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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/18/2009 1:01:26 PM |
Islam Goes to Bat for America
Muslims Organizing Service Outside Capitol to 'Pray for the Soul' of the Nation
By Jeff Diamant
Universal Press
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Tens of thousands of Muslims plan to pray "for the soul of America" outside the U.S. Capitol this month in what is being described as a first-of-its-kind event.
The event, headed by the Dar-ul-Islam mosque in Elizabeth, N.J., will not include political speeches or placards, just prayer, said Hassen Abdellah, president of Dar-ul-Islam and a main organizer of the Sept. 25 event.
''Most of the time, when Muslims go to Washington, D.C., they go there to protest some type of event," Abdellah said. "This is not a protest. Never has the Islamic community prayed on Capitol Hill for the soul of America. We're Americans. We need to change the face of Islam so people don't feel every Muslim believes America is 'the great Satan,' because we love America."
A permit from the U.S. Capitol Police, issued July 28, grants access to the area by the West Front of the Capitol from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 25, but the the Friday prayer service is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Abdellah said that he hopes to draw 50,000 people from mosques across the country and that non-Muslims are welcome, too. About 400 people are expected from his mosque, which is raising money from donors to help pay for the event, which is expected to cost more than $200,000.
The gathering will occur near where presidents have been inaugurated since 1981.
Abdellah said President Obama's inaugural address in January and his speech in Egypt in June led Abdellah and another imam to begin discussing the idea of a prayer service.
"For the first time in my lifetime," Abdellah said, "I heard someone of his stature speaking about Islam and Muslims not in an adversarial sense, but in the sense of being welcome and acknowledging we are integral citizens in the society -- that we're gainfully employed, we're educated.
"He said he had his hand open to the Islamic world," he said. "The Islamic world wants to open their hand and shake it."
The Web site set up for the event, http://islamoncapitolhill.com, has a logo with a red, white and blue hand shaking a light brown hand. The preamble of the Constitution and a page of Arabic text appear in the background.
Members of Dar-ul-Islam have been working since July to organize the event, through e-mails, phone calls and visits to mosques and Muslim student associations in various states.
''People didn't look to Dar-ul-Islam to organize this," Abdellah said. "No one called us and asked us to do it. We decided to do it on our own." Organizers said that they have not decided who will lead the prayer and give the sermon at the event but that it is unlikely to be a major figure in the American Muslim world.
''This is not about personalities," Abdellah said. "We don't want personalities involved. The personality for this event is the Prophet Muhammad."
Aly A. Aziz, president of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey, which is helping to organize the event, said that too many Americans automatically associate Islam with terrorism and that the event is a way to "expose Americans . . . to how the Muslims pray." Shakoor Mustafa, a Newark resident who attends a mosque in East Orange, N.J., said he has donated money to the event and hopes to go to Washington if his workload allows.
''It's historical," he said, adding that, in his opinion, the mere granting of permission to hold the event reflects a dramatic change in how many Americans view Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
''Yesterday I was viewed as a terrorist," he said, "and today I've been given a permit on Capitol Hill to come and pray in a spirit of unity."
Personally, I'm hoping this all goes well.
America needs another view of Islam contrary to the prejudiced view so popularized the last few years. Americans need to see Muslims as the fellow citizens they really are and not just all terroists and jihadists.
If 50,000 Muslims show up it will probably be at least as much as Glen Beck's 9/12 crowd last week. I'm wondering how FOX news will cover this event ?
There are more than a few Americans who need to see the real religious diversity this country is supposed to be all about. | |
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wudger
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Joined: 12/20/2007
Msg: 3 | |
| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/18/2009 2:01:18 PM | I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to christianity.
in fact, I'm pretty skeptical of most organized religion in general. | |
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| Islam Goes to America
Posted: 9/18/2009 2:30:24 PM | I can recall how the US Russian relations improved in the midst of the trade center incidents few years ago. Perhaps since the US is now bombarded with healthcare, this may have some practical influence on relations between muslims and american citizens. Though I to am not a part of organized religion I do try to be abreast of how groups function.
