Prof Mansur, your audience can’t be non-Muslims. They are not the “misunderstanders” of the beauty of Islam. By their fruits, you shall know them. I just look around and have observed the Muslim world, since 9/11.
I see hatred, bigotry, violence and oppression everywhere. Some places worse than other places. I see this hatred, bigotry and violence justified by reference to the Muslim religion.
What do I know? I’m an outsider, I don’t speak the language and it’s a different culture. Am I wrong to take these Imams, Mullahs and Ayatollahs from Orange County, to Al Azhar, to the UK, to Algeria to Indonesia at their word?
How can so many “religious” scholars “misunderstand” their own religion? Yes, Christianity is used to justify the hatred and bigotry of the nutballs at the Westboro Baptist Church. But they have no followers, they have no contributors, they have not committed terrorist attacks to the acclaim of Christians worldwide. Judaism has produced fringe nutballs.
In both religions, in the 21st Century, they are just that, fringe nutballs. The hatred and bigotry of the Westboro Baptist Church is the mainstream of Islam. We see this kind of hatred and bigotry coming straight out of the Great Mosque in Saudi Arabia, out of the premier University of Islam, Al Azhar in Cairo, out of the Islamic tv preachers followed by tens of millions of Moslems.
Prof Mansur, please focus efforts on the correct audience, that is, speak to fellow Muslims. Organize like-minded Muslims. Become the dominant strain in Islam. That’s your job. As an outsider, I can only watch and see what Muslims do and say. I can only watch the almost daily mass murder, primarily of Muslims in Iraq. I’ve heard no condemnation of mass murder in the name of Allah. I’ve seen no support for the US and the Coalition, who are valiantly trying to stop the violence in Iraq from Egypt or Saudi Arabia. What I see is simply an unending incitement to murder from everywhere in the Muslim ‘Civilization’.
My mind will be changed by actions, not accusations that I ‘misunderstand’ Islam.
I wish you success, Prof Mansur. Your success will save the lives of tens of millions of Muslims and prevent future wars. Bottom line, end the jihad and that will end the war.
