A friend of mine is a United Methodist minister in Kansas. Even there in the buckle of the bible belt there are people of both faitn and tolerance. Here is his latest blog:

Allah of Us All

August 25, 2010 by littlerev

His blog site is:

http://littlerev.wordpress.com/

Arminius

We did have some nice Muslim families living in our apt. building but they left after 911. Do you know if there is a wide diversity of beliefs among Muslims similiar to Christianity?  I know there's a lady author and speaker  on TV who promotes what we may call Progressive Mulsim sort of like progressive Christianity. She does it at a risk to her life.

Do you think there is a large pop. of Muslims whom  we may call fundamentalist  or those who believe the Koran literally?  I understand that many Can. Muslims haven't learned Arabic so the mosque is like the Catholic church where services used to be in Latin and nobody understood them. Koran readings must be in Arabic in the mosque or its not acceptable to Allah as I understand it ? Is there even a remote chance that this religion will change to become more modern  ( English in the mosques) in the years ahead?

  In Ontario they have been trying unsuccessfully to pass  sharia law  and this scares me very much honestly. Christian churches aren't allowed in Muslim countries such as Afghanistan and Iran?  They persecuted some Christian man in Afghan. and cast him out I read?

Yes...yes....the ones I've met have been very nice people but still I confess I believe  if Muslims were the majority pop. in Toronto they would force us all to become Muslim. Am I wrong? Personally  I don't talk about  the Muslims one way or the other. Extremist leaders as you say are the problem?

  Sorry Happy Genius, I'm not addressing Christian Islam issues. I'm speaking in general just as a Can. citizen. Sharia law was voted down by the Ont. gov't and I'm happy about that.

Arminius quote:

"The moderate and peace-loving majority on either side has to stand up and be counted and distance themselves from the extremist violence."

Are they afraid? They are criticized quite heavily in the media because they aren't standing up and speaking out.

For those who aren't aware here's a bit about sharia law:

Quote:

Shariah comes from several sources including the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and it governs every aspect of life.

Under most interpretations, Islamic law gives men more rights than women in matters of inheritance, divorce and child custody.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20050912/mcguinty_shariah_050911/

But the Islamic Institute wants [the] arbitrators to decide a broader range of issues. For Syed Mumtaz Ali, 77, an India-born Islamic lawyer and scholar who is the driving intellectual force behind the Institute, a Muslim cannot be a Muslim without following Shariah.

"Basically, Muslims live a different kind of life from the Western life, which is secular," he noted in an interview. "Everything we [Muslim's] do is governed by religious law." 

Muslim arbitrators have not made a single public decision yet, but Canada would presumably never allow the stoning of adulterous women or cutting off the hand of a thief, both allowable forms of punishment in some Muslim societies under an extreme variation of Shariah.

Critics say that Shariah contradicts the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada's bill of rights, which guarantees the equality of men and women. Under Canadian family law, for instance, men and women have equal rights to inheritance and property acquired during a marriage.

Canadians voluntarily waive their legal rights all the time, but it is the obligation of the courts to ensure that they have independent legal advice before doing so. Critics of Shariah say Muslim women would be deprived of their rights because, even after emigrating, they frequently live in isolation from the broader society and are beholden to men who routinely tell them what to do and say.

"I don't see how it can be voluntary," said Shahira Hafez, 53, an Egyptian-born anesthesiologist and treasurer of the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, "when all these women from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan are kept isolated in their own communities, do not learn English and only deal with the outer society through their husband and their husband's family."

As Mr. Mumtaz Ali sees it, there is no contradiction between being a good Muslim and being a good Canadian. "Shariah has the elasticity to adjust itself," he said, adding: "I draw the line where the Canadian law asks me to do certain things. I have to obey Canadian law."

Nevertheless, Shariah is not generally accepted in other Western democracies, and some Canadian Muslim women - who say Muslim law is already applied behind closed doors - say efforts to apply it openly in Canada's most populous province would represent a dangerous precedent.

"Here in Canada, girls are segregated from boys at private Islamic elementary schools, then forced into arranged marriages through Shariah at the age of 13, 14 or 15 to men over twice their age," said Homa Arjomand, 52, an Iranian-born counselor for battered women. "How much choice do these women have?"

. http://muslim-canada.org/krauss.html

http://muslim-canada.org/sitedex2.htm#TheCanadian

If inbreedng doesn't kill ya, brainwashing will.

We solve it the same way they did in Hockey in 1972.  An international Christian team against an international Muslim team for an eight game tournament.  The winner gets to be the first one to declare permanent peace. Failure to do so defaults the victory to the opposing team who then gets the chance to declare permanent peace.  Failure to do so disqualifies both teams and permanent peace is automatically declare..  Win-Win-Win.  Man, I love solving international problems.

As Jefferson said "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"

We have to refuse to generalize - about religion, gender, race or anything else

We have to ensure that "what's done in the dark is brought to the light" - in other words, no "going along to get along" when we hear or see discrimination or exploitation

We have to "seek justice" for each and every person, no matter what our personal feelings toward them may be

And mostly ,,,,,

We have to realize that we (not the government, somebody else, or God Awmighty) are the solution.

DAvid

Jon71;

Does that carry a hint of a narrow vision? Onions should be handled with water to prevent tiers over the implications!

I recall once being told by a supervisor that he learned all he needed to know in engineering school ... regardless of the fact that most successful engineers I know say that what they really used after school ... was street sense, down to earth basics.

