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

[Texas Gal]

I did a search on the term "Allah is love" on the Pickthall Quran. It's not there. Not once. The New Testament, does however, say "God is love". Ms. Rini quoted the New Testament to defend her religion.
I will quote the New Testament too, from the book of Galatians, penned by the apostle Paul by direct inspiration of God: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

[freefly]

Again none of these actions by terrorist are in self defence.

Maybe not in reality, but do you think that their "handlers" don't have them thinking that that's the case?
For example, take a look at the REAL reasons for bombing Kosovo:
Roots of Allied Farce
Does that not make for GOOD info for convincing a terrorist cell that it is making war
on a country that rolls around the world like a loose cannon?
Is the slant that they put on our actions correct?
Not always (although the fed HAS done things that it shouldn't in various parts of the world
-not to mention at home-), but those actions are certainly used in propaganda against us.
If even a handful can be proven true, then the rest need little -if any- proof to have slant taken as reality.
Then you end up with people willing to die to make their point...
even if it means killing people who were not involved and may not even have approved.
My personal opinion is that, although we might have taken other actions that would have worked
better in the long run, we HAD to take a public stance and show that we will not be pushed around.
OTOH, we definitly need to take a good look at the root causes for all of this and deal with them.
Foreign policy over the last -- decades bit us on this one (again).
We will win this battle.
But winning the war will require more than a "hate and kill them all" attitude.
(Which is what my original post on this thread was trying to say.)

[freeforall]

The germans before the war said that British and French foriegn policy was the cause of the misery of the German people.This became irrelevant when they invaded Poland.Our job then became to defeat them so that they will never pose a threat in the future.This must also be the current goal. If I look at history America has been the most restrained world power ever.Do Canada and Europe feel a threat from America? I am not interested in how a terrorist views America foriegn policy except to use that knowledge to defeat them.

[Texas Gal]

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.

[F-117A]

Re my reply 307 above: This was in response to yianni's reply 105 on this thread. In this same thread, I said something to the effect that we have too many Muslim-haters on Free Republic, and I while I don't want to mischaracterize your responses, I think it's fair to say that all of you took exception to that.

Sorry, but I said nothing of the kind! What I said was that you're full of the letters s, h, i, and t from your name for saying the following!

I saw the most beautiful photograph on FR in the last day or two. It was of a little Afghan girl, facing skyward, in what appeared to be a prayer of thanksgiving, after her area was delivered from the Taliban. It was so moving! But to some Freepers, you're not a patriot unless you hate that little girl, and everyone like her.

I think that is a very hatefull statement on your part. I don't even recall reading yianni's and I certainly didn't comment on it. But I will now read it and see if it is as hatefull as yours.

[MizSterious]

"The sole purpose was to destroy it and reform that society so that they will never pose a future threat."

Bingo! Substitute "Nazi" for "Islam" and you have it. There are many similarities between bin Laden's Taliban movement and Hitler's Nazi movement. It's almost like history repeating itself sometimes.

"Understanding" the mindset of the Taliban terrorist serves only as an exercise in psychobabble and semantics. The one thing we need to understand is that they mean to destroy us. Whether or not they had "bad childhoods" or felt somehow "deprived" is meaningless. A scorpion stings because he is a scorpion, period. These are scorpions. They destroy because it is their nature to destroy.

[F-117A]

I have read #105 and will now comment on your reply.

Sorry, I don't read Latin, so I don't know what he said, nor do I know if your translation is accurate. You might ask what he meant by the statement.

Just as stupid things are posted here, perhaps those that preach that Islam is peace need to do more about those who preach hatred in the name of Islam!

I don't have time to respond to everyone's stupid posts, but since you tagged me I an responding to you!

[freeforall]

Hitler also hated Jews,Capatilism or any freedom of thought just like these thugs in al queda.History always in some way repeats it self the agressers will always have "beefs" with thier victims. After all Britian and France demanded reperations after WW1 and this "caused" the Germans to print money and this caused run away inflation and resulted in poverty and misery for the German nation. The ambitions of these terrorists is to destroy western civilization it would not matter what policy we have.If we had no policy they would say "it is America that thinks it is so smart that they can ignore us...but no longer we will make her listen" So then America makes a policy then they say we Don't like it because you are infidels and until you become one us we will destroy you. This is the mind set of a terrorist. Do we really need to understand the ROOT causes ya it's called will free or otherwise.Are we really expected to believe that American foriegn policy drove that plane in to those towers.

[freeforall]

Even if we had no policy in the middle east that would also have been used against.They would have said America can not afford to ignore us.So the we come up with apolicy and thier response is not good enough...you infindels will never satisfy us until you become muslim. Just like the nazis you can not reason with them.

[freeforall]

The first pictue you posted is proof of the absolute manical nature of extreme islam.These demonstration remind me of the nazis ability to brainwash its youth.

[KanghaRue]

free:
kangharue:
Yes, it's certainly that. The only problem I have with some views here is that this isn't stemming from the Quran, but rather from the writings of some modern people. These totally brainwashed masses are actually following the radical interpretations of others. Two that come to mind are Hassan al-banna and a guy by the last name of Maududi. Their writings have acted as a catalyst for this stuff.

[Ol' Sparky]

I hope the Muslim world does read these words and rejects the cult of Islam. It's truly a religion based on intolerance and hatred. The internet is one of the few places Muslims in Islamic countries can to read the truth since free speech and free thought are banned when it comes to exposing Islam.

The Muslim nations need to receive only one message from the United States -- you'd better fear the greatest military power in the world more than you twisted version of God. If not, you will be destroyed and annihilated like Iraq and the Taliban.

