Islam and the Age of Globalization

Re: # 4

bj,

........ even though i agree that the good professor is wasting his time as long as people like masadi continue to breathe, what does it have to do with jinnah and kashmir ? ......... lookey here, we pakis might not agree on much, but i am ready to spill at least half a glass of merlot and masadi`s blood to protect jinnah`s honor and liberate kashmir from the evil chungals of the unconverted and uncircumcised ......... so stop needing us if you are not prepared to discuss gandhi`s racism and sexual perversions with manto ..........

Bina, {``Martin offered analytical observations about how people in different countries had different role models – Pakistan was the first country where Osama Bin Laden showed up as a major Muslim role model, rather than the Middle East``}

Bina,
Thank you for a positive article regarding Prof. Akbar Ahmed and his well-known attempts at interfaith understanding. I have met him and he comes across as a sincere and moderate person. He is very soft-spoken and does present a positive image of Islam. OTOH, being an educator at American University, a notoriously Jewish establishment, his attempts at bridging the diffeences among Abrahamic faiths is understandable. How come he doesn`t have similar feelings of brotherhood and common cause with Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains? Maybe it`s just an oversight on his part, or it`s possible that he recognizes which side of his toast is buttered and who applies the delicious ointment.

To be fair, Prof. Akbar Ahmed is certainly a welcome change from the usual Saudi-funded, Wahabi motivated, and thoroughly disgusting ISNA, ICNA, CAIR crowd. Thanks to these fools and their utterly stupid manner of digesting Wahabbi venom, the position of American Musliims has gone from neutral to negative, from welcome to hated, from ignored to hunted.

Considering Martin`s observation about the popularity of UBL among Pakis, one can understand why ordinary, moderate, and peace-loving Paki Musliims have to pay the price for the extremist, virulent, and despised few.

I wish the Professor good luck, but I am not holding my breath in anticipation of any success with this interfaith come to Jesus, kumbaya marsmellow roasting and hand-holding around a camp fire.

All I`m going to say in response to comments like those in Interact #6 is that I`ve known Professor Ahmed half my life and I wouldn`t endorse anybody who I didn`t have the highest respect for. Professor Ahmed`s integrity and honesty are not issues up for debate by me in this board. Cheers.

Any effort at any attempt to at least understand the other side should be commended.

More power to Professor, and as Bina ji says in her conclusion that more needs to be done from both sides to bridge this huge gap built on ignorance and lack of trust.

Professor Akbar s. Ahmed is a fake. That makes him a darling of `sophisticated` pakistanis by extension. He used to live in cambridge and used to appear in tv talkshows in pakistan posing as some sorta cambridge intellectual. a living breathing example of pakistanyat, i must say. oh and he had no qualms in representing the occupiers of pakistan in UK back in 1999.

``If more young Americans like these, who are so open-minded and courageous, and more authorities from Islam such as Akbar Ahmed are able to step forward as voices of reason in a time of chaos and outright lunacy, then there truly is hope that the rift between our two worlds can be mended, and that a greater global understanding can come about as a result of the groundbreaking work in the area of multicultural dialogue.``

---

War on Militant Islam is not going to go away by wishing a better `understanding` of some punk-Islam brewing around Khayabaan-e-Shamsheer..

#9 salim_chauhan

I was wondering about the poor hindus and buddhists myself. But as you point out, Shri Ahmed`s sponsors would not want him to waste time on riff-raff of this low-type. Presumably, if christians and muslims can make peace, they can then jointly torture and finish off us poor animists and idol worshippers. Also, never mind that Akbar Ahmed is from pakistan, so he doesnt have any practical knowledge about middle-east problems. We all know geography is an ultra-weak area in US education system.

Anyway, he seems a decent sort. I have read his stuff and while sucking up to americans and brits is his main thing, he also seems pretty honest and interested in change. Good luck to him. Lets hope no fatwa descends upon him too soon.

Re: # 7


urstruly,

........... i don`t understand the relevance of your post on this board unless you are trying to suggest that the suicidal dead-enders are blowing themselves up because of their dire economic conditions .......... there might be a kernel of truth to that fallacious argument, but it still does not excuse the ummah from being a royal pain in the keister for rest of the world ........... just because they, and their leaders, cannot come to grips with the intricacies of modern economics, global trade, science and technology doesn`t mean that they have to go on a rampage ...........

Re: # 15
so is that what turly wrote ? that msulims bomb everyone because they are poor....

hmm ... one more reason to contribute to Bush`s coffers ... This race needs to be diminished.