Islamic extremism has been a hot topic lately, fueling debates about the erection of a mosque at Ground Zero and a Gainesville, Fla., church’s planned public burning of Qurans.
In the midst of these hot topics, it’s easy to overlook the thoughts and feelings of our university’s significant Muslim community.
Many of you may not know we are in the midst of a Muslim holiday, Ramadan — during which practitioners abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual relations from dawn until sunset for a whole month.
This fast is meant to bring Muslims closer to God.
Our predominantly Christian campus may appreciate this, as fasting is an important spiritual aspect of many denominations.
In celebration of Ramadan, the OU Muslim Student Association will put on its annual Think Fast challenge Wednesday to educate students about this holiday and their faith.
The challenge asks students to commit one day to what Muslims go through for an entire month. Students are further challenged to donate the money they would spend on food and drink to the Oklahoma Food Bank.
This doesn’t sound like the work of nefarious, America-hating terrorists.
At 7 p.m. students are invited to come to the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Ballroom to celebrate the end of the day’s fast.
We strongly encourage students from all different backgrounds and faiths to participate in these events and start a dialogue of understanding with Muslim students.
It’s easy to take a few verses out of context from any faith’s holy book and use those as evidence for a faith’s supposed lean toward violence. In our online comments section, we’ve noticed people pulling verses from both the Quran and The Bible to prove that both can be interpreted as violent and intolerant religions.
However, we feel the perception of a religion should be based on the actions of most of its practitioners, rather than on cherry-picked verses from each holy book.
Many who are suspicious of Islam point to the Sept. 11 attacks as evidence enough of the religion’s practitioners, but if you take a step back and observe the whole picture, the actions of the great majority of the world’s Muslims do not agree with the extremists.
In 2006, Gallup conducted the most extensive public opinion poll of the global Muslim population. It revealed that only about 7 percent of the world’s 1.57 billion Muslims agree with the views of Islamic extremists. And it was concluded only about 1 percent can actually be considered militants.
The study reveals many similarities in opinion between the world’s Muslims and American citizens, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
When asked what they admired most about America, Muslims around the world responded its democracy and technology — the same response Americans gave.
Concerning what they disliked most about the West, Muslims responded “moral decay” and the “breakdown of traditional values” — the most common response among Americans as well.
Islam has suffered distortion in the media because of a small number of extremists. During this Ramadan, put away your preconceived notions and attend the Think Fast celebrations.
We’re certain you’ll witness a loving community of tolerant Muslims who aren’t much different from you.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
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Arafat 1 year, 8 months ago
Here is some information for those who want to learn about Islam. The information contained in this link includes direct quotes from the Koran and Hadiths, as well as historical information on Mohammed’s life. If one is interested, click on the tabs at the top of the website. For instance there is a tab marked “Issues”. This section of the website contains information explaining why Islam is unique among all the major religions in that it glorifies those who murder non-Muslims. No other religion glorifies killers. If you are interested in why this is so, check out this section. This website also contains information on why Ramadan is typically the period in Islam where violence against non-Muslims reaches a peak. I think for those who are genuinely interested in Islam this website will be invaluable.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
dargus 1 year, 8 months ago
Those quotes sounds a lot like ones from the Judeo-Christian texts. Arafat, I noticed you vanished from the other thread once I posted the Biblical verses making the killing of non-believers part of Hebraic Law.
TheJR 1 year, 8 months ago
Saddening to see that after reading an article about understanding and dispelling preconceived notions, the first comment is dedicated to hatred. The ignorance of some just amazes me.
mustafa 1 year, 8 months ago
Islam was concocted hundreds of years after Christianity joined Judaism as a powerful world force and was deliberately constructed for no other reason as an expression of hatred and to generate conflict.
Arafat 1 year, 8 months ago
Dargus,
Fascinating insight about Hebraic Law being similar to Sharia Law.
