Why aren't Muslims speaking out? Options

[radhikaeatsraman]

I was having a discussion with my uncle and my father about the current situation with terrorism and the Middle East. During the discussion, I kept emphasizing that the majority of Muslims are good people and probably don't support terrorists and their actions. But then they said that they're all keeping quiet, and that by doing that, they're indirectly supporting it. By ignoring it, it's going to continue.

Then, they went on to say that in order for the terrorists to commit these acts, they need money for weapons and other equipment. Who provides it? Right after 9/11, millions of Muslims across the US were caught having connections to al-Qaeda, and many of them are in prison for it.

So why aren't "good Muslims" speaking out? Is it because of fear, or are they quietly supporting it?

[sillakilla220]

I wouldn't doubt that the ratio of molesting priests is lower than the ratio of molesting teachers, yet people are calling for death to the Catholic Church, but not to education. Weird, huh?

do u have a legitimate source for this? Learn how to argue. You can't argue without facts to base your arguement on. If you try to argue without any concrete facts, people will just laugh at you.

There may be a higher ratio, i'm not gonna say one way or another cuz i wouldnt know, yet its not about numbers b/c teachers aren't supposed to take a vow to honor the Church's code, which I'm pretty sure condemns the molesting of little boys. Dont bring teachers into it anyways we're talking about priests, so you're really reaching on that one.

Just because it's their choice doesn't make it right.

I never said it was right, i just said its their choice and who are we to say whether or not its wrong? Yeah in THE BIBLE it says violence is wrong, but so wat? How can you use the standards of your religion to judge someone else, it just makes no sense.


Besides, i guess you are choosing to neglect the famous Angel of Death which god sent on the Egyptians... i'm sure most have heard of it, it was what spawned the holiday passover... so this wasn't god condemning violence? Sure it may not be written in the bible, but violence is used in christianity all the time... protestants used to kill witches in early america in the name of the bible, "heathens" and "savages" who wouldn't convert were slayed...

[*kryogenix*]

do u have a legitimate source for this? Learn how to argue. You can't argue without facts to base your arguement on. If you try to argue without any concrete facts, people will just laugh at you.

I knew you were going to try to pull this one.

So let's see you justify your claims with some kind of source, instead of using the "it's all subjective" arguement.

There may be a higher ratio, i'm not gonna say one way or another cuz i wouldnt know, yet its not about numbers b/c teachers aren't supposed to take a vow to honor the Church's code, which I'm pretty sure condemns the molesting of little boys.

And it's not against a teacher's contract to molest children? Both contracts forbid it.

Dont bring teachers into it anyways we're talking about priests, so you're really reaching on that one.

I was defending against the statement you made against priests, which is a very common misconception. I was putting things in perspective, to correct some of the propaganda you may have heard.

I never said it was right, i just said its their choice and who are we to say whether or not its wrong? Yeah in THE BIBLE it says violence is wrong, but so wat? How can you use the standards of your religion to judge someone else, it just makes no sense.

God's laws apply to everyone, believer or unbeliever. As an analogy, pretending the police aren't there doesn't mean the law doesn't apply to you.

Besides, i guess you are choosing to neglect the famous Angel of Death which god sent on the Egyptians... i'm sure most have heard of it, it was what spawned the holiday passover... so this wasn't god condemning violence? Sure it may not be written in the bible, but violence is used in christianity all the time... protestants used to kill witches in early america in the name of the bible, "heathens" and "savages" who wouldn't convert were slayed...

First of all, you're confusing justice with violence for the Angel of Death. Second, you neglect that it is God who decides if we live or die. We don't decide, which is why murder is condemned.

Finally, I don't think I can, nor do I want to) defend what the Protestants did. It doesn't really affect my belief because I am not a Protestant, and I believe the Protestants are wrong on issues outside of what they did to the Native Americans.

Soon, I will be interviewing an imam at Georgetown University, and I'm planning to respectfully raise some of these questions. Not knowing the entire Qur'an is essentially detrimental to me, the inquirer, since Muslims often respond to controversial passages by arguing that they are taken out of context. However, since I don't know the passages in context, I have no way of further investigating these issues..

I looked at Sura 9:5 and the surrounding verses, and it looked pretty much in context to me. I checked out some Islamic websites that say that the context is in wartime, but doesn't this justify jihadists who are declaring holy war on the infidels?

In addition, here's a question:
Do you believe that some of the Qur'an's meaning is twisted through translation?

Possibly. I don't know Arabic either, so I can't read the real Koran. But I've checked out various websites offering different translations, some offering side by side translation, and all pretty much say the same thing (although some say it in "nicer" words, the main idea is the kill unbelievers or enslave them).

Thanks for passing on these questions!