In real life contact with Muslims that are like Christians and Jews ... some wish to battle, many are silent and some probe the silence of mysticism ... the thinking behind all this projection of emotions. Mysticism: well by definition it is beyond the emotional pool, as is the mind of caring in most that don't believe in anything anon-physical. The Sufi scholar is hated in Islam by many as unknowable ... the Kabbalist is hated in much of Judeao-Christian beliefs ... as is the mystic in general. So what would we do with a conceptual mind ... bury it in a toem?

Before you answer read and understand Psychology of Fear---Jeffry Gray. It is a grand in-depth synopsis of how fear ruins/runs civilization ... when awareness of the consequences of unbound emotion ... could lift us over the barrier. The difficulty is the higher powers love fear:

• Keep eM buried in manure, well-wetted and in the dark something will Eris!

Does such carry a shadow of Karl Marx words of warnings about uncaring intellects, or intellectual voids ... purely emotional states? That's the devil to raise a Paen, sos weed learn from mistakes ... but we keep following miss takes in the books as rules.

Rabbi Harold Kushner said that rules were great for the soul to learn a way to get around them ... like Mos's in the Egyptian Stream of things ... pool of rheids? (Rheid; a solid in geological terms that can flow like basalt, glass or, Isis on a mountain, under the influence of great gravid or temporal forces). Is there light satyr buried there? A little warmth in a chilling environment will accomplish great things, the corollary holds true!

Beshpin ..... I agree ..... meet some muslims and get on with ordinary life.

Good idea ..... time for me to fire up my BBQ and do just that.....

jon71 ....OH MY! ....how aweful and how shockingly sad!

"I know all I'm going to let myself know."

Over the past decade, Gentries said he has taken pains to avoid personal interactions or media that might have the potential to compromise his point of view. He told reporters that the closest he had come to confronting a contrary standpoint was tuning in to the first few seconds of an interview with a moderate Muslim cleric before hastily turning off the television.

"I almost gave in and listened to that guy defend Islam with words I didn't want to hear," Gentries said. "But then I remembered how much easier it is to live in a world of black-and-white in which I can assign the label of 'other' to someone and use him as a vessel for all my fears and insecurities."

Added Gentries, "That really put things back into perspective."

WOW!! ...... this is what we have to overcome .....

Lots to think about here and lots to plan ..... I may be small ... but I am a person and each person makes a difference...... I try and live as a "starfish" person.....

Waterbuoy ...... I am beginning to understand you more and more ...glimpses here and there ...... I enjoyed your post ..... thank you for simplifying it some as it has been a big help to me....

Hugs

Rita

Hey Rita,

And hugs to you too!

A Turkish Muslem immigrant once told me that he was disturbed at his countrymen who came to Canada to escape a harshh form of religion only to find that some tried to convert Ka Nada ... the non spirit (hieros glyphix)? Then who would know with all the corruption of the aboriginal words that whisper in the shadows ... wind in the willows ... Tamyr visions?

I knew he would sae something like that.

The hint of justice outside his person stirs his Ire!

Spirit Bare,

Now ther's a statement of pro phun dity, what daemons do when they give up on truth ... generate satyr ... the Romans couldn't read it and the phenomenon lead to the Rape of Lucrece ... but who wode know the story behind that title? Does miss truth lead to shadows under the human tree ... Ham ad rye Ads ... dark shadows of theO?

We have to outlaw the ones that try to divide us. I'm talking about the extremists on the Christian and Muslim side and the Atheists who favor Christianity over Islam. We need more dialogues and cultural events with EACH OTHER. It is unbearable for those to see how similar we are in many things.

I think the UCC should ally itself with the Canadian Muslim Congress, which is a progressive organization that shares many values with UCC. 

http://www.muslimcanadiancongress.org/20080410.pdf

Raheel Raza, the brave Canadian Muslim woman who broke ground (and scandalized many) by leading a group of Muslims in prayer, can be seen on the following site in a video. 

http://www.pointdebasculecanada.ca/article/1403-opposing-hassan-al-banna-and-the-muslim-brotherhood-is-not-some-kind-of-racism.php

I know most of the readers here will immediately dismiss her as a nut because she is interviewed by Fox News.  Apparently  other news organizations aren't interested in her opinions, although she shares our liberal views about woman's rights, etc.

Here is an interesting article by progressive Canadian Muslims Tarek Fatah And Salma Siddiqui.  It is peculiar that the writings of the liberal, progressive Muslims mostly appear in conservative newspapers.  We should ask ourselves why.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/struggle+against+jihad/3481513/story.html#ixzz0yhlWc3qV

Mely your comment about Raheel Raza is interesting ... The United Church had her as a keynote speaker in June of this year, at the More Franchises, Second Cup conference.  She is not a "nut" at all, but rather an interfaith advocate.  Her website is pretty interesting.

That's good.  I hope the UCC continues to support her, and others like her.  She gets death threats from other Muslims in Canada because they don't like her liberal views.  Did you watch the video of her being interviewed on Fox News by Bill O'Reilly?  I doubt if CNN or CBC would be interested in her opinion of the proposed Ground Zero Mosque since her opinion doesn't match the current left-wing Politically Correct View. 

Whew.  I'm glad I won't be outlawed.  I'm one atheist who thinks both religions are equally ridiculous.