I really don't think having proper relations between different religious groups is likely until each group begins to deal more in the spiritual aspect of religion that is more inclusive and less religious as an institution. Each group wants its independence yet have a resistance to cohabitate aside from the United States. IMO although the United States is not the most popular country abroad it is a land of rules and laws and probably more religious groups coexist unlike in other parts of the world. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/18/2009 3:54:12 PM | I don't have need of a religion as my faith is in oneself, but if some require religion to find inner peace, I don't have a problem with that.
But, the problem with many followers of islam in collusion with the left and liberals is they succeeded in elevating it to a postion where, it's a religion when they want it to be, a culture when they want it to be, and a race when they want it to be, and they demand respect on all three counts.
Many muslims say islam is a religion of peace and the way for the west to have better relations with islam is to show it more repect, but when you look at the evidence, in most countries where islam has control there's repression, there's torture, there's precious few human rights,and there's no free speech. It encourages violence against Jews, infadels, women, and homosexuals, values alien to us.
It has taken us 2000 years to shake off the superstitions of one desert dogma only for us to find in this the age of enlightment, knowledge, and science, the followers of another desert dogma wanting to take us back to the middle ages.
I have no doubt the majority of muslims want to live in peace and rub along with the rest of us, but until they take control of their religion from the mad mullahs, harmony will not prevail. | |
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wudger
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Joined: 12/20/2007
Msg: 6 | |
| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/18/2009 6:47:25 PM | | pretty much the same thing could be said about christianity a couple of hundred years ago. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/18/2009 7:12:45 PM |
I have no doubt the majority of muslims want to live in peace and rub along with the rest of us, but until they take control of their religion from the mad mullahs, harmony will not prevail.
I'll bet the victims of the Spanish Inquisition felt the same way about the Christians...
Prayer is good.
Dialogue is good.
Understanding and accepting that another person's faith in his/her God is as deeply rooted as is one's own is a step toward real peace.
I, for one, appreciate the prayers. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/18/2009 8:48:10 PM | If all they're doing is praying, why do they need a big media buildup?
It reminds me of a big business owner who volunteers to do some work for a poor homeowner for no charge "out of the goodness of his heart". Then proceeds to call every radio station, TV news crew and newspaper he can think of to come cover the "humanitarian gesture". News and lots of free advertising at 11!
Maybe the prayers only work if everyone knows about them. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/19/2009 1:07:44 AM | Actually, I think the state of Americas soul is doing just fine and really doesnt
need Muslims or members of any other brutal, backward Arab cult to pray for it.
What we need are more rational, secular voices in the public discourse.We have more religions, cults, and wackaloons driven by supernatural fantasies than we
can can handle, we dont need any more. What muslims to need to concentrate on and address are the appallling violations of basic human rights and freedoms that are existant in every Islamic society. What they need to ask themselves is why they are
basing their lives and world view on the ravings of a 6th century murderer and pedophile and why the Islamic world is so technologically, ethically, morally, politically, economically and socially backward , brutal and regressive. The last time I checked, the only "Americans" killing their daughters for dishonoring their families
for having the temerity to actually date boys were Muslims. Shame on you poster.
Shame. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/19/2009 1:32:48 AM | Prayer is good.
Dialogue is good.
Understanding and accepting that another person's faith in his/her God is as deeply rooted as is one's own is a step toward real peace.
I, for one, appreciate the prayers. Though we have seen and experienced many awful things done in the name of Islam, the people doing these things are extremists. I have lived in two Islamic countries, worked with and socialized with Muslims, and count Muslims among some of my closest and dearest friends. There is no need to be skeptical about Islam or Islamic people in general: they are just like us, just like everyone everywhere. Dialogue, understanding, accepting one another...this is what we need.
