Associated Press – August 31, 2006:
After the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, distraught U.S. Muslim leaders feared the next casualty would be their religion.
Islam teaches peace, they told anyone who would listen in news conferences, at interfaith services and, most famously, standing in a mosque with President Bush.
But five years later, the target audience for their pleas has shifted. Now the faith’s American leaders are starting to warn fellow Muslims about a threat from within.
Muslim leaders point to two stark examples of the new mind-set:
* A Canadian-born Muslim man worked with police for months investigating a group of Islamic men and youths accused in June of plotting terrorist attacks in Ontario. Mubin Shaikh said he feared any violence would ultimately hurt Islam and Canadian Muslims.
* In England, it’s been widely reported that a tip from a British Muslim helped lead investigators to uncover what they said was a plan by homegrown extremists to use liquid explosives to destroy U.S.-bound planes.
It’s a good start. After all, the most important thing for immigrants – no matter of background – is to become a part of the society and work for its betterment.
I am so tired of hearing that Islam is the religion of peace. Where exactly are all these “moderate” muslims we keep hearing about?
Is there a single country in the world where muslims are a majority or a significant minority living in peace? Not that I know of.
Has there been a single terrorist attack since 911 that was not commited by muslims in the name of Islam? Not that I know of.
Isolated incidents. Its widley known that many terrorist cells and groups operate within Mosques here in the US and abroad. They preach peace one minute, then secretly plan to kill you the next. Look at Saudi Arabia. The government states that it is against terrorism and supports the US all the while doing nothing about its growing fundalmentist movement where you children are indocrinated with the belief that all non muslims are infidals and must be killed. Maybe a few will turn, but the majority probably suports the terrorist is some small way.
How many more bombs of love and peace do we need to drop on these hypocritical muslims?
We need to get the naive “religion of peace” out of our collective head. There are many peaceful muslims and thank God for them; but they’re not living out all the Quran teaches. In the Quran non-muslisms should have only 1 of 3 fates: conversion, taxation and 2nd class citizenship, or death for those who refuse to accept the first two.
It’s clear why the fundamentalist muslisms are the terrorists…they actually practice what the Quran preaches.
That will happen right after the mainstream Christians do something about Fundamentalis Christians (i.e. NEVER)
That will happen right after the mainstream Christians do something about Fundamentalis Christians (i.e. NEVER)
Last time I checked, fundamentalist Christians aren’t calling for the death or all non believers. They also aren’t looking to blow up thousands of these non believers either. Don’t get me wrong, I detest all organized religion and the history of man is full of death associated with religion, but don’t mix apples and oranges Mr Wong.
@gquaglia
Mr. Wong has a valid point. When was the last time you heard mainstream Christians publicly denounce Pat Robertson? My neighbor is a fundamentalist Christian, who loves wishing death upon Muslims. Let’s face the fact… fanatics exists in all religions.
Has there been a single terrorist attack since 911 that was not commited by muslims in the name of Islam? Not that I know of.
Comment by BdgBill — 8/31/2006 @ 4:22 pm
Someone doesn’t pay attention to the news very much. Less then a month ago, ISRAEL was bombing Lebanese civilians in order to force them from southern Lebanon. Then we have many instances of AMERICAN soldiers and Marines shooting Iraqi civilians simply because they were driving on the wrong street or had a wedding. There are RUSSIAN troops murdering, raping, and ruining Chechnya.
Oh, right, I forgot. They don’t count because they were attacks against Muslims.
BTW, BdgBill, I understand your bigotry, but the correct spelling is to capitalize Muslim. The same for Jew, Buddhist, or Christian.
gquaglia,
They also aren’t looking to blow up thousands of these non believers either.
*ahem*
“Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up”
Pat Robertson and others may not preach like UBL, but you can be sure they’re thinking it.
Alright, a lively bunch here tonight.
I am an atheist.
My wife is a VERY conservative OLD SCHOOL Lutheran, but she doesn’t want to blow me up. In fact everyone at her church likes me because I provide and maintain their computers. They simply thank me and mention that God works in mysterious ways. For me, it makes my wife happy, and a happy wife is a horn….. never mind.
