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Posted on 01/28/2005 1:05:36 PM PST by jb6
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Michael Wolfe, a convert to Islam, was largely responsible for PBS's hagiographical biography of Muhammad that appeared about a year ago. Now he is touting a coming Islamic moment in the United States. This from Beliefnet.com via Al-Jazeera (with thanks to Nicolei):
The U.S. began as a haven for Christian outcasts. But what religion fits our current zeitgeist? The answer may be Islam.
Americans tend to think of their country as, at the very least, a nominally Christian nation. Didn't the Pilgrims come here for freedom to practice their Christian religion? Don't Christian values of righteousness under God, and freedom, reinforce America's democratic, capitalist ideals?
True enough. But there's a new religion on the block now, one that fits the current zeitgeist nicely. It's Islam. Islam is the third-largest and fastest growing religious community in the United States. This is not just because of immigration. More than 50% of America's six million Muslims were born here. Statistics like these imply some basic agreement between core American values and the beliefs that Muslims hold. Americans who make the effort to look beyond popular stereotypes to learn the truth of Islam are surprised to find themselves on familiar ground.
Is America a Muslim nation? Here are seven reasons the answer may be yes.
Islam is monotheistic. Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians. They also revere the same prophets as Judaism and Christianity, from Abraham, the first monotheist, to Moses, the law giver and messenger of God, to Jesus--not leaving out Noah, Job, or Isaiah along the way. The concept of a Judeo-Christian tradition only came to the fore in the 1940s in America. Now, as a nation, we may be transcending it, turning to a more inclusive "Abrahamic" view.
In January, President Bush grouped mosques with churches and synagogues in his inaugural address. A few days later, when he posed for photographers at a meeting of several dozen religious figures, the Shi'ite imam Muhammad Qazwini, of Orange County, Calif., stood directly behind Bush's chair like a presiding angel, dressed in the robes and turban of his south Iraqi youth.
Islam is democratic in spirit. Islam advocates the right to vote and educate yourself and pursue a profession. The Qur'an, on which Islamic law is based, enjoins Muslims to govern themselves by discussion and consensus. In mosques, there is no particular priestly hierarchy. With Islam, each individual is responsible for the condition of her or his own soul. Everyone stands equal before God.
Notice: "The Qur'an . . . enjoins Muslims to govern themselves by discussion and consensus." The extension of these principles to non-Muslims on an equal basis with Muslims is not found in Islamic law.
Wolfe also rather predictably corrects "misunderstandings" of the term jihad:
Islam is often viewed as an aggressive faith because of the concept of jihad, but this is actually a misunderstood term. Because Muslims believe that God wants a just world, they tend to be activists, and they emphasize that people are equal before God. These are two reasons why African Americans have been drawn in such large numbers to Islam. They now comprise about one-third of all Muslims in America.
Remember: those "activists" around the world today carry rifles and bombs.
Perhaps most egregious of all, in light of the Qur'an's injunction to husbands to beat their disobedient wives (Sura 4:34), and of a host of other Sharia regulations that discriminate against women, is this:
Meanwhile, this egalitarian streak also plays itself out in relations between the sexes. Muhammad, Islam's prophet, actually was a reformer in his day. Following the Qur'an, he limited the number of wives a man could have and strongly recommended against polygamy. The Qur'an laid out a set of marriage laws that guarantees married women their family names, their own possessions and capital, the right to agree upon whom they will marry, and the right to initiate divorce. In Islam's early period, women were professionals and property owners, as increasingly they are today. None of this may seem obvious to most Americans because of cultural overlays that at times make Islam appear to be a repressive faith toward women--but if you look more closely, you can see the egalitarian streak preserved in the Qur'an finding expression in contemporary terms. In today's Iran, for example, more women than men attend university, and in recent local elections there, 5,000 women ran for public office.
Finally:
Islam encourages the pursuit of religious freedom. The Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock is not the world's first story of religious emigration. Muhammad and his little band of 100 followers fled religious persecution, too, from Mecca in the year 622. They only survived by going to Madinah, an oasis a few hundred miles north, where they established a new community based on a religion they could only practice secretly back home. No wonder then that, in our own day, many Muslims have come here as pilgrims from oppression, leaving places like Kashmir, Bosnia, and Kosovo, where being a Muslim may radically shorten your life span. When the 20th century's list of emigrant exiles is added up, it will prove to be heavy with Muslims, that's for sure.
