Vanity: My Answer To Muslim Americans

I just listened to a American-Muslim woman on Rush.As Rush talked to her I could think of only one thing, lose the alien identity. If, in fact you and your husband are naturalized Americans, then you are welcome, and you are our brothers and sisters. The only thing that we insist on is that you similate into our benevlant society. We will protect your church, just like you should stand and protect our church. The first, and foremost thing that Muslims must do, just like the Catholic, and Baptist, and Methodist,,,etc, etc,,etc,,.

We must be Americans first....why? We have the right to be any religion we want. If you came to this country to exercise your religion (like the founders of this country did) then you have to love this Constitution, and the country that it is ruled by. There is no where in the Constitution that gives you a right to take the liberty away from the People! This liberty is based in the belief that free men make their own decisions.You, as New Americans, that we will respect your beliefs. We have done that for 225 years, we are not going to stop now. Join me, and be an American first! This wonderful land made you come here, you now have the rights that are guaranteed by a Consitution written by men that could never have forseen this situation. Also, please consider, that huge amounts of Americans died for that same Constitution that gave all of us this life, and it gave you the light to come to. We are the light og the world, we are giving, and loving people. For that we are always attacked. We are also a sleeping giant. We fight back! When we do, we do it with the most "prejudice" that can be injected into our system. It is hard for an American to hate, but if you kill mine, if youattack my home, I will hate you in a heartbeat. Then I will set out to kill you! My culture is a culture of life, sacrifice, and love. We also have this....I won't suicide bomb, but I will sit on a hill with a machine gun, all alone. I will protect the retreat of my company, to fight again. I'll set there and pick the enemy off till they take me out. No surrender, just fire till you're dead.

Muslim, Arab, Americans have just got to realize, country first, church next. Without the country, there is no church!

If you put God first, as a Christian, as most of our founding fathers, including George Washington, did,
it will only make America a better place.

"It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplication to that Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States. . . . No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. . . . We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained." -- George Washington, in his first inaugural address (April 30, 1789), reprinted in The Writings of George Washington, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1931-44),vol. 30, pp. 292-6.
"There is no country in the whole world, in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America: and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth." -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, n.d.), vol 1, p.294.

However, if you put the Q'ran and Islam first, well.....

I HEARTILY AGREE.

And to use an example from a story I heard: There was a woodcutter hired by a man to cut down trees. The first day the woodcutter cut down 18 trees. The boss was duly impressed and heaped praises on the woodcutter. Inspired by the positive words of his employer, he worked even harder the second day, but was only able to cut down 15 trees. The third day was no better with only 11 trees cut. The fourth day he was able to cut down only seven.

When his boss saw what was going on the woodcutter said, "I don't understand. I work harder every day and cut fewer and fewer trees down." The boss said, "Have you sharpened your axe?"

"I haven't had time to sharpen my axe, I've been too busy cutting down trees."

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God is my "axe sharpening." Without Him, everything else is not only extremely difficult but, in the long run, irrelevant.

The 'noble' koran:

Sura 4:144 O you who believe! do not take the unbelievers for friends rather than the believers; do you desire that you should give to Allah a manifest proof against yourselves?

Sura 9: 28: O ye who believe! Truly the Pagans are unclean; so let them not, after this year of theirs, approach the Sacred Mosque. And if ye fear poverty, soon will Allah enrich you, if He wills, out of His bounty, for Allah is All-knowing, All-wise.
29: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
30: And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!

Moderate Muslims Speak Out Against Extremists

Well before September 11 courageous American Muslims were warning their fellow Americans about the danger of Islamic extremism. On Jan. 7, 1999, Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani addressed a State Department forum on the topic "Islamic Extremism: A Viable Threat to U.S. National Security." "Here at home," he said, "we see a threat that will grow if the leadership of this country does not quickly stop the kind of extremist ideology that is filtering in - the same extremist ideology that is being spread all over in many places around the United States."

Born in Lebanon, Kabbani is chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, a Fenton, Michigan-based organization that emphasizes the common heritage of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Calling militant Islam "something that is going astray from Islam," Kabbani argues that traditional Islam stresses "moderation and tolerance and love … and living in peace with all other faiths and religions."

