     MADMULAH | Monday, December 11, 2000 - 02:31 pm
Assalamu Aleikum!
This thread is dedicated to shredding the many biassed misconceptions that are associated with Islam.
Misconceptions such as;
MISCONCEPTION: (1)ISLAM IS A THREAT
In recent years, a great deal of attention in the media have been given to the threat of "Islamic Fundamentalism". Unfortunately, due to a twisted mixture of biased reporting in the Western media and the actions of some ignorant Muslims, the word "Islam" has become almost synonymous with "terrorism". However, when one analyzes the situation, the question that should come to mind is:
Do the teachings of Islam encourage terrorism? The answer: Certainly not! Islam totally forbids the terrorist acts that are carried out by some misguided people. It should be remembered that all religions have cults and misguided followers, so it is their teachings that should be looked at, not the actions of a few individuals. Unfortunately, in the media, whenever a Muslim commits a heinous act, he is labeled a "Muslim terrorist". However, when Serbs murder and rape innocent women in Bosnia, they are not called "Christian terrorists", nor are the activities in Northern Ireland labeled "Christian terrorism".
Also, when right-wing Christians in the U. S. bomb abortion clinics, they are not called "Christian terrorists". Reflecting on these facts, one could certainly conclude that there is a double-standard in the media! Although religious feelings play a significant role in the previously mentioned "Christian" conflicts, the media does not apply
religious labels because they assume that such barbarous acts have nothing to do with the teachings of Christianity. However, when something happens involving a Muslim, they often try to put the blame on Islam itself -- and not the misguided individual.
Certainly, Islamic Law allows war ---any religion or civilization that did not would never survive ---but it certainly does not condone attacks against innocent people, women or children. The Arabic word "jihad", which is often translated as "Holy War", simply means "to struggle". The word for "war" in Arabic is "harb", not "jihad".
"Struggling", i.e. "making jihad", to defend Islam, Muslims or to liberate a land where Muslims are oppressed is certainly allowed (and even encouraged) in Islam.
However, any such activities must be done according to the teachings of Islam. Islam also clearly forbids "taking the law into your own hands", which means that individual Muslims cannot go around deciding who they want to kill, punish or torture. Trial and punishment must be carried out by a lawful authority and a knowledgeable judge.
Also, when looking at events in the Muslim World, it should be kept in mind that a long period of colonialism ended fairly recently in most Muslim countries. During this time, the peoples in this countries were culturally, materially and religiously exploited - mostly by the so-called "Christian" nations of the West. This painful period has not really come to an end in many Muslim countries, where people are still under the control of foreign powers or puppet regimes supported by foreign powers.
Also, through the media, people in the West are made to believe that tyrants like Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Moamar Qaddafi in Libya are "Islamic" leaders -- when just the opposite is true. Neither of these rulers even profess Islam as an ideology, but only use Islamic slogans to manipulate their powerless populations. They have about as much to do with Islam as Hitler had to do with Christianity!
In reality, many Middle Eastern regimes which people think of as being "Islamic" oppress the practice of Islam in their countries. So suffice it to say that "terrorism" and killing innocent people directly contradicts the teachings of Islam. |
| QBO | Monday, December 11, 2000 - 03:06 pm
the thing i hate about living in america is people look at you funny....when they hear that you a muslim..especialy when there is a terrorist bomb like the uss cole...i just hate things like this.. |
| ALI | Monday, December 11, 2000 - 03:15 pm
I think the problem with how americans see Islam is our fault.I mean if we all worked hard to be educated and became very influential like the jews are here we wouldn't have this problem |
| Trauntlabgirl | Monday, December 11, 2000 - 03:39 pm
Madmullah, masha Allah sis...keep up the good work. |
| MO | Monday, December 11, 2000 - 03:46 pm
ALI i disagree with you man..it is not our fault it is their fault..they like generalising us all the time |
| Qayre | Monday, December 11, 2000 - 05:22 pm
Keep up the good work sis. |
| MAD MAC | Monday, December 11, 2000 - 11:17 pm
MadMullah
I agree with everything you wrote. However, I would add one addendum (from a White, Anglo, American point of view). "Islamic" terrorists are very quick to use Islamic slogans when conducting their acts. Thus they quickly associate Islam with terrorism. Hence you have Hizbollah memebers launching terrorist attacks and then screaming "Allahu Ahkbar" while wielding AK-47s. when was the last time you saw an M-16 wielding Militia member on TV screaming "Praise be to Jesus"? Did Timothy McVeigh look to God to justify what he had done? No, he referenced the founding fathers and the US Constitution (unofficially, of course. He hasn't officially admitted to squat). The Abortion clinic bombers are thought by mainstream America to be nuts. And, of course, they don't give TV interviews. So the association (while in fact there) is graphically demonstrated. All of this is, of course, exacerbated by Islams general distaste for secularism and a general ignorance of Islamic values in mainstream American society.
QBO - Don't feel bad. When the issue comes up you can explain to people the truth about what Muslims think about such things and equate "Islamic" terrorist with the militia nuts. Then people will understand. |
| Miskiin-Macruuf-Waryaa | Tuesday, December 12, 2000 - 10:45 am
Salama...{Within exception of tHE one, tHE ONly)
What is wrong with Xisbu-Allah?
