I am not a Muslim, and I'm not a Muslim scholar. My knowledge of Islam is sketchy and based more on my impressions of the people who write Muslim blogs than on anything else. What I get is that these are real people living their lives pretty much in accordance with their religion. That's pretty awesome,actually.
So's this. Their religion isn't telling them to kill people. It is telling them to do things and act in ways that I don't understand, use phrases I don't understand, but it isn't telling them that to be saved they need to kill me. The ones who want to kill me, the terrorists and the bombers, may be Muslims, but they're not getting that from Islam. A distorted view of Islam, perhaps; one that's hundreds of years old, from a different world and time. Or their own hate agenda, camoflagued with a coating of Islam to make it appear respectable. But the real deal, the real Islam? I don't think so.
I do wish that Muslims would speak out forcefully against the terrorists and the killers, though. I think I understand why they don't, but I wish they would. It would help. Its not all thats needed, not by a long shot, but it would help. I don't think that having a lot of different and diverse groups condemning them would make the terrorists back off -- Abdul, did you know that these people didn't like us? -- but I think it would help to de-legitimize them, and thats got to be a good thing. For the Arab and the Muslim world to hear that people they respect are rejecting the terrorists would, I think, carry more weight than the United States saying the same thing. So, I wish they would, loudly and publicly.
But that or not, I don't think Muslims want to kill me. Just thought I'd mention that.
12 comments:
I took a class on Women in Islam during college (pre-2001). I could never have imagined how much that small amount of knowledge would make me feel better educated about our world just a few years later.
By doing so, you undoubtedly learned more than the vast majority of people then, and a still-large number of people now. Your timing was fortuitous!
I linked to this post on my blog today because it's a view that I hear much from many Americans despite the efforts of the media darlings and so-called "terror experts" to paint a different picture.
It's strange to me though that the most of the people that say they want Muslims to do more (whatever that more is supposed to be) to condemn terrorism committed by Muslims usually cannot name any prominent Muslims, Muslim scholars, or Muslim organizations other than CAIR so they don't even know what Muslims are doing.
The standard used seems to be "If I don't know about it myself, then nothing is happening" rather than if I am ignorant I need to do more to learn.
I know what CAIR is, but only because I've seen it on your site. So, if your point is that Muslims ARE 'doing something', then why don't we know about it? I suspect that its because the communication is in a silo -- ie, if you're a Muslim, you know about it. But if you're not, odds are you don't. Then again (and this is a Cheap Shot): what do you know about the problems of Northern Ireland?
I think people know about problems that impact them, whether its because it describes them or because they have some kind of linkage to it. But other than that? Well, when was the last time anyone seriously worked to repatriate the people whose villages were lost in the typhoons? Does it make us bad because we don't follow up on those things in favor of what Doonesbury once referred to as 'newer, fresher disasters'? If people who say they were Muslims weren't threatening my life, would I even care about what it means to be a Muslim? Its normal to care about what affects you. The trick is to get other people to care, and then the REALLY hard trick is to get them to do it in an ongoing way, when they aren't being directly impacted. Which, I think, is sort of what you were alluding to, there at the end.
I actually know quite a bit about "the troubles" in Northern Ireland and at one point in my life followed the situation very closely. But even now as I don't follow it as closely, I don't assume that nothing is going on just because I haven't heard about it. If I wanted to learn more, I would search out all the information I could on its recent past.
I think most Americans don't pay attention to anything outside of what immediately affects them unless it is entertainment-based but rather than being humble about their ignorance, many are arrogant and feel comfortable speaking as an insta-expert on issues which were encapsulated for them in 15-second on the nightly news or radio talk show.
Ignorance is not bliss and certainly does not give the holder any creditability when speaking on an issue.
Hi, Bill thanks for your honesty and interests in the muslim blogs. "do wish that Muslims would speak out forcefully against the terrorists and the killers, though. I think I understand why they don't, but I wish they would. It would help." Well Bill in responce, many people have spoken out. We are in a bit a delima with our Ummah (global community) we don't have one individual that speeks for all the muslims like the way the Pope speaks for catholics and often times news media reaches out to muslims who are academic, but aren't really knowledgable as clerics. They maybe political scientist or historians, but not theologists in the religion of islam. So this individual has the responsibility of being THE voice of the muslims squeezed into a sound bite. Sorry, Bill it has been said, but no body really heard it.
http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?
ref=AM0109-335%20
I had a lengthy response to these interesting comments written...and I think Blogger ate it. So I'll just say thanks -- very nice to see your thoughts about this question. Makes me glad I put the time into writing that post. I don't think we're going to resolve this issue ourselves, but I do think (hope, perhaps) that this is how resolution starts.
Another reason why you should switch to wordpress.
Nah, not really...it was lengthy, but not particularly good, even by my standards. Besides, Bloggity-blog has some advantages over WP...
My goodness.
I understand, as much as anyone can who had not personally experienced it, what it means to have another nation invade yours, force its will upon yours, send in armed troops to occupy it. It is a hideous spectacle, and a horrible experience – one that no one should ever have to undergo. Why is Iraq undergoing it? Two reasons. One, I agreed with; one I did not.
I agreed that the strong possibility of the leader of Iraq having nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, a man who had killed many of his own countrymen, was cause for action, lest those weapons be used on neighboring countries, let alone, my own. It was an intolerable situation, and one that we needed to resolve. It would have been better if the situation had not occurred, and, having occurred, it would have been better had it been handled by friends and neighbors, and failing that, it would have been better had it been handled by multiple countries – but it was not. I regret that extremely, but I do not regret the action. I think it was necessary.
I did not agree that we should have stayed, once we found that the pretense of having these weapons was just that: a pretense. I think I understand why we did stay, and why it seemed like the right thing to do, but I think that time has shown that it was not the right thing to do. I suspect you would agree with that. Each day people that I might have known are killing people I might have known. Hate breeds, quickly. It scares me. When you say that the world isn’t as nice as we want it to be, you’re right. I wish that it were. Some people scoff at the tendency of my country to think that it can be that nice. I prefer that to the alternative.
I wish that we were not in this predicament, but we are. What we need to do now is figure out how to get out of it, and, perhaps, learn from it. Those are tall, tall orders.
All of this, though, is secondary to the point of my post. I read what you read, about Muslims and the likelihood that each and every one was readying themselves to slit my throat, and I did not believe it. Initially, I thought that yes, it was possible. After all, I did not know any Muslims; anything was possible. But as I came to know one or two, I found that this fear was unreasonable. Are there Muslims who would like to slit my throat? Probably, yes. But there are Christians, and atheists who also would. There’s no reason to assume ill will on the part of a person simply because they’re Muslim. Perhaps I’m naive, but that’s what I think.
I appreciate that you took the time to write. Take care.
Wonderful post!
Good deeds are hardly ever news and when they are they are portrayed in a special in which this seems like a rarity.
I'm not saying this is some big media conspiracy - the media gives us what sell, what grabs your attention so they can in turn sell air time for commercials. It is a sad reality.
This is why I am thankful for the blogosphere.
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