Posted on 11/14/2002 7:56:05 AM PST by 1bigdictator
Speaker: All Muslims could take up arms if U.S. aggressor Story By Julio Ochoa Posted on Thursday, November 14 @ 02:50:26 EST (54 reads)
If the United States starts a war with Iraq as an aggressor, it may end up fighting a war with Muslims from many other countries, an Islamic speaker said Wednesday. Mohammed Jodah, a board member of the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado and an authority on Islam, spoke to a group of University of Northern Colorado students at the Monfort College of Business.
The students asked Jodah to lecture for their Life of the Mind class, which studies violence in all major religions.
Jodah told the class there are three circumstances in which believers of Islam can bear arms and fight: self-defense, to help another nation to remove an aggressor or if it is declared by the head of the state.
“If Iraq comes under American attack and Iraq makes a call for Muslim people, no governments of other countries will go, but Muslim people may go to help other Muslims,” Jodah said. “This is part of the faith and belief to go and help other Muslims if they come under aggression.”
During the Persian Gulf War, when Kuwait came under attack from Iraq, Muslims from Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Morocco went and fought on behalf of Kuwait because Iraq was an aggressor, he said.
“In the Islamic faith, the Muslim people are one nation, regardless of nationality,” Jodah said.
Jodah visited Iraq in January 2000 on an American diplomatic mission and saw Iraqi citizens living in misery.
“Here is a country that is under economic embargo for 11 or 12 years,” he said. “The people are suffering.”
For the United States to attack without knowing whether Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction would be wrong, Jodah said.
“There would be no justification for war and it would make the suffering of Iraqi people even worse,” he said.
He would rather see the United States give the full time and confidence to weapons inspectors to do their work, without the looming threat of war.
The class’s professor, Thomas Simon, gave the class a challenge of how to best present Islam in a public setting.
“They had many ideas, but this is what they settled on and it seemed to work the best,” Simon said.
Jodah spent most of the lecture giving the students an understanding of Islam and devoted the end of the lecture to terrorism and questions from the crowd.
Students, such as Pierre Houssney, a 20-year-old junior, questioned the promotion of violence in Islamic religion.
“Muslims are only allowed to kill in self-defense, yet look how far the Islamic world reaches,” Houssney said. “How did it reach there? Historically the answer is by the sword.”
What’s next
University of Northern Colorado Professor Thomas Simon will give a speech titled “Terrorism, Fear and Morality” at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the college’s University Center, 10th Avenue and 20th Street, Greeley.
And they came up with......TREASON DURING WARTIME. I'd think twice before hiring a graduate of this school.
From the way he talks, I would assume he's got a shadow or two these days (hint hint, FBI, CIA)
We all know how Islam presents itself in a public setting. The gaping hole in lower Manhattan is but one example among many.
Interesting point, that.
"In war there is no substitute for victory" General Douglas MacArthur said years ago.
Still works for me today.
Borg.
Time to stamp out this collectivist cancer before it spreads.
As a result of a war they started.
For the United States to attack without knowing whether Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction would be wrong, Jodah said.
So, if he has them it is okay to attack, right?
“There would be no justification for war and it would make the suffering of Iraqi people even worse,” he said.
If the Iraqi people dislike the boat they are in they should choose a new captain. And again, they started a war, lost, and were given terms.
He would rather see the United States give the full time and confidence to weapons inspectors to do their work, without the looming threat of war.
Tried that already. Iraqi failed to cooperate under the terms of the cease-fire.
Giving one's enemies an excuse for launching and completing a holocaust is a very bad career move that is akin to drawing down on the Lone Ranger or throwing a pecan pie at Superman.
History, sadly, often does repeat itself, and it is the innocent and humble who end up paying the price -- on both sides of such a conflict.....
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