Posted on 01/26/2007 9:16:25 AM PST by AdamSmithWasRight
As I read the news day in and day out from my perspective of being on the inside looking out, I look at my own home and couldn't be any more embarrassed than I currently am. It has been compounded from 9/11 by constant images and stories in the media about the actions of the Muslim community.
I must admit to myself if I was on the outside looking in I would probably look at myself in the same way so many others do. If all I saw were nihilistic thugs raping, robbing, murdering, and littering the streets of the world with the bodies of innocent people I wouldn't know what else to think of this group of people for religion.
As I now sit inside of the United States I find myself looking at this house in two perspectives. At times from the inside looking out and wanting to escape for this image that has haunts me day in and day out but also at times from the outside looking in. It is these proud patriotic times when religion takes the passenger seat or well I should say, isn't even in the car, that I look at that house and think, "Don't you people get it???"
At moments like this I realize and force myself to accept the reality that the real problem here is the Muslim community itself. It is no longer the fundamentalsits or Al-Qaeda alone, rather the very community itself that has failed to deliver or even show an attempt to remedy this nihilistic ideology within their ranks. As an American but also as a Muslim I would like to convey my most sincere apologies although I know to most this are just empty words in light of the death and injury of so many. For most we have reached a point where apologies and words will do nothing but further agitate the situation. Rather what is needed is action.
It is this which I do recognize and wish deliver, but I realize that I can only do this with help from others. I would hope that the American people, my brothers and sisters, would not so easily give up on the Bush doctrine of changing the face of the middle east where this dangerous threat to world civility and humanity is found. If we hope to find change I believe we can only find it in the overthrowing and or absolute destruction of the very regimes and elements that support this authoritarinism from within their midst. As long as we hold on to the Bush doctrine I honestly believe that we can one day watch the purple fingers of freedom wave from Morocco to Indonesia.
Until that day, if it comes, I apologize my friends and ask you to stick with the President and his vision for a new middle east.
Absolutely. I certainly didn't mean to discount your viewpoint at all...unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) a weakness we have IS to turn the other cheek.
I am not a "glass parking lot" person, and I firmly believe that what we are doing right now, expending blood, lives and money in the Middle East, is the right and moral thing to do. We should be proud of it. We could be like the Nazis or Soviets and just go in and flatten the place, but...that is not why we went in there. It is in our best interests to improve their lives and try to break them out of the medieval mode they are stuck in. Then they might not be flying planes into our buildings.
Of course, it all may fail. The people who say Islam is not compatible with democracy may be right. And when a nuclear device goes off in an American city, all bets are off. But I am not willing to be a member of the "Glass Parking Lot" crowd until that point. That means I may be willing to sacrifice huge numbers of American lives to reach that point. My life, or the lives wife or family may be one of those lost. So be it. But I will not be a party to the scorched earth policy until then.
What is the matter with you sir? The author of this thread appears to be a patriotic conservative American, making an effort to reach out to this community, and your response is childish generalizations in support of a biggoted loser? Apologies are in order. You should be ashamed of yourself.
WHY do people try to compare the Bible to the koran?? Yes, there was violence in the Bible, in the Old Testament part of the Bible, but these were STORIES about incidents that happened back then. These are NOT DIRECTIVES given to the people to go and kill others, which the koran has. The koran is still in the present, and ORDERS people to go out and destroy - the Bible DOES NOT do that. So, please, knock off the comparisons between the Bible and the koran. Thank you, all.
Good luck abrogating the Koran. I do wish you God's speed on your quest to understand Islam, because clearly you don't.
" it is essential for us to work with Muslims that both respect the constitution AND still hold fundamentally Islamic beliefs."
Muslims can only do one or the other. If they respect "mans laws" then they die hypocrates and burn in hellfire according to their cult.
The Koran cannot be abrogated- that carries a death penalty, just as throwing a gum wrapper on the mosk lawn does, and just as being an apostate (leaving the religion) does. You are either a Muslim, or you are not. DO you know what a "moderate Muslim" really is? It's a uneducated muslim that has never read the koran. There are a lot of them, it's true. That's because Muslims recieve Islam orally, by equally ignorant Imams, in impoverished lands where education is learning to recite the koran by memory in a language they don't even speak (arabic)
The sad thing is, even if these ignorant muslims are shown what the Koran really says, they still choose Islam. The "moderates" become fundamentalists, not extremists. There is no such thing as an extremist muslim, just one who correctly follows and implements its teachings.
Sure. There is no conflict in being an American and a Christian; no point where one would have to make a choice, prioritize. No area where both claim supremacy.
And???
We're pretty much on the same page, I think.
This is tremendously complex, and I cannot fathom what it must be for those who must make the real decisions day in and day out. All I can do is pray for them.
I am in this fight until the end in my own small way. And I am honored to fight along Muslims who are willing to take on their own natural allies in the name of what is good in the face of evil...which is a lot harder than taking on one's enemies.
I think you give him too much credit. I'd just go with total moron.
Right. And my point is, there are not many (if any) Christian sects where one must make the choice. Sure, there are some (7th Day Adventists, I think) where you cannot take up arms and kill someone if asked by your government to do so, but you are allowed to serve in other ways and many have honorably done so.
However, there ARE branches of Islam that do bring followers directly in contradiction of the principles of their government, and often at a very basic level too. Not superficial things, either.
AS meat and yet also potatoes.....
As an eskimo and yet also, at the same time, a cute lil' Harp Seal....
As Penn, and somehow, at the same time, Teller
Oh, and I apologize; I'm ashamed of myself in that I did not come up with something even more clever and witty. Not like the bar is high though....
What did you want to know? I'm still a Christian if that makes any difference.
You said you read the koran; I just figured you'd elaborate a little, such as, did you have an opinion; what is your point, etc. I know you were responding to another poster, but, I was just curious. Thanks.
"muslim light" They should call them something else. Mohammad calls them hypocrits.
My point is that citizenship of a country is separate from religious beliefs. Perhaps Muslims are religious hypocrites, or not wholly fulfilling their religious obligations, but it doesn't negate their American citizenship.
From what I can tell, to the islamofacists, the answer to that is no...and if the answer is no, your fate is WORSE than being a Christian or a Jew.
There are folks posting here who call themselves Christians who will tell you that Catholics are not really Christians and do little to hid their hate for them.
I guess the only real difference is that those folks aren't going around chopping off heads, killing whole families or blowing up Catholic churches so it doesn't take much in the way of courage to tell them they are nut cases.
For a Muslim to speak out against the Islamonazi crazies is an act of courage and I wonder how many here would have the guts to do it knowing their and their children's lives may be at risk for doing so.
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