I am a Muslim Woman

November 21, 2001 | Furi Setio Rini

[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

[Demidog]

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

So you have just called all Jews, non-serious Bible students. Bzzzzzt. Again you are another who wishes to ignore what it says in the Bible because it sounds exactly like the Koran and other works which had violent admonitions to followers.

[xJones]

Feelings. Nothing more than feelings. Trying to forget my feelings of you.

Feeeeeeelings. Wo-o-oh, feeeeelings. I wish I'd never net you babe......

Feelings.

Just out of curiosity, did you ever hear Carol Burnett sing "Feelings"? She did a great job with it and it would be very cruel to broadcast that hyserical comedy...........(not that I would ever wish that on the innocent camel-jerking Afghanis or the sweetheart Saddam of course).

[takenoprisoner]

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.

Looks like Ronin forgot to mention why we are hating islam right now. How bout it Ronin? Does she even know about the muslim terrorists who killed our people? She spoke of the "horror" of her textbooks, but no mention of the horror of 9-11.

I find her omission most revealing.

[Quester]

So you have just called all Jews non-serious Bible students. Bzzzzzt. Again you are another who wishes to ignore what it says in the Bible because it sounds exactly like the Koran and other works which had violent admonitions to followers.

Jews, as a people, don't study the Bible because the Bible includes the New Testament, which the Jews, in the main, do not accept. The Jews, of course, do study the Old Testament writings, which comprise just Part I of the Bible (i.e. the old context). Those (Messianic) Jews which do study the Bible (Old & New Testaments) accept the New Testament, and thus, it's claim that we have passed from the Old to the New.

[MizSterious]

How very touchy-feely of you. Now please ask Ronin and his Islamic friend to comment on the thousands of civilian lives taken on 9/11. Mind you, they didn't have the stones to attack someone who could actually fight back. Nope, they hijacked airplanes full of unarmed citizens (thank you, Sarah Brady) and flew them into buildings full of equally unarmed citizens. Forgive me if I now lack sympathy if citizens get hit in the current conflict. We did not ask for this fight, and I don't think any of us wanted it. However, we've got it now, and I don't care how many of "them" we take out. Maybe next time they'll think twice before attacking innocent civilians in the U.S.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

In the powder room there needs to be less hate . In the real world It is here . I choose to equal it , then surpass it . You do as you please . Dorben

[PoorMuttly]

My dear, you are not a Muslim Woman, you are a woman who happens to have been raised in a Muslim family. We, on this website, are not referring to you, and others like you. It is the hating, aggressive, devious, murderous Muslim people of whom we speak, and will have no more of. They are much more "Muslim" than you...so they say. They do not like you either, but tolerate you so that their numbers swell, and against the day that they may need you to shield them in some way...perhaps with your life, and the lives of those babies you love so much.

When ordinary people like you, and your family and friends realize that your religion has been hijacked by murderers...or that your religion is not actually the religion that you think it is, and practice, perhaps you will no longer support and shield these evil-inhabited souls, and we can all get along, and enjoy our lives together, as we here in America would genuinely, deeply like to do. We mean you no harm, but the people you support and protect have brutally murdered us, and we sincerely hope you nice folks will get out of the way, for we are coming for them...with finality. Please try to understand. Our President speaks for us, when he tells you that we are your friends. I hope you can come to America some time soon...and see what we are really like, and know how people can behave, when God has blessed the country in which they, and their ancestors, have lived.

[cowgirlcutie]

I don't hate Muslims. However, I hate the things that I have seen some of them do in the name of Islam. Does your friend hate the fact that some Muslims used four airplanes as weapons against humans who like her, loved their families, friends, etc.? Does she hate the fact that there are many children here without a parent now? Does she hate the Taliban's barbaric tactics?

[MizSterious]

That she didn't condemn those acts is particularly revealing. Few Muslims do. That tells me a great deal.

[Sabertooth]

Ronin wrote:

This is the only response I am going to make on this thread. I have stopped reading the replies....

She knows nothing of Free Republic, and frankly, given the level of bitterness on this thread, I am not going to tell her about it.

I asked her to write this. I asked her to just give me a three page essay about what it means to be a Muslim woman in Indonesia. Yes, she can be a bit of an airhead at times -- but that was part of the reason I wanted her throughts.

It's pretty cheap of you to start this thread, thinking you'd somehow "enlighten" people, and when it backfires you limit yourself to one response, stop reading the replies, and fail to respond to a single one of them specifically.

Part of your problem is that you don't have an accurate assessment of the mood against Islam or the motivations for it. That's why you failed to transmit this rather crucial information to Miss Rini.

In point of fact, you inadvertantly set her up.

It was your poor communication with her that may have led to her omitting any acknowlegement or condemnation of 9/11. But that's what everyone was hoping to hear.

"Yes, she can be a bit of an airhead at times -- but that was part of the reason I wanted her throughts." So you got someone who isn't too astute, failed to inform her, hung her out to dry, and you duck the consequences and run away, blaming everyone else for "bitterness."

Time for a face to face reality check with the mirror.

[IceGirl2]

My name is Furi Setio Rini and I am a Muslim woman....I am attending my third year of medical school... Well, you can't do that in Afghanistan or any other country where Moslems have full power. Indonesia still has some non-Moslems and a background based on British normalcy. >...he is very disturbed about the hatred of Islam that he is seeing on your board.

We hate the stupidity of a 'religion' that is based on killing innocent people. I like movies and music.

In Afghanistant they had a soccer field just for you. Now THANKS TO AMERICA perhaps it will be used for its intended purpose and not as a killing ground. 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 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. 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. 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 want my own babies.

...I hate learning about the ....the horrible conditions that can happen when a baby gets sick.

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.

We live and we love.

We go to restaurants, movies, and clubs.

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.

[cowgirlcutie]

Exactly!

[The Duke]

"God is love."

Spoken like a true moderate.

The reality is that mere mortals cannot dictate the nature of God...

[GeekDejure]

..- ... . / -... .. --. / ... --- / .. / -.-. .- -. / .-. . .- -.. / .. - !!!

[Fighting Irish]

Yeah.....I know....one of my favorite verses is when Jesus says to buy a sword....just didn't want to upset the poor innocent moslem lady

[Shermy]

IceGirl2:

Very thoughtprovoking, in form and context. Thank you for uncovering a poetic sensibility.

[Doc On The Bay]

'Haven't seen posts by "Moderate, Rational Islamics" wishing to "separate themselves" from "Muslim Extremists" on FR!

I would have expected DOZENS of "Disclaimers" since 9/11!

'Que 'Pasa?? (sp?)

Are the "adherents" of "modern-Day-Islam" SO "ROBOTIC" that they CANNOT see the EVIL of 9/11??

Ultimately, if "Modern-Day-Islam" attempts to dissascociate itself from the extremist psychopaths who murder in "It's Name," "Islam" MAY survive---albeit under CONSTANT, SKEPTICAL, scrutiny!

IMHO--Doc

[Demidog]

And your response doesn't change that the violent parts of the Bible which make up the foundation of the Christian faith exist. Just because you want to ignore them or pretend they are not almost identical to the same kinds of violent admonitions that exist in the Koran won't make them go away, nor does calling the portion of the Bible in which they exist the Torah or the Old Testament make them any less real.

[Michael2001]

"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 the Koran could instruct her to kill Infidels and she wouldn't know it.