And, one more thing -- Jesus Christ is God. Muhammand was a corupt pedophile that married six-year old girls and killed 120-year old Jewish men in their sleep.

[Ol' Sparky]

There can't be enough people to oppose Islam and to try and free the minds of those deceived by the Islamic cult. The Qu'ran and Muhammand are the foundation of the totalitarianism and terrorism in this world. Hate Islam, love the Muslim deceived by Islam.

Why aren't you condemning the Muslims worldwide that are killing innocent Christian and Jewish civilians? Literally tens of thousands of those that oppose this barbaric religion are being slaughtered by Muslims. You should be more concerned about that than those exposing the evils of the Qu'ran.

[SpinyNorman]

Try getting past your indignation about someone having the nerve to attack us and start figuring out why they might want to and how to attack the ROOT cause

I have to disagree. The "root causes" will never be addressed, since they lie a few thousand years in the past, and are ingrained in every generation of Muslim that has been indoctrinated with "hate the infidel" messages since birth. The rearing and education of Palestinian children is an excellent example. Look at the schoolbooks and teacher's guides for Palestinian children. This puts the kindling into the fire, then the madrassas fan the flames into an illogical, ignorant blaze of obsession that only ends in the death of a "martyr" and his victims.

As much as you or I might want it, there will never be true peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, or the Western world and Islam, until this sort of cradle to grave brainwashing is nipped in the bud, and all the searches in the world for root causes won't solve a damn thing. Education might help, but the example above demostrates why this won't work in current Islamic societies.

Say what you will about the CIA etc., it is not the policy of the U.S. to target innocent civilians, and our current war in Afghanistan with the extraordinary measures taken to protect and feed the innocent Afganis clearly demostrates that. Terrorists on the other hand, make it their job to kill innocents. If the Muslim terrorists are pissed off about the Sudanese aspirin factory (as was I), then they should go after the parties responsible, not a building full of innocent people. And don't forget that the last five military actions that we have taken were to protect Muslims, albeit from other Muslims!

As distasteful as it may seem, the only logic the terrorist mind understands is brute force, just as we did in WWII, just as Reagan did to Ghaddhafi. Then we rebuild the nations into civilized, functional and prosperous societies, as we did Germany and Japan. I don't see many Japanese or Germans complaining about the way things turned out for them, considering the alternatives.

The bottom line is: exterminate the terrorists (mostly Arabs that are rejected even by their own countries), and show the generosity that America is famous for to the Afghan people.

This woman that wrote the letter that started this thread lives in some sort of blissful ignorance of the atrocities committed by other Muslims (no, not all Muslims). The pictures in the thread of the Indonesian protestors, mostly women that I see in few pictures, with the "kill the Jews" posters aren't full of love like the author of the letter says they are. I wonder how many of these Indonesian Muslim women would be protesting if they were accorded the same "rights" that women under the Taliban were? Oh, that's right, they had no rights whatsoever! That's right, Ms. Reni, no school, no independent movement, no television, no cars, and a view of the world through a mesh grid. And no choice not to be in that situation. But there would be no shortage of beatings though! I think we can all be sure that the Afghani women were not living in the allegedly enlightened and privileged world you appear to enjoy.

Mighty nice of those Indonesian women to defend the "rights" of the Afghan women to be treated as less than animals.

[Small voice of calm]

Some of the comments about this article are disgraceful.

I am a Christian, not a Muslim but I do not dislike Muslims.
You are attacking another person's beliefs in a way that shows little or no understanding or thought. You should feel ashamed of yourselves.

One post gave this quote from the bible as a reason to hate Muslims:
"SHAKIR The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"

Yet in the Old Testamant enemies of Christianity are also condemned and Gods people instrusted to kill every one of them. People are stoned to death. There is violence, seemingly encourgaed by the religion. So simply to take a extract from the Quran is no justification.


Another post includes:
"Islam is not the way to Heaven. We can only get their through Jesus Christ."
Don't you realise you are showing a compleat ingnorance of your own religion?
Both the Bible and the Quran say that ALL believers in one God will enter Heaven.

Many posts include a mention of the World Trade Center attacks, such as;
"look at the pictures of the World Trade Center. That's horror. Unleashed by practitioners of YOUR religion on innocent men, women, and CHILDREN in a pair of office buildings in downtown Manhattan.
Pardon us if we're inclined to think of you as barbarians."

No one will deny that the events on 9/11 were horrific. But to blame this woman, or even Islam for it is wrong. That is stereotyping and racist. You cannot take the actions of some and blame an entire race for it.
The terrorists may have believed that they were acting in the name of Islam but what they did went against the teachings of Islam. They were not real Muslims. And there are millions of Muslims in the world with NOTHING to do with it, yet you seem to hold them answerable, simply because they can be classed together.

You are a christian; are you therefore personaly responsible for the deaths of those killed in fighting between Catholics and Protestants?

You may be white, so was Hitler. Does that make you responsible for WW2?

Of course not. Surely you can see that such assumptions are ridiculous?!


And lastly, the hypocrytical suggestion that this woman can in any way be blamed for political acts because she herself takes no interest in politics and has done nothing to stop them.
There are countless terrible things going on in the world. Too much for one person ever to hope of preventing. She COULD dedicate her life, at great personal risk, to interferring in politics. Or she could simply lead a normal life as well as she can, everyone else.
So to all of you, typing away your insults from your PC, what have YOU done to encourage peace in the world? The answer? probably nothing.
So you cannot critisise this woman for being the same.



I would like to suggest that in future you all try to excersise a little more Christian love, forgivness and understanding, and think about what you are saying.