It's hard to understand, though, that for people as smart, successful and goal oriented as many Jews seem to be that they have utterly failed in following Hebraic Law.. Might it be because your understanding of Hebraic law is utterly flawed?
How is it, dargus, that Jews number approximately 13 million people today, while Muslims number something like 1.5 billion today? Must be that damnable Uber-vioent Hebraic Law that's caused this remarkable proliferation of Jews, eh?
Meanwhile, as Ramadan winds down one can find dozens of articles of Muslims killing non-Muslims as they religiously follow their hate-filled Sharia Law. Allah Akbar!
dargus 1 year, 8 months ago
So your argument against Biblical verse is that Jews don't follow that law anymore and their number are dwarfed by Muslims? Good job addressing the substance of my point. Perhaps you can enlighten me as to the real meaning of the verse since I'm am so clueless about Judaism.
Arafat 1 year, 8 months ago
I tried to convey to you that… 1) If Hebraic law is comparable to Sharia Law, then how do explain the fact that Muslims are so much better at applying their laws than those clever, industrious Jews have been? 2) That is to say, Judaism has existed for several millennium prior to Islamism’s unfortunate beginnings, yet… 3) Islam outnumbers Jews on this planet by something like 1 billion 487 million people. 4) Since Judaism has existed for over twice as long as Islam has existed, 5) And since you “claim” Hebraic Law is as violent as Sharia Law, how 6) Do you explain the fact that Islam’s population is insanely greater than that of the Jews?
If, as you falsely claim, their laws are similar vis-à-vis killing others, why is it their respective populations are so unbelievably different, particularly since Islam is such a modern religion in comparison to Judaism?
Seems to me it is you who has some explaining to do, not me.
dargus 1 year, 8 months ago
I never said any of those things, but you do a great job putting words in my mouth. My claim is that you are taking words from a religious text and using that to paint your picture of an entire religion. When I point out similar statements from a different religious text, one you probably subscribe to, you change the subject. I'm not at all making the contention that Jews and Muslims interpret their texts in the same way, and your supporting evidence that there are so many more Muslims doesn't provide any backing for your position anyway. Sure, you could be right, but there could be a nearly infinite number of factors that lead to there being more Muslims than Jews. Hey, maybe lots of Jews realized how barbaric their religious texts are and they abandoned the faith. See, I just pulled a point out of thin air!
DeeinOK 1 year, 8 months ago
What does the numbers have to do with law anyway? I can make the same correlation between violence in Christianity and the Flying Spaghetti Monster Religion.
1) Christians outnumber Flying Spaghetti Monster Worships a billion to one.
2) Christians have killed more people under their law than the spaghetti monster worshippers under their law.
3) The flying spaghetti monster religion is a far "newer" religion (again one of your nutjob "factoids").
I can only conclude that the Flying Spaghetti Monster followers' law is a better one so, we shouldn't allow Christianity to practice here. Nice argument. LOL
Finally, this was a great opinion piece, undoubtedly written to cast light on an often misunderstood religion and people. It's too bad that people like Arafat and Mufasa are so entrenched in their right wing nuttery that they cannot even attempt to embrace anything different from what they believe. Tolerance isn't about liking what is different, it's about accepting it despite the fact you may not like it.
mustafa 1 year, 8 months ago
Tolerance means apparently not opposing it in any way, right?
Now you say we can be tolerant and still not like them? Does that apply to gays. Because I stated all last semester that straights can be plenty tolerant (non discriminatory etc.) but must be allowed to reserve the right, ultimately, to view homosexuality as something strange and odd. Do you agree with that?
I see Islam as something far more than just strange and odd. It is clearly a threat to Western Civilization and the Enlightenment that liberals supposedly hold dear.
There is more at stake here than just another opportunity for you and your ilk to stoke your egos in order to feel superior.
Arafat 1 year, 8 months ago
Dargus,
Just to be clear I do not use the "left" to justify my position on Islam. I use verses from the Koran and Hadiths and the historic records on Mohammed's life as justification for my position on Islam.
