Posted on 02/04/2005 6:58:03 PM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
WASHINGTON, February 4 (IslamOnline.net) – Cornell University is to open Islam Awareness Week 2005 with an event entitled “an American Woman’s Jihad” to give non-Muslims and community members opportunity know more about Islam.
The event, due on February 11, comes at a critical time facing Islam worldwide, as many non-Muslims mistakenly believe the Arabic word of Jihad refers solely to a holy war of aggression and violence led by “extremists”.
It would open with a widely-acclaimed National Geographic documentary film “Inside Makkah,” in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall, according to Cornell Chronicle newspaper of the university Thursday, February 3.
The one-hour film follows three Muslims on their pilgrimage to the Al-Masjid Al-Haram mosque in Makkah, called the Sacred Mosque by Muslims.
Spiritual Journey
Following the screening, Fidelma O’Leary, an Irish-American woman and revert to Islam who was one of the pilgrims featured in the film, would talk about her own spiritual journey to Islam.
O’Leary, an associate professor of biology at St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas, will describe her struggle to live as an American Muslim and an academic in modern-day society and how she has coped with her Irish Catholic family’s lack of acceptance of her Muslim beliefs.
She is a co-founder of the Freedom of Faith Foundation, an educational organization that seeks to create a tolerant society where all people can practice their faiths.
The event was thus chosen to shed light on the concept of “jihad,” which most Muslims interpret as an internal spiritual journey involving personal sacrifice, said Wasif Syed, a Ph.D. student in applied physics at Cornell, an organizer of the event.
Many press reports and non Muslims mistakenly consider Jihad a statement of holy assault on foreigners or people of other faiths by what they call “Muslim extremists”.
Women Image
The event is further expected to give a true image of women in Islam, challenging claims of persecution in the west.
With her blond hair, green eyes and Western upbringing, O’Leary, “defies the image” many people have of Muslim women, said Syed.
And “the film takes you into the heartland of Saudi Arabia, to Makkah, and shows you images you don't see on Western television,” he added.
The documentary makers obtained special permission to film at Makkah's Sacred Mosque and the holy “Ka’abah” central to the site.
The black, cube-shaped stone structure is said to have been built as a shrine nearly 4,000 years ago by Prophet Abraham.
Muslims believe that their monotheistic religion had its beginnings at that site. They pray in its direction five times daily and, as Muslims, have a duty to visit it at least once in their lifetimes, Syed explained.
The site is the largest pilgrimage destination in the world and it attracted 2.5 million people this year. Many are overcome with emotion when they reach it because of its religious significance, he added.
Now in its second year, Islam Awareness Week is sponsored by the Muslim Educational and Cultural Association (MECA), a student group, and the Near Eastern Studies Department at Cornell.
It has broad campus support, reflected in the list of attendees, which will include guest of honor Susan Murphy, vice president for student and academic services.
“I am delighted that the Muslim students at Cornell have decided to put on a week of talks, speakers and events related to Islam Awareness Week,” noted Shawkat Toorawa, assistant professor, Near Eastern studies and adviser to MECA.
“Now, perhaps more than ever, the public deserves to learn about Islamic civilization.”
My cousin did. It did not start that way, but when the family was so much against it, it drove her closer to the dude. She ended up living in Iran, with her Muslim husband, but later she escaped Iran, and made it back to California. She knew all along it was the wrong thing to do, but she did it to spite everyone.
Perhaps we were all naive about Muslims in general back when this happened? And girl/woman who does it these days I have no sympathy for. But 5-10 years ago I wouldn't have thought much about an American woman marrying a Muslim. Going for that "exotic" bllsht and being willing to live in that pit he calls his homeland. The Muslim motive is often to have his children be Americans and to elevate his immigration status. The wife is seen primarily as a baby factory for the cult
Our rebellions,,smoking, drinking, fooling around, driving fast, declaring we were atheists, wearing long hair, calling our parents squares are so mild compared to embracing the enemy, wearing his outfits, worshipping his god and doing it in the middle of your own country.
