Question about Islam in Washington....
Before posting this, I want to point out that I am not islamophobic. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and receiving the friendship of quite a few Muslims….. most of them from Indonesia, and 2 from Africa. All of them absolutely wonderful people.
Of course, there is the other side…. ISIS. Pres. Obama accused them of following a “perversion” of Islam. I personally can’t quite understand how one religion could have such extreme opposites among its followers, when they are all reading the same book.
Nevertheless, the Sultan of Brunei recently made the news. Owning prominent five-star hotels in Beverly Hills, London, and other cities, he seems to be quite “westernized”. Yet, he made the ruling that Sharia Law (Islamic Law) be followed more strictly in his country, and that gay people and adulterers be punished to death by public stoning. (with “adulterers”, they probably refer to female adulterers, since men can have multiple concubines, in addition to multiple wives)
This made me think and wonder…..
If I am not mistaken, 3 female Muslims were recently voted into Congress, with Rep Omar being the most outspoken one.
Rep. Omar took her oath for office by placing her hand on a Koran. IMHO opinion, this was the correct thing to do, since the Bible does not mean anything to her. And she had stated that she was a devout Muslim,
If I am not mistaken, in Islam, Sharia Law is considered to over-rule “local law”
Considering the laws regarding gays and adulterers, mentioned above, it seems to me, Sharia Law and US Law (the Constitution) are in direct conflict.
How can a Congress Person, such as Rep Omar, adhere to the law of her religion, and at the same time defend the Constitution? Should she not have recused herself?
Don’t I remember JFK having the same said about him ?
I see no conflict.
Hurray! mcfarmer is back! Welcome back mfarmer.
The big concern with Kennedy was from the massive protestant majority in this country at that time who thought that he would be taking orders from the Pope.
https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/john-f-kennedy-on-catholicism-video
As only the second Catholic to run for presidential office in a majority Protestant nation, John F. Kennedy was confronted with the issue of his religion throughout his campaign. In order to defuse concerns that his religious views would interfere with his ability as chief executive, he delivers a speech on September 12, 1960, to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association stressing the importance of the separation of church and state.
https://socratic.org/questions/why-were-people-concerned-about-kennedy-being-catholic
America's Protestant majority was concerned about having a president who took orders from the Pope.
Catholics and Protestants differ on some significant issues, and Papal authority is a big one. Catholics form the largest single Christian denomination in America, but are outnumbered by members of the various Protestant denominations. Religious freedom--the freedom to follow or not follow any particular religion-- is a prettty major selling point of the US Constitution.
Kennedy, a Catholic and the son of a very prominent Catholic businessman and ambassador, embraced some popular and mainstream platforms and credibly assured the nation that he wasn't a sleeper agent for the Vatican. His opponent in the 1960 election, Richard Nixon, was a Quaker, which is slightly outside the mainstream of American religious practices, and ultimately most voters just didn't make a huge distinction between them on the specific issue of religion.
Anti-Catholic sentiment has long been a feature of the American landscape, especially in the mid-19th Century when an influx of Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany appeared to pose a threat to the Protestants' majority standing. This spawned an anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant political movement, the Know-Nothings .
With regards to this question and Islam, I think that Gunter has an excellent point.
I might be a bit biased as somebody that went to Catholic school for 12 years but we were often told that if you followed the principles and rules that Jesus taught, then you would be held to an even higher standard than laws that man and governments made.
Love your neighbor, love your enemy. Respect the dignity of all human life from conception to death..........women, minorities. Tell the truth. Help the less fortunate. Obey laws.
Kennedy was being taught the same principles. Hard to find a conflict or concern if you understand that, other than how some feel about homosexuality...........which is shared by some protestants, jews and other religions.
With Sharia Law, however we have something that most of us probably don't understand well enough to say anything with great confidence.
My dad's house is in a city (Dearborn MI) that is 46% Muslim. I spend numerous weeks a year there and obviously have the chance to interact with many dozens of Muslims. I can't say anything bad about them or the ones that I've coached in soccer or chess here locally. The ones in Dearborn, that I don't know very well seem to be assimilating.
The 2 families locally that I got to know fairly well for a few years(one had a son doing chess, the other had 2 sons doing soccer) were extraordinarily strict religiously and with their sons. Their sons were well behaved and very respectful but it felt like these families were not really assimilating. They had wonderful fathers but it was clear that mom was not an equal partner and the boys didn't really have many classmate friends and had to be home all the time when not at school or practice. I saw a couple instances of 1 of these boys being discriminated against at school.........by the principle of all people, which was shocking and they had actually just moved here because of the discrimination they experienced where they lived previously(they said). Ironically, that was in California. Their dad taught at the University of Evansville and was well educated. I had some great discussions with him and would enjoy having somebody like that as a friend.
My personal opinion is that the difference between them and everybody else was amplified because they were living in a town with almost no Muslims and were almost anti social, not assimilating, not allowing their son to do anything with anybody it seemed. I felt bad for the kid.
I am certain that the discrimination is connected to the lack of assimilating. The less you assimilate, the bigger the difference between you and everybody else, the less tolerant other people are of you. If you completely assimilate, people accept you as being like them or one of them.
So the question that Gunter or somebody else might pose, is "what Muslim are we getting when we elect somebody of that faith to public office?"
One like those in Dearborn that seem to fit right in or one like, especially the family that I knew here in Indiana that was having a hard time because they were so strict in practicing their religion?
I should add that this took place not long after 9-11-2001 and descrimination going on aimed at Muslims in America had spiked higher. That obviously effected this family. So part of them not assimulating was probably the result of them responding to the way that they were being treated.
Behavior like that generally doesn’t last much more than a generation. Once the kids go off on their own they drift towards the center, or rebel outright.
Always exceptions however.
That makes sense mcfarmer, as the ones in my story, I'm thinking had not been here for more than a decade.
Most of the Muslims living in Dearborn are 2nd generation and older.
holy cow there has been some very naïve thoughts tossed around in this thread. There are 1.2 billion muslims in the world. General thought is maybe 20 % are radicals...does anyone here know what 20% of 1.2 billion is.....we better figure it out
“does anyone here know what 20% of 1.2 billion is.....we better figure it out”
Are you being facetious ?
This survey is about as comprehensive as it gets about Muslims. Alot of the negative impression numbers are well into the double digits but not as bad as they were for numerous years after 9-11.
Most of the results from this study is opinions of Muslims and opinions by Muslims. The graph below is not an opinion.
Muslims are out populating all others because they have more children. This will continue, especially because the average age of Muslim females is MUCH lower than the rest.
