The Gap: Can the USA and Islam Bridge It?

Re: # 149

{{{{{{American Muslims may be needed to help in the peacemaking...}}}]

LOL. Muslims are needed every where for peace making! You know why..........


Couple of more ideas for bridging the GAPS:



-- Fly airplanes into buildings ... slit throats of sleeping villagers.... come on TV
and say until all ``political`` disputes are solved such Islamic activities will continue....


....Gaurantee second class, third class citizenship to Kafirs in ur benevolent, tolerant PBUH Islamic Republics , demand special rights (not equal, but special) when you are a minority living in secular democracies...............

# 12 by dost-mittar

Oh these ‘Thekedars of religions’! (May be called TOR). It is these TORs who are creating all kinds of gaps. They create gap between God and man and even man and man, categorizing them as believers and non-believers, Muslims and Kafirs, mawaahids (monotheists) and mushriks (polytheists), Muqallids and non-Muqallids (followers and non-followers of a paricular ‘Fiqa’), etc., etc. They are by nature divisive. The great Urdu poet Allama Iqbal had said about them, “Deene Mullah fi sabilillah fassaad” (Mullah’s religion is to create violent dissensions among human beings in the name of Allah). What hullabaloo these TORs raised in the Pakiland recently against Germany on the death of Aamir Cheema, called ‘Aashiqe Rasool’ by them, in a jail in Germany, without realising what negative reaction it would entail for the Muslim immigrants in general and particularly for the Paky Muslims who are already under lot of pressure due to the extremist Mullah-gardi as reported in the following excerpt from a column in the Daily Times of Pakistan:

“Columnist Nazeer Naji wrote in Jang (16 March 2006) that all countries of the EU were making changes in their immigration laws to make the entry of Muslims into Europe virtually impossible. Also new laws were on the anvil to keep an eye on the private activities of the Muslims already resident in the EU.

There may soon come a time when EU will not allow any Muslim to visit Europe and no European would want to visit Pakistan. Extremism on the roads of Pakistan therefore should be avoided. Most Pakistanis who were not given to extremism must secure the true spirit of Islam against the extremism and violence of a few among them.

Extremism among expatriate Pakistanis is rising in complete disregard of the legal and constitutional action Europe can take against them. People break all sorts of barriers to get to Europe, then adopt extremist conduct as a way of life.”

(Daily Times, 12.5.06)

#148 Chauhan

[You are giving all us Biharis a bad name.]

Sorry if that is the case - although I doubt it. But I explained my reasons in #146. (My links to Bihar are rather outdated, anyway.)

Yet, the truth is that every immigrant is a ``Bihari`` in some ways! I am astounded that the people here - mostly whose butts are parked in Western lands - fail to see that obvious fact.

I will hold off on the expletive that just came to mind!

I think that there is a Gap that needs to be bridged

but how to go about doing it better than it is being done

needs further discussion.

Wars overseas are no longer an answer or the best option today.

Let us all go back to the table and strart talking.

Something good just may eventually come out of it.

And American Muslims may be needed to help in the peacemaking.

Ras

#144, BJ,
You are giving all us Biharis a bad name. :)

The gap IS getting bridged!
Verryy Interesting.
A piece about three stories from prisoners in Guantanamo Bay alleges that American guards at the detention facility have been demonstrating respect for Usama bin Laden, converting to Islam, and being threatened with deployment to Iraq for this conversion. Also, another article, “What Benefit?,” openly questions what good can come of Hamas as a government administration, and for Islamic parties joining government, in general. It states: “Throughout the history of Islam, there were many sects, groups, men and peoples whose aim was to help religion, and they might have been devout to Allah almighty in this desire… Yet they did not achieve what they sought because the path that they followed does not help religion”.

Complete report.

#145 Burps

I honestly think that this whole ``respect`` and ``politeness`` crap is overblown and is simply the first step in chowk`s devious mind control technique - the old technique has been used for ages in the subcontinent for ages, and is at the root of most of its problems.

It stifles individuality, kills creativity and creates a bunch of nincompoop morons, who are only capable of...

only capable of....

poop, of course!

Re: # 143

I spoke to soon. Here comes the beejmobile.

#143

Sure, keep kissing ass! It can only keep getting politer!

No need to specify whose!

As I said elsewhere - SCREW the respect!

Burpy #141 {``After a long time, an article on chowk where the quality of interacts is high. Good show!``}

Burpy,
We do agree on something. I too have noticed how much more interesting and polite Chowk has become recently. Let`s hope the trend continues.

The gap IS being bridged: and the secualroo liberaloo are getting crushed and squeezed..
alhamdolillah!

Preaching Islam In America

SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 12, 2006

---

Imam Mohammed Azeez is trying to change Americans` perception of Islam. (CBS)

(CBS) Islam is the fastest-growing religions in the United States. John Blackstone reports on a man who`s out to change the way others see Muslims.