In his 1999 speech, Kabbani singled out Osama bin Laden and warned that "something major might hit quickly." He said bin Laden had formed a coalition with the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Jihad-al Islami to wage terror against the West. And he warned against Muslim nonprofits in the U.S. "whose job is only to collect money and to send it … to extremists outside the United States."

Another important American voice for a tolerant Islam is Khalid Duran. Duran has taught at Islamabad University in Pakistan, the University of Berlin, and American University. He is the editor of TransIslam, a quarterly journal of Islamic issues, and he is the founder of the Ibn Khaldun Society, an educational network of independent Muslim academics. To promote greater understanding between Jews and Muslims, The American Jewish Committee commissioned him to write Children of Abraham: an Introduction to Islam for Jews (2001).

In his book, which was praised by prominent Muslims throughout the world including Jordan's Prince Hassan, Duran criticizes militant Islamic regimes such as Iran and Sudan that violate the rights of nonbelievers. He writes that militant Islam in those countries and in terrorist groups like Hamas "is a form of late twentieth-century totalitarianism. It follows in the wake of fascism and communism, has been influenced by them, and seeks to refine their methods of domination." He argues that the concept of jihad-understood by many Muslims as fighting against the evil within or self-purification-has been hijacked by extremists who use it to justify holy war. The book also warned against bin Laden.

Muslims like Kabbani and Duran are often denounced by "mainline" Muslim groups when they speak out-and they can be in physical danger. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) bashed Duran's book in a press release and questioned whether he was Muslim by suggesting that he had a "mysterious identity." After reading the CAIR assessment, a militant sheikh, 'Abdu-I-Mun-im AbuZant, called Duran an "apostate" in a Jordanian newspaper and issued what many considered an edict for him to be killed. When this was publicized, CAIR's New York chapter issued a press release saying the death threat was a "cheap publicity stunt" concocted by Duran and the American Jewish Committee to sell books "at the expense of Muslims."

Khaled Saffuri, chairman of the Islamic Institute, shares many of CAIR's views about Duran. "Khalid Duran's not a Muslim," Saffuri told me in a November interview for Insight magazine. When I asked Saffuri to explain his opinion, he would only say, "If you read his book about the introduction of Islam to Jews, you will see that Khalid Duran has nothing to do with Islam." Saffuri made similar remarks on the United States Information Agency television show "Global Exchange," broadcast overseas in 1999. When asked about the biggest impediment to Islam in the U.S, he replied that "there are some sects or denominations that claim to represent Islam, and their ideas and views are different and alien from those of mainstream Islam." Most likely he was referring to Duran and Kabbani. Saffuri speculated that "some of these entities are supported by Zionist organizations and entities unfortunately."

In his speech to the State Department Sheikh Kabbani noted that many advocacy groups with extremist agendas claim to be the official voice of Islam in America. He lamented that the media and government officials ignore moderate Muslim voices and concluded: "The problem of extremism is a big danger, and it can be solved if the West better understands Islam and build bridges with the moderate Muslims, the traditional Muslims. This way, the Muslim community will eliminate the extremist threat from within."

Capitol Research Center — 1513 16th Street, NW — Washington, DC 20036 — (202) 483-6900 — (202) 483 - 6902 (fax)

You're right on tim, America isn't a country it's an idea.

The natural right of any person to live free of intrusive government,the natural right of self defense,the natural right of property. The idea that these natural rights are shared by all people.

All this is not "given" by government but is ours because of the blood shed by others to preserve those ideas as identified by the founders of our nation.

People who hate America keep talking about "Hegemony" but I look at the wars of the last century and see no American flags planted over Germany or Japan.

Well, didn't mean to get started but I believe we are in for the fight of our lives in the coming conflict and it's time we figured out what we are fighting to preserve.
I happen to be proud of America and all the good it has brought to the world, I took an oath thirty years ago to protect and defend it and despite all the liberal propaganda , see no reason to give that up.

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