Not a word about dhimmi laws which mandate discrimination against non-Muslims in Muslim society. Because such laws exist, Wolfe's vision of a Muslim America would in reality not be quite the paradise he imagines.
Posted at February 5, 2004 07:30 AM
Mr. Wolfe is either a fool or a shill. If he thinks living under Islamic law is so great let him go and live in any one of the Islamic paradises. Iran, Sudan or maybe Saudi Arabia, I bet he would really enjoy that.Posted by: Mike at February 5, 2004 09:15 AM
Wolf is propogandizing a fantasy version of his adopted faith, sanitized and prettied up for what he hopes are the gullible masses. He insists that Islam is compatible with religious freedom and freedom of thought--with the American ethos. Right, becaue the Muslim world is awash in freedom, stinking with freedom: the freedom to believe in Islamic supremacy and Western iniquity.
Just beause Wolf wants to feed us this load of codswallop doesn't mean we have to swallow it.Posted by: scaramouche at February 5, 2004 09:29 AM
I don't think the Pilgrims are the first religious emigration -- wasn't the Jewish exodus from Egypt a few years earlier? So much for his scholarship.Posted by: Thomas at February 5, 2004 10:09 AM
I just checked my calendar. For a momment, I thought it was April 1st.
jayPosted by: Jay Stevens at February 5, 2004 10:14 AM
The scariest thing about Wolfe having a platform is he knows he can convince the uninformed. So smooth his introduction of islam, yet all around us we see a different picture acting out in the suicide bombings, murders, persecution of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhist in countries that are Islam countries.There is not one church in Saudi Arabia. Don't go comparing muslims to Pilgrims. That is ridiculous. Instead watch France, Holland, and other countries whose muslim populations are large, and see how peaceful they are to the natives of that country that will not convert to Islam. Islam moves in a country and expects all others to change to Islam. Right now in France public schools, young native french girls have been attacked sexually to "Teach them to wear the hijab (veil)". The United States is free.Let's keep it that way. We are so vulnerable because we welcome them in peace.Posted by: Jennifer at February 5, 2004 10:20 AM
Why am I now secretly praying for Pat Buchannen to become President and end immigration?Posted by: rusty shackleford at February 5, 2004 11:12 AM
This guy must be smoking something. The Islam he paints here is not the Islam of the Koran or the Middle East. Instead, I think this guy was reading the Bible and thinking of how he would like Islam to be. Word to Wolfe: renounce Islam and return to Christianity.Posted by: Helen at February 5, 2004 11:15 AM
The sad thing is probably alot of muslims were converted using whitewash like this, but of course, once you're in Islam and there is only one way out, death.
So once you find out the truth you are pretty much screwed.
Anyway,
Americans will see the upcoming clashes in Europe as a warning.
Too bad Europe didn't see the jihad on Israel as a warning tho.Posted by: TS at February 5, 2004 11:40 AM
Islam doesn't accept nation states, only a single religious nation, so I don't understand why Wolfe is calling Islam an "American religion." Islam would destroy Americaness.Posted by: Susan at February 5, 2004 12:17 PM
As Mary McCarthy once said: "Every word is a lie, including 'and', and 'the'." Posted by: smitty at February 5, 2004 01:54 PM
America was never planned to be a Theocracy. There is a clearly expressed balance of power in the US Government - Executive, Legislative and Judiciary that simply does not exist under Islam. Islam has one branch - Executive Theocracy!!!! Michael Wolfe is yet another "Useful Idiot". I would love for him to move to Saudi Arabia and try to live there!!!!! It would be easier for him than for a female convert, but none the less - he would never enjoy the full range of freedoms he has in the USA in any Muslim Country!
Below I have copied some of the useful idiot's comments followed by my reply:
"More than 50% of America's six million Muslims were born here. Statistics like these imply some basic agreement between core American values and the beliefs that Muslims hold." No way does this imply a basic agreement between core American values one of which is FREEDOM TO CHOOSE!!!!!! one's religion - which would not be possible under Islam! and the EQUAL treatment for both men and women which certainly does not exist in Islam!
"the Shi'ite imam Muhammad Qazwini, of Orange County, Calif., stood directly behind Bush's chair like a presiding angel, dressed in the robes and turban of his south Iraqi youth." I would say as the devil incarnate!
