Comments on: The Spell of Islamophobia and Moderate Muslims

By: PatHMV

PatHMV — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:05:54 +0000

To be more direct, my issue is that they don’t need to be wasting breath telling ME that they’re a religion of peace. They need to be telling the folks doing the bombing that they’re perverting the religion. It’s the bombers who need educating, not us.

By: PatHMV

PatHMV — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:00:07 +0000

Ali’s a great guy, of course. And I’m sure some of the other folks mentioned are, too. But my problem is that many of the Muslims who try to make the point that "Islam is a religion of peace" do so in such a way as to try to make me and others feel guilty for even asking the question, for exploring the issue. They appear to have some anger aimed at those who have made some inferences based on what they see in the Middle East, the actions of 9/11 and other al-Qaeda acts of murder and terrorism. I don’t care for them getting mad at me for having some serious questions about the modernity level of Islam when there appears to be ample supply of very immoderate Muslims out there willing to kill in the name of their religion.

By: Moderate Muslims Ignored » Islam on My Side

Moderate Muslims Ignored » Islam on My Side — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:49:46 +0000

[...] saw this first on Ali Eteraz’s site. See that post. Here is a link to an article addressing the desire to lump-categorize Muslims as terrorists. [...]

By: European Conservative Gets It « Ali Eteraz

European Conservative Gets It « Ali Eteraz — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:01:31 +0000

[...] Conservative Gets It Posted in Uncategorized by eteraz on March 15th, 2008 This will assuage some who are frustrated by the tone-deaf Islamophobes: Why are these [moderate] [...]

By: Michael van der Galien

Michael van der Galien — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:01:27 +0000

A.A.B.: Smiley’s comment is nearly idiotic. Seemingly this person doesn’t realize that not everyone who thinks in a certain way signs up for a petition about it. In fact, the far majority don’t even know that such a petition has been written. As such, 700,000 is an enormous amount.

By: A. A. B.

A. A. B. — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:13:26 +0000

Guy Smiley, Let me just state that it is a dishonest rhetorical manipulation to claim that every Muslim who didn’t sign that petition would automatically hold the opposite position.

By: Guy Smiley

Guy Smiley — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:44:00 +0000

700,000 signees, eh? That sounds like a lot. Let’s see, 1.4 billion Muslems, that makes it 1 out of every 2000. Throw in a couple hundred thousand extra, say 1 million just to be safe. That’s 1 voice calling out for peace, 1,399 shrilling for blood.

By: Interested

Interested — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:46:54 +0000

It’s just so much easier to think like this, and to give in to the prejudices existing in Western countries for many centuries, than it is to think for oneself and to understand Islam’s rich, tolerant and peaceful history and tradition.

I think you are right on that, and I think it is easy for people to go - well who performed all of these acts - and point to the results. And then go on to point to the very small outcry of Muslims against their own. And that is also very understandable mindset. (not saying correct) I imagine it is similar to how the Catholics felt about the Protestants not too long ago.