07-22-2006, 04:05 AM | #21 | |
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07-22-2006, 06:26 AM | #22 | |
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1) Developing local leadership, be it black, white, brown, or yellow. This is a long held practice of The Church and a little known strength to outsiders. My Stake's High Council is half black, the 1st councilor in the SP is black, until recently, two members of my Bishopric were black, my EQP is black. As The Church in France becomes blacker and browner, it will be harder and harder for any "racist" tag to stick. 2) Teaching against racism and prejudice (in GC and the curriculum) 3) Outreach to minority groups (regular Black Genealogy seminars and events at the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors Center, similar outreach events in Harlem, etc.) 4) PR effort to dispel rumors and bridge the gap (addressing the issue directly when confronted, MormonAds that are multicultural, even the clumsy practice of showing minority members of the MoTab over and over is an effort on the PR front to drive home the point that The Church is reaching out to all people). Are moderate Islamic groups making similar efforts to dispel misperceptions if they exist? I'm sure they are doing something, but to what magnitude? Why aren't we better informed? A Million Man/Woman Muslim March Against Terrorism or something similar would go a long way to bridging the gap that exists. Perhaps they need to hire the same New York PR firm The Church retains. The problem is that I suspect many moderate Muslims sympathize with the goals of their radical brethren (fight Israel and its U.S. benefactor, fight against damaging “Western Values,” increase the Muslim voice in world politics, even usher in an Islamic Renaissance). While not espousing the tactics, I don’t doubt that many feel some vindication when radical groups successfully carry out terrorist attacks against Israel and Western targets. Probably a little, “You reap what you sew, so live with it.” going on there. In WWII there was significant distrust of Japanese-Americans, leading to injustices that I don’t think I need to list here. Those Japanese-Americans, in spite of the injustices, bridged the gap in a way that no one could dispute. Similar efforts from moderate Islam would be helpful.
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Give 'em Hell, Cougars!!! Religion rises inevitably from our apprehension of our own death. To give meaning to meaninglessness is the endless quest of all religion. When death becomes the center of our consciousness, then religion authentically begins. Of all religions that I know, the one that most vehemently and persuasively defies and denies the reality of death is the original Mormonism of the Prophet, Seer and Revelator, Joseph Smith. |
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07-22-2006, 01:15 PM | #23 | |
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"... the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice." Martin Luther King, Jr. |
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07-22-2006, 04:06 PM | #24 | |
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First I should clarify a few things: “Wahhabi” is not a sect. In fact, the term refers to two distinct but related phenomena in Islam: 1) It’s a reform movement within Sunni Islam (sort of like the Charismatic and Evangelical movements in Christianity) that originated in Saudi Arabia in the 18th century and continues to have a geographic presence there. It also has an influence in some strains of Islamic thinking and has been twisted by some militant groups. In the last few decades Saudi Wahhabis and some Egyptian Salifs have found commonality and their movements overlap in some aspects. The teachings of this movement are fundamentalist, quite anti-intellectual, and mixed with some of the Bedouin folk tradition. Wahhabi Sunni’s (which is kind of like saying “Charismatic Protestants”) have been marginalized by many Sunni Muslims for their rural and theological backwardness, but retain an importance because of their wealth (which they have accrued through selling oil to the West) and their proximity to Mecca. However, despite their backwardness they are not as extreme as many uninformed Western reporters and bigoted crackpot writers have made them out to be. Consider the following quotes from a Wahhabi leader concerning 9/11: "...Hijacking airplanes and kidnapping children and the like are extremely great crimes, the world over. Their evil effects are far and wide..." Regarding the Egyptian Qutbist group who has members in al-Qaeda and the Taliban and who inspired Osama Bin Laden (and whom almost all Muslims consider to be “takfeer”—apostates): “They are not to be co-operated with, nor are they to be given salutations (salaam). Rather, they are to be cut off from, and the people are to be warned against their evil, since they are a tribulation and are harmful to the Muslims, and they are the brothers of the Devil."