Posted on 12/23/2002 5:10:28 PM PST by SJackson
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I am a former Moslem, born and raised in the Middle East. I am very disappointed and almost scared after watching your presentation about Islam. One of the reasons I fled to the United States of America was to escape the oppressive regime of Islam in the Middle East. From a former Moslem, these people are in the US to Islamize America and have a scary agenda. They audaciously buy churches and convert them into mosques!
I think your show was insensitive to the Judeo-Christian community of the United States. Islam is cruel, anti-women, anti-religious freedom and anti-personal freedom in general. How could you sympathize with a religion that kills adulterers, homosexuals and people who convert out of Islam? How could you present Islam with such affection? I am sorry that PBS failed to represent the oppression, fear and the straight jacket I had to endure when I lived under that crazy regime.
In the show, you stressed how the West should understand Islam. Why is America responsible for understanding every little and big culture and religion around the World, failing which we are branded bigots and racists? How about asking the Moslems if they could open their minds and hearts and understand the West? Perhaps they will slow down their terrorism, burning our flags and hijacking airplanes. Unfortunately, the Middle East has no clue about the American culture and they only judge us by Hollywood! How about US media educating Moslems about US culture and the virtues of our Constitution? Did that ever occur to you?
When I married a Christian man in my home country twenty-five years ago, I could have been killed by Moslems for daring to do so. I was questioned about my husband's religion even by Moslem workers at the US embassy, who asked me point blank if he converted to Islam, implicitly threatening to report me to Moslem authorities! I personally know Moslem women who were circumcised against their will! How could you defend a religion that declares a "fatwa", or death sentence, to anyone who is critical of the religion? How could you defend a religion that inspired 9/11? Of course not all Moslems are terrorists, but unfortunately, the majority of ‘moderate’ Moslems respect the fundamentalists as ‘true’ Moslems and even feel guilty toward them. If this were not true we should be seeing massive displays of support for the US, strong denouncements of radical Islam by the moderates. This has not happened. Instead, the most vocal Islamic groups in the West are taking a confrontational stance, complaining of discriminatory treatment, taking their cue from liberal civil-rights groups.
The liberal media is only too eager to egg them on.
I now write articles critical of Islam and speak to many groups about the Middle East but have to use a pseudonym so I do not get killed by some of your Moslem friends in the US mosques you were interviewing! They have no shame to be complaining of discrimination after 9/11, thanks to Media outlets like you who gave them a voice. The US goes out of its way to protect them. What discrimination? Are you kidding? These mosques in the US are financed by Saudi money and have an agenda and they scare people like me who want to write and speak freely. Scared and oppressed former Moslems like me could be killed by these Moslem extremists in US mosques. There are many moderate Moslems and former Moslems like me who feel intimidated by some US Moslem extremists. Former Moslems have to be given a voice on why they escaped Islam. People like me and oppressed Christians and Jews in the Moslem World had no say on your show. That is very sad. I wish you had defended my right to choose or reject Islam without getting killed.
Is Islam now the "in" thing to defend to sabotage America, or did Saudi money corrupt you?!
Nope. PBS was corrupted long ago by the TAX dollars we pay to fund their liberal blather.
How perceptive! She has put her finger squarely on the issue.
And I say this having a Muslim colleague for whom I have the greatest respect and trust (and who, just a few days ago, decried to me what is being said and done in the name of Islam) -- and a former Muslim friend (now Christian) who tells me "Islam is the religion of the devil."
Given all this direct contact, it's still not easy to resolve exactly where or what "Islam" is (any more than "Christianity," given the wide differences between fundamentalism and catholicism, East versus West).
But one thing is inescapably clear: The Left has latched onto Islam as a weapon to wield against Western civilization. And the instant the Left has the upper hand and has no more need of Islam, Islam will be tossed into the same dustbin as Christianity.
Thank you for posting this. Many people, like this author, do come to America to express their religious beliefs the way they want to.
I've worried about the establishment of Muslim prayer rooms in public schools in America. It seems their existence could pressure non-fervent Islamic students to pray at the appointed times, even if they are not interested in doing so. The more fervent Muslim students can notice who enters the paryer room and "rat" on the less fervent ones to the local Imam or other persons in authority.
In that way the public schools are inadvertantly(?) acting like enforcers for the local Imams.
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