I find it interesting that you do not do the same. You ignore the Muslim holy books and also ignore Mohammed's history of violence and sadism.
Here is a quiz for you on Islam, a religion you seem to believe is beyond reproach. What does this quiz tell you about Islam and how their holiday helps bring people together?
Multiple Choice Quiz.
How many people has the Religion of Peace killed since Ramadan began?
a) 0 to 10 b) 10 to 100 c) 100 to 500 d) 500 to 750 e) 750 or more?
And how many separate terrorist acts went into killing these people?
a) 0 to 10 acts b) 10 to 25 acts c) 25 to 50 acts d) 50 acts or more?
dargus 1 year, 8 months ago
Tolerance doesn't mean acceptance. Tolerance means that you respect people's right to believe things that are different from what you believe.
People are free to post whatever nonsense they want here and others are free to respond. Someone who condemns an entire religion with xenophobic nonsense deserves to be challenged. mustafa, when will you stop playing the victim card every time someone gets called out on their right-wing ideological nonsense? You and Arafat both got to say your piece so you aren't being victimized.
We get it, you don't like Islam. Now, if you could come up with a rational argument that isn't based on paranoia and xenophobia you might convince some people to join your position. Instead you choose to believe that everyone else has been tricked by a giant liberal conspiracy, and if it wasn't for the darn lamestream media everyone would see the genius of your political views.
Since moderate, westernized Muslims exist, clearly it is possible to follow Islam and believe in individual freedom and all the wonders of western society. Rather than attack an entire religion as evil and a threat to you, perhaps you should instead strengthen the voice of Muslims who don't support the killing of non-believers and all the things you want to pin on an entire faith. You might find people respond better to tolerance than being called threatening and evil.
dio 1 year, 8 months ago
Fellow atheists,
Just sit back and watch these madmen kill each other off.
DeeinOK 1 year, 8 months ago
Well, I can guess that I probably don't like you but, I'm still tolerating you.
How you personally view something is an internal action. Tolerance is an external practice. Tolerance and fairness go hand in hand.
No one can ever expect to control how another feels--your are entitled to your opinion. This is where we differ. I believe your views are strange and odd but, no matter how strange or odd I find your opinions, I would fight tooth and nail for your right to express them. You, on the other hand, take issue with the very fabric of their being--the very thing that makes them individuals and try to disguise it as a choice between two dichotomies. You view those whom you oppose as a threat to your lifestyle. That, my misguided friend, is not tolerance, it not fair treatment, it's bigotry.
dargus 1 year, 8 months ago
Arafat, as I have stated repeatedly, you ignore what the Bible says. Now please go engage in polygamy and kill those who worship idols.
DeeinOK 1 year, 8 months ago
Dargus to Arafat: "...perhaps you should instead strengthen the voice of Muslims who don't support the killing of non-believers and all the things you want to pin on an entire faith..."
Arafat to Dargus: "Here is a quiz for you on Islam, a religion you seem to believe is beyond reproach..."
Then, Arafat proceeds to quiz Dargus on killings.
Arafat, can you not see where you change the subject and put words in his mouth? You miss the point of his statements...AGAIN.
Dargus, I'd tell you not to waste your time but, in exposing Arafat's ridiculous arguments, someone who is just delving into the debate may actually learn something and be dissuaded from forming such a bigoted opinion. So, please carry on.
Arafat 1 year, 8 months ago
DeeinOK,
Your point is well taken and I appreciate your comment.
Unlike you or Dargus I do not believe there is a “moderate” interpretation of Islam. That is not to say that there are not significant numbers of Muslims who are not extremists, for even I know this is true. The problem being, is that those “moderate” Muslims are not following Islam as it is normally practiced, or as Mohammed taught his followers to practice Islam. Islam simply is not moderate, no matter how badly you and Dargus want to believe otherwise. It simply ain’t the case.
