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.

[eleni121]

The Koran forbids killing anything, even a tree, he said.

The Mohamedans must be a cult then since they have been responsible for bloody violence and terror ever since they started their rampage outside the arabian peninsula.

And no more Fords for me. It's been nice owning a couple Fords in the last 4 years but the unions and the crap such as described in the article merit not a single dollar more spent. I'm back to buying Japanese.

[FITZ]

Yes, I remember those 19. And No, they aren't interpreting Islam in any sane context. They were insane, brainwashed, angry, impotent, hell-bound terrorists. Not Muslims.

What evidence do you have that they weren't Muslims? Are you the Islamic Pope who excommunicated them? I don't think any one Muslim including yourself (and if you aren't a Muslim then no way can you say who is and who isn't a real Muslim) has the authority to do that. How can you say bin Laden isn't a Muslim if he says he is one? They 19 hijacker and their many financial backers in and out of the US really were and are Muslims.

[soapboxsallie]

Before you make silly statements, study the qur'an, the "sunnah," and the so-called biography of "the prophet." Islam is a religion of violence. There is no denying it unless one is completely ignorant of it's teachings. I wonder: Are you a closet muslim?

[ppaul]

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[timestax]

I thought the Islamic/muslums I have known the throughout the years were just being aloof, but now I know that they were being arrogant and antisocial. Probably jealous of USA wealth and military might! I say TUFF!

[timestax]

They don't have any such links. If they did I'm sure they would have posted them. Fact is =they took four beautiful jets full of innocent people and rammed them into buildings and I hate them for it.

[timestax]

If they try anything on a plane I'm on, I'm gonna have two broken bloody fists, and two hurt feet from the pounding I'm gonna deliver to those Islamic/muslum terrorists. And I'm not kidding.

[Mensch]

You pinged me over your posts 72 & 115. Why do you believe those postings are of any interest to me?

If you believe either of those overwrought postings do indeed have some sort of relevance to a stand I have taken, or a statement I have made, I am very interested in knowing what that could be, please elaborate.

[timestax]

If they try anything on a plane I'm on, I'm gonna have two broken bloody fists, and two hurt feet from the pounding I'm gonna deliver to those Islamic/muslum terrorists. And I'm not kidding. 147 posted on 1/2/02 8:28 PM Pacific by timestax [

SO, who's WITH me??!!

[UberVernunft]

Simple! Don't buy a Ford, GM or Crysler. Buy Japanese. They even design and build better cars.

Yep. I'm so tired of hearing about the bizarre positions advocated by American auto-makers -- I'll just take my money elsewhere.

[UberVernunft]

And what makes you believe I'm Muslim?

Who cares! But you're clueless concerning Islam.

[FITZ]

The terrorists read the Koran, studied it and claimed to be Muslims, I don't think the Muslim church has such a thing as excommunication and whoever says they're a Muslim is one. I know there are peaceful and tolerant Muslims ---I wouldn't bet their tolerance comes from the Koran or the religion ---it could come from the fact that most people are born peaceful and prefer to stay that way ---or in the case of Turks and Persians, they kept some of their previous religion Zoroasterism which apparently really was tolerant. In fact the Turks have pretty strict laws on Islam ---women can't wear veils and Islamic schools were shut down by Ataturk. Maybe with the right controls on it Islam does okay. Thing is ---in the US we don't usually want our military in control of religion like it is in Turkey.

[Principled]

What would you have Muslims doing to "differentiate" themselves from the fundamentalists? Seriously, I'm very curious. Besides living their lives in peace as they currently are, what should the average Muslim on the street do?

It should be obvious to you (it is to everyone else) that Muslims are't denouncing the attacks...they're denouncing our self denfense! For starters, if Muslims want to differentiate themselves from fundamentalist terrorists, they could denounce the terrorists and the attacks...then they could simply state, "I am a Muslim and I do NOT support fundmentalist Islam". That's really easy, but it's not being done. Just the fact that you would ask what to do tells me 1) you're not doing anything and 2) you don't really want to do anything... like an 8 year old child.

There is nothing xenophobic about fearing those who have sworn to kill you... particularly if there is no denial of wanting to kill you!

And I say an intelligent person should see that it's irrational and paranoid.

You can't be serious! It's irrational and paranoid to fear those who have sworn to kill you???!!!! Give me a break. You've gone Taliban on me.

If Muslims would (gasp) go out on a limb and deny that they want to kill infidels, then you would have a little credibility. But as it is, and as it has been since 9/11 and before, Muslims don't deny wanting to end non-muslim lives. Indeed there is support for the fundamentalists "doing their dirty work".

[Principled]

And I say an intelligent person should see that it's irrational and paranoid.

The above quote in the above post SHOULD be italics, as it is a quote from rugggud.