Moderate schools of Islam face pressure
It's worth remembering that not all of Islam is militant. In fact, most Muslims are not. In this report, students at a Sufi school in Yemen talk about their studies, and about the pressure their schools face under the eye of a critical Western world that sees the growth of al Qaeda in the area and does not understand or differentiate between types of Islam.
Here's a graphic I did just after 9/11 as part of my educational work at the Post-Star in Glens Falls, NY. We offered it to other papers and several published it in the days following that disaster. I don't know if it will blow up enough in a new window to be legible, but, if you click on it, you'll at least have a better chance of reading it.
I can't read the graphic (even when I click and open in a new window) - the type is just too small and pixelated. :-(
ReplyDeleteNo amount of reasonable talk will work unless you first debunk the lie that their religion says they must go forth and kill all infidels (non-believers). Everyone I know who fears Muslims believes this lie that is repeatedly passed around in email and posted on conservative blogs.
I don't think the problem is that everyone believes that all Muslims want to kill all infidels.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem is that it is very difficult to figure out which Muslims do want to kill all infidels and which Muslims are normal people like the rest of us. Thus the pressure....
Well, Dann, most Muslims probably have a hard time telling the screwballs from the "normal" people among Christians, too. Come to think of it, so do I, much of the time. But I accept that the guys who want to blow up the towers "and let Allah sort them out" are different than the Harry Potter-loving Malaysian artist who created Nellie Bly and the Newshound for me.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing uglier than bigotry is violent bigotry. And that sword cuts both ways.
Only when it is swung both ways.
ReplyDelete