I don't either, but I saw a program on TBN, about a Christian woman who did that. Her story was a nightmare, and they never left the US, and it was the Muslim man who eventually divorced her. They estimated (maybe guessed) that about 10,000 American women a year marry Arab Muslim men. In the past I might have had a little sympathy for them, but after what has gone on for the past few years? I don't think so.
There's a Cornell class of 1977 alum in that rubble.
My take: Folks with their butts in the air and noses in the ground, facing Mecca and each praying that the one next to him is just as brain dead and a follower of of the same murdering false prophet. ....and scared to death to speak out against tyranny.
(But then I can only judge folks by their actions.)
LOL! We southerners of Irsih extraction must hold the Oscar for Drama Queens.
Twenty Cornellians died on 9/11:
Janice M. Ashley '98, Joshua T. Aron '94, Balewa A. Blackman '96, Joni Cesta '85, Swede J. Chevalier '98, Christopher Ciafardini, MBA '99, Edward Porter Felt, M.S. '93, Frederic N. Gabler '93, Arlene Joseph Fried '74, Donald J. Havlish Jr. '70, Stuart Lee '93, Sean P. Lynch '87, Eamon J. McEneaney '77, Virginia A. Ormiston '82, Kaleen E. Pezzuti '95, Elvin Romero '88, Michael A. Tanner '79, Jennifer Lynn Tzemis '96, M. Blake Wallens '92 and Kristin Osterholm White '57.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/02/9.19.02/9_11-convocation.html
I'm sure they are deeply gratified to know that their deaths are a "teaching" opportunity at their alma mater.
... to give non-Muslims and community members opportunity know more about Islam...
Required reading:
THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD: http://muhammadanism.org/Canon_Sell/default.htm
Radical Islam's 'plan' to take over America - Arab-American author outlines secret 20-year strategy to undermine country
The Islamic States of America?
Misunderstanding the Enemy: the Islamic Threat and the U.S. Media
Islamic Concept of Al-Taqiyah to infiltrate and destroy kafir countries
CAIR Proposes World Islamophobia Report
CAIR: 'Moderate' friends of terror
An Open Letter to Islamic Organizations in America
Exploiting the Koran to Terrorize
islamic infiltration in the schools:
A Seat at the Table: Islam Makes Inroads in Education
Spreading Islam in American Public Schools
Islamist Threat to Public Schools in Columbia, South Carolina?
Respecting Ramadan, Banning "Christmas" (School District Favors Muslims Over Christians)
"Why I left Islam", by Dr. Ali Sina
"...the real Islam is not what its philosophers and mystics have inferred but what is in the Quran and that is the Islam of the fundamentalist and the terrorist. The real Islam is the Islam that abuses women, that allows men to beat their wives, that imposes penalty tax on the religious minorities, that wants to dominate the world by subduing all the non-Muslims, that calls for Jihad and killing the non-believers until Islam becomes the only dominant religion of the World*.""The enemy is Islam and that is the target of my attacks. I do that, despite knowing that I have become the magnet of the hatred of fanatical Muslims and my own life could be in danger.
Yet I know that by eradicating Islam we can save the world from the dangers of a catastrophe that otherwise is looming over our heads and could cause more disaster than the 1st and 2nd World Wars combined."
Islamic terror based on Qu’ran: ex-CIA official
"A former top official of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency paints a menacing picture of the relationship between Islam and terrorism.
"Islamic terrorism is based on Islam as revealed through the Qu’ran," keynote speaker Bruce Tefft claimed in a panel discussion at the University of Toronto on jihad and global terrorism.
And, he added, "There is no difference between Islam and Islamic fundamentalism, which is a totalitarian construct..."
According to Tefft, the Qu’ran enjoins Muslims to believe that the whole world should be governed by the principles of Islam*, an expansionist religion that has historically grown through conquest..."
-- Omar Ahmed, Chairman of the Board of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations), San Ramon Valley Herald, July 1998
Fidelma.Is that arabic?Fidel-Ma?Maybe it's an Arab tribute to Castro:)
That must be in the New Muslim Modified Bible.
It sure ain't in mine!
No one in our government seems to give a damn about either one, and, to me, that's unbelievable!
Surrender? We've just begun to fight!
Apologies to John Paul Jones.
Now that would be a list to greet Didelma O’Leary.
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