"Islam is democratic in spirit. Islam advocates the right to vote and educate yourself and pursue a profession." Please tell this to all the women who are not allowed to vote in the majority of Muslim countries.....and as far as women pursing education and a career - please explain to me what choices women have throughout the Muslim world to become educated and to pursue a career outside the home?
"Islam is monotheistic. Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians. " - I strongly disagree with this. All three of these religions are monotheistic, but to say that the three worship the same God is just not true. In all three faiths, God is seen as eternal and unchanging. The Muslim God is completely different from the Jewish and Christian God.
"In mosques, there is no particular priestly hierarchy." No there is no priestly hierarchy, but there is a male/female hierarchy - there are no female imams - if a woman calls herself an imam (I do not know the feminine form of the word, does it even exist?), she is an apostate!Males can enter through the front doors, women from the side or the back doors; men can pray in the front, women behind a screen in the rear of the mosque!
" you can see the egalitarian streak preserved in the Qur'an finding expression in contemporary terms" Where is this wodnerful egalitarian streak in the Qur'an? Tell that to the woman who is being flogged or stoned for illicit sex, because she was raped - but the man is held to be innocent!
I could go on, but all of you understand!
jihanPosted by: jihan at February 5, 2004 02:48 PM
In 1965, we lost the battle against the immigration disaster. Prior to 1965 the United States reserved the right to choose immigrants from countries whose general culture was compatible with our own. We limited most immigration to English speaking countries and Europe. We asserted the right to require immigrants to learn English and to assimilate. We abandoned that common sense set of rules and opened the doors for people who despise us to enter and work against our country from within.
As a believing Christian I might thank Janet Jackson for broadcasting her pornographic performance all over the world. Most Americans believe in God and family cohesion and reject the kind of lifestyle Jackson represents, however, no one will be able to convince foreign audiences that Americans don't live in a moral gutter. The painful irony is that America was founded by people who sought to be holy and religious in a very profound way. They were falliable humans but they aspired to live on a high moral plane. People who at least try to live on a high moral plane are more likely to achieve that result than those like Janet Jackson who have embraced pornography.Posted by: Athena at February 5, 2004 04:35 PM
".....and as far as women pursing education and a career - please explain to me what choices women have throughout the Muslim world to become educated and to pursue a career outside the home?"
Well, in Saudi Arabia, except for the upper class, it pretty much means teachers and nurses. Saudi women can be lawyers and businesswomen, but they need to hire male agents to interact with the public.
jay
Posted by: Jay Stevens at February 5, 2004 07:41 PM
I puked after reading this,"Islam encourages the pursuit of religious freedom". Posted by: Eric Mudai at February 5, 2004 08:50 PM
In answer to Jay - yes, I do realize that women in Saudi Arabia can have a profession - but to what end - if the husband or the controlling male in the houshold says "no" - that is the end to that. She must be accompanied by a male - even if the male is only 6 years old - outside the home - and having to have a male conduit is absurd! Women under Islam have only the rights graciously given to them by the "governing male" in the household!
Also in the USA "separate but equal" is seen as everything but!!!
jihanPosted by: jihan at February 6, 2004 08:59 AM
Even more amusing (?), the Saudi government has finally approved national identification cards for women. This would finally give women legal identification. The catch is that it is not mandatory. Her male guardian - be it father, brother, husband, or son - has to approve it.
jayPosted by: Jay Stevens at February 6, 2004 03:20 PM
Wolfe makes the statement that Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians. Mr. Wolfe, I can't speak for everyone but my God doesn't tell me to kill Non-Christians. My God doesn't tell me to strap on a bomb and detonate in a crowd of innocent people.
My God doesn't tell me that when a fellow Christian is arrested for a crime, that I should play a phoney race card and scream that Christians are being targeted by the Govenment. 6 million Muslims, 240 million Christians. Do the math. Radical Islam is the most intolerant, overbearing, intrusive, arrogant, jingoistic, biggoted form of worship on this rock.
If you venture onto this site, I hope you see this and wake up. By the way, fortunately for you, my God tells me not to call another man a fool.
