Okay, I'm finishing up a World Religions class. I honestly only took the class to fill a requirement and wasn't greatly interested at first. But I was pleasantly surprised and learned to love the class and get to know a lot of the people in it. The one day, I was surprised to hear a conversation coming from one of the students behind me talking to the professor. She asked a couple of weeks ago which religions we had left to cover and he told her. And she said, "Oh, good, so we're not covering that trash religion." Of course he asked her which one she would be referring to and she said Islam. She was making her remarks and laughing and other people were laughing right along with her. The professor soon told her that we weren't covering it in the book because a group was doing a presentation on it.
Well, the group that was doing the presentation happened to be mine. And one person in my group happened to be Muslim. These idiots in the back of the class were surprised to find this out about her because she isn't Middle Eastern. Nevertheless, the whole presentation turned out to be like preaching love and acceptance to a group of Nazis. Many people honestly believe the view of Osama bin Laden is what Islam is about and the media doesn't do much to defer that belief. Even I was surprised at what I learned. I gained a new respect for a religion I wasn't really familiar with and made a friend from that same religion.
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Kudos. Learning about the Islamic religion is the only way to spread tolerance. American has quite an extensive Muslim population. Last, I recall that was what our beautiful country was all about "the great American melting pot." I took a college class on religious perspectives and did a presentation on Islam in front of the entire class. Lucky, I had a class filled with intelligent people who were opened mined. I to learned a lot about the religion. It really irks me when people say thinks like "they should go worship their Allah somewhere else" Allah is the Arabic translation for God. If you translate, a catholic bible into Arabic every time the word God was mentioned it would say Allah. Ignorance breeds hate
It's been said in another class of mine that we call ourselves a melting pot, but we're more like a tossed salad - all in the same bowl, but never changing or blending.
I was proud of my presentation, nonetheless! And for an added bonus at the end I looked directly at the person that made the stupid comment a few weeks back and did a closing on tolerance and education. Between that and the A I received I felt pretty good at the end of the day. :)
The Islamic religion is really cool. :( It's sad how people can be conditioned by misrepresentations of the media.
It IS really cool. I learned so much and there just isn't enough differences between Islam and Christianity to justify any of the hype. I'm so glad I've also had the chance to meet someone of the faith and make a friend in the process.
This is an awesome post (although the reactions of your classmates made me kind of mad!) and I completely agree with everyone who commented. The only way to understand one another is by learning about each other; we can stop being so ignorant and start appreciating our differences.
Well thank you! They upset me as well. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't everybody, but the feeling came across from quite a few.
I'm sometimes perceived as kind of hopeful, but I really do love all people and I embrace our differences. It's what makes us interesting. I don't understand why those same differences can intimidate some people. I also wish people weren't so gullible to the media and would instead do their own research to get to the bottom of something. If you've heard about a religion, go to a mosque or temple or church and learn what you want to know for yourself instead of watching CNN and thinking you have all the answers.
Did you guys study every aspect of islam or did you just study what books taught you? did you people actually read the koran or the ahadith? did you people go and live in a muslim society? did you guys ask muslims what they thought of infidels? if you answered no, i think you dont know 1 inch of islam.
There was a Muslim in our group. I'm pretty sure since she has practiced the faith life-long that she is very knowledgable about the religion. And yes, I own a Qur'an and have read from it. It's a sixteen week semester, so no, I didn't really have a chance to move into a Muslim society.
yes ok sure, if you claim that a religion is peace and love, the people have to show and proove to us, that it in fact is peace and love. we cant just talk words, we have to see this happen. ask a muslim, if he wants to convert out of islam what happens to him according to his religous law and book, the answer is he should die. is this peace?I dare anyone who is not a muslim to go live in a land that is under islamic rule, and come tell me how he is treated. do you know how many verses tell the muslims to do killing, death, suicide, martyrdom, war, and jihad? over 100. now please dont tell me " oh well all those terrorists who do this , well they are not true muslims, and they dont represent the true islam". If this is true how come the "true" muslims are quiet? why are they not condemning the acts of those "terrorists" why when someone attacks islam all the muslims raise hell and get upset, but when muslims attack another religion it is okay, it is permitted. there is much about islam that you dont know, you have to get deep into the religion itself, you have to obsereve the lifestyle, and the ways these people live, trust me it aint pretty. people need to stop saying islam is PEACE because it clearly aint, from the way muslims are acting.
You are referring to extremists. As these are in all religions and not just Islam I can't comment on how extremists act or what they do. I am speaking of everyday peaceful Muslims.
Yes, check out tourismindonesia.com or egypttourism.org. It looks frightful.
Please tell me about your extensive education regarding Islam so that I may attend whatever mosque it is you have been to or take whatever college course you have taken so that I too can be enlightened.
