I am a Christian Man (Response to "I am a Muslim Woman")

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.

An exceptional web site dealing with this issue Muslim/Christian is www.answering-islam.org. Check it out!

Unfortunately, they did not register the domain name of www.answering-islam.org. The www doesn't come for free. You'll find the site at answering-islam.org

I fully expected wide ranging condemnation of the attack from Muslims in the USA and overseas. That condemnation has yet to occur.

Me too.
And any Moslem condemnation of 9/11 now would be too little, too late. There was a window of opportunity for sincerity. That window is now forever closed.
Had this happened in any other country, mosques would have been burned. Americans didn't want that. Americans didn't want internment. Americans didn't want an end to religious freedoms for Moslems in this country. We wanted humanity. Islam has proven with finality that it fatally lacking in that, but brimming over with ingratitude..

I get the sight with or without the WWW. Depends on your browser (some more forgiving), and/or the server software doing the hosting I believe. I might be wrong, but I have never heard of anyone having to pay "extra" to make the WWW work. Perhaps some sights make a difference but that is a server software problem, is my understanding, not a "pay extra" for the WWW problem.

Too much time spent running around in uniform plus it took me years to find the right women, trap her and brain wash her into thinking I was the best thing since sliced bread. New those hypnotist books would come in handy.

Congratulations, dad! However, I can assure you that if you have been married over three years, your wife is no longer brain washed about your being. . . sliced bread:) Marriage is wonderful--but it does bring about that view of reality that often remains hidden until after the I do's are said! I would love to have a three-year-old around again!!!

Very well said! And great photos! The Christian perspective tends to get hidden behind all the PC expected in the marketplace of ideas. Thanks for reminding me that I have the responsibility to step forward and say--as well as live--what my faith is all about.

And congratulations, granddad!

Saber:
I'm open to new evidence that Allah is something other than the Arabian Moon-god of an evil death-cult,

KanghaRue:
Where do you guys get this stuff from? Robert Morey's "moon god" theory has been pretty much debunked as intellectually dishonest...even among conservative Christians. The reason? It's extremely poor scholarship. The Quran expressly forbids worship of the moon:

Adore not the sun and the moon, but adore God who created them...(Qur'an 41:37).

Saber:
It is not the terrorists who've lead me to conclude that Islam is wicked and needs to be erased, it is the everyday Moslems like Miss Rini, who demonstrate time and again that not only do they not get it, they'll condone the atrocities of the bin Ladens and Zawahiris with their silence and insincerities

KanghaRue:
You can't be serious. This is a young girl you're talking about here. She's more interested in things like bottles of Underground Pink nail polish and the hot new CD that just came out. Also, there was a Muslim leader in the US who warned the government about Islamic militants in the US....THREE YEARS ago: Shaikh Kabbani....a Sufi leader.

You can't be serious. This is a young girl you're talking about here. She's more interested in things like bottles of Underground Pink nail polish and the hot new CD that just came out. Also, there was a Muslim leader in the US who warned the government about Islamic militants in the US....THREE YEARS ago: Shaikh Kabbani....a Sufi leader.

I'm totally serious. She's 20, she's an adult. I said " it is the everyday Moslems like Miss Rini," and I meant it. Not just her as an exception, but the totality of them. She's not the exception, she's the rule.
When I was 20, I was getting drunk and stoned, but I would have been able to figure out that if someone murdered 5,000 people in my name or that of my faith (such as it was), I had better speak up and condemn it.
Further, I pointed out that Miss Rini is just one symptom of the problem. You counter this with a three year-old warning from "a (single) Muslim leader?" Kangha, I'm sure you can find a few other examples, but there are a billion Moslems in the world.
You've proven my point.

Robert Morey's "moon god" theory has been pretty much debunked as intellectually dishonest...even among conservative Christians. The reason? It's extremely poor scholarship. The Quran expressly forbids worship of the moon:

Adore not the sun and the moon, but adore God who created them...(Qur'an 41:37).

Matthew 7:
15
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
16
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17
Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
19
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

I hope they understand, and I hope they correct the general silence.

I believe what this 20 year old girl said. From everyhting she said I believe she is basically a very good person. As I have stated, I have met and become friends with many good people in foreign lands. Many are appalled by what happened ... those who aren't, or who want to make excuses for it have earned my mistrust and ire.

Those who appluad it, deserve our retribution.

I am not ready to throw in the towel or condone destroying all of Islam. Like I said, I have met too many good people, people who do condemn what happened and who are Islamic.

I do believe their leadership MUST condemn this openely and with real intent. Some already do, some were raising the warning flag all along ... but not enough.

I believe anyone who participated in the attack and anyone who supported it in any way (monetarily, logistically, safe haven wise, etc.) should be smitten from the face of the earth with no tolerance and no physcial mercy ... may God be the Judge spiritually. Let that trail lead wherever it may, abroad or domestic ... to whatever nation, to whatever government, to whatever institution.

Then we say to the rest ... DON'T EVER EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING IT AGAIN, OR YOU WILL GET EVEN WORSE.

Thank you ... sometimes it just kind of comes pouring out ... other times I stumble all over myself.

Just ask my teenage kids ... at one time we had four teenagers at once. Down to two now and next year, when the youngest goes 13, our third hits 20 so we'll stay at two and then later one.

On that far slope now with rearing them within the nest ... but it doesn't get downhill as they get older.

Holding a Grandson now ... that's something else again as I have just learned.

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