If Islam is the religion of peace, why do so many Muslims want to blow us up? There is a fundamental flaw somewhere in their teachings if so many Muslims can be so easily swayed to violence.
There are crazy nutjob extremists in every segment of society. Why do the crazy nutjobs in the Muslim community have so much sway?
Don
Right about when Christians unite to combat USA imperialism
Granted, Pat Robertson says some moronic things. I am a Christian, but he does not speak for me. It’s a shame that so many people see him as the representation of Christians in the US. But until he encourages suicide bombings (it could happen) on innocent civilians he shouldn’t be equated with fundamentalist Islamic leaders.
But until he encourages suicide bombings on innocent civilians he shouldn’t be equated with fundamentalist Islamic leaders.
Why should the qualifier of “suicide” make a difference? (or bombing for that matter.) Both Pat Robertson and Osama encourage the killing of civilians in the promotion of their twisted ideology. One via suicide missions, the other through a government-sponsored military.
Why do so many Muslims want to blow us up?
It might be that they have been treated abominably over the last 50 years or more. How would Americans have reacted if (say) Florida had been given over to foreign settlers? or Brits if it had happened to Cornwall?
I’m not surprised the Palestinians are upset, and I’m not surprised that they have persuaded their fellow Muslims to be upset on their behalf. Who else is there to look out for their interests?
Similarly look at the way oil props up regimes that would otherwise be treated as odious.
We’ve all seen the films of how Americans are supposed to react when their rights are compromised think about Independence Day, say and ‘over my cold dead body’ is a phrase that springs to mind.
If enough people have a grievance – real or imagined – sooner or later there will be enough to fight for it.
As an old hippy I believe in peace love and understanding but as an aging middle class white man I understand that people will fight back.
As #5 said above, according to the Koran, everyone must a: convert, b: be subjugated, or c: be killed. Look at history. When Islam came into existence in the Middle Ages the first thing they did was launch an battle/campaign to take over the known world. They almost succeeded, taking northern Africa, the Middle East, and into Europe as far as Spain and France. Saying that Islam is a religion of peace just doesn’t fly with me, from what I can see it has always been a religion of war and domination.
#5 and #16
Its easy to find many quotes in any religious text that sounds extreme by todays standards. These are writtings written 1500 years ago. The bible;even older than that. It was a different time then. Its too easy to simply point to some quote and claim the religion preaches violence.
There are nut jobs in every religion. People that follow any text literally without using their own brains are the problem. Be they Muslim, Christians or any other religion. If you can’t think for yourself, you’re the problem.
Why are there more Muslim’s swayed by these lunatics/ Excellent question. We don’t know the lifestyles there. We don’t know what’s going through the minds of the recruits. They are likely angered by the actions of the US over the past 50 years. If they weren’t already, they are tought to be.
Forgive a likely controversial analogy.
What would people in Iraq be asking about these Americans hurting and killing their people. They’re asking the same question. How did they get convinced to do this? How were they swayed to join this force that’s hurting us?
A recruitment story:
Many recruits are pressured into joining the military. They do it for a combination of patriotism, money and a few other things.
Patriotism – They are convinced what they are doing is right. Regardless of wether it is or not, that’s what they believe.
Money – Many are living below or near the poverty line. It makes sense to join the military.
So these soldiers are recruited to fight for the cause.
This story applies to many American soldiers. It could be the exact same story for these Muslims being “swayed”.
The point is, there are many reasons this could be going on. It would be simply ignorant to assume they are doing this because they are “fundamentalist Muslims”, or because they “hate our freedom”.
my 2c
A wise friend of mine taught me that Christians were doing some pretty horrible things, both internally and externally, 6-700 years ago, before reformers helped them through those times. The question seems to be will similar forces have time to prevail in Islam.
How many million adhere to the Islamic faith? And they found TWO to write about.
Why are there more Muslim’s swayed by these lunatics/ Excellent question.
In general, adherence to religious dogma of any stripe is inversely proportional to education. The less educated a group is, the more likely they are to simply accept, without much thought, whatever their parents and other authority figures tell them. I mean, in the absence of any alternate point of view, what are they going to do, make up their OWN belief systems? (I include science as a belief system as well.)