Faith Freedom International

Unknown 203 · Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 49

If a cable TV station wanted to book Ali Sina for an appearance,

1. would it be possible at all

2. if so, does Ali Sina have an agent who can handle this (Ali Sina would not want to take the calls directly)

Unknown 387 · Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 12

I don't think you can put a black and white statement on people. That is where bigotry begins, "All blacks are liars", "All Jews are greedy", "All Muslims are violent". Comments to this article were posted on another forum. One had a muslim friend who supported the war in Iraq. People are diverse and so is the faith they hold to. The Judeo/Christian Bible is filled with violence. While fundamentalists of these religions may take their religious book seriously and ignore or gloss over the difficult passages, or take them quite seriously (like death to homosexuals), God forbid! There are also those, and plenty in many diverse sects of the religions, who see the scriptures as poetic and metaphorical. The stories are of a culture and time long gone and now we embrace the morals to the story. Some stories are just set aside out of hand. Have you tried to find moderate Muslims? Fundamentalists in general get me angry, but not people who are genuinely searching for a little comfort and hope in their lives. The human heart and imagination is amazing at clinging to long held beliefs and hopes without logically thinking them through for legitimacy. Religion will always be with us it seems.

Unknown 379 · Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 65

Patrick · Joined: 16 Sep 2002 Posts: 197 Location: Peecee Kingdom

Maybe Dr Mahatir is not so representable as a moderate Muslim. But he certainly is a typicall example of a moderate Muslim leader.

Unknown 330 · Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 35

Musalims by nature, whether they are white, black, brown and what have you, do not understand civilized human language. They never have and they never will. That is why i often have to use anatomical language for the Muslims to understand. Sure, they unsderstand when I use those language. That is what makes them Muslims.

Piggy · Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 835

Jack · Joined: 09 Aug 2002 Posts: 278

It seems so obvious.

Go to freedomhouse.org

Take a look at their map of freedom in the world.

If you removed the communist countries from the map.

China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea.

The majority of countries listed as "not-free" are Muslim.

Communism failed and is failing for all the obvious reasons.

If the # 1 reason for living in a non-free country is Islam why would anyone expect to find "moderate" muslims.

If the "moderate" Muslims are the majority it would go to follow that most Muslim countries would be "free" or "partly" free according to the map.

Unless the article is correct in stating that a "moderate" Muslim is a mythical creature.

So my next question is why allow "Islam" to operate freely in the west.

If Communism brings ruin to countries and the same seems to be true of Islam why allow it spread out from its base.

If the best Afganistan can do is go from Taliban to Taliban-lite whats the point? This is their big chance and the best they can come up with for their constitution is--

"no law can be contrary to the sacred religon of Islam"

I guess the "moderate" muslims really stood up to be counted.

Beyond that once you become a "moderate" its hard to go along with Islam as religon.

You can be like Esimsek "FFI poster" and other Muslims living in the Western style countries. But your not a "moderate" at that point your a hypocrite.

Yes, you like the lifestyle and the freedoms that come with it but you can't give up on Islam.

The idea that your freedoms and lifestyle have their base in the English/Christian foundation is undeniable but you keep up the idea that Islam has some value.

If you hang around FFI long enough you'll see that the moderate Muslims don't exsist. How often do we get a true intellectual discussion.

These are some of my categories for Muslim posters.

You have the true belivers.
You have the intellectually dishonest.
You have the lost souls who would fall anything.
You have the narcists and personality disorders.
You have the hit and run artists "Meng".

The moderates don't stay long if at all because you can't defend the obvious.

If they behave as moderates at all the glaring faults of Islam beat them into submission.

Jack.

Ali Sina · Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Posts: 2174

bread · Guest

Unknown 387 · Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 12

I still think you are missing the psychological make up of people. My opinion is that within each culture you find people of various temperaments, who will treat the dominant religion differently (i.e. full-throttle fundamentalists vs. those who can believe the religion has value but don't take it 100% literally vs. liberals). The Quran and the Bible both demand to be taken literally, but I think that there are a wide range of responses to these demands. I have former friends who are still fundy Christians. I think it is partly what they have been raised to believe and they feel, based on personal experience, they should be fully dedicated. They are extreme but they think they're right. If these same people were raised in Afghanistan they would probably be dedicated Muslims. If my husband and I were, I think we would back off as far as able but out of fear would still wear the trappings of the faith, taking steps for change as we could. Why didn't the "moderate Muslims" speak out against 9/11? I've often wondered the same myself. It does feel like silent approval. Or were some scratching their heads trying to make sense of it? Were some so convinced that it couldn't possibly be their faith they thought "the world doesn't understand"? Christians have glossed over and nodded silent agreement to atrocities throughout history, some ignorantly. I had a friend convert to Islam AFTER 9/11. She said Muslims in other countries have mixture, a cultural influence. You and I know that's BS, but she could put on the rose colored glasses about her religion using that excuse. Plenty of Christians listen to the teachings of Martin Luther week after week never learning about his anti-semitism or simply compartmentalizing it to some dusty brain file where they don't have to deal with it. Political Islam is just as frightening as Political Christianity. Exposing them is a priority. Having the opportunity to challenge a fundy is a great opportunity, but I have no need to seek out every Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, etc. and tell them what I think about their religion. I would be just as obnoxious as the evangelists for religions who annoy the crud out of me.