نقسم بالله العظيم مسليمن و مسيحيين ان نبقى موحدين الى ابد الابدين دي
Extremist Christians react in the same exact way, you know.
name me one extremist christian who went and blew up a mosque in the name of jesus christ. name me one extremist christian who went to a muslim school and killed muslim children in the name of jesus christ. name me one christian extremist who went and burned down a muslim embassy in the name of jesus christ. name me one christian extremist who flew planes into a building full of muslims in the name of jesus christ. name me one christian extremist who told muslims that if they dont believe in jesus he will kill them. yea thanks
May I present for your pondering:
-The Crusades, which slaughtered thousands of people and set fire to numerous libraries.
-The Spanish Inquisition, which tortured and killed anyone considered an enemy of God.
-The era after Constatine, when anything that was not Christian was banned, and anyone who did not follow the faith forced into fearful seclusion.
-Radicals on street corners (and this site) that condemn non-believes to Hell.
-Radicals that protest and harass people outside of Planned Parenthood.
fantasticle. the crusades happened when? today or like 10 thousand years ago? if you notice, christianity has reformed itself completely islam has not. what radicals on street corner are you talking about? i didnt see any radicals, the only radicals i see is muslims who are saying that the infidels should die because they dont believe in allah. did jesus christ tell christians to kill in his name? no he didnt so it really doesnt matter because there is no justification in the christian book that says christians should do this. in the koran there is. i asked you about christians who went and killed muslims. the crusades is gone, im talking about today. the crusades happened in retaliation for the muslims who came into the land overtook it and forced the inhabitants to live under its rule, this my friend is called fighting back.
"the crusades happened when? today or like 10 thousand years ago?"
-Try a thousand.
"if you notice, christianity has reformed itself completely islam has not."
-I beg to differ.
"what radicals on street corner are you talking about?"
-The man that stands on the corner of Calhoun and St. Philip with the sign "YOU ARE ALL GOING TO HELL". He often chases down students waving a Bible and quoting Revelations.
"i didnt see any radicals, the only radicals i see is muslims who are saying that the infidels should die because they dont believe in allah."
-Lol. I've met at least two people who have wished me dead for not believing in God.
"did jesus christ tell christians to kill in his name? no he didnt so it really doesnt matter because there is no justification in the christian book that says christians should do this."
-Well, his father certainly endorsed slicing open the stomachs of pregnant Babylonian women.
"the crusades happened in retaliation for the muslims who came into the land overtook it and forced the inhabitants to live under its rule, this my friend is called fighting back."
-This, my friend, is called "killing in the name of God".
First off, during the Crusades, it was the christians who did more killing than anyone. The Muslims only killed if they had to during the crusades. When non-christians fled from christians during the crusades, (this included Jews, pagans, etc.) they fled to Muslim countries and were safe and protected. When Muslims fought to regain rule over land, people were allowed to practice whatever religion they choosed. They weren't forced to convert or killed because they refused to convert to Islam.
People like David Koresh, KKK leaders, mormon extremists (They are similar to KKK in terms of racism.), and Adolf Hitler.
ERIC RUDOLPH
Timothy McVeigh
You are referring to extremists. As these are in all religions and not just Islam I can't comment on how extremists act or what they do.
It is not my intention to be on this site to bash, hate, or otherwise support a separatist or segragated society based on a person's religious or any other personal belief. I think people have enough strife. This site is based on the idea of progression (which is my intention) and not regression. Good luck in your endeavors.
yes thanks for answering my questions and telling me about the christian extremists who killed muslims in the name of jesus. no sense waisting my time with you get some more education and come back.
I believe I asked a question of you asking about your education concerning your exposure to the religion of Islam that you have failed to answer. My education has at least offered me enough to know "aint" isn't a word, Christian, Muslims, and Jesus is capitalized and "waisting" should probably be "wasting" unless your time has something to do with your stomach.
Lol. Do you even know where the Crusades took place, or against whom?
(We'll wait while you look it up.)
Hey fantasticle! How ya doing?
Pretty well! Pretending I don't need to clean the kitchen. ;P You?
It'll be there tomorrow. :) I, on the other hand, have philosophy finals tomorrow. I am supposed to read about ten thirty-page articles. We have to write in-class papers for finals (I hate those). It's my last final of the semester and guess where I'm off to? Yep, to play with the turtles!
Haha, it will be, but after my Pre-Aegean History exam tomorrow, I get to spend the entire day packing the shed so we can move out Wednesday morning. :(
Holy crap, good luck with your finals. :X I have to write in-class essays for my exam as well; they suck so much ass.
Hey, turtles are cute.
