Know Islam, No Peace
Okay...time to talk about losing my mind again. First...follow the link below to see the latest face of madness in our public schools.
Know Islam, No Peace
Come on back when you're done...
Okay, who else is absolutely repulsed, disgusted, and stupified by what they just read? I am all for being tolerant of religious practice...and even including information about the world's religions in school. History demands as much. Religion is a very important driving force in the development of mankind and is chiefly responsible for today's world situation. But somewhere we've lost our way. The thought of my child kneeling on a prayer rug and actually reading Islamic prayers is not just crossing a line...it's demolishing it.
What is to be gained by having children follow the lead of their liberal-minded teachers and invoke Islamic prayer in school? Wouldn't it be just as easy to show them videos or even pictures from a Islamic service? Or to simply read and discuss the different practices for the major world religions?
I'm at a loss for words here...I simply don't know what to say other than I find this practice to be so over-the-top as to be actionable against districts that have indulged their liberal staffs in implementing this.
I'm open to comment on this one.
Puzzled on the high ground!
MajorDad1984
posted by MajorDad @ 10/24/2004 08:33:00 PM
2 Comments:
Of course a rational-thinking Christian parent would be horrified to learn the schools were training their children to be terrorists by forcing strange and dangerous ideas on impressionable minds. That makes complete sense to me. I understand why you're upset.
But please don't tell me you believe this. That this biased, inflammatory, sensationalistic piece of psuedo-journalism is resonating within you as truth. That, perhaps, is the scariest thing of all.
I not going to convince you to change your opinion, and I respect your right to an opinion that may not match mine. And may I also add that there are tenents in Islam that I do not support or agree with, such as the Koran's attitude towards women. But it terrifies me immensely that we, the Western world, who preach open-mindedness and freedom of speech above all, are so naively hostile towards an entire group of people.
Islam, at its fundamental level, is about one thing: one person's relationship with their God. Everything around them - their relationships with their friends and family, their work, their lives - should be an extension of this singular committed relationship with their God. To hurt, betray, insult, or kill another person, for any reason, is to hurt, betray, insult or kill God. Mohammad, their prophet, speaks of tolerance, forgiveness, and gentle reflection when faced with conflict. Turning the other cheek is the most holy act of all.
But, like EVERY religion practiced on this planet in the history of man, including Christianity, it is interpretable, and suddenly the ramblings of a few danerous and psycopathic radicals defines the faith in the eyes of the world. Islam is suddenly a dirty word, dangerous, a threat to everything good.
The Islam we've seen practiced by bin Laden and Hussein is the equivalent of the Crusaders: people who use their beliefs to justify incomprehensibly inhumane actions. But much like we now recognize the Crusades as not being representative of the true nature of Christianity, it's time that we stop painting all Moslims with the bloodied brush of a few.
Oh, and for the record: this "jihad" everyone's talking about? the 99 black-eyed virgins promised to anyone who kills an infidel in the name of Islam? female circumcision? Not only doesn't any of it appear in the Koran, but Mohammad speaks out AGAINST it. Jihad is holy war, yes, but in much the same way as Judaism and Christianity defines it.
We were attacked because the attackers hate us. We attacked them back because we hate them. As the battles escalate, the lines blur: the few become representative of the many. Americans who, five years ago would've cheered for peace, now justify the deaths of 100,000 Iraqi people as insignificant collatoral damage in an important ethical war. Average Iraqi people turn insurgent and kill innocent humanitarian workers and mutilate the bodies of their enemies. Palestinians murder innocent Israelis because any Israeli death is a victory in a desperate war. Isrealis push buildings down on senior citizens and children because they are related to bombers.
It is no wonder that so many people are scared by and angry at Islam, much as it is no wonder that so many people associated the peaceful, family-oriented tenents of Christianity with extreme evangelistic ignorance and intolerance. Both miss the point of the faith entirely, and are extremely dangerous. My advice to both sides is to stop reading misguided crap like the article posted here immediately, and seek debate friends of every possible colour, size and shape.
Anonymous only because I don't have a blog,
Erika
Wow...taken to task a month after writing something...I'm happy!
Upon re-reading the "Know Islam - No Peace" article, and then what I wrote...along with some of the comments, I guess it's time to update a few things.
I guess I'm somewhat at a loss when liberals and the ACLU have taken the separation of church (Christianity) and state (anything remotely funded by anything without private funds) clause to such outrageous ends...yet we seem to find the time and the place for such "lessons" for other religions.
Call it a problem with "equal time"...but who's to say that the next special interest religous group that wants to come into the mix are the "Druids"...."Wiccans"....etc. While I'm unhappy with the liberal side's view of Christianity and their goal of taking religion out of the schools...if religion doesn't belong in school (according to them) then neither does the teaching of Mohammed, Bhudda, or whomever.
I understand that it's important to know about the other folks that inhabit this planet...but we've come to a conclusion, albeit an incorrect one.
The other problem I had with the lessons was the ages of the students. If you're going to teach this kind of material, I'd much rather see it done at a later time in the education process, perhaps in high school. The opinions of third graders about the relative goodness or badness of a religion in irrelevent.
Sheesh!
From the high ground...
MajorDad1984
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