Posted on 11/20/2001 6:00:49 PM PST by Ronin
Hello,
My name is Furi Setio Rini and I am a Muslim woman. I am 20 years old and live in Jakarta, Indonesia. I am attending my third year of medical school at Trisatki University. My friend, Ronin, asked me to write this because he is very disturbed about the hatred of Islam that he is seeing on your board.
What can I say about me? Well, I think I am an average Indonesian girl. I like movies and music. I love to shop for new clothes. Sometimes I eat too much. I do not like the music that is too loud. I don't like politics and I don't understand them.
I have to laugh when I hear western people talk about Muslim women. Somehow they think that all of us are beaten by men and treated like animals. If you had ever seen my father, my brothers and me, running away from my mother when she was angry, you would know how silly that is.
I have never worn a veil. I wear make up and I use lipstick. Except on the days I go to Mosque. On those days I clean myself as much as I can. I do not believe that it makes much difference to God, but I want him to see me with my true face, and heart.
I have two brothers. One of them is older, the other is younger than me. I guess that they are like brothers everywhere. Sometimes I love them. Sometimes I hate them. Sometimes I wish I could kill them. But no, that is a lie. Even when I think I hate them, I love them. They are my brothers, my family. I love and respect my father and my mother. I adore my father and hope to find a husband just like him.
I have not been kissed yet. And I have not been held as a woman wants to be held. Yes, I want it. Yes, I dream about it. But I can wait until I find the man I will marry. And no -- it will not be a marriage arranged by my parents. I will choose my husband, and he will choose me. We will marry because we love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives with each other. God willing.
I am studying to be a doctor. It is my best dream and ambition to be a doctor in a small village where doctors are rare. I want to be able to help the most common people of my country. I want to make life better for them. I want to bring happy and healthy babies to loving mothers and proud fathers. I want to give comfort to the old people who have so much to teach us. I want to share my love with true and real results.
I am not perfect. I am quite lazy sometimes and I have to force myself to studies on days when it is too hot, or at times when there are so many other interesting things to do. But this is a story about Muslim women, so maybe I should talk about that a little. What is Islam to me? This is a question that is very hard for me to answer. Islam is in my blood. I pray to God each day. I ask for health and happiness for my family, my friends and my country. More than that I cannot say. I love God and I pray to Him daily. . Is that any different from you?
I pray to God each day for wisdom. But the newspapers and the television and the radio shows me nothing but images I do not want to see. I can't stand the pictures I see.
I hate war. I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!
I hate it almost as much as I hate pediatrics class. Not because I hate newborn babies, I love them. I want my own babies. But, I hate learning about the illnesses and the horrible conditions that can happen when a baby gets sick.
My heart cries. Sometimes, just opening the textbook is a horror. To see a stillborn baby makes a small death inside me. But I must learn, because if I cannot learn to treat them and make them well, more babies may die. I cannot think of anything worse.
I think that most Indonesian girls are like me. And, most Indonesian boys are like boys everywhere. They like cars and sports. They play music too loud. When they think they are so cool and exciting, they are usually very boring. The television and radio you see is not showing you the proper vision of my country or my people. We live and we love. We go to restaurants, movies, and clubs.
I do not drink alcohol, but I do not find that a hardship. (I did have a glass of red wine once. It did not taste very good.) My father and my brother smoke cigarettes, but I don't. No, we do not eat pork.
Men say that the words of God are in the Holy Quran, the Christian Bible and in the Jewish books. I do not know about that. I read the Holy Quran and try to live my life in the teachings that it contains. But inside my heart I know the only commandment of God is love. I love God. And I know that God is love.
So, this is my testament. It is not very profound.
I am a Muslim woman. I love God. God is love. I love you all.
Furi Setio Reni
To say that all Freepers hate all Muslims is ridiculous. Nobody here is that naive. We certainly don't believe that all blacks are like Jesse Jackson or OJ Simpson. Or that all women are like Janet Reno, Hilary Clinton or Monica Lewinsky.
But, we have been attacked by terrorists who are Muslim. We must be cautious as a nation.
