The growth of interest in theocracy and theonomy (esp. in the form of Rushdoony's and North's Christian Reconstructionism, as well as Pat Robertson's and Jay Sekulow's "Christianization" school) in the Christian world is becoming more and more like the Islamic world than not. Devolution, as it were.
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We have to know the Islamic view:
Whoever kills a soul, unless for a soul, or for corruption done in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely [Qur'an 5:32]
One of the core meanings of Islam is peace. Therefore, the inhumane and horrific events which caused innocent casualties - including many Muslim victims - is clearly, without a doubt, completely un-Islamic.
However, it should be noted that the actions of an individual or a small group do not necessarily represent the beliefs of a particular religion, nor is that religion responsible for such actions. Therefore, the media’s labeling of those who are allegedly responsible for these actions as “Islamic Terrorists” and the linking of such actions to Islam or the Qur’an, is incorrect. Rather, such inhumane actions clearly contradict the teachings of Islam - just as the bombing at Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh and the killings that occurred at Ibrahim Mosque, Hebron by Dr. Baruch Goldstein clearly contradict the teachings of Christianity and Judaism, respectively.
It is inconceivable that the religion of Islam, which takes its teachings from the noble Prophets such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad - peace be upon all of them - would ever teach terrorism or suicide missions. In reality, Islam not only condemns terrorism and suicide missions, but also prohibits them completely. Thus, many Muslim nations, organizations, and communities all around the world have condemned such actions, hoping never to see its like again.
It is also unfortunate that harassment of various kinds (including shootings, beatings, stone throwing, robberies, vandalism, death threats and hate language) has occurred against innocent Muslims resident in the United States – the elderly, women and children alike. In addition, Islamic places of worship and Muslim owned businesses have now become the targets of some peoples’ anger and ignorance, just as the American people had become the targets of the anger and ignorance of the perpetrators of the World Trade Center attacks. Such bigotry and hatred is inhumane and unjustified.
We denounce the killing of innocent civilians in the United States, just as we have patiently for many years denounced the killing of innocent civilians in Bosnia, Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, India and other countries.
May God, Almighty, the One without any associates or partners in His Divinity, guide us all to the
Truth and spread peace throughout the earth. Ameen.
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Interest in Islam mounts after 11 September
Martin Bright
Sunday September 1, 2002
by The Observer newspaper
A year ago they feared their religion would be tarred by the attack that left over 3,000 dead in on New York and Washington. But Muslims across Britain are now crediting an '11 September factor' for the upsurge of interest in their religion.
From Islamic bookshops and university comparative religion courses to the dusty corridors of Whitehall, non-Muslims are rushing to find out more about the beliefs of Islam and the life of the Prophet Mohammed.
Sales of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, have gone through the roof. Penguin, the publishers of the best-known English-language translation of the Koran, registered a 15-fold increase in the three months following 11 September and sales have held up well since.
Meanwhile the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been overwhelmed by the response to new Islamic Awareness courses they have set up for diplomats being posted to Muslim countries and London-based staff with an interest in the wider Islamic world.
Not since the Satanic Verses affair in 1989, when novelist Salman Rushdie was condemned to death for blasphemy by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, has Islam been such a sensitive political issue in Britain.
The rise in Islamophobia and even racist attacks has been matched, sometimes in the same geographical area, by a thirst for knowledge of a religion which many are surprised to find has common links to Christianity and Judaism. Moses and Christ are both considered prophets in Islam.
Dilowar Khan, director of the East London mosque which holds open days for non-Muslims four times a year, said that visits from schools, university students and even tourists had increased over the past year. At the same time he said there had been an average of two or three people asking to convert every month.
'A similar thing happened during the Salman Rushdie affair. A lot of people converted to Islam as they struggled to understand what was happening. Of course, there has been the opposite effect as well, some people have become more hostile, said Mr Khan.
