Appreciating Islam

Hartford Courant ^ | Dec 24 2001 | Ed Garsten

[2Trievers]

DEARBORN, Mich. - The speaker was nearing the end of his lunch-hour talk on the basics of Islam, and his audience - about 60 Ford Motor Co. employees - was beginning to get a little fidgety.

Then he uttered what amounted to verbal caffeine: "On Sept. 11 . . ."

Mohamed E.M. El-Sayed, a Kettering University professor who is an Imam, a Muslim spiritual leader, was trying to help the gathering of white, black, Hindu, Latino and Muslim employees understand how the terrorists who carried out the attacks on Sept. 11 may have used Islam as a rationale.

[Principled]

...if you can pick over Gods' word and decide what applies and what should be taken seriously in todays context, why is the assumption made that Muslims can't and aren't doing the same with the Koran?

Because some fundamentalist Muslims aren't. Remember those 19 or so? They aren't interpreting "in today's context", are they? If they are... well, let's hope they aren't.

Indeed those that use religion as a reason to kill are misinterpreting Islam, aren't they?

[soapboxsallie]

No one can reason with herd-mentality muslims. Why even try?

[hgro]

Unions promote this stuff.

It gives them one more tool with which to beat management over the back.

[soapboxsallie]

You either haven't read the qur'an or you intentionally stick your head in the sand. It isn't a suggestion, it is a commandment for muslims to "kill the infidels." You're either a muslim, you're terrified of muslims, or you don't know what you are talking about. Spare us the spin. We don't buy it from muslims and we don't buy it from you.

[B Knotts]

Well, I don't know the context for those statements. The exception I took to many of the statements I saw in the weeks after the attack was on the basis of the conditionality attached to many, if not most, of them. There was often a "yes, this was awful, but...so is the situation in Palestine, etc., etc." There can rightly be no conditions attached to a legitimate and proper condemnation of such terrorism. Anyone unwilling to make such an unconditional condemnation is tacitly endorsing the terrorists. Don't you agree?

[A Navy Vet]

At the very least, Islam is mysoginistic:
A Fundemental hatred of Women
Wonderous Treatment of Women in Islam

[knighthawk]

Islam is built upon the things mohammed said and the way he lived as noted in the sunnah and hadith.

Christianity is build upon the way Jesus Christ lived.

There seems to be some difference. To resolve the dispute I will post some interesting stuff on mohammed.

Part I can be found here.

PS: I will also be posting a series of articles about Khilafah soon!

[VOA]

Bump...and thanks for the link/info. I'll be back to read later.

And belated Happy New Years to you knighthawk in Holland.
I think my reply to your New Years thread a couple of days ago got trashed by my network.

[Michael2001]

Why don't you take a look at this thread over here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/599599/posts

In a poll of 1,116 Muslims in 8 countries, 29% chose President Bush as the nastiest person of 2001, while only 11 percent chose Bin Laden. What is even more telling is that those who did choose Bin Laden did so "because he involved Arabs and Muslims in problems with the rest of the world." This isn't propoganda, it's from something called "Arab News", I guess they don't want people like me to see it.

Seeing as how peaceful and tolerant Muslims are, and seeing how Bush has kissed their butts since day 1, why do they hate Bush so much? Why don't they hate Bin Laden?

[Phyto Chems]

b ttt

[Principled]

Until Muslims aggresively denounce terrorism and just as agressivley denounce OBL and Muslim fundamentalism, there will continue to be a "blame Islam" problem.

Muslims aren't out there differentiating themselves from the fundamentalists... they just aren't doing it. You could perhaps point to one or two that are speaking publicly about the matter - differentiating themselves, denouncing the attacks, and denouncing Muslim fundamentalism. But even those few who have spoken out are also saying that they "understand why we were attacked". What the hell is that?

Islam will continue to be blamed, rightly so or not, unless and until Islam differentiates itself from the "bad guys".

Why hasn't mainstream Islam stepped out and made any concrete remarks? Why is the Islamic world so wishy-washy on this? That's a real problem for non-Muslims. How the hell can mainstream Islam NOT step out against this?

And don't tell me they are - they aren't. Until such time as Muslims take some action, it is both rational and prudent to fear Muslims. There is nothing xenophobic about fearing those who have sworn to kill you... particularly if there is no denial of wanting to kill you!

[Teacher317]

So you think that the only ones celebrating were the ones whose photos were taken? Do you also disregard all the Muslim college students who made pro-911 comments IN CLASS (as was reported on several threads here)?