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From: jlodman@cs.ucsd.edu (Michael Lodman)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: "Not Without My Daughter"
Message-ID: <1991Feb7.042502.10442@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 7 Feb 91 04:25:02 GMT
Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
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In article <1991Feb5.150701.15936@wpi.WPI.EDU> nnk@cs.wayne.edu (Nasir Naseem Khawaja) writes:
>In article <1991Jan29.085858.1082@nntp-server.caltech.edu> looi@sutro.sfsu.edu (Wan W. Looi) writes:
WWL> I have a very negative feeling towards Islam myself, and
WWL> after seeing this movie and what Saddam Hussein has done to the world,
WWL> my negative feeling has escalated.
WWL> Does anyone care to comment?

NNK> His last sentence seems so much similar to a fable I heard in which a 
NNK> guy wants to commit suicide but actually is afraid of it so he says:
NNK>
NNK> "I'm going to kill myself..... Anyone care to stop me???" :-D
NNK> 
NNK>I would have considered changing Mr. Looi's views on Islam, but his resolute
NNK> tone gave his rigidity on the subject quite away.
NNK>
NNK>	  I still believe that the poster was quite explicit in conveying
NNK>	  his stubborness on the subject, viz. Islam = opression, and hence
NNK>	  feel no obligation to apologize to him. 

I believe that Mr. Looi was merely expressing what so many others in
the West have come to _feel_ about Islam in recent years, without any
specific knowledge about the religion itself. This is a cumulative
response to Islam, not the response to any particular incident, and it
also represents my feelings.

This is not to say that evidence presented to the positive side of Islam
is not taken into consideration, to help tip the scales in the other
direction. Do you think that your answer to Mr. Looi went on the positive
or negative side of his feelings towards Islam? Did your answer invoke
in Mr. Looi the image in which you want Islam to be seen? I certainly
know what image I got from your answer.

For all the claims of negative propaganda against Islam in the West, the
truth is that people claiming to be Moslems and representing the Islamic
faith are the worst enemies of Islam and its image. The _fact_ that
people promoting terror and war claim to be doing so in the name of
Islam certainly causes a great deal of harm to the faith, especially
if the claims of representation are false. I have never seen an openly
anti-Islamic article or broadcast, but I have seen people such as
Saddam Hussein claiming that he is fighting a Jihad for Islam against
the infidels. This again reflects badly on Islam.

My suggestion to the Islamic world would be to clean your own house
before taking on the rest of the world. If these people (terrorists etc.) do
not represent Islam, make efforts to show the rest of the world this. The 
efforts I've seen to date are trully pitiful, making me wonder if these people 
are not in fact speaking for most Moslems, and Islam. 

If this is the case, the negative feelings of people such as Mr. Looi are
understandable. If not, you all have a lot of work to do.....






-- 
Michael Lodman	Department of Computer Science Engineering
	University of California, San Diego
jlodman@cs.ucsd.edu			(619) 672-1673