Where are you moving?
Thanks for the luck. I need it!
Briefly back to Brevard, and then down to Winter Park, FL, to continue college at UCF. :D That is, if the College of Charleston ever gets around to sending out my transcript...
Haha! You'll do fine, I'm sure. :)
wow dinah! I hope you didn't mean everything the way it sounds. It seems like you are categorically bashing all Muslims when only a few are extremists. And literal Muslims extremists do commit acts of terror, but so do Christian terrorists. It may not be the bombing of a building, but takes form in hate crimes such as harrassing a homosexual. If the structure and mindset of the United States was more hospitable to terrorist, don't think we wouldn't have any.
By the way marie I liked your analogy about the tossed salad!
I'm afraid it looks like exactly what it is. Oy vey! My friend has a saying, "Bomb the Canadians!" It's kind of an inside joke but he's a news buff and he talks about how we're (the US) always in the middle of everything and how our sister countries sit the bench.
Thanks!
well i dont think this is grammar class, it doesnt matter how i spell things what matters is that you understand what im saying if i dont capitalize jew or christian or muslim does it mean its the end of the world or what? im not writing a paper, im just chatting with people. no im not bashing all muslims when i say muslim i mean the terrorist or those who do bad things in the name of islam yes i know what the crusades were the crusades came after islam and after its teaching, islam was the action and crusades was a reaction to it. anyways i dont expect you guys to understand islam because you didnt live under its regime and u didnt feel what its like to be there, so its ok no problem.
I have a question for you. Since you understand what it is like to live under an Islamic regime, I would assume you have experience living under such a regime. Have you? You criticize another person about getting an education, but you reference the crusades to have happened “like 10 thousand years ago.
When i said get an education, it doesnt mean go to school etc.... it means before you open your mouth about something i suggest you have knowledge and facts to back it up. When i said 10,000 years i was being sarcastic i meant it happened along time ago. I am talking about the present, not the past, im talking about what is happening today in our world. You also said "members from every other religion have done the same exact thing". Yea right? like when? when was the last time you saw a christian terrorist organization go into a mosque and blow it up and say were doing it because jesus told us? when is the last time you have seen a group of buddhist terrorists go onto a bus full of muslim children and explode and say we are doing it because buddha said so? when was the last time you saw a jewish terrorist organization go into a muslim country and kill a bunch of children and say we are doing it because yahweh told us? when is the last time you seen a hindu organization go hijack some planes blow up buildings and say we are doing it because our lord told us to do it. i certainley havent seen this, by the way even if there is a christian or jewish or hindu group who do kill other people, they arent doing it in the name of religion, maybe for political purposes. because nowhere in these religions does it tell them to go kill people who dont have the same beliefs as them, but in islam it does. that is the major diffrence. whatever the catholic church did ages ago is already over now, as i said christianity has improved itself, we do not do what the catholic church did back then. today does the catholic church tell its followers "hey guys i want you to go kill everyone who doesnt believe in jesus". i dont think so. we advanced we progressed, ISLAM still acts and deals the same way it did 1400 years ago.
One minute you say you are only referring to a few and then you go back and say Muslims or Islam which is all-inclusive. You hate the religion and it's followers. Okay. So what are you to do? The people you are speaking to disagree with you. You aren't going to convince anyone here that billions of people are killers because of their religion. I also know this for myself not to be true and not because I read the internet or hang around with a group that bashes people, but because I have good old-fashioned first hand experience and exposure. I actually know one. And I guarantee you could eat, sleep, and live beside her and never know because she doesn't act nor is she any different than you or I.
I've already given you examples of Christian extremists above. There are people that blow up public buildings, abortion clinics, etc. The building doesn't make is less forgivable because it isn't a mosque. The lives of the people inside are just as valuable in one building as another.
you gave me 2 names of extremists who you call christian. mcveigh, and rudolph. lets start off by saying i as a person condemn any terrorist act that is done in the name of christianity, and so do christians around the world.first timothy said he is agnostic, second the man who was with him terry nicholas had ties to islamic terrorists, through ramzi yousef a terrorist, this mans father used to rent their apartment building to arabic speaking people who had terrorist connections. rudolph bombed abortion clincs and the olympics, what does this have to do with religion? he is doing it for political reasons, plus where did jesus say bomb abortion clincs? he didnt thats my entire point the koran tells muslims to kill unbelievers there IS A JUSTIFICATION MUSLIMS CAN kill unbelievers because their book and their prophet said so. CHRISTIANS cannot kill because there is no justificaton for it and JESUS NEVER SAID IT. do u understand ?
plus theres about a million names i could give you of islamic terrorists, you gave me too. who commited the most terrorist activity in the past 10,20,30 years? please dont tell me it was the hindus
Unfortunately, this country is very naive when it comes to this religion. 9-11 was a very sad event, and I am just as upset about it as everyone else. But because of a group of extremists, the whole religion has been given a bad name, as have anyone who is a Muslim. My best friend happens to be Muslim, and he is always talking about how much it hurts him to be looked at as a terrorist when that is not what Islam is about at all. People need to become educated before they spread their opinions around to everyone. This country will never learn to accept others with that kind of attitude toward people who are different. There are many white Muslims, as well as Middle Easterners. America needs to quit hating and start loving, just like the Islamic religion teaches.
