Vickie
Well, it’s certainly triumphalistic to say the least!Hope so.
Should Islam make people peaceful who are being exterminated? Or do you think anyone committing genocide is actually following Islam? I certainly wouldn’t hold up Sudan as an example of a place where Islam has much relevance at all.
I see. You might be right about that, but I don’t see such behavior being validated by Islam.
Indeed.
I get sad everytime I see the word “Afghanistan.” A purely emotional response, I know… I just think about it and I see explosions at weddings.
This paragraph is what I really want to reply to.
As a matter of fact, I was in a class last night (day 9 of 10-day intensive qur’an class) and we were talking about this specifically. Because you’re right, most Muslims don’t know or don’t care much about their religion at least.
There are some people who know a lot and care a lot about the people who are suffering, but it’s very few people. They try to raise awareness, even among Muslims, about the suffering in Sudan, Palestine, the troubles in Somalia and the Congo, or even problems local Muslims face like the woman who was jailed in Georgia just recently.
And then there are some people who know a lot about the religion and spend their time bickering about minute details like where to put their hands while they’re praying, or what kinds of meat they can eat.
Most Muslims don’t know much about their religion at all and are stuck somewhere in between and aren’t aware fully of what’s going on or how to help.
What you need is for people to rise up–the ones who care who have gone for knowledge, you need for them to stand up. And some people here on this very forum, they hate that idea. Because Muslims shouldn’t be setting bombs on the side of the road, or firing rockets, or blowing themselves up.
They should be standing together as a single collective body. The Muslims should stand up in Afghanistan and find the terrorists and take care of the people. The Muslims should stand up in Iraq and get the US Army out. They should stand up for the Palestinians. I mean, there are over a billion Muslims. But can you imagine if just a few thousand would do that?
And there are people, men and women, who are learning Islam and teaching Islam and trying to wake up these people.
Not for war, really, not to be indiscriminately violent (like some on this forum suggest.) But to stand up for the oppressed people, for the refugees, the victims of all these wars. To stand up and say we won’t let our brothers and sisters be tortured, we won’t let our children be stolen to fight someone else’s war, we won’t let our resources be plundered from under our feet.
It is happening, slowly.
But watch someone take this post of mine and use it to say that I’m promoting violence or something silly. It’s why people are afraid–why attacks against Islam are so fierce–they see the Muslims starting to rise up.
Well, I see you’re up to your old tricks by replying with another question, but I already know the answer.Why don’t you tell me what you think the appropriate response would be if someone attacks you? Or attacks your country? Or attacks your politics?
Exactly! We’ll be accused of being hatemongers and so on.
And we will be bashed occasionally when bringing this up. It is about time we grow a spine and stand up to even our own about all of this.
It is higher. This pew poll, information ‘The Third Jihad’ dvd had on it:
You’re absolutely right about the sad state of Catholic catechesis. My own was probably not the best or most thorough as a child, and yet I have always known, intuitively that the charge that we worship Mary is a gross distortion of what we really believe. That’s because I was raised in a Catholic household and as a practitioner I see things from the inside out.
There’s a kind of information the practitioner has that should be given some respect. They see things “from the inside out”. I don’t think we have to agree with or accept everything they say – but we can’t just reject it out of hand, either (which is a lot of what I see going on here).
In a previous post I said that Islam is going through an exclusivist phase in its history and that it’s very difficult to be a Christian or other religious minority in many muslim countries today. But this wasn’t always the case historically so it’s only fair to point this out.
I don’t find his views all that unusual in this forum.
If we say that the 10% that I was using is the same as those who say it is Often, then it is 15%. 150 million. That leaves 260 million who can justify it sometimes, and 110 million who occasionally can. 480 million say never.
then there are the silent ones who not only accept the violence by their silence and doing nothing, but they also fund the jihadists, their families and give them moral support.
I don’t see how the position of Islam is any different.
Look at her statistics again. You can look up the Pew report, as the whole thing is online. The vast majority says suicide bombings are never justified. Notice how she selected only 18-20 year olds. Is that a fair slice of the pie, do you think?
Even in the 18-20 year olds, the majority sided with rarely or never.
Do you know what they were thinking about?
From the Pew Report
When asked, one 22 year old student said that in a place like Palestine, it may be justified. It is certainly allowed according to Islam See this site jewishjournal.com/community_briefs/article/pew_poll_finds_some_us_muslims_support_suicide_bombing_20070601/
That is interesting to me. I wonder who did it…
Interesting.
According to this, it is up to 30 that the radicals are more numerous, again, still not a majority. About half of the Muslim Population in the United States is in that age range.
If you read - it was what I got from ‘The Third Jihad’ dvd.
allah and getting to heaven and their 72 virgins, and possibly bypassing predestination and naming their 70 family members who can bypass predestination in islam.
This is precisely it. When you ask a Muslim about “Suicide bombing,” he/she is going to first think of Palestine. Not Iraq, or anywhere else, but Palestine. And let me share with you that thought process (I personally know one guy who won’t even say “suicide bomber” but uses the term “sacrificial bomber.”) The way Muslims look at Palestine, for the most part, is to see a group of civilians, non-combatants–fathers, mothers, children–who are being denied basic human rights by a military occupation. That there are tanks in their streets, they can’t leave their houses without fear of being shot by a soldier, the children have to pass through military checkpoints just to walk to school. That’s what Muslims see, people who are suffering, who are being oppressed, and who have literally no way to fight back. No military, nor any military to come and help them. And that all they have are sticks and stones to throw at tanks and bombers. And they see that their only means of defending themselves is through sneak-attack suicide bombing. They think it is their only recourse.
Like I said last night–skepticism about the “official story.”
By “radicals” do you mean people who think that suicide bombing might sometimes (i.e., in Palestine) be justified?
But they don’t consider it to be preferred or especially honorable, I think.
