FAITH

KILLING STEREOTYPES

[anger may be the tone, forgive me, I am not directing my anger to you, this rant is a bit outdated, not necessarily supporting my present view on world politics]

While living in the US, I have noticed how ignorant some Americans are regarding Muslims, and Islam in general. They are quick to put judgments on accused Muslims terrorists, especially because Islamic Fundamentalism (a media fed term) is in their heads. Although some efforts to get rid of stereotypes are working, people still have the term Jihad in their heads. Let me explain Jihad the way I know it, it is the God given responsibility for every Muslim to defend his or her religion and fellow Muslims when we are under attack. That does not mean, bombing/killing everything & anyone associated with Americans or Westerners. BUT, under this definition, American Government's pushing around in the middle-east is making it the THREAT to many Muslims, so I wouldn't be surprised about repercussions.

I am tired/frustrated/bored of people stereotyping Islam as an extreme religion based on the barbaric images of the Taliban in Afghanistan & the Iranian government. The Taliban is made up of a bunch of illiterate boys who have been told to fight anti-Islamic forces (western culture) based on the interpretation of Islam by their few literate & fanatic leaders. Their interpretation is twisted enough to deny medical care for women. The Iranian government is not even as extreme as people like to make it out. They even have elections, yes elections. If you are not Muslim, you will not be judged according to Islamic Rules. PLUS, most of Iran is not made of the orthodoxy in Islam (the Sunnis), instead they are Shi'ite Muslims that represent only about 16% of the world Muslim population.  The Ayatollah has not been ruling for a while, in fact, he is dead, did you know that? Even Saudi Arabia is more strict, but that is heard of less because of obvious American interests in Saudi Arabia.

continued...

Page 1 | 2 | 3

personal faith

faith in practice

Relevant Connections

issues:
getting political

killing stereotypes

return to frontpage
previous category









© 1999

If you cannot see any text, that is because your browser's
specified colors are overriding the document colors.
This document is readable only in a
WHITE or LIGHT background color. Sorry.