Okay, while I was blog reading yesterday I came across a comment on one of my blogs that had this link in it. The comment was so powerful that I felt compelled to click on the link. And woweee. I think I can safely say that it freaking blew my mind. Misery left me a comment on my blog yesterday about some of the things that I failed to mention. She wasn't wrong. The thing is this... the biggest problem we have as Americans is that we do not understand how Muslims think. Period. I read several blogs that conveyed that same message. Why do they hate us? Misery pointed out that they don't strictly target the U.S.; they have targeted all of Western civilization. The question still remains. Why? This video will answer many of those questions. It might also blow the top of your head off, make you fall off your chair, or send you to the moon, so buckle up before you watch it.
You might be looking at it and thinking that it is eight minutes long. Eight whole minutes. I am promising you that all minutes are worth it and you might want to watch it again. I am saving it in my favorites because it might get pulled out again on a HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY since Sundays aren't the best days for blog reading. And because I will probably want to watch it several more times. However, it does have a stop button if you are several minutes in and are bored. Just like your TV and phone have off buttons. It is one of the awesome things about modern technology.
Now, don't forget to turn off my music player at the bottom of the page.
I took an intro to Islam class a couple years ago. I learned a lot, and I knew most of this stuff. However, I also learned that like how we treat the Bible, there are many Muslims around the world who believe that some of the stuff written in the Qur'an is outdated, and simply cannot be applied to the modern world. I refuse to believe that ALL Muslims could be so hatefully deceitful, as this video would have me believe.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, I think the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) have done nothing but cause hatred, bloodshed, and suffering the world over. I wish they would all realize they are fundamentally (at the core of it) practicing the SAME religion. Allah, Yahweh, and "God" are the same deity! They share most of the same prophets, and all the stories in Genesis are told throughout all three religions! It's infuriating that they can't get along. Makes me sick.
I'm gunna stop now before I go on a real rant...
yep. Know all this.
ReplyDeleteHope you got the top of your head back.
Take care.
@ cassandra...actually the allah of the koran is a different God entirely. He was actually a babylonian moon God. But anywhoozle.
ReplyDeleteyes, christians went on a rampage during the crusades. When was the last time that happened?
I am kind of tired of everyone saying christianity and Islam are on par with each other these days in the butchery department. They aren't and saying they are is a patent falsehood. It's what people say when they wnt to be politically correct. We don't strap bombs on our bodies and blow women and children up...not even our southern baptists (of which I am one) . We don't. Neither do the Jews.
New argument please.
I think that this video is not entirely objective. But then, again, I think there cannot be a 100% objective opinion about Islam. There's a mention that it's okay for Muslims to say one thing to Western civilisation and other thing in Arabic to their own belivers, but this, this hypocrisy is not only in Islam. It is a huge problem of Catholic church as well. Pope John Paul II instructed his bishops to make sure that all pedophile scandals are being swept under the carpet (it is only now that situation about this starting to change). I think that the example of Turkey shows how politics and Quran can be divided...of course Turkey's not "FINE" in the way we normally consider (there are still shocking examples of social acceptance of punishing women, etc), but it's going the right direction (that is, unless the recent situation changes.). About Muslim terrorists - this is absolutely unacceptable, this way of what they call war. But then, again, there are people who claim that there wouldn't be this whole massive problem if it wasn't for the existence of Israel, there are people who claim there should only be Palestine. And this particular conflict cannot be solved and it won't be solved and I'm very pessimistic about it.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote you don't understand Muslims. But what's there to understand in the end? The people who stand behing those attacks believe exactly this, like in this video, they believe in jihad. But I highly doubt that every single Muslim is like that. It's not that easy for me to take a stand like this, you know that in London I was practically in the middle of the whole mess (I wrote about it, some of the stuff in July happened right where I lived, on my street), but I think that this video portrays all Muslims as a potential terrorists. But then, again, I also do agree with most of the things Oriana Fallaci wrote (I HIGHLY recommend her books, she's wriring in a really good way, it's a thrilling lecture). But, also, Tiziano Terzani has his good points, too in his "Letters against the war".
One more thing to respond to your yesterday's comment: it's quite significant but in many media in Europe (not just in Poland) America is shown as a country that, underneath all that sweet talking about fighting the evil & terorism and so on, really wants the oil. Which happens to be righ there, in the Muslim world. I'm not saying that this is my opinion. But this is an opinion of really A LOT of people.
~Misery.
It took me a while to come up with a comment for your last two posts because I completely disagree with you, Robin, but I wanted to be respectful. Nor do I want to get into another religious or political debate on your blog so I'll leave my comment and go.
ReplyDeleteI'll just say that there are many, many Muslims in this world (and in the United States) who love their God and at the same time wish their non-Muslim neighbors nothing but peace and health. There are extremes of every religion and we cannot judge a religion by the extremity of its followers. The United States is not to blame for terrorist attacks but neither is it completely innocent either. There are always shades of gray. As for our nation supposedly embodying "Christian" ideals - I'd like to have a talk with those politicians and supporters of any war about exactly what they think the Sixth Commandment means. I have yet to read a place where it says Thou Shall Not Kill Unless You Have a Really Really Good Reason To. I won't even get into what people must think "turn the other cheek" means.
The "Ground Zero Mosque" is neither at Ground Zero nor a mosque, and it's headed by a Muslim man so respected that the Bush administration has worked with him on counter-terrorism. Sept. 11th was denounced by Muslims all around the world. The videos we saw on 9/11 of people celebrating "all around the world" were in fact the same two or three videos being played repeatedly, and if you notice - a lot of those celebrating were children, who are easily manipulated and do not understand the complexity of politics.
I believe Misery is correct that it doesn't matter how Muslims think. Our biggest problem in this country isn't that we can't figure out how people who are different from us think so that we can properly identify our enemies. Our biggest problem is that we can't figure out how people who are different from us think so that we can properly identify our friends.
To have a country that gives freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and press requires a level of maturity and emotional intelligence that goes beyond who is the President, who's to blame, and what political party is currently responsible for everything we don't like about our lives. It asks us daily to make decisions based on love and acceptance rather than fear and suspicion.