctrines and sermons of southern churches in who blacks were, and what their spiritual condition was, from 1800-1840.
After 1865, while the Christian church remained the MAJOR source of black progress in the south, providing the basis for black-owned insurance companies, mortuaries, and so on, there was still segregation in churches and as late as the 1950s,a PROMINENT "study Bible," the Dakes' Study Bible, continued to argue that black skin was the "curse of Ham" (which is BS) and that hereditary racial slavery was the "mark of Cain" (an even weirder twist), thus justifying segregation.
Although black churches did thrive, the new civil rights movements of the 1960s challenged the old foundations of the black church, asking, for example, who are you still "shilling for 'the Man?'" It was a reasonable question. Why were black Christians still excusing racism on the part of white Christians?
IMHO, this was what opened the door to Islam in the black communities. The white church had failed the black church as much as the black church had failed its communities because of this still-unrepented and un-dealt-with issue of the sin of racism. I'm the first to reject the notion that "every white person" is a racist, or even a majority, but the evidence is that there was still (in the 60s and 70s) CONSIDERABLE racism in the church. For ex., Dr. Price COULD NOT PREACH in many congregations in the south because of his color! That is changing rapidly, but even one of Dr. Price's biggest supporters, Kenneth Hagin, one of the leaders of the 'Faith' movement, had a son who said that black and white kids shouldn't date and surely shouldn't marry! THIS WAS IN THE 1990s!
By the way, I think much of what Dr. Price said re: white racism was specifically for the purpose of innoculating him so that in the last part of his series (the part on which I worked) he could take on Islam . . . which he did. He ripped Elijah Muhammad and Malcom X and Louis Farrakhan and Mohammed a new one---all from scripture. And because he had first dealt with white racism, now he could with legitimacy come back and deal with black racism. It was an amazing series. I recommend the book, "Race, Religion, and Racism: Jesus, Islam, and Christianity" (LA: FaithOne Books, 2000).
Again, I don't see this in the schools, esp. the suburban schools. As best I can tell, AQ is getting the drop-out, angry white male/McVeigh types. I teach perhaps 200-300 kids a year (close to 10,000 over 15 years), and have never ONCE had a white kid express to me any interest at all in Islam.
excellent post... I have some disagreements too with him but he's right about the demon inspired origins of a lot of things. I was once at a service when a messianic jewish man gave a talk about Israel. The pastor gave an altar call for those who wish to repent of their anti-semitic feelings. It was bizarre how two thirds of the church stood up.
A Jew is a Jew as long as he or she IS a Jew. As long as a person converts according to halacha and practices Orthodox Judaism, he is Jewish and will be accepted in the community no matter what color he is.
I believe a Jew is one who raises Jewish children. Our Rabbi often said if he were allowed, he could raise the level of converts to a high number. Seeking those who wish to study deeply the beliefs of mankind and don't wish to find everything being dependent on faith. (Israel wrestled with G-d). Blacks (and other races) are welcome. I don't happen to subscribe to the concept that one must be Orthodox to be Jewish.
Well, your definition is interesting, KC, but it would be misleading and unfair to tell people who want to convert to Judaism that they would be accepted as Jews if they didn't convert according to Halacha.
beats the anti-semitism that we're used to with others in the black community.
They would, at least, be accepted by the 90+% of Jews who are not Orthodox.
That might be true, but it means nothing.
It means nothing to the less than 10% of Jews who are Orthodox. To the other 90+% of Jews, the Orthodox opinion on the subject means nothing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.