Posted on 11/04/2005 3:55:52 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
A month ago, members of Silicon Valley's Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities gathered in downtown San Jose to observe the Catholic feast of Saint Francis, the Protestant and ecumenical celebration of World Communion, the Jewish New Year and the beginning of Ramadan. We listened as the bells of St. Joseph's Basilica tolled, a shofar sounded and the prayers for breaking Ramadan's first day of fasting were recited. Then we ate together, many of us embracing, each of us welcoming the humanity in the other and blessing one another in the name of our common God.
The interfaith circle downtown was a beautiful expression of what makes Silicon Valley a wonderful place to live. We have learned to live together in peace, not just by accepting one another, but increasingly, we are learning to celebrate our differences, understanding that diversity is our greatest strength. It is a virtue worth exporting to the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, communities where a strong majority celebrates religious pluralism are rare. Religious intolerance remains a significant problem in our world. In the United States and in the West, the problem is especially acute in the ways popular culture misunderstands Islam.
In the imagination of the non-Muslim West the idea that Islam is a violent religion is seldom questioned. The image of Muslim as terrorist is almost archetypal. In much of the West it has remained acceptable to portray Muslims as shady, beady-eyed, gun-toting and crazed -- images that would make the cast of a minstrel show blush. Pundits in the Western media have appropriated the vocabulary of Islam and have used it to describe campaigns of terror, rendering forever sinister words like jihad, fatwa and Shariah. Pope Benedict XVI chose terrorism as the topic for his first meeting with Muslim leaders.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
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Of course, the idea that Islam advocates terrorism any more than do other religious traditions usually comes as a shock to Muslims, who almost universally consider aggressive violence done in the name of Islam to be a distortion of their religion's basic tenets and, therefore, an abomination. The evidence suggests that Muslims have a better idea of Islam's peacefulness than does Western popular culture.
Islam is not a monolithic religion, and it is true that some Muslims are proponents of violence and terror as a means of confronting a wide range of perceived injustices, but their numbers are quite small. While the world is home to nearly 1.6 billion Muslims, worldwide membership in Islamic terrorist groups numbers something less than 30,000 -- this according to an April 2005 State Department report on terrorism -- meaning that only a fraction of a percent of Muslims are terrorists.
It is true that the chances of having a random encounter with a member of the world's Muslim community who is also terrorist are probably better than are the chances of being dealt a straight flush in five-card stud, but not by much. And while the State Department's numbers are imprecise, it is interesting also to note that according to the same report, non-Muslim terrorists outnumber Muslim terrorists nearly 4-to-1 worldwide.
The idea that Islam is a violent religion persists, but it doesn't have to. On Thursday, Ramadan came to an end, bringing to a close the rare overlapping holy seasons that brought Silicon Valley's interfaith community together in prayer and celebration last month. We who live in Silicon Valley, both Muslims and non-Muslims, who know the joy of living together in peace, can share the goodness of our lives together. We can export the peaceable virtues of understanding and good will, and as we do, we will find ourselves and our world greatly blessed.
REV. BEN DANIEL is the pastor of Foothill Presbyterian Church of San Jose. He wrote this article for the Mercury News.
This would be so much more believable if I'd ever heard ONE (just one!) peaceful Muslim leader speak out against the terrorists within their midst.
Gaaa*k, hawwwk,ptooie. Bump.
We'll have a common God when Muslims bow down and worship Jesus.
Muslims misunderstood????
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
we understand only too well my friend, only too well and it's not pretty.
I don't trust Muslims enough to believe a word they say.
I want them GONE. The are a cancer in our midst.
It's a side issue. Part of the basis for unrest among islamics in Indonesia can be traced to the fact that 7% of the land property has clear title. In the ME, who knows. Cairo is 3/4 unrecorded property and extralegal businesses. If they owned their own homes and had legal businesses and could get bank loans on that collateral, just see how far the islamics would get.
Most idiotic ubiquitous contemporary blather.
However, reality trumps inanity.
I agree with him. We misunderstood Islam as religion of peace.
I would like to see the report on what the worldwide membership terrorist totals are for say Christians / Catholics / Jews / Mormon or even the dreaded Amish.
Unfortunately, if people knew God's name this allah crap would be a moot point.
I never thought of them as beady-eyed. Honest.
You can add France to that.
I learned everything I needed to know about islam in 1000AD.
I understand these murderous savages all too well. The world will not be safe until the last muslim is _______.
Fill in your own blank.
I am sorry I will write this today -- "Despite our diversity, Muslims remain misunderstood"NO! ----- Despite our diversity, Christians remain misunderstood and very well misunderstood"!!!!== thank you
Muslim leaders can get along with Christian and Jewish leaders in San Francisco, becuase is SF no one will ever ask you to denounce terrorism or to challenege your congregations to denounce it, nor ask you to turn in those who are preaching hate (unless it hate of muslims). Not only will they not ask for these thing they certainly wouldn't expect the muslim community to step up and lend their support to the war on terror.
So with that understood everyone can stand around with their fingers in each others butts and talk about how good they feal about it.
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