Wherever we see Islam firmly established we see true Islam, not the watered-down Islam we see among many Muslims in places like America and in western Europe. Name a place where Islam has been the dominate religion for a century, or more, and you will find complete repression, very few rights for non-Muslims, very little diversity, no ability to leave Islam without threat of death, very little freedom of press or speech, women and gays and Jews and Buddhists and Hindus and Atheists and Christians treated as second-class citizens, or worse. These are simply the facts, not some hatred spewing from me. Simply the facts.
Now I’m all for encouraging moderate Muslims to behave like civilized people, for accepting Jews and gays as their brothers, for their encouragement of people who have left Islam (like Salman Rushdie) to wish these “apostates” a good and prosperous life free from fatwas and the like. Who would not be for this?
The problem is, of course, this is fantasy-land. Some veil (or burka as the case may be) pulled over your eyes by some social justice professor who has never been out in the real world and has spent his life dreaming about a better world, instead of living in the real world.
Now I’m all for a better world, don’t get me wrong. Who wouldn’t be. Neville Chamberlain was for a better world when he convinced Europe Hitler was a jolly ol’ chap who we “could work with”. And Winston Churchill was for a better world too. It’s just that one of these men saw the world – and Hitler—for what it is and for he was. And the proof is in the pudding.
Now you can call me all sorts of names and accuse me of all sorts of crimes against humanity, but understand your accusations say more about your naiveté than it says about me, or my “supposed” prejudice, or anything else. It is I who see Islam for what it is, not you.
For as I just wrote and as I like to say the proof is in the pudding while words are tools manipulated by those who want to make a point no matter how irrational it may be.
Mohammed was a killer. It’s in the Hadiths. Mohammed was a rapist. It’s in the Koran. Mohammed is Islam’s prophet. It’s in the Koran and Hadiths and in Muslim’s psyche. You can pretend this isn’t the case and you can also pretend the world is flat if that is your wont, but if you expect me to fall into line, to be a sucker like you, then you really do live in fantasy-land.
mustafa 1 year, 8 months ago
‘No one can ever expect to control how another feels--your are entitled to your opinion.’
That is just it, we are not entitled to view homosexuality as something we personally cannot relate to. If a heterosexual so much as looks away at the sight of two gay guys kissing, that is considered homophobia which must be corrected. Isn’t that true? That is the message constantly put out in the popular culture and on the blog and opinion pages. It definitely is not enough just to tolerate, we must also affirm. We have to like them and be willing to have them in our circle of friends. To actually voice any rational criticism of the homosexual intellectual argument can get a person sentenced to prison in Canada. Will you fight tooth and nail to keep that from happening here?
DeeinOK 1 year, 8 months ago
Mustafa,
WOW! Are you and Arafat room-mates? If not, you should be.
Looking away at the sight of anyone kissing (heterosexual couples, included) is not homophobic, but constantly bringing up gay, lesbian, etc. issues on a thread about Ramadan is. Let it go, dude. Gays and lesbians have NO desire to convert straight people. It's not all about you, hon.
DeeinOK 1 year, 8 months ago
Gosh, I don't have time to go through all the bull pucky contained in Arafat's post. I'll take the first bold statement and call it quits.
Arafat says: "The problem being, is that those “moderate” Muslims are not following Islam as it is normally practiced, or as Mohammed taught his followers to practice Islam."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUKy7emtjzA
And don't forget things like:
Incest Rape Wearing two different types of fabrics at the same time Stoning Eating shellfish Sacrifices Genocide Infanticide Killing women who aren't virgins on their wedding night And on and on and on.
There are hundreds of verses in the "good book" that demonstrate the above references and more. Dargus has stated all this before; more eloquently than me, I might add. Nonetheless, here goes.
Extremists in the Christian religion follow just certain verses of the bible. From the Salem Witch Trials to Jim Jones to the wacky Branch Davidian Leader, David Koresh to Jaycee Lee Dugard's captor and other rapists to the priests in the Vatican--they pick and chose what they want for their own twisted reasons the same as Islamic extremists do.
