Posted on 11/21/2001 7:53:40 AM PST by Jeff Head
This letter/note is to all Muslims, and people everywhere caught up in discussion of and debate regarding the 9/11 attacks in America and what it means about those who perpetrated them or supported them. It is also in response to a Ms. Rini of Indonesia, who posted an article/testimonial about herslef entitled, I am a Muslim Woman.
I was raised to believe in and place my allegiance to God, Family and Country. In that order. My God and the One whom I worship and defer to in all things is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for all mankind and who will return to this earth someday (I hope soon). He is a God of mercy, compassion and love who taught us to love those who despitefully use us and to turn the other cheek and forgive others ... He also taught that there are times when men, if they do not already own one, must sell their clothing to buy a sword to defend themselves and their free will with.
I was raised to respect, cherish and defend to the death the principle of free will. I have a firm conviction that free will, exercised within moral constraint, is the single most fundamental principle associated with mankind's ultimate happiness and progress. I believe the single most conducive place for the exercise of that principle in the world (despite its faults) is the United States of America, and I have traveled throughout the world in my engineering profession and come to observe and respect many differnet cultures and peoples.
I was taught (by good parents and through my faith) a tolerance for others, a desire to share my faith with anyone willing to listen, and the understanding that not wanting to listen is a perfectly understandable and acceptable right I should respect in others and hold dear myself.
I married in my early twenties and have (along with my dear wife) raised five children (actually the youngest is twelve and not quite "raised" yet). Each of these five, with minor variations, believes as I believe ... and that is good and is one of the things (in my opinion) that will always keep America strong. I am now 45 and just visited my first grandchild, a grandson born to my oldest daughter who is raising him the same way ... so the circle of life and freedom continues.
We abhor immorality, vice and sin. We abhor the threat of force and compulsion even more.
This is because people cannot truly repent and change for the better when coersed, they must freely choose. Hence, in the Christian faith, (wiith very few exceptions) forebearance, persuasion, teaching and the voice of warning are the tools we are taught to use as opposed to secular law, force and compulsion to win the hearts of mankind. This, when coupled with the basic tennants in American society regarding free will that I already discussed have made for the freest, most prosperous and most tolerant nation on earth.
It has also, regrettably, made for a lot of vice, pornograhpy, drug culture, etc. But we continue to work on that through the means I already mentioned, and through wise (and sometimes not so wise) use of laws when those immoral or sinful activities cross the line and begin to infringe (through force or compulsion) on the rights of others.
I hope this gives people a little flavor of what is underlying in "Christian" America, at least from my perspective living in "heartland" America ... particualrly when it comes to our feelings about the horror of 9/11.
This brings me toan important understanding, that is a critical part of my own testimonial that I related earlier ... a part often unappreciated and misjudged and doubted by those (foreign or domesctic) powers and entities who would use compulsion and violence to change the heritage I just spoke of. That is this ... We WILL fight to the death to defend these principles and visit terrible, just retribution on those who try and destroy them.
So, Ms. Rini, understand that there are millions of Americans who believe God is love too and that He loves us enought to allow us to be free and make our own individual moral choices (when not infringing on others) and to seek to influence others through persuasion and long suffering.
I know there are several hundred million Indonesians and that it is the largest Muslim nation. I also know that there are good and bad amongst all peoples, parties, sects, denominations and religions. I believe your testimony about your beliefs and I wish you God's blessings.
At the same time, and this is VERY critical and germaine to the discussion, there are many, many in the Islamic faith (as we see it) who either approve of what happened in America on 9/11, or are unwilling to condemn it. Please, Ms. Rini, write a codemnation of what happened on 9/11 to supplement your remarks. That would immeasurably help most people posting on this forum and all Americans alike.
We Americans, Christian and otherwise, are very disturbed by a general lack of avowed and open condmentation, with no excuse, by Islamic clerics, both abroad and here in our own country. That is the fuel (along with the burning pyre of the WTC and the Pentagon) that is fueling many of the feelings of rightous indignation you see here.
