Americans increasingly tuning into Islam, author says
K James
3/11/06
An upsurge of interest in Islam is evident among everyday U.S. citizens,
says international lecturer and author Samar Jarrah.
"A huge portion of Americans are turning off their TVs and starting to get
an education either on their own by looking at Web sites and reading books
or contacting Muslims, as in our case," Jarrah told an attentive audience
Monday at the Mid-County Regional Library.
Her comments came days before her departure for Cairo and Amman, Jordan,
where she plans to lecture and present her 240-page book, "Arab Voices Speak
to American Hearts," published in May.
"Not a week goes by without a request for a speech or a request from a
reporter or a citizen for information on Islam," she said.
Jerry Maxwell was eager for more after having attended a six-series course
Jarrah and two colleagues presented on Islam at the library.
"It's quite interesting to know what a Muslim is and what he believes," said
the retired 75-year-old native of Utica, N.Y. "This country doesn't want to
hear the other side. People are brainwashed by the media -- by parts of the
media."
Paul Andrew, who transported U.S. troops around the world for 15 years,
making more than 100 sorties to the Middle East, called the six classes
"very interesting, informative and enlightening."
http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive4/031106/tp22de22.htm?date=031106&story=tp22de22.htm
Liberty DEFEATS Islam!
"K James" <Ja...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:Y8KdnfJtU9L...@sysmatrix.net...
> Americans increasingly tuning into Islam, author says
> 3/11/06
>
> An upsurge of interest in Islam is evident among everyday U.S. citizens,
> says international lecturer and author Samar Jarrah.
> "A huge portion of Americans are turning off their TVs and starting to get
> an education either on their own by looking at Web sites and reading books
> or contacting Muslims, as in our case," Jarrah told an attentive audience
> Monday at the Mid-County Regional Library.
Sure, and then they promptly log into the appropriate newsgroup and begin
trashing Islam.
> "Not a week goes by without a request for a speech or a request from a
> reporter or a citizen for information on Islam," she said.
The headlines are filled with daily slaughters and beheadings commited in
the name of Islam.
People are curious. They want to see what creates the mind of a mass
murderer.
Mustafa Ibn al-Asslifter
> 3/11/06
>
> An upsurge of interest in Islam is evident among everyday U.S. citizens,
> says international lecturer and author Samar Jarrah.
Uh-huh. And you believe it?
K James
"Mustafa Ibn al-Asslifter" <run_out_of_...@llah.com> wrote in message
news:PI%Qf.73$HW2...@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
to learn about that group, so they can see for themselves if what is being conveyed by the media is true or not.
The Pragmatist
they know it, the more they despise it!!
"K James" <Ja...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:Y8KdnfJtU9L...@sysmatrix.net...
Mustafa Ibn al-Asslifter
>
> You do not have to believe it. Whenever there is a crisis that involves
> Muslims or any other group. Some people like
> to learn about that group, so they can see for themselves if what is being
> conveyed by the media is true or not.
And undoubtedly most, upon seeing it for what it really is, abandon it ---
K James
I think one of the main reasons for the war launched on Islam is the rapid conversion to that faith. It is the fastest
growing religion. Most of the hate tend to be directed from the zionists.
Latinos turning toward Islam
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/14074652.htm
Byker
From the article: "Latinos and Muslims note that their communities have much
in common -- tight-knit families, reverence for their elders and a tendency
to dote on children." There it is: Little self-segregated ghettos with
little contact with outsiders. No incentive to learn English or enter the
"mainstream." Note also that these "converts" are poor immigrants from
Honduras and Ecuador, now strangers in a strange land and fair game for any
guru or mullah to take pity on their condition.
Most American-born Islamic converts here in the States are borderline
nutcases, outcasts who don't fit in, and are usually looking for some guru
to show them the way to the Ultimate Truth, whatever the hell that is.
Usually these misfits wind up as Moonies or Hare Krishnas, freakazoids but
generally harmless. In the case of John Walker Lindh, it seems that an imam
got to him first. "The two men represent the dominant streams of Islam in
America - where immigrants from Pakistan, India and other South Asian
countries and U.S.-born blacks comprise the majority of Muslims." In other
words, Mecca-bowers can be physically identified. American blacks in
mosques outnumber the "Euros" fifty to one. Das right, bro: Chances are
the White folks are gonna be left out of this sweep...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Islam in America Dominated by South Asians, Blacks; Maintains Ties Overseas
By Rachel Zoll
The Associated Press
Arshad Majid's family came to America from India when he was 4, and they
brought their religious devotion with them. Majid remembers waking up early,
climbing onto his father's lap and watching him read the Quran.
Later, Majid learned the meaning of the "strange, squiggly" lines in Arabic
and embraced the faith, keeping a prayer rug in his Long Island office when
he worked as a prosecutor.
