Comments on: What can moderate Muslims do? (updated)

by: Ruth Nasrullah

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 03:43:43 +0000

Hi all. Just an update - I put up a new post challenging people to prove Islam promotes violence using authentic religious sources. So far all I’ve gotten is two people telling me that media reports are proof that our religion is violent and that if we want to put an end to it we should march in the streets by the millions. My famous patience is beginning to wear very thin…

by: Ed T.

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:31:26 +0000

Ruth - I am certainly glad you are choosing to take the lemons and use them to make lemonade!

~EdT.

by: Ed T.

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:30:17 +0000

BTW, I read somewhere that “the misunderstanding” is now out in the open, but that Mr. Baker feels he has to go ahead with the pig races, since “it has gone too far to back down.” Idiot.

What I would suggest is the following: let Mr. Baker hold his “pig races”, and invite the nice folks from the neighborhoods to participate - including his new neighbors in the Katy Islamic Association. The KIA could handle food for the gathering, they could hold it before their Friday evening service, and maybe some off-duty officers from the Katy PD and Sheriffs Depts could be the ‘pigs’ - and maybe they could arrange a flyover of police helecopters (”when pigs fly”.) Conduct the whole thing in a spirit of fun and self-deprecation (especially appropriate for Mr. Baker, who could show himself conspicuously eating a big helping of crow), and give the folks a chance to get to know one another.

Who knows, maybe this could be an annual event?

~EdT.

by: roux

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 17:14:10 +0000

I don’t have much confidence in moderate muslims. They will be threatened by their wacko cohorts and will have to back down. It’s not the criticism it’s that death threat part that makes people shut up.

by: Polimom

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 13:46:55 +0000

Ruth — thank you for commenting here. I agree with Shaun; your blogging is important, but having watched you navigate the comments on the two posts on this subject, I think your contribution is larger than the blogging itself.

Your responses to commenters on your blog (and elsewhere) demonstrate extraordinary tact and level-headedness, and having blogged in that venue, I have no doubt that the hostility in comments that haven’t cleared moderation have been very discouraging. Yet you’ve continued to dialogue and discuss while somehow staying welcoming and open-minded.

Thanks, too, to everyone, for your thoughtful responses here. You continue to make me proud of this blog.

by: Shaun

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 13:19:48 +0000

There is an air of futility surrounding the question of what Muslims can do to condemn terrorism and let people know that Islam is not a violent religion, which is why your blogging is so important. Keep it up!

by: Ruth Nasrullah

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 19:22:06 +0000

Not to worry, EdT. I know I can’t change everyone’s minds, but I can certainly put their questions and comments to good use. In fact, some of the more strident and bigoted comments inspire the best discussions for those of us with open minds

by: Ed T.

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 16:54:16 +0000

I am afraid that Ruth is learning some of the hard facts of blogging, just as her co-blogger Chris Campbell over at chron.commons has been. There are folks who, despite anything you tell them or show them, are more comfortable with their own bigotry (”Muslims support terrorism” - “Christians are right-wing fanatics” - “white people can’t rap” - OK, maybe that last one is true

The fact is, most Muslims don’t support AQ, just as most Christians don’t support those who bomb abortion clinics, most Republicans don’t want to see your parents buy their drugs at PetMeds, and most Democrats don’t commit treason on a daily basis. And by most, I mean damb near 100.0000%!

~EdT.

by: marc

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:34:14 +0000

For a start, moderate Muslims could tell their friends and relatives to stop listening to the fools who are ordering them to murder people. Their disapproval means nothing unless it’s voiced aloud.

What the killers in Iraq are doing is not, I’m told, part of Islam. Yet it’s being done in the name of Islam. Who then should defend the true nature of the religion if not moderate Muslims?

If moderates do not act, the terrorists’ guns will ensure that their interpretation becomes the mainstream Islamic view. Moderates should forget about Americans’ perceptions and concentrate on doing something tangible. like saving the meaning of their faith.

by: uknow

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 03:27:41 +0000

A few fragmented thoughts….
-How would I feel if I had to prove that I do not have the heart of the Uni bomber?
- We are a Nation made up of individuals. Not one of us is willing to take on the responsibility for the actions of others, yet we blame the whole of muslism for actions of a handful of fanatics on the fringe. Incongruent?
- Have we forgotten that the majority of terrorism done in the United States is and has been done by non-Muslim people? Oklahoma? The white sheets in the south? (talk about terror). Not to mention the everyday terrors on the news. Those pig races are an action of terror of its own.
Good, bad and ugly, comes in every color, shape and size under the sun. WE ARE ALL LIVING IN GLASS HOUSES, PEOPLE….STOP WITH THE STONES!