D.C. Watson Ohio USA
Posted by: D.C. Watson at February 6, 2004 09:45 PM
C'mon Mr. Wolf! This is 2004. By this I mean, absolutely and without hesitation, that there is no other important ideology in the current world that treats women so debasingly as Islam. Everything you try to tell me about the nice treatment of women under Islam, is just a bunch of BS. God forbid a woman in my family would become Muslim, I'd pitty her so much....Posted by: Miguel at February 9, 2004 06:37 AM
From the Muslim point of view, there is no weight age of Michael’s thought or prediction because the described bases are not very worth full, when Islam was spread like a wind in Asia, Africa and Europe than the same bases were exist with Christianity and Judaism, it means that the roots for spread of Islam in US will be other than described by Michael.
THIS TIME Iam going to discuss Jihans miss-understanding about unlimited freedom and equality for women in America, as there is no example of lady Head of state like in many Islamic countries (Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, in Past India Razya Sultana and Malika Bhopal) and non of Army and other key ministers and heads any where in America, is that discrimination or forced realization of universal truth of different natures of both man and women different natural fields of work. Further it is important to mention that why no political party in US is going to take the risk to appoint any Female presidential candidate? Is that discrimination?
Now the 2nd miss understanding, Human wrights in USA, more than 14000 Murders in just one year no institution exists to stop these killings, compare the figure with Saudi Arabia, Iran and even with Taliban Afghanistan. Also other crimes like theft and lootings are uncounted, remember the famous billion dollar looting during some hours of New York Black out and compare it with daily power black outs with out any looting in poor Muslim countries like Pakistan, Bangle dash. You can see the true faces of the various cultures when there is no camera.
Voting. There was no Wright of female voting in US, just before some decades
That is why talking with out information, thinking and logic are worse than to be quite.
Posted by: M. K. Sid at March 23, 2004 03:24 PM
I read all above valued comments, I’m not giving any comment on Wolf's sayings because God knows batter about any coming moment, as once all the Asia Africa and E. Europe was non Muslim and also once Spain was Muslim and now situation is reversed. These all are the games of the lord who is not bound to obey the wills of tiny creatures like us.
My address is to all the realistic guys who believe on wisdom, logic and who don’t believe in the family religion where they born by chance with out there own choice, every guy who born in poverty should try to get out from.
All the brothers of humanity are invited to study the Islam directly from its original text i.e. Quraan and Sayings of prophet Mohammad (pbuh) not by the stories published through the media or by some "by chance" Muslims who are not practicing the Islam but there own wishes, theories and self made rules,
Go to the source of the stream not on the contaminated end of the stream.
Try to understand like this that in the original teachings of Wholly Bible there is no relaxation in for eating pork, drinking alcohol, gambling, Making sexual relationship with out official marriage and killing any person unlawfully and to obey anyone against The Lord.
Now look how Christians "by chance" are setting practical examples for the Christianity?
Every Muslim is bound by his believes to give respect to original teachings of Wholly Bible as there is no contradiction between them and Wholly Quraan, but the clash is in the practices out of the wholly books either sides.
ALL THE CHRISTIONS ARE HUMBALLY REQUESTED TO, FIRST STUDY THE TEACHINGS OF WHOLLY BIBLE AND TO PRACTICE ALL THOSE, SECONDLY INVITED TO STUDY WHOLLY QURAN AND THAN TO CHOSE THE WAY THEY LIKE.
I AM AVAILABLE TO DISCUSS AND ANSWER ANY THING ANY TIME TO ANY HUMAN BROTHER.
Posted by: Faiz Kamal at March 24, 2004 12:30 PM
I read all above valued comments, I’m not giving any comment on Wolf's sayings because God knows batter about any coming moment, as once all the Asia Africa and E. Europe was non Muslim and also once Spain was Muslim and now situation is reversed. These all are the games of the lord who is not bound to obey the wills of tiny creatures like us.
My address is to all the realistic guys who believe on wisdom, logic and who don’t believe in the family religion where they born by chance with out there own choice, every guy who born in poverty should try to get out from.
All the brothers of humanity are invited to study the Islam directly from its original text i.e. Quraan and Sayings of prophet Mohammad (pbuh) not by the stories published through the media or by some "by chance" Muslims who are not practicing the Islam but there own wishes, theories and self made rules,
Go to the source of the stream not on the contaminated end of the stream.
Try to understand like this that in the original teachings of holy Bible there is no relaxation in for eating pork, drinking alcohol, gambling, Making sexual relationship with out official marriage and killing any person unlawfully and to obey anyone against The Lord.
Now look how Christians "by chance" are setting practical examples for the Christianity?
Every Muslim is bound by his believes to give respect to original teachings of holy Bible as there is no contradiction between them and holy Quraan, but the clash is in the practices out of the holy books either sides.