Talib Abdur-Rashid was a different kind of "immigrant," moving as a child
from Greensboro, N.C., where he lived "in the shadow of American apartheid,"
to make a new home in the South Bronx, he said.
He had another name before, one he won't reveal, and worshipped at a
Lutheran church, until he found a new spiritual path with other American
blacks in a Harlem mosque that followers of Malcolm X built.
The two men represent the dominant streams of Islam in America - where
immigrants from Pakistan, India and other South Asian countries and
U.S.-born blacks comprise the majority of Muslims.
While some Arabs in the United States are Muslim, most are not. Some 77
percent are Christian, according to a survey last year by the Arab American
Institute.
The complexities and divisions of worldwide Islam are here in the United
States - with Sunnis, Shiites, Sufis and others. Yet, there is a decidedly
American twist, originating mainly from the Islam that came from the black
identity movements of the early 1900s.
"The Muslim community in America is far from being monolithic," said Mahmoud
Ayoub, a professor of Islamic studies at Temple University in Philadelphia.
"The community here reflects the world."
Estimates of the number of Muslims in the United States vary wildly.
"The Mosque in America," a report commissioned by Muslim groups and released
this year, put the figure at around 6 million. But the University of
Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, in a report commissioned by the
American Jewish Committee, said it was no more than 2.8 million
Another study, the American Religious Identification Survey, released in
October by the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, estimated
the number was closer to 1.8 million.
According to the mosque study, 33 percent of those active in mosques are
South Asian and 30 percent are black. Arabs comprise 25 percent, while
European immigrants, Africans, U.S.-born whites and others make up the rest.
"When I first began reading about Islam, there was something in the
message," said Abdur-Rashid, imam of Harlem's Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood,
where he first embraced the religion. "The fact that Islam is a way of life
and not just a doctrine, the absolute centrality of almighty God and the
prophetic tradition, and the very strong position that Islam has on social
justice."
Islamic communities are just developing in this country.
Nearly all of the nation's estimated 1,200 mosques were founded in the last
30 years, many with money from governments of predominantly Muslim
countries.
The community has few institutions where religious leaders, or imams, can be
trained. As a result, nations like Egypt often send imams to the United
States, keeping Muslims in this country closely tied with worldwide Islam.
A clash of views is sometimes the result. Ayoub recalled how he argued with
a conservative imam from overseas, who said U.S. Muslims could only marry
virgins.
"Immigrant Muslims, and I don't exclude myself, we are a very mixed
blessing," said Ayoub, who is from Lebanon. "We do bring some ideas, and
people may benefit from some of the things we know, but then we impede the
Americanization of the Muslim community."
Waves of immigration helped Islam develop in the United States, starting in
the late 1800s, when Mideast natives came to this country to earn money.
Many became peddlers, work that required little English, then traveled the
country, often serving farming communities. One of the earliest mosques,
dubbed the "Mother Mosque," is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
War and economic hardship overseas drew more Muslims to the United States in
the 20th century. The largest influx began after 1965, when President Lyndon
Johnson abolished an immigration quota system that had disproportionately
benefited Europeans. Muslim communities are now thriving in Los Angeles,
Detroit, Chicago, New York and other cities.
While migration was bringing Islam to parts of America, blacks born into the
racism of this country were discovering the faith on their own.
In the 1930s in Detroit, as blacks were working to forge a group identity,
Wallace D. Fard began preaching that he came from Mecca with a message: that
blacks were members of an ancient tribe called Shabazz, Jane Smith wrote in
her book "Islam in America."
Fard and his followers soon formed what became known as the Nation of Islam.
Fard's top lieutenant, Elijah Muhammad, eventually succeeded him.
The Nation's belief that Fard had divine status and Elijah Muhammad was a
prophet is the major source of division that continues today between the
group and mainstream Muslims. In orthodox Islam, no one other than God is
divine and the ancient Muhammad is considered the final prophet.
The Institute of Islamic Information and Education in Chicago calls the
Nation a "pseudo-Islamic cult."
Islam among blacks is much broader than the Nation. Elijah Muhammad's son,
W.D. Mohammed, took over the movement in the 1970s, but gradually moved his
thousands of followers toward mainstream Islam.
He began promoting the Sunni branch of the religion - followed by the
majority of Muslims worldwide. Louis Farrakhan then decided to rebuild the
old Nation of Islam under his own leadership.
"(W.D. Mohammed) began to rethink publicly the ideology that had
characterized the Nation in its earlier days," Smith wrote. "While always
careful to credit his father with wise and skilled leadership, he made it
clear that as Fard was not divine, so Elijah was not the pure and
unblemished messenger of Allah."