If you and others truly believe that God is love and that He is merciful yet Just, then go with God and distance yourself from these others who will not condemn such atrocities ... because these others WILL feel our terrible retribution. Not a retribution out of revenge, rather out of Justice and a true desire to never see it happen again.
So, again, Ms. Rinin, I am a Christian man. There are millions here like me ... I am nothing special. I believe what I have related to you is something your people and Muslims everywhere need to hear and understand. Please forward it.
Sincerely,
But, many have also not condemned it in a religion with upwards of a billion adherants and many of the condemnations are equivocal IMHO, sometimes indicating that America is somehow responsible.
Having said that, I realize that there are those who have condemned it and I am grateful for those who have.
I know many good, honorable Muslims myself who have condemned it and therefore understand that what we are fighting are extremists who are subverting their faith ... the problem is, the outcry should have been deafening ... and (this is my opinion, it costs you nothing so you can do with it as you please), in my opinion the outcry has been far less than deafening.
I believe if you read all of my responses you will find that my beliefs and opinions regarding this are even tempered and willing to give the benefit of a doubt.
Date and time TBD.
Retribution is an instrument of justice and self defense. It need not be vengeful or full of hate. I explained that in the article. If you don't agree with it, that's fine, I do not hold it against you, nor will I judge you as you are apparently so ready to do of me.
I submit you have no concept of whether I "pretend" to be Christian or not. I would never think to make such a judgement of you, even based on the snap one you made of me. Clearly, you didn't catch the drift of my message as intended, or misunderstood it. If you did so, I apologize for it not being more clear.
Having said that, I will not back off of their needing to be a terrible retribution for the perpetrators of the acts of 9/11 or those who harbored and supported them.
Having said that, I will not back off oftheirthere needing to be a terrible retribution for the perpetrators of the acts of 9/11 or those who harbored and supported them.
I've noticed that the news media usually supplies a distorted view of reality. It plays up violence and extremism for their ratings and propaganda value.
I have never expressed this thought as well as you have here.
Cowboy Bump.
But there are many avenues and few of them have been used.
Like I said, I am grateful for those leaders who have ... in fact, as I stated on this thread, at least one cleric was trying to warn us of it in advance.
I also know many non-clerics, just regular people who have professed (at least to me) their condemnation. I simply advise folks, if they want us to believe, trust and have faith in them as people not condoning such horror, to simply distance themselves from those who do condone it, or will not condemn it.
Anyhow, that's just my own perspective and take.
Some say the Bible is a book of contradictions....."don't kill".........."kill 'em all"............
...........Ecclesiates is very revealing...there is a time and place for everything.
Yes, we must always strive for the ideal. I would like a world where nobody died, war was obsolete, and everybody had everything they needed.
It doesn't happen that way. In many ways, the Bible is a guide..........one in which we try to achieve the ideal, but have been given instructions in how to deal with situations where the ideal cannot be achieved.
In dealing with imperfect human beings, we often find ourselves having to make seemingly imperfect choices.
I agree that's usually the case, but in this instance, the notion of "peaceful Islam" is so PC, the media can't resist. They've been beating the bushes for examples of Moslems condemning 9/11, and also for reactionary mosque-burnings. The few examples of each that have been found (actually, only one mosque-burning that I recall, and I think it was an insurance scam), only highlight their rarity.
One day The Ideal will come to earth and the conditions you decribe will be established. I long for that day and will either live to see it, or so live that I arrive with it.
in the mean time, we do the best we can in an imperfect world inhabited by all of us imperfect people.
The combination of free will and foundational, individual moral restraint is, I believe, the best combination given the imperfections. And we should be extremely grateful to live in the one place in the world where that can best be practised (IMHO).
Regards.
Just curious Jeff. How many massacres committed by Christians have you publicly stepped forward and condemned on FreeRepublic? Please supply links to the posts containing the condemnations. Or is this condemnation business just a one-way street?
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
May everyone have a great holiday and, despite the horror of 9/11 and the troubling times it has brought on all of us, may everyone have a good Thanksgiving reflecting on and giving thanks for the many wonderful blessings we enjoy in spite of it.
Hope this thread remains civil and is thought provoking and a reasoned discussion of these critical issues. <p. Regards.
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