ALL THE CHRISTIONS ARE HUMBALLY REQUESTED TO, FIRST STUDY THE TEACHINGS OF HOLY BIBLE AND TO PRACTICE ALL THOSE, SECONDLY INVITED TO STUDY HOLY QURAN AND THAN TO CHOSE THE WAY THEY LIKE.
I AM AVAILABLE TO DISCUSS AND ANSWER ANY THING ANY TIME TO ANY HUMAN BROTHER.
Posted by: Faiz Kamal at March 25, 2004 10:20 AM
There are historical facts that Islam is the true and final message from God.Quran is still saved from public change. You can find all the details of Prophet Mohammad life.Islam gives full and detailed guidance about social, political and economic life system.......Islam doesnot denounce any prophit and holy book.Jews donot share knowlege of holy book with gentiles. Christians have attributed many things to Jeses which Jeses has not said in his life. Christainity doesnot has any code of life. This is just the code of moral principals.....Hence todays Islam is the only religion to save manking from material, sexual and man made principles.......Come and accept Islam without prejudicePosted by: Jamshaid Qureshi at March 30, 2004 03:40 PM
That's where I stopped. - tom
Not if I can help it.
I respect everybodies'right to their religious beliefs (assuming that they respect mine). But it seems to me that Islam is such a backward, intolerant, monolithic religion that I would not have anything to do with it. I assume most other Americans wouldn't, either.
That is sad but, from my perspective, a logical situation when you look at the way the Muslim Faith is practiced in most of these Third World countries - In my experiences, it is not a religion of Fellowship but, rather, it appears very coercive, with extreme societal and peer pressures to pray five times a day, to dress and adhere to severe restrictions on any display of personality or individuality, etc., etc., etc.
Therefore, to me it is not surprising that any semblance of true Friendship/Fellowship is much easier to achieve within the 'Western' model of social relations.
I've said the same thing a million times.
My home is stocking up on certain items if you get my drift.
I'll never be a muslim. Neither will my family.
Don't recognize the name, michael wolfe...but he's got to be a MORON, whoever he is.
If it come to that, they will be powerless. They will be forced to make a choice of who they support, them....or Americans. Should they choose wrong.....they will become one of them and all that that entails.
If it come to that, they will be powerless. They will be forced to make a choice of who they support, them....or Americans. Should they choose wrong.....they will become one of them and all that that entails.
Sorry about dp.
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was not founded by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." -- Patrick Henry"A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one." -- Martin Luther, Concerning Christian Liberty, 1520
* ‘Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Qur'an should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth’ --Omar Ahmed, Chairman of the Board of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations), San Ramon Valley Herald, July 1998 ** "In reality Islam is a revolutionary ideology and programme which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebiuld it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals... ...Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam..." -- From Sayeed Abdul A'la Maududi, Jihad in Islam
* "Jihad and the rifle alone. NO negotiations, NO conferences and NO dialogue" -- From Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, Join The Caravan *
"What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you? (1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam. (a) The religion of the Unification of God; of freedom from associating partners with Him, and rejection of this; of complete love of Him, the Exalted; of complete submission to His Laws; " -- From Osama Bin Laden "Letter to America" Nov. 24, 2002
* "... the march of resistance will continue until the islamic flag is raised not only over the minarets of Jerusalem but over the whole universe," -- Hamas Leader Mahmoud Zahar, January 16, 2004
* The Coming Islamic Takeover of the U.S.: "Saudis often discuss the issue of the U.S. becoming a Muslim state in the future. On a March 17 broadcast on Iqraa TV, Saudi preacher Sheik Said Al-Qahtani discussed this issue, as well as the cases in which Muslims are permitted to declare a defensive Jihad: "… We did not occupy the U.S., with 8 million Muslims, using bombings. Had we been patient, and let time take its course, instead of the 8 million, there could have been 80 million [Muslims] and 50 years later perhaps all the US would have become Muslim…" -- from "Incitement to Jihad on Saudi Government - Controlled TV" MEMRI
Exactly! The ones who come to America as individuals and become successful via American values are truly grateful to be free. They are some of the best citizens and have no desire to go back.
Bump. An accurate definition.
A standing ( and admittedly macabre ) joke between my wife & myself is that the suicide bomb makers deliberately swap the labels on the "arm" and "detonate" buttons...
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