Islamophobia

[Dan Fienen]

My point was that life experiences might cause some people to have a unbalanced view of a certain entity, whether civil or ecclesial. Some gay and lesbian young people have committed suicide after experiences with those who attempted to "turn" them heterosexual in the name of Jesus.
Would the parents of one of those suicides be good people to make an presentation on conservative Christianity?

No, but they might be a good place to look for a talk on suicide, the history of gay rights, or some other topic. The school bringing this person in to talk about the nature of Islam generally. Her talk has more to do with women's rights and struggle with oppression. ISIS just happens to be the backdrop to her story.

a) I too think ISIS is the backdrop and oppression of women is the front story.
b) This is in Canada.  I don't know if we have Canadians on this board or looking in, but Canadians tend to be more sane, more balanced, and less polarized by far than Americans.  Of course there are less of them, and it's really cold a lot of the time.  But still.
c) I don't know if anyone on this forum knows a lot of Muslims and/or Christians from predominantly Muslim countries, but oppression and persecution of Christians is not at all rare in the Muslim world.  Many of the people with whose baptisms and ministries I've been involved have deep personal experience of that persecution.  It's no light thing.  And yet those same people would encourage us to work in areas of mercy and community outreach with Muslim leaders, and join in seasonal festivities as signs of our common humanity and American citizenship.  In other words, those whom you might think would be most Islamophobic are not.

Dave Benke

I do not doubt your experience in interacting with people in your parish and community.


I suspect that it is primarily people with little or no real interaction with Islamic people that are most likely to lump them all together as like the worst examples of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the like. Just as Christians need to acknowledge and deal with the worst excesses of Christianity over the ages, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, the list goes on but you get the idea, so Muslims need to acknowledge and deal with the worst excesses of Islam.


In my favorite episode of the TV show Bones, episode 6, season 8, "The Patriot in Purgatory" the entire crew of principles and interns end up dealing with 9/11. One of the forensic interns is Muslim, devoutly so. One of the other interns wonders if dealing with a victim of 9/11 would be hard for him since his co-religionists were involved in the attack. The Muslim reacts angrily that the attackers did not really represent his religion but highjacked his religion for their own evil purposes that day. His actual response in the show was longer and worth viewing, but that is the gist.

[DeHall1]

Missed it again, Pastor Kirchner.
Let me be more clear.
What the woman experienced under Islamic extremism was unjust, terrible and an abomination.
What prisoners at Guantanamo was let us stipulate, just, not as bad as being tortured and raped and not an abomination.
STILL, neither the woman nor the prisoners of the US are likely to speak in an objective way about who gave them those experiences nor are they likely to have a balanced view of the belief and/or governmental system under which they had those experiences.
Good grief, we have to strain hard here for some common sense!

So, you would oppose a Jewish Holocaust survivor from speaking about her experiences for fear the students might get an "unbalanced" view of Nazis?

If her "unbalanced" view was against all Germans, she might not be allowed to speak.


Sort of like a lady who told me that she would never buy a Japanese made care because they killed her first husband in WWII.


Perhaps like the word, "Nazis," we might use "al-Qaeda" or even "Taliban" to separate the evil ones from the ordinary Muslims.

I believe she was there to talk about ISIS and the fear was that her audience would then learn to think of Muslims in terms of ISIS.

Nadia Murad's book goes into detail about her escape thanks to the help of a Sunni Muslim family, who risked their lives to get her to safety.

So, I guess it depends on who you support (ISIS/ISIL or the Sunni Muslim family) to determine that the book is Islamophobic.

Considering how many innocent Asians were attacked because some believed that the Chinese created the COVID virus, why shouldn't we be fearful that honest and true statements about ISIS extremists and their evil ways would not result in attacks against peaceful Muslims (and Sikhs who also wear turbans).

How many Asians were attacked because a Nobel Peace prize recipient spoke to a group of Canadian school children?

How about you read the book before you condemn it for "Islamophobia".

[Charles Austin]

How about that we recognize the ways our society demonizes Muslims and Islam? Think of the recent pol, a Republican, who joked about a Muslim member of Congress being a terrorist, then weaseled the "apology"? Any word from party leaders on that? Nope. Think of any "conservative" radio talker. Read letters to editors or remember (if you listened) callers to the late Rush Limbaugh.
There is a huge wave of Islamophobia or demonizing Muslim in our land.
In the days following 9/11 we news outlets carried dozens of stories about Muslims saying "that's not our Islam. That's not us."
Two decades later, prompted by some of our politicians, too many Americans fear Muslims and Islam as if we were in Constantinople in 1453.

[peter_speckhard]

How about that we recognize the ways our society demonizes Muslims and Islam? Think of the recent pol, a Republican, who joked about a Muslim member of Congress being a terrorist, then weaseled the "apology"? Any word from party leaders on that? Nope. Think of any "conservative" radio talker. Read letters to editors or remember (if you listened) callers to the late Rush Limbaugh.
There is a huge wave of Islamophobia or demonizing Muslim in our land.
In the days following 9/11 we news outlets carried dozens of stories about Muslims saying "that's not our Islam. That's not us."
Two decades later, prompted by some of our politicians, too many Americans fear Muslims and Islam as if we were in Constantinople in 1453.

Honestly, mainstream commentary and politicians' speeches in the U.S. routinely call conservatives and  Republicans terrorists, white supremacists, militant oppressors, and whatever else you can think of.

[Donald_Kirchner]

Wake up, Charles!

Have you read the Qur'an? It's all laid out.

https://alpb.org/Forum/index.php?action=post;topic=8030.30;last_msg=511360

[DeHall1]

How about that we recognize the ways our society demonizes Muslims and Islam? Think of the recent pol, a Republican, who joked about a Muslim member of Congress being a terrorist, then weaseled the "apology"? Any word from party leaders on that? Nope. Think of any "conservative" radio talker. Read letters to editors or remember (if you listened) callers to the late Rush Limbaugh.
There is a huge wave of Islamophobia or demonizing Muslim in our land.
In the days following 9/11 we news outlets carried dozens of stories about Muslims saying "that's not our Islam. That's not us."
Two decades later, prompted by some of our politicians, too many Americans fear Muslims and Islam as if we were in Constantinople in 1453.

How about we read the book before we declare it Islamophobic or demonizing?