A Thought Provoking Email

Hi,

A couple of days ago, I received a thought provoking email from some contacts of mine. It was written by a muslim friend. I feel many of the points are agreeable and the gist of the email applies not only to the followers of islam but also the other religions in which terrorists exists. We should understand that all religions int he world are not advocates of terrorism but they preach peace, understanding and tolerance. Terrorism is the result of the abuse of politics by an individual or a groups of people for his/her or their personal gains that maybe power and/or wealth.

Let us all re-look at our belief systems, our religions and condemn all acts of terrorism and preach peace, tolerance and understanding among fellow human beings regardless or who they maybe. Hope the relevant religious and government authorities in the world start to put this into action right away. When there is a will, there is a way.

God is Love, Love is God :)

Just my thoughts and views.

Here is the email for your thought :-
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Date : 18 March 2009

From the heart of a Muslim --- Tawfik Hamid

I was born a Muslim and lived all my life as a follower of Islam. After
the barbaric terrorist attacks done by the hands of my fellow Muslims
everywhere on this globe, and after the too many violent acts by
Islamists in many parts of the world, I feel responsible as a Muslim
and as a human being, to speak out and tell the truth to protect the
world and Muslims as well from a coming catastrophe and war of
civilizations.

I have to admit that our current Islamic teaching creates violence
and hatred toward Non-Muslims. We Muslims are the ones who need to
change. Until now we have accepted polygamy, the beating of women by
men, and killing those who convert from Islam to other religions. We
have never had a clear and strong stand against the concept of slavery
or wars, to spread our religion and to subjugate others to Islam and
force them to pay a umiliating tax called Jizia. We ask others to
respect our religion while all the time we curse non-Muslims loudly (in
Arabic) in our Friday prayers in the Mosques.

What message do we convey to our children when we call the Jews
"Descendants of the pigs and monkeys". Is this a message of love and
peace, or a message of hate?

I have been into churches and synagogues where they were praying for
Muslims. While all the time we curse them, and teach our generations to
call them infidels, and to hate them.

We immediately jump in a 'knee jerk reflex' to defend Prophet Mohammed
when someone accuses him of being a pedophile while, at the same time,
we are proud with the story in our Islamic books, that he married a
young girl seven years old (Aisha) when he was above 50 years old.

I am sad to say that many, if not most of us, rejoiced in happiness
after September 11th and after many other terror attacks. Muslims
denounce these attacks to look good in front of the media, but we
condone the Islamic terrorists and sympathise with their cause. Till now
our 'reputable' top religious authorities have never issued a Fatwa or
religious statement to proclaim Bin Laden as an apostate, while an
author, like Rushdie, was declared an apostate who should be killed
according to Islamic Shariia law just for writing a book criticizing
Islam.

Muslims demonstrated to get more religious rights as we did in
France to stop the ban on the Hejab (Head Scarf), while we did not
demonstrate with such passion and in such numbers against the terrorist
murders.... WHY???

It is our absolute silence against the terrorists that gives the energy
to these terrorists to continue doing their evil acts. We Muslims need
to stop blaming our problems on others or on the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict. As a matter of honesty, Israel is the only
light of democracy, civilization, and human rights in the whole Middle
East .

We kicked out the Jews with no compensation or mercy from
most of the Arab countries to make them "Jews-Free countries"
while Israel accepted more than a million Arabs to live there, have
its nationality, and enjoy their rights as human beings. In Israel ,
women can not be beaten legally by men, and any person can change
his/her belief system with no fear of being killed by the Islamic law of
'Apostasy', while in our Islamic world people do not enjoy any of these
rights. I agree that the 'Palestinians' suffer, but they suffer because
of their corrupt leaders and not because of Israel .

It is not common to see Arabs who live in Israel leaving to live
in the Arab world. On the other hand, we used to see thousands of
Palestinians going to work with happiness in Israel, its 'enemy'. If
Israel treats Arabs badly as some people claim, surely we would
have seen the opposite happening... Right?

We Muslims need to admit our problems and face them. Only then we can
treat them and start a new era to live in harmony with human mankind.
Our religious leaders have to show a clear and very strong stand against
polygamy, pedophilia, slavery, killing those who convert from Islam to
other religions, beating of women by men and declaring wars on
non-Muslims to spread Islam.

Then, and only then, do we have the right to ask others to respect
our religion. The time has come to stop our hypocrisy and say
it openly: 'We Muslims have to Change'.

- Tawfik Hamid -
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