Taliban hints at attacking aid

When you talk about treatment of women in 'islam', you need to really go back in history and learn about the situation. Go to Pre-Islamic Arabia, women were sold as cattle on the streets, just primarily objects in view. When Islam was developing, they according to the quran, felt that this was unjust since Islam calls for men to respect women, vice versca. So it was a progressive movement at that time, and they were able to own property and be in those positions of power as called for in the religion. In terms of the hijab, yea majority of the people you ask about it, they will say they want to as their sign of commitment, more so they aren't looked at as objects, harassed, etc, almost they feel safer in that(this is in the west as well). So essentially, it stems from making sure they are not looked at as objects, as you have to admit that is a battle even right here that still goes on.

Now the religion calls for that, obviously, the wahhabis and some backward groups who are in authoritarian positions have their own view, not religion backed, but they use that to get the people to listen, most of the people are kept uneducated, its root of trouble which steps from political and social agenda, and the oppression is purely cultural.

Now, lets translate this over? Do you know when Great Britian allowed women to own property? What about America, you can go as early in the 50s and before in the mindset that women were not supposed to work, and the dressing was essentially extremely conservative, I mean the progression with women's rights is all very new, even in the states. Does that mean 50 years ago Christianity was an oppressing religion in your opinion? If you were speaking about it and witnessing the times 50-75, however many years ago right here in the states, would you say this country, predominantly christian, although not officially, the presidents, etc, country common practice to refer to god, jesus, etc. So its presence was very much there. Were the views of oppressed unequal women where they had to fight for their rights so much a sign of the religious views?

 

I haven't read enough of your post to know if this is sarcasm or not, I hope so, nonetheless I'd like to touch on a point of simply using the word 'Allah'. It is simply the word for God in Arabic, its not someONE else, or some other god even, specifically Believers of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are considered to worship the same god. Abaraham, Moses, Jesus are all prophets and leaders in Islam as well. So using an arabic word while speaking english creates this separation as if its something completely else. I do get that quite often when speaking of islam, "So you belive in Allah, huh' So I wanted to clear that up

 

They are all there, look at the AKDN.org, look at the Aga Khan, even this controversial imam building the mosque, you realize the last 2 presidents have asked him to speak about moderate islam around the world and state department sponsored him. Read his speech on daniel pearl . Actually, look around in America and you will find a rarity to find a muslim with extremist views who is for violence. Heck I can go further in my visits to Pakistan I haven't come across an imam or head of church who is violent in nature and every single one of them is against the al-quaeda and terrorist. The problem is your knowledge is simply from the sensationalist media, remember its a business, its about ratings, and the crazy guy with the beard talking death be all is less than one percent of muslims, yet he gets the face time bc he sells, hes controversial, so on, but there are good examples of the opposite all over if you want to look into it every day.

Its comprable to if Christianity was represented by the KKK who considers them selves a christian groups but believes in white supremacy over any other color, is that representative of a tolerant and peaceful Jesus Christ and Christianity? Absolutely not, so draw the parallels.

Believe me, as an American, born and raised there if I felt or thought that the intention of this mosque was negative, I would easily be against it. I consider that ground sacred and monumental, but I also felt the building of this mosque near by just like a church is near by says muslims have place in the fabric of american society that just as a christian would be able to pay respects to those who lost their lives in 9/11 and then goto church near by and pray, I would like to pay my respects to the brave Americans and be able to go pray for their souls and for the safety of my country, America. The mosque, to me, was a message against all the terrorists that your view, regardless of your extreme actions will not change our society, we will not be less tolerant and dignify your message, that we are Muslims, we are americans, and you are everything I am against as both.

 

I respect your viewpoint and even see where you are coming from, I just feel it is a misconception that this is a clash of religions, rather than a clash of ignorance. As a born and bred American and as a Muslim, I had to do my research to really understand all of this and the roots of these people say they claim my faith. It is simply more politically and socially fueled rather than fueled by religion. These people did not attack Christianity or Judaism when they attacked the religion, they attacked muslims too knowing there a millions of American muslims. They kill muslims as much as anyone and are enemies of muslims and even more so as they deface our religion to good people like yourself. They have a social and political agenda and they try to use their religion to manipulate and justify it. When in the quran it calls for strict respect for the other abrahamic faiths, referred to as people of the book, Judaism and Christianity, and it talks of being of the same God and they having their own path to salvation. It talks about the greatest sin is to kill an innocent. Jihad itself is referred to especially by the prophet, as struggle to get closer to god by being a better person, by being a better father, better son, infact there is a story of a soldier who was heading to war to fulfil what he felt was his jihad, and the prophet said no, the great jihad, would be if you stayed and looked after and served your family. The way they oppress women which in the quran calls for equality for them. In all of this, I am convinced the only infidels are these terrorist, there is no one who offends and defies islam more than them, and they are such a small minority, but they are portrayed as a majority and allowed to represent islam, its sad, but this whole thing in my opinion dignifies their vision more than anyone.

To be perfectly honest, this mosque and the idea of an interfaith center I thought was great to teach about what the quran says and not let these terrorist culturally rooted definitions take over, and I would've been fine putting it anywhere in the city and perhaps if no other prayer halls or whatever were meant to be near ground zero as it being sacred, thats fine, move it, the message is important, not the location. But once all this started, it became more than that, it began saying the religion that I belong to, that one billion others is responsible for this adn you have no part in this area, and I just don't believe it was islam, i believe it was those disgraceful, misguided, politically, socially fueld terrorist that are an enemy of islam more than anything, and in accepting a move now, it concedes to me that I am apart of those guys and i am not. This mosque is for me and people like me and also for you and people all of faith to better understand each other in my opinion.

I certainly do respect your viewpoint, I certainly don't want this to offend anyone and cause tension which this obviously is, yet now the dilemma is if we move it, it says Islam doesn't have a place here, that Islam was the reason for this, that those terrorist were right. And I simply don't believe that, if it was a zoning law, coding law, or no religious buildings at all were appropriate for the area, I am all for moving, but I hope you understand my point of view and angle towards this and I see your point, and agree its sacred, and hope you see mine and that they can still coexist and its honoring the sacredness of that area, its honoring the freedom that america stands for no matter what injustices around the world, that no matter what these extremist view, they will not set and change a standard or acceptance, tolerance, and freedom that America has been built on and so many have been blessed to be apart of. Otherwise, we are mirroring those terrorist intolerance and dignifying their exclusivist message