- Shaykh Abdul-Aziz Bin Baz, Saudi Arabia Wahhabi leaders have also made statements condemning suicide bombings. Still, a few radical Qutbists have bastardized and militarized Salif and Wahhabi teachings and Muslims on the outside sometimes have difficulty discerning who’s who. And make no mistake—they very much want to make that distinction. Radical Qutbists have terrorized Muslims long before they went after the West. 2) Wahhabi is also a derogatory term that Muslims use in reference to “pseudo- Muslims and fanatical pseudo-Mulim terrorists” and “amusing uninformed overly-fundamentalist “Muslim red necks”—those in the Wahhabi movement or who seem like Wahhabis,” and in Mormon vernacular “Jack Muslims.” My wife and I are friends with a Sunni Muslim family from Jordan (the father is working on a PhD in Statistics) and we’ve heard them use the term both in jest and as a serious condemnation (of Bin Ladin, actually). This second use of the term by Muslims has contributed to unending confusion in the Western Press. When interviewed about some military action by a few extremists by the press (almost the only time Muslims are in the media), Muslims try to distance Islam from the wackos by referring to them as Wahhabi. To them in this context it means “pseudo-Muslim-fanatic-terrorist” but journalists have taken it to be a radical Islamic sect. The terrorists, of course, try to take advantage of the confusion and of Western ignorance. They use it as a cover. When American Muslims express a desire to have Wahhabi teachings made available (alongside a variety of teachings) at a mosque (and many Muslims have an intellectual interest in even the odd branches of their religion—sort of like many mainstream Mormons have a continuing interest in polygamous groups) they are speaking of #1 above, and usually in the context of wanting to understand the Wahhabi movement that preaches to Muslims when they go to Mecca for the hajj. They are not wanting to radicalize and militarize themselves. So when you ask me “What about the Wahhabis?” I say this: some terrorists are using the term as a cover, but most Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia (as in #1 above), while not terrorists, are unusually fundamentalist and conservative and probably aren’t all that keen on Westerners. They mostly stay in Muslim countries, and even then mostly inhabit rural areas. My Jordanian friend has said that the chances of me meeting a Saudi Wahhabi in the U.S. are rather remote. A few Saudi Wahhabis would be the exception to my “almost all” statements in my original post and since I can’t tell the difference between a pseudo-Muslim terrorist using cover and a Fundamentalist Muslim who wouldn’t care for me much unless I was buying oil, I would not seek interaction with someone I knew to be a Saudi Wahhabi. But these people are a tiny, tiny number of Muslims compared to the great throng of neighborly, good Muslims who fill the world.
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"Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; " 1 Thess. 5:21 (NRSV) We all trust our own unorthodoxies. Last edited by Sleeping in EQ; 07-22-2006 at 04:30 PM. |
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07-22-2006, 04:17 PM | #25 | |
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1) I agree with you that identifying the terrorists is a difficulty, but it's one that we need to surmount. Law enforcement profiling is inevitable, but it won't be effective if it's on the level of "spotlight the Muslims." We need to find ways to refine our profiling so innocent and good Muslims aren't being discriminated against by the uninformed. There's way too many Muslims, and most all of them, as I've said, aren't terrorists or even criminals. They're mostly good people like any other people. 2) I'm not trying to be tricky by using the phrase "almost all." I'm just trying to be accurate. There are a few extremists. But's that's what they are--few and extreme. They're the Warren Jeffs and Lebarons of Islam. 3) My mentioning of Western media was not meant to discount terrorist acts. It's a fact though, that Western dislike of Muslims long precedes terrorist acts (and even the technologies to conduct them). I mentioned the media aspect because it is highly problematic and I deal with it every day in my work. Peace!
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"Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; " 1 Thess. 5:21 (NRSV) We all trust our own unorthodoxies. Last edited by Sleeping in EQ; 07-22-2006 at 04:20 PM. |
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07-22-2006, 07:39 PM | #26 | |
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I think SiEQ is correct in suggesting that we Americans need to do much more in trying to understand the Islamic world. I would hope a similar effort would be made on the other side.
__________________
Give 'em Hell, Cougars!!! Religion rises inevitably from our apprehension of our own death. To give meaning to meaninglessness is the endless quest of all religion. When death becomes the center of our consciousness, then religion authentically begins. Of all religions that I know, the one that most vehemently and persuasively defies and denies the reality of death is the original Mormonism of the Prophet, Seer and Revelator, Joseph Smith. |
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