As I have stated in previous writings I believe that it is inherently wrong to stereotype or judge any ethnic group for the crimes of a few. However, this has been a problem for American society from the 1600s when innocent men and women were hung as witches to the 1950s when fellow Japanese Americans were interned in internment camps because of their nationality until today when we judge Muslims as terrorists because of the actions of a few.

Sadly, nothing has changed in all these years. Americans still want a scapegoat to target, an ethnic or religious group to blame for their fear. However, if one will just look at the ordinary Muslim and the factual teachings of the Quran they will see that while culturally different these people, on the whole, are not violent. They bleed and hurt just like you and I when their loved ones are massacred in the name of Jihad, which does not even mean a “holy war” as portrayed by the terrorist. In Arabic it actually means a struggle against one’s baser instincts and has nothing to do with attacking the Western World.

From the http://www.islamfortoday.com/adi08.htm website one can learn the teachings of Muslim. It provides insights from Imam Tamman Adi of the Islamic Cultural Center of Eugene, Oregon and explains how the Quran looks at War.

From this site I learned that On May 11, 2003, Imam wrote that the concept of war was mentioned only six times in the Quran first being mentioned in a reference to God and his messenger declaring a spiritual war on the rich who make money by unproductive financial transactions. He then adds that the Quran then goes on to ask creditors to give debtors time to pay off their debt or to even forgive them their debt.

The second mention of war comes up when God praises Abel for not fighting back when Cain murdered him and decrees that killing one soul is like killing all humanity, with God condemning mass murder by calling it a war against law and order. Within this context the only exceptions made are in regards to killing in self defense and court ordered execution of a murderer when the victim’s family does not forgive.

The third reference is in regards to certain groups who will keep trying to kindle a fire of war, and God promising to put it out. 

With that in mind Muslims who attempt to honor the Quran can only fight back in self defense against nations that attack them and even then they have to stick to very strict rules of self defense. The Quran even admonishes Muslim that they may only kill those that they confront in battle to protect themselves and that mass murder because of religion is worse than plain killing. So while terrorists spout the Quran as their defense for their actions true Muslims prefer the use of international non-lethal pressure to protect themselves. Inman also clarifies another misconception and that is that Muslims do not worship another God than the one true God. Allah is just the Arabic word for God and like the Jewish people they take their beliefs back to their father Abraham. Interestingly, Jihad is intended to call for national freedom of religion and unbeknownst to most Americans is that Islam’s main proclamation is that there should be “No compulsion in religion” (Quran 2:255).

In other words, deviations from the Islamic norm are cultural or political biases not based on Islam. For information on Islam that will calm your fears of a religion that is unfamiliar to you see either the above web site or: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3059365.stm

My advice to Americans is to become educated on the culture that frightens you to prevent a modern day holocaust against a peace loving people.

[tags]Muslims, holocaust, witches, terrorists, Quran, Jihad, Inman, Inman Tamman Adi, Middle East, American Muslims, Muslim cultural values, current events, [/tags]