Quotes about Muslim

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion
or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all. I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world or the next, did not descend from Adam or Eve or any
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body or soul.
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.

Western universals is dangerous to the world because it could lead to a major intercivilizational war between core states and it is dangerous to the West because it could lead to defeat of the West. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Westerners see their civilization in a position of unparalleled dominance, while at the same time weaker Asian, Muslim, and other societies are beginning to gain strength.

I have never found a problem with people from different religions
praying together. What I have found is that people are just hungry
for God, and be they Christian or Muslim we invite them to pray with
us. 

Perhaps the West will be able to facilitate a transformation of the Muslin worlds by applying outside pressure.  It will not be enough, however, for the United States and a few European countries to take a hard line while the rest of Europe and Asia sell advanced weaponry and “dual-use” nuclear reactors to all comers.  To achieve the necessary economic leverage, so that we stand a chance of waging this war of ideas by peaceful means, the development of alternative energy technologies should become the new Manhattan Project.  There are, needless to say, sufficient economic and environmental justifications for doing this, but there are political ones as well.  If oil were to become worthless, the dysfunction of the most prominent Muslim societies would suddenly grow as conspicuous as the sun.  Muslims might then come to see the wisdom of moderating their thinking on a wide variety of subjects.  Otherwise, we will be obliged to protect our interests in the world with force – continually.  In this case, it seems all but certain that our newspapers will begin to read more and like the book of Revelation.  

[Gives a recent example of Saudi Prince Abdullah trying to allow woman to drive and being forced to back down.]

            There is no doubt that out collusion with Muslim tyrants – in Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Iran, Egypt, and elsewhere – has been despicable.  We have done nothing to discourage the mistreatment and outright slaughter of tens of thousands of Muslims by their own regimes – regimes that, in many cases, we helped bring to power.  Our failure to support the Shiite uprising in southern Iraq in 1991, which we encouraged, surely ranks among the most unethical and consequential foreign policy blunders of recent decades.  But our culpability on this front must be bracketed by the understanding that were democracy to suddenly come to these countries, it would be little more than a gangplank to theocracy.  There does not seem to anything within the principles of Islam by which to resist the slide into sharia (Islamic law), while there is everything to encourage it.  This is a terrible truth that we have to face: the only thing that currently stands between us and the roiling oceans of Muslim unreason is a wall of tyranny and human rights abuses that we have helped to erect.  This situation must be remedied, but we cannot merely force Muslim dictators from power and open the polls.  It would be like opening the polls to the Christians of the fourteenth century.

Prayers are designed to raise God-consciousness five times a day, throughout one’s life.  Prayers also provide regular exercise – like yoga or Tai Chi or Qigong built into the day – and serve as a calming retreat from the daily demands of life.  Muslims thus learn to balance deeni wa dunyavi  (the spiritual and the worldly).  They can’t abandon one for the other; that’s the essence of their faith.

Regarding the Hijab debate.

          For all the emphasis that today’s clerics put on the Prophet’s war record, he spent a total of less than a week in actual battle in the twenty-three years of his prophethood.  He advised his followers to “be moderate in religious matters, for excess caused the destruction of earlier communities.”  A moderate himself, he smiled often, spoke softly and delivered brief sermons.

            “The prophet disliked ranting and raving,” wrote Imam Bukhari, the ninth-century Islamic scholar of the Prophet’s sayings.  Ayesha, the Prophet’s wife, reported that “he spoke so few words that you could count them.”  His most famous speech, during the Haj pilgrimage in AD 632, which laid down an entire covenant, was less than 2,800 words (see The Sermon that Changed the World).

            Muhammed was respectful of Christians and Jews.  Hearing the news that the King of Ethiopia had died, he told his followers, “A righteous man has died today; so stand up and pray for your brother.”  When a Christian delegation came to Medina, he invited them to conduct their service in the mosque, saying, “This place is consecrated to God.”  When Saffiyah, one of his wives, complained that she was taunted for her Jewish origins, he told her, “Say unto them, ‘my father is Aaron, and my uncle is Moses.’”

            Yet angry Muslims, not unlike African Americans not to long ago, pay little heed to voices of moderation.  This is partly a reflection of the fact that there is no central religious authority in Islam.  Only the minority Shiites have a religious hierarchy of ayatollahs, who instruct followers on religious and sometimes political matters.  The majority Sunnis do not have the equivalent of the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury.  A central tenet of their faith is that there is no intermediary between the believer and God.  This makes for great democracy – everyone is free to issue a fatwa (religious ruling) and everyone else is free to ignore it. But the “fatwa chaos” does create confusion – among non-Muslims, who are spooked by the red-hot rhetoric, and also among Muslims, who are left wondering about the “right answers” to some of the most pressing issues of the day.

The Qur’an is being studied for clues to the militant Muslim mind.  There was no such rush to buy the Bible or the Torah when some Afrikaners or Serbs or Jewish settlers were justifying their actions in the name of fulfilling their God’s mission.  Even more instructive of our troubled times is the anti-Islamists are quoting the Qur’an, selectively and out of context, exactly as Osama Bin Laden does – they to “prove” that Islam is a militant faith and he to justify his murders.  What are we to make of this axis of evil?

The tendency to see all Muslims as one prompts the media and even government to demand, Who speaks for the Muslims?  The answer is that, as with other religions, many groups and organizations do, depending on religious, social or political requirements.  The range of Muslim views is, arguably, wider.  Muslims come from different regions, races, nations, ethnicities and cultures, speak different languages, follow strict or liberal interpretations of Islam, or don’t follow any at all, though they consider themselves Muslim.  While a diversity of voices in other religious communities is considered normal, In Muslims it is seen as exasperating proof of divisiveness and disarray.

    After the "Hellos" and the "Good days", there was an awkward silence. The priest broke it when he said, with pride in his voice, "Piscine is a good Christian boy. I hope to see him join our choir soon."

    My parents, the pandit and the imam looked surprised.

    "You must be mistaken. He's a good Muslim boy. He comes without fail to Friday prayer, and his knowledge of the Holy Qur'an is coming along nicely." So said the imam.

    My parents, the priest and the pandit looked incredulous.

    The pandit spoke. "You're both wrong. He's a good Hindu boy. I see him all the time at the temple coming for darshan and performing puja."

    My parents, the imam and priest looked astounded.

    "There is no mistake," said the priest. "I know this boy. He is Piscine Molitor Patel and he's a Christian."

    "I know him too, and I tell you he's a Muslim," asserted the imam.

    "Nonsense!" cried the pandit. "Piscene was born a Hindu, lives a Hindu and will die a Hindu!"

    The three wise men stared at each other, breathless and disbelieving.

    Lord, avert their eyes from me, I whispered in my soul.

    All eyes fell upon me.