Wrong conclusion: Pathans are a fiercely independent nation. This quality is based on their culture and not coming from the religion. Billions of dollars worth of weaponary was provided to them which produced the results it produced. Had there been a religion based war in Afghanistan, it would have stopped the moment Russians stepped out of the country.
*As you can see faith being a powerful tool among muslims is not new at all. The world has seen it and has used it to its own designs for 20 years easily. As for the Hijab thing. To break a society is to make them conform to yours. Have you not noticed how the western media keeps attacking Islamic values, culture and traditions? It is just that. Faith is a very powerful tool. The hijab is a mark of religious conservativeness and faith. To weaken that faith you have a law where you have to take off the hijab in schools. I am not really sure how muslim women are dealing with it in France. An opinion on the matter would be a great read.
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Are Muslims countries any better?
Are we afraid of their faith as well? As an example, in one of the better performing Islamic country Malaysia, up to very recently it was not allowed to publish Bible. How about the persecution of minorities in majority of Islamic countires? What are we afraid of?
** The fear for Islam was already there. You just needed terrorist around to make it acceptible. The reason they fear Islam is because Muslims do not assimilate or intergrate. Thus islamic vlalues and customs remain and the western customs will become the miniority in 50 to 80 years.
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Where does the Islamic values and customs remain? In Afghanistan?? In Yemen?? In Somalia?? In Sudan?? In Arab world?? Where does it remain??
These terrorist have made big rifts inside the Muslim communities and countries? We are no better than the U.S. when it says, "Either you are with us or you are a terrorist". Muslims are thinking on the same lines, "If we are not with these terrorists, are we infidels?" These terrorists have done more harm to Muslim faith than any infidel could do".
Yes you are right, many people in Australia are also scared of Islam. It is because of your secrecy and the fact that you set yourelves apart from other religions.
I like your beliefs I think they are wonderful but come out and share with the rest of us. Let us see that the majority of Muslims are good honest loving people. I know I have met some..
Catty, here in the US, almost all religious groups have schools. Near where I stay, there are Christian churches, Buddhist temples, Muslim mosques and Hindu temples and all of these institutions conduct "Sunday schools".
It is not a fear of Islam but a fear of murderers. You know how well the Palestinians hate Israelis and the US. That is because they are subject to bombings and police brutality. The same goes for Israelis.
Lot of Muslims never condemn these killings outright. This probably makes the other think that this is what they support. Take for instance the riots in Gujarat. If you were talking to a Hindu about these riots and he says, “Hey, it was a bad thing but the Muslims started it”; what would you think. I would think that this person does not care if Muslims die as long as the score is tied.
The only people who think along those lines are Hizbut-Tehrir people and to my knowledge they have been regarded as non-violent, non-terrorist organization by Brit govt.
Majority of “Muslims” want to spend good life and maintain good balance in religion, nobody wants to shove “Islam” down “infidels” throat.
There is no “secrecy” in Islam, its not a cult like Masonry. Islam is open for all to study and learn, but don’t look at Muslims to understand Islam because there is lots of “customization”, “pick and choose” and you don’t get the true picture God wanted.
There isn’t as much secrecy as there is avoidance to integrate. Normally people avoid because they are afraid they may lose their own belief system/identity. Quite a negative approach and lack of confidence in what you beleive in.
Otherwise integrating is the first step towards welcoming diversity.
Any dimwit who doesn’t share what he believes in..walks in the room with intentions to blow himself up and everyone else along with him
..hey! I would be VERY afraid of teh arsehole..not what he claims to believe in.
The fundamental conflict is in the way certain people feel that Islam dictates how they should behave.
Many years before 9/11 when the word jihad was not taboo in the US, a Pakistani student at my univ said that according to his religion, he is required to take up arms if he feels that there is injustice. Now this is simply in direct contradiction to the citizenship contract of a modern nation state. When you take citizenship of a country like the US or Canada, you basically agree that the government has the monopoly on violence and only the government has a right to use force. However, the new strain of ideas spreading among young Muslims in the West says that they can take arms if they feel that their government is wrong. This interpretation of Islam is basically destructive to the nation state concept.
^ Instilling fear is necessary in order to mantain a balance, and to have people respect you and your values. With people not fearing you, you can easily be exploited by other nations. History is full of such examples.
As far as terrorism is concerned its a major tactic, used through out the times and is still being used today, by both the West and in the Islamic world.
I had a recent discussion with my american friends about this.
They told me that they know of no other faith than islam that has such strong/passionate adherents. It is something they admitted to not understanding. (They were Christian but not that religious.)
They also had a great fear of a Caliphate that would unite muslims. They said that they think some of Islam's laws are inhumane and that Islam mistreats women. They also fear that a Caliphate could lead to tyranny because of this. They feel a bad ruler would never be thrown out of the Caliphate and would subjugate and tyrannize the land. They were also afraid that most muslims believe in suicide bombings. They said they had this opinion due to the media. Mind you, these people were in their 40's+ that I was talking to.
They believe ijtihad would be abandoned (I explained to them what this is).
These were their views. I spoke in length with them about this and finally one of them said that it is the right of the muslims to have a Caliphate if they so choose but they still felt that people would be living in fear under such a system. Therefore, their impression is that Islam is oppressive. sigh
The only people who think along those lines are Hizbut-Tehrir people and to my knowledge they have been regarded as non-violent, non-terrorist organization by Brit govt.