The fact that you are being watched by everyone should not be such a surprise.
Why don't they see that? It's like a bunch of muslims can blow up anything, kill thousands and that's alright, just consider their feelings!
Perhaps she's unaware. If you know her and you email back and forth, please inform her that children were murdered in the September 11 attack. We hate war too, but we didn't start it.
It is an otherwise good post.
Feeeeeeelings.
Wo-o-oh, feeeeelings.
I wish I'd never net you babe......
Feelings.
I am too livid to finish my response. I may later or I may simply forgive your stupidity.
Eaker
Sorry, but you're full of solzhenitsyn!
KanghaRue:
Well...Islam today is actually quite different than anything found in the Quran. This is part of the problem. Almost from the very beginning they've misinterpreted the book...and made it say what they want it to say. The Quran isn't actually that bad....less violent than the Old Testament anyway.
kangharue:
Hooray! Someone actually looked them up! :) Yes, it's unforunate that some, in their eagerness to demolish Islam, will resort to intellectual dishonesty. A more reasonable approach would be to look at the Quran and try to see if what these people did is sanctioned in there. The passages often quoted in these discussions have a context which has to be taken into account if one wants to understand what the text is saying.
Also, I've seen a lot of people get hung up on the English translation. Ex: the passage about not taking Jews and Christians as "friends". The word is Arabic actually means something more like "protector". So, it's really nothing more than an Islamic version of "be not unequally yoked". Any believing Christian should understand that idea.
pcl:
While I do believe that a goal of Islam is to see that every person on earth lives under Islamic law and thus the spread of Islam must be checked, I do not believe that misquoting the Qur'an will be of any help.
Kangharue:
It is true that it wasn't so much Islam the religion that was spread...but rather Islamic RULE. This is why I tend to disbelieve the "convert or die" scenario. My husband's family were Catholics living under the Ottoman empire...and they actually were able to amass considerable wealth and status. Ironically, this ended when the Ottoman Empire fell, and they ended up fleeing to Greece where they weren't treated very well. They actually wanted to go back to Adana! (now in Turkey)
Perhaps you have heard of Bat Ye'or, a Jewish writer who isn't AT ALL friendly toward Islam. Well, in the book "The Decline of Eastern Christianity" she points out that most of the "Islamic" dhimmi laws used against non-Muslims were actually taken from the Byzantines...who used them against other Christian groups, and against Jews. The Muslims simply adapted them and turned them back on the Christians.
Ditto.
Make that double dittos. I too believed the "Muslim extremist" lie. Shame on me.
If you take any religion and attempt to put its teaching into practice as a political system, you exclude other religions. That is a fact which can't be disputed. In that regard, Islam is no different than Christianity or Judaism.
"Thou shalt have no other God's before me."
That alone is a commandment which exludes other religions.
You must skip over those parts of the Bible that don't comport with your view. The Israelites wiped out the Caananites (supposedly by God's command) because they were of different religion.
The Israelites wiped out the Canaanites (per God's command) because the Canaanites exhibited some very nasty religious and lifestyle practices (including child sacrifice).
If you take any religion and attempt to put its teaching into practice as a political system, you exclude other religions. That is a fact which can't be disputed. In that regard, Islam is no different than Christianity or Judaism."Thou shalt have no other God's before me."
That alone is a commandment which exludes other religions.
Any serious student of the Bible knows that the world's history has passed from the Old Testament's context to the New Testament's context.
In the Old Testament, GOD brought into being, nurtured, and settled (in Canaan) a people through which His salvation would come into the world. Relationship with God then was essentially a corporate (or national) phenomenom.
As of the beginning of the New Testament, that salvation (JESUS) has come and is offered to every individual, regardless of nation, race, creed, or culture. As such, there is no longer any need for any Christian-governmental alliance. It took a while for that to sink into our skulls, (and yes, for some, it's still sinking), but that is the essential essence of Christianity today. Christians today fraternize and are inclusive with peoples of all nations, races, creeds, and cultures, unfortunately, even those which mean us harm.
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