...the state of Americas soul is doing just fine and really doesn't
need Muslims or members of any other brutal, backward Arab cult to pray for it. A mean and brutal thing being said by one who holds himself above those he considers to be mean and brutal. The fact that you can say this and believe it illustrates, in one area at any rate the sad state of the 'American soul,' and, as well, if your feelings are representative of multitudes of Americans, and I fear they are, a frightening lack of knowledge. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/19/2009 1:45:00 AM | ---A mean and brutal thing being said by one who holds himself above those he considers to be mean and brutal. The fact that you can say this and believe it illustrates, in one area at any rate the sad state of the 'American soul,' and, as well, if your feelings are representative of multitudes of Americans, and I fear they are, a frightening lack of knowledge. ---
The truth is the truth, and it is my knowledge, that leads me, and any other rational,
secular, objective person to the same conclusions. Be specific. What "lack of knowledge" do you speak of ? I spent the bulk of my childhood in the middle east, attended schools with Muslims, and lived in 7 mulsim countries. Perhaps the lack of knowledge is your own. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/19/2009 2:02:05 AM |
spent the bulk of my childhood in the middle east, attended schools with Muslims, and lived in 7 mulsim countries. Perhaps the lack of knowledge is your own. It is a surprising thing to hear from someone who made the statement you made about Islam being a backward cult. Having lived in two Islamic countries and intermingled socially, in my work, on a day to day basis, and as I said, having close and dear friends who are Muslim, I have come to believe that the vast majority of Islamic people on this Earth are not backward, nor is Islam a cult. As I also work with many Westerners, I have also noted that there are people who can live in a foreign country for years and years and still not understand it or its people, whose minds are set, who respond to the negative things they see by believing that is the whole culture and whole country, etc. For example, there are people who spend many years living in America, and they see only the negative things; they can live in America for 20 years and go back to their home country with a very negative and limited vision and understanding about American people and culture. It happens all the time. | |
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wudger
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Joined: 12/20/2007
Msg: 13 | |
| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/19/2009 7:37:00 AM | | any nation that enslaved an imported population for 250 years and then repressed them brutally following that, has 4% of the worlds population and 25% of the worlds wealth but has 10 million children who lack hot food every day, has the largest prison population per capita in the civilized world and has killed at least 100,000 civilians by bombing in the last ten years doesn't have a lot of room to be calling other civilizations barbarous. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/19/2009 7:37:59 AM |
any nation that enslaved an imported population for 250 years and then repressed them brutally following that, has 4% of the worlds population and 25% of the worlds wealth but has 10 million children who lack hot food every day, has the largest prison population per capita in the civilized world and has killed at least 100,000 civilians by bombing in the last ten years doesn't have a lot of room to be calling other civilizations barbarous. Good point. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 12:07:00 PM |
any nation that enslaved an imported population for 250 years and then repressed them brutally following that, has 4% of the worlds population and 25% of the worlds wealth but has 10 million children who lack hot food every day, has the largest prison population per capita in the civilized world and has killed at least 100,000 civilians by bombing in the last ten years doesn't have a lot of room to be calling other civilizations barbarous.
Feel free to leave anytime | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 12:12:52 PM | any nation that enslaved an imported population for 250 years and then repressed them brutally following that, has 4% of the worlds population and 25% of the worlds wealth but has 10 million children who lack hot food every day, has the largest prison population per capita in the civilized world and has killed at least 100,000 civilians by bombing in the last ten years doesn't have a lot of room to be calling other civilizations barbarous.
Feel free to leave anytime
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Or try to improve | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 12:18:33 PM | Wudger For President In 2012!
I can certainly understand why some would want people who point out the truth to leave their country...makes it much easier to misrepresent brutality as benevolence. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 12:21:40 PM | I have plenty of Islamic friends. They live right, are productive people, for the most part are in shape, healthy, and very polite. I wish more people behaved and lived as they do.
All that being said, I am still not a fan of ANY organized religion.
If all they're doing is praying, why do they need a big media buildup?
It reminds me of a big business owner who volunteers to do some work for a poor homeowner for no charge "out of the goodness of his heart". Then proceeds to call every radio station, TV news crew and newspaper he can think of to come cover the "humanitarian gesture". News and lots of free advertising at 11!
