Comments for From Rauf to Left at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 11 out of 11 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:27:12 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4844 Thank you Ms Melonic- I acually saw Zuhdi Jasser once and he was very reasonable, If he represents large numbers that would be good. Thanks for the other ideas, I will look into them. Pax et bonum, Achilles - Achilles Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:26:58 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4843 Thank you all for the comments. @Achilles: I completely understand your frustrations, as I share them as well. As for resources, try "The Other Muslims: Moderate and Secular," edited by Zeyno Baran. I must admit, it's not the best. For example, some essays criticize the Catholic Church and not with proper evidence at all. This is MY BIGGEST disagreement with these "moderate" Muslims (by the way, I have always called myself simply a Muslim, without any prefixes, moderate or otherwise). But the book has some good points and differentiates between political Islam and religious/spiritual Islam. Also, check out the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, led by Zuhdi Jasser (www.aifdemocracy.org). They seem to be about real dialogue. Stephen Schwartz of The Weekly Standard writes on Islam, and is pretty objective on the issue (he is a Muslim convert). I am sorry I cannot offer more resources at this point that I consider to be good. Hopefully more will come up. - Emina Melonic Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:14:14 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4835 Emina, I enjoyed your perspective and you have shed a new light on a complicated situation. If everyone were to look @ this matter with your insight we would all be much better off. - Melonic, too Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:31:03 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4834 Dear Miss Melonic, I see you are from Bosnia, rather than from what we used to call the "Near East"--Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, etc.. I would be interested in knowing whether the Muslims of Bosnia have been more influenced by European statecraft and culture than have the people of those Near Eastern countries, and whether that might have made you more amenable to western ideas of the nature of the modern nation-state. I think that you can appreciate the dilemma of Americans who want to trust and to believe that Muslims are capable of living in a culture where "mosque and state" are not one and the same. Americans are, for the most part, trusting people and always ready to extend a welcoming hand but who daily see the fruits of Islam in beheadings, stonings, public floggings, poverty, lack of education, religious intolerance, abuse of women (my son worked for a U.S. Senator in his Michigan office, and he continually heard of Muslim men complaining vociferously that they were arrested unjustly for beating their wives), and finally the unspeakable viciousness of 9/11/01. How can we be expected to respect Islam or to take it at its word? Islam and the cultures it spawns have not shown us anything to respect in the last 500 years. Americans have paid dearly in blood and treasure to rescue untold numbers from the dictatorships of Europe and Asia. We have occupied no country longer than it took to put the defeated country back on its feet, we have emptied no museums, stolen no treasure, imposed no language, impoverished no peoples. However, we have been invaded-- overtly on 9/11, and covertly through lax immigration policies, and I believe that we simply do not know how to protect ourselves. We certainly don't like to use the obvious means necessary to protect ourselves. They go against our principles as a nation. I think that we have, first of all, to be realistic about Islam and Muslim culture, when we find ourselves with an enormous Muslim population that we didn't even know was there. And, second of all, I think that it is up to Islam to prove itself. The onus of proof is on Muslims, and I think that will be a long and difficult road for Muslims to travel. - Louise Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:46:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4833 Dear Ms. Melonic, Thank you for a wonderful and thoughtful essay. With such openness from you, I will expose my ignorance. I have heard much talk of moderate Muslims and how this vast and overwhelming majority oppose the terror, violence and the obvious intolerance and incongruence from terrorist Muslims, but I have only heard vague platitudes of condemnation reminiscent of Rauf’s double speak, particularly in saying “we condemn the killing of innocents!” while in other contexts implying that no Christians are innocent. I find this disturbing and would love to learn that I am mistaken and that a vast majority do find terror and killing and suicide bombing abhorrent and unacceptable. With such deafening silence coming from so called moderate Muslims, one would not have to be a registered card carrying member of the KKK to be mistaken about the heart of Islam. I hope my ignorance is not too offensive to you, but maybe you could point me to some explanatory resources. Sincerely Achilles - Achilles Wed, 08 Sep 2010 09:03:29 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4831 Thank you Emina, so well put and and eye opener for those of us who find the structure a confusing political enigma. - Marguerite Wed, 08 Sep 2010 07:51:20 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4830 This is one of the best analyses of the situation I've seen. And I was happy to hear of the childhood experiences you had, which contrast starkly with some biographies of ex-Muslims I have read. I have a feeling that many critics left and right have no knowledge of the Koran or the Hadiths, and just put it in the generic category of "religion." - Howard Kainz Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:38:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4829 Emina, Important but not explicit, though suggested by your introduction and maybe by your education at the end, is your current profession. I appreciate your perspective in any case. I find myself more in line with R. R. Reno, wondering why it matters so much to some. I understand the symbolism argument but I think the symbolism is ambiguous, not clear in anyone's favor. I find great sadness with the liberal argument that those who do not agree with them are bigots and equal sadness with the argument from some on the right that Islam is not worthy. In the end, I side with Jody Bottum, this is to be worked out by the mess we call democracy. - Mike Melendez Wed, 08 Sep 2010 05:05:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4828 Thank you, Emina Melonic, for your words. The "still, small voice" of the truth is often difficult to hear. A tactic par excellence of Satan is to drown out the voices of holy persons, using noisy slogans and violence. We need to know and understand peaceful Muslims; how they have been able to separate the wheat of true faith from the errors that are of human origin. Only God is good. - Ars Artium Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:49:27 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4827 The left's view of the Crusades seems somewhat selective also. Despite the unjustifiable atrocities and deviations that crept in, some would see them overall as a justified response to overwhelming aggression, not an unprovoked attack on a weak adversary. - RJ Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:05:02 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/from-rauf-to-left.html#comment-4826 Emina: The dialogue required is not between Muslims and people who are not Muslims. The slaughter of innocents the world over is being done by Muslims as Islamic religious acts. If Islam is to have any place as a world religion deserving of respect then it will have to confront this evil itself. So far there is no indication that it is willing to do so. There is no condemnation of the evil Islamic believers are doing in the name of Islam by so called moderate Muslims and so the slaughter continues. - Quaecumque Vera Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:00:13 +0100