At the Salam mosque in Sacramento, Calif, the call to prayer echoes with tradition. But the leader of the mosque is anything but traditional. Imam Mohammed Azeez delivers his Friday sermon while his 2½-year-old daughter darts among the worshipers. He prays five times a day – prompted by a high-tech reminder: his BlackBerry.

Azeez is young for an imam — he`s only 30. He came from Egypt six years ago and graduated from Ohio State University. His daughter was born here. His wife, Kauther, seems no less modern. She wears jeans with her headscarf. ``The fashion changes, you know,`` she says with a laugh.

But a lot has changed since Sept. 11, 2001. The imam now worries about his wife. ``She was called a `raghead` at one point,`` he says. Azeez is also afraid that little Zeyneb could be a target of intolerance. ``I`m scared to let my kid play outside for fear of any person or attacker,`` he says.

But Azeez`s answer is not to hide out — it`s to speak out. He goes to interfaith gatherings to try to build bridges across chasms of misunderstanding.

``Almost everyone in the Middle East things that America is on a crusade to Christianize the Muslim world,`` he said at one such recent gathering. ``I hope that`s not the case, but that`s what they say.``

What he says is that keeping this country safe from terrorists should be as much a priority for American Muslims as anybody else.

``I want to carry a gun and stand at the border and protect the border myself,`` he says, ``because I am the first person to be impacted.``

The challenge facing Imam Azeez is reflected in a new CBS News poll that shows fewer than one in five Americans has a favorable view of Islam. Azeez says that`s a stereotype Muslims themselves must work to change.

``Any group that comes to this country — they have to pay the price of being part of this system,`` he says. ``We`re paying our price.`` Is it worth it? ``I think it is. I think it is.``

Imam Azeez hopes the bridges he builds will help make Islam an accepted part of America`s religious mosaic.


©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

After a long time, an article on chowk where the quality of interacts is high. Good show!

Re: # 134

nasah

Thank you for updating me about Bush`s invasion of Iraq. But the real object in both the cases was quite different. While Tariq wanted to Islamize Spain, especially the `kafir` spanish ladies, Bush wanted WMDs which was actually oil of Iraq. So it is the same wolf and lamb story, meaning `might is right`, being repeated in history over and over again.

# 138 by zeemax

``Islam recognised this without pretenses and termed the only and ultimate reality as `Allah`. Everything else was dispensable``.

The basic Kalima of Islam is `La ilaha ilillah` (There is no god but God). Mushrakeene Makkah also believed in Allah of Islam. What Islam wanted, however, was negation of the gods which it considered to be false. But now a new religion called `Ishqe Rasool` is replacing Islam`s Allah even and everything which was indispensable.

Re: # 138
by brother Zeemax

[But then again, whatever I have said may be completely wrong`` (Richard Bach, Illusions)]

Jonathan Livingston Seagull held out more hope. -)

#125 by krishna_abcd

Krishna,

Thanks for your very generous comments. It is true Somerset Maugham, Bertrand Russel, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Maupassant were early formative influences amongst other French and Russian masters, not to mention the German heavies. All of them pretty dark. These taught me very early on that nothing really matters. Not life, not death, nothing. Eventually it`s all the same. Round and round and all over again. Accomplishment is a pauper`s dream. Misery is relative as is joy. Darkness is the absence of light and light the absence of darkness. Both are one and the same.

Islam recognised this without pretenses and termed the only and ultimate reality as `Allah`. Everything else was dispensable.

You point out ``... with Islam, the unseen hand of your prophet is at the throat of every follower 1400 years after his death.`` That is a misconception. The hand is there but not at their throats. It is there because he showed how good begets evil and vice versa so there was actually no difference between one or the other. That mastery over both is the hand of `awe` that persists since 1400 years.

Does that work? I think it does. It motivates people to stand up and fight regardless of adversity, because the worst that can happen is death, and that`s not too bad either. And to be evil when confronted with evil because that will beget good in the end ... and so forth before it begins all over again.

...you seem very sure of your facts when you say ``This is the only way to go as a belief system``...

Maugham also said in the preface of the `Summing Up` to the effect that ``What I say in this book are obviously what are my opinions, not anyone else`s. So I won`t punctuate my sentences with ... I think, or in my opinion ... etc...``

Having said that, the following are true as well !

``If there`s a crate of apples, and the once on top are rotten, what reason do I have to believe that the ones underneath will be good?`` (Bertrand Russel, The conquest of Happiness)

``But then again, whatever I have said may be completely wrong`` (Richard Bach, Illusions)

``this guy (ahmedinejad) is undoubtedly an illiterate idiot and a lunatic and anyone praising him certainly shares his stupidity``(BKhan)

you can say that again -- an Iranian illiterate idiot and lunatic against an American illiterate idiot and lunatic -- they deserve each other....kabootar ba kabootar baaz baa baaz/koonud humjins baa humjins pervaaz.....