Mad-Cap-Mac:
What have they done, personally speaking, to you?
If you think they are attacking disingenuous civilians.
Spare with me then.
___________________
What happened when 'their' own land, nay their entire Land {including Falastiin} had been swept in the name of pseudo-sympathetic of Zionism. Hitler's outrageous, dreadful butchery had been blamed the innocent Falastiin/Liibanese/Suuriyaan/Etc. They--the unfortunate Carabs--should be blamed for Hitler's genocide toward Reer Bin-Isra'iil.
"Why?"
Because they {'Arabs} were the only one that Zionism had been targeted. Again, using in the name of empathetic to create Zionism in a land they had never controlled more than a Millenium.
That is why it was required the paramount reason to establish Xisbu-Allah, and subsequently followed by others. To defend themselves, their land, their 'inner' land, their faith. And I call them not Terrorists, but brave, encouraging men.
Remember, I am not talking about the hawkish Ariel Sharon. What he had done wasn't a terrorist act, right?
He was deffending his home-stole land.
Right?
Well, he was in Liibanon. Invading it. Not satiated Falastiin. slaughtering innocent children in a bare cold blood; butchering elders; exterminating women, women with babies, women who were pregnant.
Where is The Hague?
Well, it is in Netherland, if you want its exact location. But, what exactly did they take toward this brutalities.
Nothing.
Where have it been in the name of Xuquuqul Insaan {Human Rights}? Where on earth had it been preoccupied the Tribunal Court Justice whilst this viciousness occuring.
__________________________
Ramadhaan Kariim!!
Mac-Salaama!! |
| Arawelo | Tuesday, December 12, 2000 - 11:02 am
MMW, My brother I have to disagree with you. MM is not a muslim and we and him will ever have disagreement but what he said above is perfectly true, and to argue against is misunderstanding. he did not say there is somathing wrogn with them per se but memebers of them. and we all know this is a problem for diffrent party of the world. and how would you feel when you hear a tv report reporting about some terrorist act then you suddently hear the Adan ( the muslim prayers) angry, is not it? it is the samething when some poeple use Allahu Akbar. I have wathced a film i cannot rememember the name now but it was a display of how other poeple can misundestand Islam.
Can I ask you do you justfy or can you justfy a suicidial bomm in Jeruselam?
Your points of Dan Hugue; I hope you are not expecting anything from them. they did not do mcuh for the Bosnian victims who were in cenral Europe.
Your' sister
arawelo |
| MADMULAH | Tuesday, December 12, 2000 - 11:32 am
MAD MAC,
Even though the Middle East was home to fewer terrorist incidents than Latin America and Europe, for example, it is still regarded as the region where terrorism is rooted. According to a recent US State Department report, Patterns of Global Terrorism, issued earlier this year, 272 terrorist events occurred in Europe, 92 in Latin America and 45 in the Middle East. Sixty-two anti-US attacks occurred in Latin America last year, 21 in Europe and 6 in the Middle East. These numbers represent the terrorist trend and not an anomaly, whereby the majority of perpetrators are not linked to the Middle East or Islam. The Red Army Faction in Germany, the Basque Separatists in Spain, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Shining Path in Peru and the National Liberation Army in Columbia are not viewed with the same horror as terrorist groups of Muslim background.
"when was the last time you saw an M-16 wielding Militia member on TV screaming "Praise be to Jesus"?"
I am glad you asked, 1982, Shatila and Sabre refugee camps. 2,000 Palestinian Muslims were killed by Christian fundamentalist Lebanese.
These terrorists were yelling "Kill the Palestinians." "Kill all the Muslims." And so they killed 2,000 one of them, mostly women and children ofcoarse with the supervision and the go-ahead of the world's biggest terrorist Shariel Aron! They killed the refugees in the name of Jesus and Christianity, there are tons of eye witness accounts!
There isn't a single verse in the Qur'an that encourages violence or terrorism. Those that comitt terrorist attacks on civillians are only kidding themselves because Islam does not approve of it.
There is no moral justification for terrorism regardless of the ethnic or religious background of the perpetrator or the victim, but the factual basis of terrorism has been either hidden or twisted in the public's perception of this policy problem, especially in congressional hearings on terrorism.
The countries with the worst terrorist records in the world are not in the Middle East either. They are not even Muslim countries outside the Middle East. They are Columbia and Germany, havens for drug lords and neo-Nazis.
The negative association of Islam with terrorism exists, but no one has ever asked "Why?". Could it be that American society cannot overcome the Khomeini phobia, even though he is dead? The US Congress found it necessary to push $20 million towards covert operations in toppling the Iranian government even at the dissent of people in the
CIA.
The Arab countries, both friend and foe, are run by tyrants who kill more of their own people than those outside their countries. The resumption that these countries represent a threat to American interests or that any one of them can dominate the region or even rival the only remaining superpower is indeed generous. So the issue is not these countries' hegemony in their region or the world, but about who can dominate
their people and exploit their resources. |
