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.
I suppose it depends on the Muslim - a strict literal reader of the Koran couldn't be an American without conflict. Someone who rejects applying some past practices to present times could be.
As a Christian, I am in conflict with some of the law of my land - abortion being the worst conflict. I hope I will always be a Christian before I am an American. But I don't see my whole faith being at war with my whole country.
Welcome to FR!
Not the same thing. With Christianity, ,there is seperation from Church and state, with Islam, it IS church and state, and law and order. It's a totalitarian system. Christianity is not.
You cannot be a American and a Muslim, because America is based on manmade law, which is forbidden in Islam. Allah (Mohammads) law or death.
Just trying to provoke a conversation - some attack but do not defend. You know the drill here, however the Christian religion is full of references to treat everyone equally and to support your government.
Re your post #2, what absolute garbage. I repudiate it completely. Oh, and I suppose you consider yourself a good Christian. Baloney!
CAIR participants are Americans. They are also tools of the Islamofascists even if they do not get that. And if they do, they are more dangerous than anyone thinks. Unless the American Muslim communities call for complete victory over Islamofascism, I will not trust them . We have enough Quislings in the media, the Democrat Party and even some wussy Gopers. Noting Liberals anymore is not the question. They have always been Quislings when it came to American security.
Folks...it is undoubtedly true that there are Muslims who are patriotic Americans, want the best things for their children and coexist with us in our Western society. I know because I know some of them and work with some of them.
But there are also elements of truth in what this person says.
I am nearly finished reading Brigitte Gabriel's book Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America.
Ms. Gabriel has a viewpoint many of us do not have. She was a Lebanese citizen, growing up in a country that had a majority Christian population that generally coexisted peacefully with the muslim population of her country. That all changed in 1975, after three large infusions of uneducated Palestinians with much higher birthrates than the Christian majority. Along with those Palestinians came radical islamofacists who saw the opportunity to grab control of the country in concert with Iran(Hezbollah) and Syria. It is her belief (And I do readily acknowledge that she does have an axe to grind) that Lebanon was the template for the rest of the world. It is an indescribably sad story, but she lays out her her opinion and backs it up with logic and facts in a way I have not heard anyone else do.
One of her issues is the presence of Muslims in America, the near utter silence on their part regarding terrorism, and her parsing and analysis of the statements that HAVE issued forth from organizations such as CAIR.
It is chilling and depressing to read, but unless you have heard her point of view, I do not believe you can see all sides of the argument.
I will say that I have not reached a conclusion, mostly because I do not WANT to reach that conclusion.
However, as she says in her book, "All burying your head in the sand does is make a big, fat target out of your rear end." I think there is truth to that as well.
What are you apologizing for? Perhaps inaction, but you are not responsible for the actions of the thugs who want to murder and maim. The greatest flaw I see in the Muslim community is the failure to disown the criminals, to instead take offense and cry "profiling" at any attempt to stop the criminals (who, it must be admitted, are overwhelmingly Middle Eastern Muslim men). You personally cannot atone for the sins of your brethren any more than I can personally atone for the sins of any white Christians who have committed crimes. We can, however, work within our ranks to change the attitude--not apologize, CHANGE.
Excellent post, all the same.
I know some very good patriotic Muslim Americans. Islam is not just another religion like Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, etc. However, Muslims can be patriotic Americans. I say trust but verify. I am not against profiling.
Yes, they are, and I think they understand exactly that.
Christians believe in a personal God who died for our salvation--the Constitution makes no such mention. Christian morality is based on the Ten Commandments and the commands of Christ--the Constitution makes no such mention. So I guess one can't be Christian and American, either, eh?
Unless America become an Islamic country, he must fight against it until it is. Or he can become a Christian, and believe in the true God, not a rock.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Even intolerant bigotry [and is there a tolerant one?] is good for something. Everything is.
Hey Mod's...... How about pulling "edcoil"
According to Islam, all of reality is dependent upon the will of Allah. Perhaps Allah has willed that America exist as it does--how, then, is obeying manmade law at odds with Muslim tenets of faith?
Point is not what "Muslim" is defined as but rather what "American" is defined as. It might make a Muslim a religious hypocrite, but as long as a person swears (and holds fast to the pledge) to protect and defend his country, ANYONE can be an American.
Actually, the Constitution states we are a nation under God.
And since you have no idea what a Christian is, don't bother trying to guess.
Christianity is completely compatable with secular government. In fact it would fail without it as would this secular government fail without Christianity (which it is)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.