Religion and its practice
I think that Doggystyle brings up excellent points, There is a difference between the way Islam is practiced by Shani and how it is practiced by the Taliban or the Shi-ite. I especially find it interesting when he states...
"Democracy ... allows for the best expression of Islam, that makes it a beautiful religion, not the totalitarian theocracies that breed an Islam that corrupts the true meaning of Islam (peace) and Jihad (personal struggle), where sheikhs, mullahs, ayatollahs, Talibans, and Sharia stifle individuality, freedom, and spirituality and create a culture of oppression that America could never match." emphasis added.
I agree that a certain level of democracy has allowed for the protection of individuality in the practice of Islam in the U.S. But I think we ought to caution ourselves to think that it is solely democracy that allows Islam, the way it is practiced in America, to flourish. Many people around the world view the Islam as practiced by the Taliban as acceptable. There is a case in Miami this past summer where a Muslim woman wanted to sue the DMV because she wanted to remain covered in her Driver's License photo. To us, it maybe strange, but to her, it is a matter of religious freedom.
The things that we view as wrong about Theocratic Islam and "Jihad" maybe be dead on with other people. Some Muslims might say that the Islam practiced by Shani is wrong and not true Islam. This is the risk we take as we seek to find absolute truth in our religious strivings. We seek this truth through the lens of our culture. The struggle with any religion is to try to die to the self enough to behold a truth that is universal. Genital mutilation, the oppression of women overall that is advocated by the taliban we could find abhorrent and unsettling , and wrong, but do not think that this is why America is proposing war with Iraq. Think about it doggystyle, all of the human rights violations that you describe taking place in Saudi Arabia and the Sudan, where is the call for regime change there? You are not going to hear about anything in Saudi Arabia, because of the relationship the U.S. has with the royal family there. Most of the 9-11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia!! Not Iraq, Palestine or Afghanistan.
Doggeystyle suggests that the oppression by Islamic Theocracies is much greater than anything America has done, well I think that that is relative. Sure, America is not enslaving people now, but America has. Also, there are things about American foreign policy that could be considered just as oppressive as the enslavement of non-muslims. Look at the debt that America holds many third world countries to, isn't that enslavement? Trade with certain countries that facilliatates sweatshops and child labor, changing regimes at a whim in South America (Iran-Contra) and now proposed in Iraq , all of these things , depending on your perspective, could be considered as oppressive as the Islamic Theocracies doggystyle describes.
I am not justifying any oppression anywhere by anyone, but I am cautioning us to think about what happened on 9-11 through a political lens, not a religious one. This maybe difficult, but not impossible, and it is also necessary because America's involvment is not about making the practice of Islam "right" or "acceptable" throughout the world, but to protect American interests and to reinforce American way of life throughout the world.
Blackwatch!!!!!!
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