If only everyone had the same opinion as you. We as a country are very judgmental in many different ways. We think so highly of ourselves, any other idea or belief is wrong in our eyes. Unfortunately, it was our self-righteous attitude that made us a terrorist target in the first place.
the group of extremists that did 9-11 are supported by the muslim people. how does a terrorist organization get money? do you know that there are mosques in the U.S that send money back to the middle east to be given to terrorists like the PLO, HAMAS, FATAH , ETC....do you know that in many mosque in the middle east half of the money given to the mosque is sent specifcally to the leaders of the organizations? don't you know that when there is protests in islamic countries people who are demostrating in the streets, are normal people, they are not extremists. during the cartoon crisis, their were regular people in the street saying "kill the one who insults the prophet", and "bin laden should blow up denmark" are these people extremist or normal civilians? there is even children, are u gonna say these kids are extremist? why are 93% of atrocities worldwide committed by people from the islamic religion? why has there been approx. 4,800 attacks committed by muslims worldwide since sept 11? i agree with you, extremists are hijacking islam, but why arent the rest of the "good" muslims doing something about it?
We funded and trained Bin Laden and the Al-Queida. And when I say we, I mean the American tax payers.
So where do they get their money?
The American government.
yea ok, the american govt funded them in order to defeat the soviets. so what who funded stalin? it was us. clinton administration trained and armed the fatah party and the cia admitted to this. but im talking about the majority of money which does indeed come from the people.
I don't even know what you're trying to get at anymore. :(
What exactly is your point? Is it to our benefit that we just hate all Muslims? I will try to preserve my energy for better ways, better ideas, a higher way of thinking. Fighting and hatred hasn't proven to be much of a problem-solver.
~Marie
my point is they are not misunderstood.
Wow Dina, I'm surprised you are the second person I find on this 'progressive' site that does not have an idea about what Jihad is. Looks like you're getting a lot of your quotes from anti-Islamic websites. You need to learn about Islam from the real sources.
I am a Muslim and I live Islam every day. And I know that it is a peaceful religion, just as the other Abrahamic relgions before it. You proclaiming that Islam is a horrible such an such religion due the actions of the [small minority of] Muslims you have seen in the media, is like me saying Hitler (who used biblical references to further his cause in murdering the Jews) and the Crusades (that murdered in the name of God and attacked the Christian city of Constaniople) were a representation of true Christianity. But I know how untrue and ignorant of a comment that would be. So please be open-minded and hear me out.
Jihad primarily is a struggle to curb your desire to commit sin, to succumb to worldy desires, and to strive to be an overall upright individual. It may include giving charity, fasting, or even going to a far away land to study. Of course, Jihad can involve fighting but only in the name of justice- to fight oppressors or in self-defense. Even then, there are certain guidelines that must be followed- such as no killing noncombatants, women and children- and no suicide.
Nowhere in Islamic teaching or in the Qur'an will you find something commanding us to kill 'infidels' or non-believers. (Infidels, by the way, is a term that has been used by both Christian and Muslims alike. Look it up in dictionary.com-- it means 'someone who does not adhere to a particular faith'.)
As for Christians and Jews, the Qur'an clearly says they too will have their place in Heaven- being that they have not strayed from the original teachigns of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc.. preaching the One True God. This tolerance distinguishes Islam from all other religions. The Qur'an has many beautiful quotes regarding the Jews and Christians such as "those closest to you in love are the Christians"
So please go read the Qur'an before you go saying it preaches violence and hate towards other religions. We are certainly misunderstood by people like you.
There is a lot that is portrayed wrongly and gives Muslims a bad name. I'm glad someone agrees with me on that.
But then in this sense, Christian is also misunderstood and most of us don't care all that much. Why?
I initiated the post based off the reactions of my classmates during a presentation on Islam in a religion class. Obviously there was a presentation on Christianity as well, but considering about 95% of the group was Christian there weren't any misconceptions or beliefs that needed to be explained or clarified. There is not a whole lot of people (at least not where I come from) that sit around and say stuff like, "Those damn Christians cause so much trouble."
~Marie
Thank you for posting this.