Posted on 11/06/2004 1:47:06 AM PST by Snapple
(Washington, DC--November 1, 2004) The escalation of violence by Islamic extremists over the past year has mobilized moderate Muslims to speak out against Islamic terrorists, an expert on suicide bombers told an RFE/RL audience last week.
Joyce M. Davis, author of "Martyrs: Innocence, Vengeance, and Despair in the Middle East," and an associate director of broadcasting at RFE/RL, said that the terrorists perpetrating violence in the name of Islam are at "war with Islam" itself, and that Muslims who believe in the peaceful tenants of their faith are the ones "who will have to defeat them." Davis said that she sees evidence that these voices of moderate Islam are now speaking up in defense their faith, "even at the risk of themselves becoming targets, which is a real threat."
Davis said that, while many Islamists consider the United States and the western world as the enemy of Islam, her research -- particularly interviews with scholars in the Middle East -- refutes this conclusion and supports the view that "extremists who act against the religion's teachings are actually its true enemies." While acknowledging the history of martyrdom and its significance in the expansion of Islam, Davis said the violent actions taken by terrorists in the name of God are not supported by Islam and its religious texts.
According to Davis, many of Islam's most prominent scholars have concluded that the September 11 attacks and similar attacks on civilians are not justified by Islam's teachings. For instance, Abdulaziz bin Abdallah al Sheik, the leading religious authority in Saudi Arabia, declared in April 2001, "Any act of self killing or suicide is strictly forbidden in Islam. The one who blows himself up in the midst of the enemies is also performing an act contrary to Islamic teachings." More recently, Grand Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi of the Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo -- considered the highest authority in Sunni Islam -- told a conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July 2003 that extremist Islamic groups had appropriated Islam and its notion of jihad, or holy struggle, for their own ends, asserting that "Extremism is the enemy of Islam."
Davis argues that the only way the war against terror can be won is by giving a voice to moderate Muslims, just as RFE/RL is doing in its daily broadcasts. She encouraged more moderates to reclaim their religion from the extremists whom they feel are "the greatest threat to the survival of Islam in the modern world." At the same time, Davis suggests the United States do more to engage the moderates and their defense of the true nature of Islam, which celebrates world peace. She noted this is not easy, because of the risk that moderates themselves will be targeted for attacks. To hear archived audio for this and other RFE/RL briefings and events, please visit our website at www.regionalanalysis.org.
Arab Christians also are unhappy with Israel. I tend to support Israel, but my Arab-Palestinian Christian friend sees it differently. Still, she is no supporter of Arafat, Saddam or OBL.
Personally, I feel that if the Arab countries had not attacked Israel in 1948, the Palestinians and the Jews could have worked together to build a country. But now that is probably impossible.
I also think that some of the more extreme Jews that settle right under the noses of the Palestinians just make things worse.
I hope with Arafat out of the picture that some Palestinians will come to the top that want to get peace for their people so they can build normal lives. However, the kids are so poisoned with hatred that this will be difficult.
I know that site Tell the Children the Truth.
The problem is, you don't see this information anywhere except there. So I sort of wonder if it is true or not.
Or what is left out. I any case, that is old. What are we going to do to have peace now? Not fight about the past as they did in Yugoslavia. That is a dead-end strategy.
I do know Muslims as I live near a large mosque. I don't like who was running things at the mosque--but he ran away to Yemen with the FBI after him.
A lot of Muslims don't listen to all the trash-talk they hear from the radicals. They do want some settlement for the Palestinians, tho'.
Al Taqiyya in action to lull the infidels into a false sense of security!!
Moderate Muslims will never make a difference because they are brainwashed by the Death Cult like all the rest.
IMO until this demented belief system is marginalized much like Nazism was marginalized after WWII, it will continue to be a horrific threat to the entire world.
The best defense is the marginalization that is taking place all over the internet. The religious leaders who are appeasing Islam are not real leaders IMO.
Could you explain what you wrote please? Who or what is Al Taqiyya?
Most of what I know about Muslims is based on people who are my neighbors or my students.
They have issues about Israel, but they don't like terrorism.
Many are helping translate so we can win the War on Terror.
Many work for the American government.
Many are exceptionally afraid of these terrorists since they experienced Islamic fanaticism first-hand. They have been real patriots.