The East London mosque now plans to publish a magazine Discover Islam to cater for the demand for information. The first issue will contain an article on the attractions of the Muslim faith by journalist Yvonne Ridley, held captive by the Taliban last year and now considering converting to Islam.
Dr Abdulkarim Khalil, director of the Al-Manaar Cultural Heritage Centre in Kensington, West London, which opened shortly after 11 September, said: 'In a sense it was a natural reaction to the events. People wanted to know more and we expected that, but no one expected the scale of the interest, not just here but across the world.'
Dr Khalil said that there had been some minor incidents immediately after the terror attacks, when women were verbally abused for wearing the headscarf, the hejab. 'But we've been surprised that nothing serious has happened. We've even had non-Muslim members of the local community coming to reassure us and express their support for the centre.' Although some experts talk of a 'know thy enemy factor' in the rush to find out about Islam in the aftermath of 11 September, the panic has now settled into genuine interest.
At the traditionally Arabist Foreign Office, the fascination for Islam has filtered down throughout the department over the past year. Trial Islamic Awareness Training sessions have proved so successful that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has decided to offer them to all Foreign Office staff likely to come into contact with Islamic issues. The courses consist of a lecture on the basic tenets of Islam followed by a speech by a visiting expert on contemporary Muslim issues and a visit to a mosque.
In a speech to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies earlier this year, Straw urged a greater understanding of Islam. Last month the Foreign Office also hosted the largest reception for the Muslim community ever held by a government department, although many thought they were being softened up for a planned attack on Iraq.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'The cultural element has always been a central part of the training of diplomats, but it has usually been part of language courses. We wanted to extend the training and make it become systematic throughout the office.'
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be with them to save your live now and after death while you are alone no one with you just Islam can save you .
NUMBER OF HISPANIC MUSLIM CONVERTS GROWING
TARA DOOLEY, Houston Chronicle, 8/17/02
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1537375
HUEVOS rancheros for breakfast; fasouliye for dinner.
It was not an unusual menu that graced the table one recent Thursday at
Patricia El-Kassir's west Houston home.
For El-Kassir, a Mexican-American convert to Islam, starting the day with
the Mexican egg breakfast and ending it with a Lebanese meat-and-bean
dinner meant nothing more than the merging of cultures easily found in Islam.
"One of the things that brought me to Islam, that I think is so beautiful,
is that Muslims come from all nations," said El-Kassir, whose husband is a
native of Lebanon.
"You can be Mexican and be a Muslim and be happy," she added. "You don't
have to be torn between two things."
Though Muslims may live in all nations, when El-Kassir first accepted Islam
16 years ago as a 15-year-old student at Bellaire High School, she was one
of few Hispanic Muslims at Houston-area mosques, she said. She didn't meet
another Hispanic Muslim until she was an adult living in Lebanon.
Now when El-Kassir looks around at local gatherings of Muslims, she sees
others with roots in Mexico and Central and Latin America. She even has
friends with whom she can discuss the ins and outs of halal meat in tamales…
A study of mosques in the United States published in 2001, indicated that
about 6 percent of converts to Islam in the United States are Hispanic,
said Ihsan Bagby, an author of the report and associate professor of
Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky. About 27 percent of American
converts are white, 64 percent are African-American and 3 percent are a
mixture of other backgrounds, according to "The Mosque in America: A
National Portrait…"
SEE:
http://www.cair-net.org/mosquereport/
Some of what is now available for Hispanic converts comes from Latino
American Dawah Organization, a group started about five years ago in New
York City by Samantha Sanchez and five friends.
Sanchez, who is studying for a doctorate in cultural anthropology, had just
become a Muslim and was interested in discovering whether she and her
friends were the only Hispanic Muslims out there.
The organization has grown into a support network and an information
outreach that provides Qurans and pamphlets on Islam in Spanish and runs a
Web site,
www.latinodawah.org. The group now has a chapter in Austin and is
working on chapters in Illinois, Massachusetts and Arizona