Maybe the prayers only work if everyone knows about them.
Tens of thousands of people are going to organize in the nation's capitol. I think making their purpose known is a smart and sensible thing, aside from the fact that I am sure they will need to apply for permits, etc, which the media would find out about anyway. VERY different than someone trumping up the painting of a house. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 12:22:34 PM | | The truth, IMO, is there are (and ever more so nowadays) essentially "two Americas". One is made up of people who think like , or in varying shades close to the kind of thinking represented in Msg 9, and others who think like (or closer to) Msg 10. And these two very different ways of thinking and feeling (and being) also usually have their respective polarized concomitant sentiments (just as strong) with regards to almost every other "issue" confronting this country and the world. At base, they reflect IMO (if neither of them is Canadian or British) "fellow countrymen" in name only. Because true "fellow countrymen" , IMO share more , and at a deeper level, than just for example having their income taxes deducted by the same federal gov't. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 1:41:40 PM |
any nation that enslaved an imported population for 250 years and then repressed them brutally following that, has 4% of the worlds population and 25% of the worlds wealth but has 10 million children who lack hot food every day, has the largest prison population per capita in the civilized world and has killed at least 100,000 civilians by bombing in the last ten years doesn't have a lot of room to be calling other civilizations barbarous.
Perhaps no one should ever call anyone anything then. Because barbarism is a worldwide practice that has gone on throughout history nearly everywhere at one time or another.
I really get sick of all the pathological anti-American rhetoric from people that choose to lean to the left. It's fine to disagree with things that your country does. In fact, it's healthy. But I don't really understand why someone would choose to continue living in a country that they consistently jump at the chance to bash. One would think that someone who so vehemently opposed things about the place they live would rather live somewhere they were less ashamed of. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 2:09:47 PM |
Tens of thousands of people are going to organize in the nation's capitol. I think making their purpose known is a smart and sensible thing, aside from the fact that I am sure they will need to apply for permits, etc, which the media would find out about anyway. VERY different than someone trumping up the painting of a house.
No different at all. They are both merely self-serving actions. As I said before, if the only intent is to pray for America, will those prayers not work without all the media hype? Like any other religion, they have their own internal communications channels. After all, where / how did all the particiapants already signed up to attend learn of it?
Just a free publicity, public image-enhancing thing. Nothing more, nothing less. No difference between the two at all. | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 2:47:44 PM | I have no doubt the majority of muslims want to live in peace and rub along with the rest of us, but until they take control of their religion from the mad mullahs, harmony will not prevail. I have no doubt the majority of Christians want to live in peace and rub along with the rest of us, but until they take control of their religion from the mad christian zealots, harmony will not prevail.
Actually, I think the state of Americas soul is doing just fine and really doesnt
need Muslims or members of any other brutal, backward Arab cult to pray for it.
It's a shame you cannot be gracious when some of us want to pray for all of us. Why hate some of us simply because you are different?
If all they're doing is praying, why do they need a big media buildup?
It reminds me of a big business owner who volunteers to do some work for a poor homeowner for no charge "out of the goodness of his heart". Then proceeds to call every radio station, TV news crew and newspaper he can think of to come cover the "humanitarian gesture". News and lots of free advertising at 11!
Maybe the prayers only work if everyone knows about them.
Excellent point, but that's more Pat Robertson's and (formerly) Jerry Falwell's speeds. That said, you do understand that if one is organizing something, getting the word out is key, right? | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 2:49:27 PM |
have no doubt the majority of Christians want to live in peace and rub along with the rest of us, but until they take control of their religion from the mad christian zealots, harmony will not prevail.
Why does the far left always have the need to start bashing Christains? | |
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| Islam Goes to bat for America
Posted: 9/21/2009 3:00:08 PM | There is nothing "far left" about pointing out that a statement can apply to more than one religion and that there are extremists of some sort in all religions. There is nothing in the re-tooled statement that bashes Christians.
It's ok to disagree with civility. Try it. | |
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