Islam - A Debate

libertygrl

libertygrl

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How many of us in the West really know anything about Islam other than what we are being told by the corporate controlled media ever since 9-11? Whenever I would hear the word "Islam" my mind would immediately conjure up those planes smashing into the twin towers; crazy Arabic men blowing themselves up and killing innocent people. I would think of the suppression of women's rights - all in the name of ISLAM. Basically it conjured up a lot of resentment, anger and fear - probably the exact emotional responses that were expected of me. After awhile, the constant drumming into my head of "YOU MUST FEAR ISLAM" was beginning to wear thin and I was starting to get suspicious. Who stands to gain from all this fear and resentment?

The hysteria over the NYC Mosque is now spiraling out of control. I have had heated debates with some tea party people over this issue. I admitted that I believe there are radicals within Islam who do pose a danger. However radicals exist within any group. You cannot condemn an entire religion or culture because of a few extremists. And despite showing them historic accounts about how the CIA and Mossad actually helped to radicalize some of these groups in order to keep these wars going on, they still insist that Islam will always be a problem for Westerners because of its past history.

Americans are losing all perspective over this! I just discovered an amazing book that I wanted to share called: Islam - A short history by Karen Armstrong. She is a former nun who became a popular historical author. It's only about 184 pages and is an easy read: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/08...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

I'm really enjoying it because there is so much that I didn't understand. It's enlightening and will surprise many people. Ignorance breeds fear. People need to get a grip before we spin out of control.


YouTube - Karen Armstrong on Islam
 
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Karen Armstrong is a great author, I'm glad you are interested in learning about Islam from real sources (as opposed to wingnut blogs).
 
KCIndy said:
Bill Moyers interview with Karen Armstrong on PBS:

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_armstrong.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link! Excellent interview:

ARMSTRONG: Compassion is not a popular virtue. Very often when I talk to religious people, and mention how important it is that compassion is the key, that it's the sine-qua-non of religion, people look kind of balked, and stubborn sometimes, as much to say, what's the point of having religion if you can't disapprove of other people? And sometimes we use religion just to back up these unworthy hatreds, because we're frightened too.

MOYERS: Fear?

ARMSTRONG: There's great fear. We fear that if we're not in control, other people will cut us down to size, and so we hit out first.

From the beginning, violence was associated with religion, but the advanced religions, and I'm talking about Buddhism, Hinduism, monotheism, the Hebrew prophets, they insisted that you must transcend this violence, you must not give in to this violence, but you must learn to recognize that every single other human being is sacred.

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_armstrong.html
 
dannno said:
Did you really just say that??

Reallly??
Click to expand...

Actually, I kind of agree.
Why do I need to know anything about Islam?
I choose to know something about Islam for two reasons:

-I work with a lot of Muslims, and I like to know something about what makes them tick

-the false or partial information I'm getting from "approved sources" is being presented in an effort to steal my money and use it to kill Muslims, so it's in my interest to know something about it so I can try to convince others that this isn't a viable course of action.

Now I currently "need" to know about Islam in order to stop this nonsense... but in a free society it wouldn't be necessary, wouldn't be needed for anyone who is not a Muslim to know anything about Islam at all.
We would only need to know some fundamental concepts of liberty, and we would need to know that those concepts are what need to be defended.

Now, since I know quite a few Muslims, I know that Charley Reese got it pretty well right:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese5.html

Now, all that stuff from 632 until the 17th century sure did happen, and Constantinople didn't fall on its own. But to pretend that today's Muslims are out to get us for strictly religious reasons is plain fatuousness.
 
Fozz said:
Education. Stopping bigotry (most Islamophobes know nothing about Islam). Understanding global politics.
Click to expand...

Should we also become educated on every religion and organization out there? Where's the instructional on Wicca? Bhuddism? Frolf?
 
Elwar said:
Should we also become educated on every religion and organization out there? Where's the instructional on Wicca? Bhuddism? Frolf?
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Word.

FSM is more openly antagonistic to Christianity than Islam, and I doubt anybody is calling for education on it.
 
Elwar said:
Should we also become educated on every religion and organization out there? Where's the instructional on Wicca? Bhuddism? Frolf?
Click to expand...

How much of a role do Wiccans or Buddhists have on the political affairs of our time?

Get into the real world.
 
For those who aren't interested in the beliefs of the people we're bombing the F out of, why comment? Nobody's trying to force you to learn about anything.
 
amy31416 said:
For those who aren't interested in the beliefs of the people we're bombing the F out of, why comment? Nobody's trying to force you to learn about anything.
Click to expand...

I'd rather focus more on not bombing the F out of people. No matter their beliefs.

I highly doubt that you can learn about what's going on in the minds of millions of people on the other side of the world. The best you could do is find some information on some collectivist mindset that doesn't represent each and every one of the individuals thoughts and ideals.
 
Elwar said:
I'd rather focus more on not bombing the F out of people. No matter their beliefs.

I highly doubt that you can learn about what's going on in the minds of millions of people on the other side of the world. The best you could do is find some information on some collectivist mindset that doesn't represent each and every one of the individuals thoughts and ideals.
Click to expand...

So why learn about any philosophy, religion or culture? Of course it won't represent each and every person who is part of the group--that's silly.
 
Islam is practiced in a lot of different countries and ethnic/cultural groups. It's hard to generalize about them all. In Asia, Islam tends to be the new communism. It brings in the poor and downtrodden, and it's a political opposition to the establishments. In Arab countries, it tends to be different. What generalizations can be made about every person in the entire world that categorizes themselves as "Christian"?
 
amy31416 said:
So why learn about any philosophy, religion or culture? Of course it won't represent each and every person who is part of the group--that's silly.
Click to expand...

The entertainment value I suppose...if that's what you enjoy.
 
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