Many other blacks belong to mosques unaffiliated with either of these two
leaders.
Despite efforts to bring black and immigrant Muslims together, experts say
ethnic differences continue to divide them - even as the immigrant members
of the community grow more comfortable in their new country.
This year, Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk,
falls during Thanksgiving.
"We'll just have a smaller turkey this year, after we break our fast," Majid
said.
K James
Would you say the same about GIs ?
"World War II journalist Ernie Pyle wrote the famous axiom, "There are no atheists in foxholes.'' But even Pyle wouldn't
have guessed that 50 years later there would, according to the Army, be nearly 1,700 soldiers of Islamic faith wearing
the khaki, green and camouflage-brown uniforms of the U.S. military. "
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/06/BAGFOHIUKD1.DTL
> Most American-born Islamic converts here in the States are borderline
> nutcases, outcasts who don't fit in, and are usually looking for some guru
> to show them the way to the Ultimate Truth, whatever the hell that is.
Do you know Most American-born Islamic converts ? Can you provide proof ?
http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/june02_index.php?l=6#austria
Actually it is the converts who
K James
"The Pragmatist" <rbco...@monrov.ru> wrote in message news:Nh0Rf.138547$B94.28509@pd7tw3no...
> I'll tell you another!!! Westerners despise Islam more than ever--the more
> they know it, the more they despise it!!
"The mainstream media coverage of the anti-Islamic cartoons ignores the fact that the publication of the images was a
"calculated offense" commissioned by a Jewish "Danish" colleague of the Jewish neocon ideologue Daniel Pipes and was
meant to incite violence and promote the Jewish "clash of civilizations" between Muslims and Christians."
http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=294338
Byker
>
> Would you say the same about GIs ?
>
> "World War II journalist Ernie Pyle wrote the famous axiom, "There are no
> atheists in foxholes.'' But even Pyle wouldn't
> have guessed that 50 years later there would, according to the Army, be
> nearly 1,700 soldiers of Islamic faith wearing
> the khaki, green and camouflage-brown uniforms of the U.S. military. "
> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/06/BAGFOHIUKD1.DTL
Of course it doesn't say how many abandon it after the novelty wears off....
Geno2345
start mouthing off. The more they rant the more they show themselves to be
morons.
"The Pragmatist" <rbco...@monrov.ru> wrote in message
news:Nh0Rf.138547$B94.28509@pd7tw3no...
Buddha Stalin
> I'll tell you another!!! Westerners despise Islam more than ever--the more
> they know it, the more they despise it!!
>
>
>
>
> "K James" <Ja...@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:Y8KdnfJtU9L...@sysmatrix.net...
>
>>Americans increasingly tuning into Islam, author says
>>3/11/06
>>
>>An upsurge of interest in Islam is evident among everyday U.S. citizens,
>>says international lecturer and author Samar Jarrah.
>>"A huge portion of Americans are turning off their TVs and starting to get
>>an education either on their own by looking at Web sites and reading books
>>or contacting Muslims, as in our case," Jarrah told an attentive audience
>>Monday at the Mid-County Regional Library.
But the article implies that we Americans gain any respect for the cult
after learning more about it. On the contrary, the more we learn about
what ranges from silliness to barbarity, the more contempt we have for
it and the more we realize what a threat it poses to our civilization.
Here's a great site to learn about the cult of izlam, run by some self-
declared grand mufti who gives authentic koranic-based advice on
everything from financial matters to how many times you should wipe your
ass after taking a crap. In the several years people have been quoting
the site in alt.religion.islam, I've seen no one convert to izlam over
it and the almost unanimous response has been laughter...
TheSecularist
"Geno2345" <franc...@fuse.net> wrote in message
news:91ed$4415a6cc$d844260d$27...@FUSE.NET...
> The trouble wirth Christians is that they should learn to read before they
> start mouthing off. The more they rant the more they show themselves to be
> morons.
At least most of them CAN read. Care to enlighten us on the literacy rates
in the Islamic world, especially among women?
The Pragmatist
Listen, Bucko, if the Jewish/Christian world had the values of your Muslim
brothers right now, there wouldn't be one fucking Muslim left in the world.
Islam PREYS off of western civilized behavior--just like the Palestinians
do. Their game is: we are allowed to kill you, but if you seek to defend
yourselves we will scream DEATH TO THE JEWS , REVENGE!
Stupid bastards are digging their own grave, but that is what the Great
Islamic Vision is all about.
So don't hand us this bullshit about the War on Islam--their SHOULD be one
if people were rational, but right now its very low level.
Besides, Islam has the seeds of its own destruction in its ideology--its
lack of creativity, productivity and any genuine vision.
"K James" <Ja...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:U8adne9MYcf...@sysmatrix.net...