TylerMC/islam

This girl is amazing. Rutgar University Senior who just won the short film award for her cartoon on 'Arranged Marriages'. Great insight into how young Muslim girls grow up in the US and how they have to challenge the traditions of their immigrant parents. Thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining!

Thought you all might enjoy seeing a place I've been quoted:)
From the page: "I recently came across an article where the prominent journalist Laura Dawn Lewis had the following to say about the excesses of one of her colleague' writings, and I quote:

'Occasionally a journalist shows his ignorance and bias to such an extent, he or she must be challenged¦Basic propaganda techniques like using inflammatory language¦Characterization, euphemisms, omissions, discredited reports and inferences further spin his message.


[the writer] proves his concept and knowledge of the Middle East, its people and its customs comes not from knowledge but deep embedded prejudice coupled with a complete lack of reality or historical fact .America needs truth, not propaganda "

I've been privy to a number of debates and alarms in the worldwide Muslim community about this film which I have not seen. The good thing about this attack is that it could change the tide. I think it was 1963 when white supremacists bombed the church in Birmingham and killed 4 little girls in the basement. That atrocity broke through the denial and forced the majority of Americans to begin re-evaluating their racist attitudes. Perhaps when Americans begin to realize we are becoming like Nazis in many ways, both in the US, overseas and through our support of Israeli apartheid, that shame and realization will finally move us to act. This kind of thing should never happen in America, though over the past eight years, I'm not sure I even know what my own country is any more. I know we were never meant to be this.
As an aside, the throwing of gas into rooms where Muslim children are playing, praying or congregating is not new. The first time this was caught on film was by a British / American film crew in October 2000. It was the Israelis throwing poison gas into the courtyards of homes in Gaza as children played, in that case and all others since in the Occupied Territories, a war crime.

Nice Job ABC! Unfortunately this is one face of America but you'll notice in the video, more people objected than supported this man's racism.
I have to say on my recent trip to the Middle East, whether in Palestine, Jordan or Saudi Arabia, even knowing I was Christian I was embraced with open arms everywhere I went...except the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. There I did experience racism against me because of my faith, but only from Jewish people and in other parts of Israel, I did not experience the same from Jewish citizens.
The Muslims and Christians in all of these nations generally greeted me with, "Marhaba" meaning, you are welcome and many would chase me down the street when they saw my camera and invite me in for coffee, lunch or dinner.

More on Islam, Christianity and Jesus for the doubting Thomas group out there.
The driving of the wedge between Christianity and Islam is a ploy, as are the attempts to create suspicion between the two largest religions in the world. The reasons are political and monetary. They have nothing to do with religion. Yes, the political state of Israel benefits from this. As long as Christians and Muslims are sold to the West as eternal enemies, (which is not true but was added to the footnotes of the study bibles the Evangelical Christians use partially in 1946 and the rest in 1968) Israel can continue its land grab, persecution and oppression unhindered and with the full monetary, political and military support of the duped Christians thinking they're doing 'God's work'.

Just in case you now want to scream, 'anti-Semitic! She's blaming the Jews.' Let me clarify something. Nowhere in the Torah, the first 5-books of the Bible, does God permit or promote what the political state of Israel is doing. There is nothing Jewish about this either. Judaism is being used as a cover for Israeli political, financial and military interests. The founders of Israel weren't about creating a safe haven to practice a faith. Most were secular and Jewish in name only. Zionism is more about creating a race and using that race to acquire whatever it can at whatever cost. That's not faith, but like most great battles and excuses throughout history to slaughter pillage and plunder, religion makes a nice mythology and motivates people to do exactly what their faith if followed would prohibit. We see this today in Judaism. We see this today in Christianity. And we see this today in Islam...not to mention many of the Eastern faiths as well. Faith when practiced doesn't kill, steal, covet, deceive or destroy. Faith used does.

The #1 comment I get from Christians when they find out I'm going to be working on Christian/Islamic relations in the Middle East beginning in April this year is, "But their God isn't the same as ours...is He?"
To which I assure them not only is He the same God, Muslims basically follow Christ all the way up to the cross. The difference occurs here. Muslims believe God saved Christ and he wasn't resurrected making Him a prophet, but not the Messiah. Jews reject Christ outright. He is neither the Messiah nor is He a Prophet, (making 'Judea Christian values an oxymoron. Christian values are based on the teachings of Christ. Jewish values are based on the law. The correct term, if referring to the 10 Commandments is: Monotheistic values...and these include Islam)
The resurrection is central to Christianity. Our belief that Christ, God in human form, died and rose again coupled with our belief that only by knowing and accepting Christ one can be saved is Christianity. Does that mean Muslims aren't saved? I don't know how to answer that because they do believe and follow Christ. They just don't believe He's the Messiah. They have not known Him and chosen to reject Him, (which is the only sure well to hell for a Christian; those who do not know Him cannot reject Him. This means people who were never Christian and came to know Christ can't be sent to hell automatically either. This whole John 8 thing, which is the passage stating this in the Bible is something I've never been comfortable with. It bothers me a lot. I've known a lot of amazing people who aren't Christian that I think should be heaven and a lot of so-called Christians who based upon their actions I think should be denied. Of course that goes to 'what is heaven?' An eternity in God's presence is the theological answer...which to an aethiest might be considered hell;) That's faith!

In short, Islam doesn't reject Christ, rather, like President Bush once said 'Jesus is my favorite philosopher', they've simply downgraded Him from Messiah to prophet, (while our President downgrades Him from Messiah past Prophet to mere philosopher!).
I'm looking forward to seeing this documentary. Should be interesting and hopefully it will dispel some of the mountains of misinformation circulating through the evangelical Christian community in the US...that is if they pull their heads out and put their racism aside long enough to listen...which is what Jesus would do. Enshallah...God willing, they will.

This will take you two minutes to read and leave a big smile on your face. It sums up Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and the whole mess in a very sweet, seemingly unrelated event. Enjoy!

One of the many crazy ideas out there meant to minimize or vilify Islam is that the Hijab is a symbol of female oppression by the faith. The opposite is true. In the 1880's through the beginning of the 20th century, wearing the Hijab was an act of defiance since several countries in the Middle East prohibited its wearing. Today, like the yalmuka, many of the faith choose or choose not to wear it. And like the yalmuka, some portions of society determined to enforce specific religious codes (orthodox movement in Judaism desertpeace.blogspot.com/2007/10/jewish-intifada.html [desertpeace.blogspot.com/2007/10/jewish-intifada.html] , Sharia movement in Islam, Fundamentalist movement in Christianity etc...) have made the wearing of the hijab by women mandatory. Most Islamic women thou have the choice. The hijab actually codifies the differences between doctrine and dogma eloquently. It is the same difference as faith and religion.