I worked with 13 muslims around 9-11. Better than half of them were glad it happened and viewed Osama as a hero. The rest were indifferent at best. Google al taqiyya and find out for yourself.
http://www.islamdenouncesantisemitism.com/thepagan.htm
This link is by a Muslim who is explaining Nazi ideology and saying that it is pagan and anti-Islamic. I think this is a good site. It is pretty obvious that the extremist Arabs (secularist like Saddam, too) like the Nazis.
Of course, why did this happen? The British were in the Middle East after WWI so Arabs sided with the Germans in WWII. But this is history. The British promised the Arabs and the Jews everything they could because they were fighting for their survival.
I even read that a lot of Arab intellectuals got their NAZI/Nationalist ideas while they were educated in France.
Again, however, that is history and we want to go forward and not backwards.
Islam is a huge religion. It can't be marginalized. I think sites like this are a really good thing. Many Arabs may not know what the Christians in Germany did to the Jews. They are taught (the lie) that the Jewish leaders secretly supported Hitler so he would kill Jews so they would leave and go to Palestine. They are taught the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a Russian secret police fabrication(actually plagiarized from a FRENCH)is true.
Because of destructive people like Arafat, the average Palestinian has a very difficult life.
I hope with Arafat gone that some solution for the Israel-Palestine issue can be found. The terrorism has got to stop and the kids have to get educated, not poisoned by propaganda. Maybe then everyone could give up a little to get peace.
Where do you work and live? Generally, I am not trying to pry.
At that time I was in Chicago
Well, I live in Northern Virginia--not far from the Pentagon. There are some Muslims like you mention, but the ones I know aren't like that. Now that Osama finally admitted that he did 9-11 some Arabs are sort of shocked. They were so brainwasshed that the Jews did it.
You think this site is lying? I think it is either this man's mission or it is something the German intelligence is doing. Who knows. The languages are German, Turkish and Hebrew. It would be nice if it were in Arabic.
http://www.harunyahya.com/
Actually, this site does have many languages--Arabic too.It was just the link to a different site that didn't have all the languages.
It is an interesting site because it teaches tolerance. So I don't think it can be some lie because Arabs can read it too. Fanatics would never expose their people to sympathetic information about Christians and Jews.
3 of the more militant muslims, after I ridiculed them for their stance that the Jews did it. They immediately changed in their demeanor and became overly friendly to me. It was all too phony. After that there isnt a muslim that I trust.
Many theologians will make this point. Scripture used to be quoted in the South to justify slavery of black people, yet very few Christians would make this argument today.
The thing is to know the context of the quote. A servant in the Bible should be interpreted by Christians today as to mean only a servant. It might mean an employee.
A real religious message has to speak to people across the ages when their specific social contexts change.
Islam came to power in a tribal warlike kind of culture.
How much of what is seen as Islam is really just this older culture? Muslims are trying to sort this out.
I believe that the problem is that muslims are dedicated. They all read and believe what is contained in their evil handbook.
Here is truth. Jesus Christ is Lord. Islam is Satanic.
Well, some are pretty brainwashed by some of those ignorant imams.
Still, here is a story I heard. An Arab mom came to the public school and told her child's teacher (an Arab Christian) that at the Mosque they were mean to the kids and taught them to hate. As a mother she didn't like her child being taught all this hate. The Muslim mom even said that in the Christian Sunday schools they teach love. She wanted her child to be taught love. She worried that if her child was taught hatred instead of love that he would leave his Muslim faith. She is probably right. Hatred is very powerful, but normal people, that is to say most people, go for love.
So for those of you who really believe in God's love for all mankind, try to show it on this forum once in a while. Because people are watching and evaluating you as Christians and deciples of Jesus. And if you are Christians with a lot of hatred for Muslims, calling them snotty names like dish-rag heads, ass-holes, etc. you aren't winning friends and influencing people. And we all want to be little evangelists, right? Right? That may not mean converting the world's Muslims, but it could mean showing them love and tolerance.
Not Osama and his crew, of course. Nobody said we had to be suckers.
From the "watch what they do, not what they say" department - let me know when there are churches and synagogues in Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Damascus, Cairo, Islamabad, Teheran, and similar places, and the locals aren't trying to destroy the structures, nor discriminating or killing the attendees.
Jesus wants us to evangelize.
Are you going to convert Muslims with that line? Good luck. You'll need it.
Jesus said that we should love our enemies and evangelize.
Good manners and respect for other people's values will help you evangelize, should you want to follow the Lord.
In my dealing with Muslims, I try to be a good Christian. Comming off like a jerk doesn't make them respect my faith.
nor discriminating against or killing the attendees.
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