tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post2999013876624393221..comments2024-03-19T13:11:49.614-07:00Comments on Save Send Delete: What I Learned from Talking about Islam on Facebook D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-78536734084742457392013-07-15T07:12:27.901-07:002013-07-15T07:12:27.901-07:00Only saw this now. Thank you.
No, I do not agree...Only saw this now. Thank you. <br /><br />No, I do not agree with those who equate Islam with Nazism. That's complete hyperbole. It's also ignorant and unhelpful. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Liron Rubinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-20204396686448455282013-07-12T05:14:35.971-07:002013-07-12T05:14:35.971-07:00Liron I very much appreciate your ability to see t...Liron I very much appreciate your ability to see the similarities between Mizrahi culture and Arab culture. <br /><br />And I am saddened to read of the fate of your aunt. God bless her and your family. D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-66191870923229362532013-07-12T05:10:36.070-07:002013-07-12T05:10:36.070-07:00Liron, in another internet environment, some frien...Liron, in another internet environment, some friends and I are discussing this post. <br /><br />Some are making the point that there is no difference between Islam and Nazism.<br /><br />I disagreed. I said that Nazi Germany murdered thousands of Jews per day, in accord with Nazi ideology, and that the Third Reich expanded its territory several fold in just five years.<br /><br />I wonder if you would care to comment on this equation of Islam with Nazism. D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-82505709255609445522013-07-12T04:46:58.503-07:002013-07-12T04:46:58.503-07:00This is an excellent, excellent post.
Some though...This is an excellent, excellent post.<br /><br />Some thoughts:<br /><br />Often, when I hear people in the US and in Israel make nasty, mean-spirited remarks about Muslims, my protests are met with, “You just don’t know. Muslins did this or that to my relative, my friend, my people.” That was how an acquaintance in LA, an Armenian, responded after I took her to task for something she said about teaching Muslims math: “Ahmed wants to blow up three buildings and kill 15 Jews . . .” You get the idea. <br /><br />I grew up hearing my own mother badmouth Islam, although with her it was never nasty or personal—my Muslim friends were treated with the same warmth and hospitality that she extended to anyone who entered her home. My mother is a Mizrahi Jew whose pregnant sister was butchered by Palestinian terrorists in 1974, heartbreak from which she and her siblings never truly recovered. Whenever she unleashes one of her sweeping condemnations of Muslims or Arabs, I remind her that the culture in which she was brought up (Mizrahi culture) is similar to Arab culture in not a few ways: the love of family, the emphasis on hospitality, the eagerness to laugh, the excellent food. “But that’s not the point,” she’ll say. “We do not wage holy war. We do not blow up buses and restaurants. They broke my parents’ lives.” And, inevitably: “We do not stab and kill pregnant women.” <br /><br />How does one respond to this? How does one convince another to look beyond her own heartache and the narrow confines of her own personal experience? <br /><br />Re: Israel and the Left. You can criticize this country without being an anti-Semite—I criticize this country all the time—but there’s no denying the fact that many of the self-righteous leftists who so eagerly denounce the Israeli military for, say, retaliating when Jihadists launch missiles into civilian areas, are, in fact, anti-Semites. And the truly astonishing thing about these spoiled, bourgeois apologists is their willingness to defend vile dictatorships, e.g., Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran, under which they could not live for even a day. Said apologists will often masquerade as “human rights activists” or “anti-war activists,” refusing to understand that the best way to prevent war is to let those who want to kill you and yours know that you have weapons and that you will not hesitate to use them should it become necessary. The person who says this firmly and unapologetically is, in my opinion, the true anti-war activist. When I pointed this out to a self-styled pro-Palestinian activist in San Francisco, I was called—you guessed it—a Nazi. And how liberating it must be to call a Jew a Nazi! <br /><br />Re: Israel and Muslims. Israel has long served as a whipping boy for Muslims (mind, not all Muslims) who, looking at the dearth of achievements in their own countries, respond with rage at the existence in the region of a country whose path has been very, very different. Often, you’ll hear these people blame Israel for this dearth of meaningful achievements, to which I always respond with this: How has Israel prevented, say, Saudi Arabia from actually doing something useful with its enormous wealth? Why is it that Saudi Arabia has contributed exactly nothing to science, to literature, to, well, anything--even to Islam? Is Israel at fault for this, or is there something about Islam that discourages the pursuit of knowledge? The same goes for Pakistan: Why is that country still wallowing in ignorance and hatred while neighboring India, an equally poor country, is now a player on the world stage? It’s much easier to blame the Jews, I guess, than it is to look inwards and ask some tough but necessary questions, e.g., why is my county’s most bragged-about celebrity Mr. A.Q. Khan? <br /><br />I could go on. <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /><br /> <br /><br />Liron Rubinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-27192580265946976622013-07-11T18:26:34.269-07:002013-07-11T18:26:34.269-07:00Maria Elena Gonzalez wrote:
"I loved your ar...Maria Elena Gonzalez wrote:<br /><br />"I loved your article. Growing up and going to school on the west side of Paterson, I have met and befriended many Muslim people. Many of my best friends from grade school & high school are Muslim and some of the most wonderful people I know. I hate when people group them all together and speak ill of them, just as people tend to stereotype any ethnicity, race, or other groups of people. The whole idea that after the attack on the World Trade Center, Muslims were shunned and disrespected boggles my mind. I would hear accounts on how Muslims were treated all throughout America and I would be appalled simply because people were being judged by looks alone. <br /><br />Certainly I don't agree with certain customs, and don't think it's fair that I've lost some of my most valued male friends because they decided to become more devout in their Muslim religion, but I respect them for making that decision and in my heart, I will always love and remember them for the friendship they gave me growing up. I have no qualms with anyone of any religion, and the only questions I ask about religions are questions that will allow me to understand the religions better, simply because I am curious and want to know more."D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-48752843478366752042013-07-11T17:58:08.306-07:002013-07-11T17:58:08.306-07:00From Joe Carey:
Very well written. And reflects m...From Joe Carey:<br /><br />Very well written. And reflects my sentiment. I've had many good, fruitful conversations with Muslims, and often when we are done the Muslim will ask ME to pray for him!! A Muslim asking a Christian to pray for him? What you said is what I try to help Christians understand as I speak at churches around the nation. Even within Christian churches, many have a difficult time separating the ideology (Islam) from the people (Muslims) and incorrectly lump both together. <br /><br />Yes, Islam deserves to be critiqued, as does every ideology which makes claims of truth. Indeed, all truth claims deserve to be challenged to determine if they are, in fact, true! And there is a great deal within the ideology of Islam that is being and should be challenged and held accountable for. But Muslims are not Islam; Muslims are people, and deserve the same level of respect as all people. I prefer to see Muslims as the primary victims of the lies contained within Islam; Muslims are victims! Muslims are not the enemy. The enemy is an evil ideology that has captivated the minds of 1.8 billion humans.<br /><br />Even those who do evil in the name of Islam do not commit those evil acts because they are evil people. They do those things because they believe with all sincerity that's what their deity requires to achieve eternal bliss in paradise. Muslims are after the same thing Christians seek: an eternal life free from punishment in hell and in eternal bliss. The problem is they have the wrong message. We cannot fault the people for sticking to their sincerely held beliefs; our responsibility as Christians is to show them they have been misled and deceived.<br /><br />Hate Muslims? Not a chance!! Nuke them all and let God sort it out? That's not what Jesus would say.<br /><br />“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them." Luke 6:32<br /><br />“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you ..." Luke 6:27D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-5750474818679279432013-07-11T17:20:29.048-07:002013-07-11T17:20:29.048-07:00I've been told that the numbers about Israel a...I've been told that the numbers about Israel are incorrect. I should say I got them from a reference librarian. If someone would like to offer corrected numbers, please do. D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-89578735018518699362013-07-11T17:20:16.219-07:002013-07-11T17:20:16.219-07:00am going to respectfully agree to disagree with mo... am going to respectfully agree to disagree with most of this except on one crucial point. We do need to keep this discussion civil and informed. When people see the atrocities committed by muslims in accordance with their belief system, it takes nerves of steel to not use the language that you described. I have no muslim friends. I have no intention of acquiring any. As long as they are committed to my destruction as a woman, a gay person, a free American, there is no reason for me to have them for friends. When islam and it's adherents are criticzed, I will not offer a word of defense, ever. This is a cross that THEY must bear, I have my own. I can be friends with former muslims, BECAUSE their rejection of islam also means their acceptance of my God given right to breathe. None of us are perfect, we all fall short of God's glory. In the fifty years that I have been on this earth I would venture to guess that there has been more hatred of me as an openly gay person, than every muslim on the planet has ever experienced, AND I have never bombed, beheaded, or acid attacked a single person.<br />about an hour ago <br /><br />Patti YorkAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com