As a Muslim, i strongly condemn the beheading of Nick Berg

Cyrus ^ | 5/12/04 | Cyrus

[Cyrus the Great]

As an American [applied for citizenship here from Iran since 1999], and a Muslim i would like to strongly condemn the brutal beheading of a fellow American in the hands of Barbarians.

I also, condemn Islamic terrorism across the world and join millions of others in Iran and i'm sure other places across the middle east in condemning these horrible acts.

I moved here in 2000, i was a part of the student uprisings in 1999 in Iran. The very thing that the US is fighting right now in the middle east, are what students in Iran are fighting.

There is no difference between their fight and ours, nor the fight across the middle east between the modernized - moderate form of islam and the radical form.

Unfortunately, moderates have been unwilling to take arms or act aggressively against radical islam and when we have we've been condemned for human rights abuses.

That's all.. after reading some of the posts on here i just wanted to say i'm Muslim and i condemn these acts.

[arthurus]

Struggle between God and Evil is not a characteristic shared between Zoroastrianism and Christianity. It is a characteristic of Gnosticism which was a Christian heresy and had Jewish variants also.

[Cyrus the Great]

600 A.D. was birth of Islam.

[The Duke]

Darn...and I was just getting ready to generalize!

Thank you for being amoung the ranks of those of us fighting to preserve civilization.

[Sola Veritas]

Iran will eventually fall out of the hands of "radicals" because there are many who still remember the Shaw of Iran, and were secularized and pro-Western. Plus, because Iranians are Persian (I notice you referenece this as "Cyrus the Great"), and not arab, they tend to be less fanatical.

You are needed in your homeland, not here. Words and rhetoric are cheap - speak by your actions.

I don't like being mean. However, don't try to defend Islam by condeming those that truly represent your "religon." This war on terror, regardless of what is said in D.C., is indeed a war on Islam, because Islam has declared war on the West.

[ZULU]

Magi were Zoroastrian priests. The three (actually the number is never given in scripture) were probably searching for the Saviour promised by Zoroaster.

[cake_crumb]

" Moslems are people who follow the religion Islam. Hindus are the people of India(Hindu/India- same root word)."

Ah. Thanks. I used to call them Hindi, but conversation with people who don't understand the difference became difficult. I've used the innacurate PC term "native American" to describe Columbus' "Indians" and Indian for Hindi to stop the confusion for so many years that I totally forgot their was another term.

Columbus was an idiot. Now we need a new term for "native American" because any American born in this country is a "native American". **sigh...semantics**

[FITZ]

I just need for someone to help me understand how anyone can support a religion that wants to kill me and anyone else who does not belong to it

I've known quite a few Persians and really they don't really fit with Arab Islam ---- and it is an Arab religion that was imposed on the Persian people. I don't think it fits them (or the Turks) like it fits the more backward type Arabs.

[Cyrus the Great]

I have to go now.

If anyone has any comments just send me private e-mail or write me a message on here and i'll gladly reply when i get back.

Thanks!

[R. Scott]

I also, condemn Islamic terrorism across the world and join millions of others in Iran and i'm sure other places across the middle east in condemning these horrible acts.

There is a very big problem with this - they are silent millions. I would really like to hear of clerics condemning these acts during service. Sound it from the minarets. I would like to see letters to the editor to this affect. I would like to see a massive demonstration to this affect. I would like to see a petition signed by thousands sent to major news networks - and particularly to Aljazeera.
Until this happens, it is just so many sighs in the wind.

[FITZ]

Any word for the American Indians seems incorrect because really they were many groups of people --- it wasn't like there was one big happy Indian nation ever. I'm to the point of just wanting to refer to them by the group they belonged to --- Cherokee, Ottawa, Apache etc since they all had different customs and languages and lived in different places.

[Tribune7]

Appreciated. Thanks

[Diddle E. Squat]

Nice job of spitting on the extended hand of friendship.

[m87339]

I think that Islam was originally founded by war and hence the quotes from the Quran, in fact it was spread by war.

I think you need to expand on this "moderate Muslim" thing. Is it like being a Reform Jew? Because at the core, Islam still insists that all non-Muslims must be eliminated and are condemned to hell.

Although there are stories of war, told in a historical context in the Old Testament, the Bible in both Testaments is very clear that the path to Heaven is through your actions, not forced conversion.

The Crusades were an arguably unfortunate and probbaly purposeful misinterpretation of the Bible.

I can see no center path in Islam.

[Romish_Papist]

Try as I might, I can never get to that page. It always comes back unavailable. Been trying for weeks now.

[ZULU]

Your talking about "Dualism," the belief in a God of Good and a God of Evil, which was also an offshoot of Zoroastrianism like Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

But I am a Christian and I know that Christianity does teach the world is the site of a great struggle between good and evil, between God and Satan, for the souls of men.

And THAT has nothing to do with Dualism but is an orthodox Christian belief.

[Sola Veritas]

The teachings of Islam are the root problem. Anything short of denouncing Islam is just so much rhetoric.

Someday "Godless Atheist" a Muslim will be holding a sword to your throat and make you accept Islam or die. That is what history shows.

[bootless]

*THANK YOU* And all the best to you in your road to U.S. citizenship.

And thank you again.

[ElisabethInCincy]

Cyrus dont get me wrong i dont mean to be "disrespectful" .I do not respect islam that calls me a vile creature as a christian sura 98:6 . I have studied islam intensly for 3 yrs now ,reading day after day quran hadiths early islamic history so i think i pretty much know about your faith!. The thing that boggles my mind daily is men like yourself who seem to be great people can embrace and believe and respect someone like mohammad ? Im fet up with seeing my christian female friends being duped into this so called fraudulent islam by charming men not knowing what they are getting into. A Religion that demands if u leave u must be put to death Bukhari:V4B52N260 “Ali burnt some [former Muslims alive] and this news reached Ibn Abbas, who said, ‘Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, “Don’t punish with Allah’s Punishment.” No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, “If a Muslim discards his Islamic religion, kill him.”

ur’an 9:29 “Fight those who do not believe in Allah or the Last Day, who do not forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, or acknowledge the Religion of Truth (Islam), (even if they are) People of the Book (Christians and Jews), until they pay the Jizyah tribute tax in submission, feeling themselves subdued and brought low.” [Another translation says:] “pay the tax in acknowledgment of our superiority and their state of subjection.

So once again cyrus a belief system that wants me dead or humilated i have every right to question.

[EternalHope]

Thanks for the post. In many parts of the world you would be risking your life if your fellow Muslims knew who you are.

If all Muslims had your attitude the world would be a much better place. Unfortunately, the barbarians in your midst are the dominant voice of Islam.

Islam, at least as practiced by many many Muslims, is not a "religion of peace" (at least "peace" as defined in the civilized world). Shouting "Allah Akbar" while cutting off an innocent man's head sends a pretty clear message. So does flying airplanes into buildings. So does murdering a pregnant woman and her kids. So does enticing young men to blow themselves up in hopes of a 72 virgin reward in heaven. The list goes on and on.

Perhaps Muslims with your views will eventually make themselves heard. Perhaps there are a lot of you, perhaps even a majority of the world's Muslims. Perhaps they will even rise to positions of leadership sufficiently powerful that they can put a stop to the barbarism currently seen as the face of Islam.

But if there are many of you, why have we heard so little? Is it because right now, in most of the world, Muslims with your views are risking their lives when they speak up? Or is it because you are truly the minority you seem, drowned out by the host of barbarians who control your religion.

Again, I thank you for your post.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Thank you for your post. You are a ray of hope.