There are thousands of examples of nut jobs that are doing horrific things all over the world. People like Arafat pick and chose which nut jobs are acceptable and which aren't based on their own religious view. I believe genocide is genocide. Rape & murder are still rape & murder whether it's done in the name of God or whether it's done in the name of Allah.
Finally, the length of time that a religion has been around has absolutely nothing to do with how many whack job followers it has. That argument is getting old and makes no sense. Arafat acts like the infrastructure and type of government has absolutely no bearing on the crimes committed in a country. Instead, he lays all the blame squarely on the feet of a religion that can be just as whacked as any other religion.
I feel sorry for you Arafat, I really do. Your fear is driving you to make judgements about people who you have never met based on an unsubstantiated fear. You can claim things are fact all you want. Repeating them ad nauseum does not make them facts despite your best efforts.
mustafa 1 year, 8 months ago
Dargus
“Instead you choose to believe that everyone else has been tricked by a giant liberal conspiracy,…”
I believe that you exercise a liberal’s “good racial manners” which means simply ignoring anything which indicts or embarrasses a particular group.
“…and if it wasn't for the darn lamestream media everyone would see the genius of your political views.”
Take out” lamestream media” and put in Fox News and apply that to yourself.
When was the last time you flaked for Christianity in the face of misdeeds done in it’s name by a minority faction? Apparently there is a lot to be frightened of when looking at the beliefs of Islamics and the Koran. Liberals like you, who have never missed an opportunity to side with any enemy that comes along, don’t have much cred when telling us to relax. Face it, a lifetime of openly hating your own country has to have some drawback.
“…moderate, westernized Muslims exist, clearly it is possible to follow Islam and believe in individual freedom and all the wonders of western society…”
Ok so where are they. Are they forming groups encouraging the fight against Islamic terrorism or opposing becoming Sharia compliance? All we see them doing is acting as human shields claiming their hurt feelings are more important that ginning up the proper mindset to meet this crisis.
Why is it that we are hurting so badly for translators for the various Islamic languages? Not only are they not helping in any real numbers but many of those who have, refuse to put the country above their religion. They can’t be trusted. As a result, our military is desperate for NON MUSLIN translators.
dargus 1 year, 8 months ago
“I believe that you exercise a liberal’s ‘good racial manners’ which means simply ignoring anything which indicts or embarrasses a particular group.”
No, I simply don’t hold an entire group responsible for the acts of individuals, as you seem to.
“Take out ‘lamestream media’ and put in Fox News and apply that to yourself.”
Really? What brings you to that conclusion? I get most of my news from Fox. I do believe them to be obviously biased, but I don’t think it is a conspiracy and I don’t act like a victim and blame everything on them. Do I call them out when they say demonstrably incorrect things? Of course I do.
‘Face it, a lifetime of openly hating your own country has to have some drawback.”
I forgot you can see into my soul. You caught me. Once I finish Cloward and Pivin’ing this place it will be wonderful. Just for the record, I love my country. It is idiots like you I take issue with.
“All we see them doing is acting as human shields claiming their hurt feelings are more important that ginning up the proper mindset to meet this crisis.”
Crisis? You mean Muslim culture coming to the U.S.? Oh, the horror. We need to get our minds properly set right now. We managed to fight off the scourge of Irish, Italian, Chinese, Mexicans (1900’s, but those guys seem to be back) and a whole host of other people who were going to ruin our country with their foreignness. We can do it again!
mustafa 1 year, 8 months ago
Dee A queer story will come along and I still be asking you these until you figure a way to answer them.
"Looking away at the sight of anyone kissing (heterosexual couples, included) is not homophobic."
Tell that to good liberals like Adam Sandler. In at least two of his movies, he has gone off topic to say otherwise.
mustafa 1 year, 8 months ago
Lets try with a different subject;
Is it OK to not be an environmentalist. To not care about recycling, saving the whales or any other animal, to enjoy wearing fur and driving a big gas guzzler?
Would you have a friend like that?