American Muslims

[Socrates]

I've attended lectures by some Catholic men who are well-regarded experts on Islam, have lived among Muslims, and are well-versed in the Q'ran, who regard radicalized Islam as a threat to be taken seriously, [url="http://www.christendom.edu/news/releases.shtml#gruber"]Fr. Mark Gruber[/url], a Benedictine Priest and scholar who has lived and studied in Egypt and other Muslim countries, and [url="http://www.christendom.edu/news/archives/archives06/nnorom.shtml"]Fr. Nnorom[/url], a priest and scholar from Nigeria.

Said Fr. Gruber:[quote]"The mainstream media likes to paint a picture that Islam is peaceful and that it is just extremists who hold this point of view," he continued. "But that simply is not true. While I was working on my Doctoral Dissertation, I spent a year in Egypt and other Muslim countries. During that time I got to see first-hand what the Muslim children were learning. And it was pretty enlightening! Parents would teach their children songs about killing the infidel - songs about death and destruction. Cars, with loud speakers attached, would drive through the streets repeating the message, 'Let their woman be raped, their men be killed, and their children enslaved.'

"To be able to accurately judge a religion, we have to pay attention most importantly to what it teaches its children, not to what it says to the outside world," Gruber said. "No progress will be made unless we speak to each other with self-respect and honesty. There is hope for peace, but we must face the facts and use common sense."[/quote]

Fr. Nnorom told how Islamic hardliners from Saudi Arabia were spending much money and effort to "radicalize" Islam worldwide.
This squares with what the polls show about the younger generation of American Muslims being more likely to support Islamic violence than their elders.
Most American Muslims are of the "moderate" variety, but the situation is much more serious in other parts of the world, and even in America, Islam is becoming more "radical" rather than less.

And let's not delude ourselves; historically Islam was born and grew by violence, and has been one of Christendom's most serious enemies.
This is not to condemn all followers of Islam, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking the false Islamic religion (intended to replace Christianity) is some benign thing.

Edited May 24, 2007 by Socrates

[jeffpugh]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1279665' date='May 23 2007, 02:58 AM']these stats should really be analyzed through the lens of pre-medina and post-medina- the two phases of the spread of Islam.[/quote]

Okay, first of all, I've never heard of these phases before. Am I the only one like this? I will have to read more of the previous posts tomorrow... Also, I have to say I've thought about the role of Muslims in our world today and need to say that they aren't all bad. I don't know if they really have interior motives other than to spread what they think is "the truth". How they do it is the question. Anywho, I don't think you can directly link Islam and their preference on suicide bombing. Some people just have an aggressive disposition. I'll have to read everything on the first page some time though. I want to know your opinions when I have time...

[mortify]

[quote]By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About one-quarter of young American Muslims believe to some extent that suicide bombings can be justified to defend Islam, while nearly 80 percent of all U.S. Muslims reject such attacks, a survey showed on Tuesday.[/quote]

Not surprising, unfortunately.

What's scary is that the percentage of young Muslims that support suicide bombing is only in reference to that particular form of warfare. There are Muslim who are totally opposed to suicide bombing *yet* are fully supportive of offensive Jihad. A more prudent question would have been whether they believe offensive Jihad to be a legitimate form of spreading Islamic sovereignty in the modern world.

As Muslim friend candidly told me, [i]"There are many ways of spreading religion, Jihad is only one of them"[/i]