Thursday, February 24, 2011

Muslims Condemn Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari

It is a serious issue for the society that we give credence to idiots like Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari who acts like he was inspired by religion.

He writes in his dairy, "You who created mankind. Grant me martyrdom for your sake and make jihad easy for me only in your path," according to court records.
Religion inspires one to be a good human and not a criminal. Quraan forbids killing and forbids suicide.

As Muslims we condemn this mind set and as Americans we should not be granting the religious shield to these criminals.    

This man Aldawsari is going to make the life difficult for Saudi Nationals going to schools in the USA. Should the Saudi Embassy keep track of her Citizens?  Should we require foreign embassies to monitor their own? The second part is he is also going to make life difficult for Muslim students and finally, he is a crackpot, do we need to blame his nationality and his religion for his acts?

Breaking story at: 
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/24/saudi-student-in-texas-charged-with-plotting-terrorist-attack/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-bv-w%7Cdl2%7Csec1_lnk3%7C203180

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Muslim politics - Ahmadiyya Muslims and Motamar Alislami

Motamar AlAlam AlIslami, Ahmadiyya Muslims and the World Muslim Congress.
http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2011/02/muslim-politics-ahmadiyya-muslims-and.html
An effort was made to connect Motamar AlAlam AlIslami and the World Muslim Congress. The response from Motamar was “your organization has Qadianis too and Qadianis are considered non Muslims as such there cannot be an alliance with your organization - Sorry “.  I understand the politics involved in bringing Muslims together.
When the Qur’aan burning incident in Florida was announced, we took a pro-active role and wrote the following:
A prominent group of Muslims liked this piece and asked me to reduce it to 600 words to run it as an ad in New York Times and get translated in at least 5 languages and publish in the local papers. The idea was to mitigate Muslims reaction around the world.  We got the work done and had an endorsement from Muslims of all Shades including Ahmadiyya. The inclusion of Ahmadiyya endorsement turned the “Men” from going forward. It was disappointing to the core, an appeal they considered will bring positive changes was sacked because of their prejudice towards Ahmadiyya. Does anyone has a gut to stand up?
My role Models are Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. What I learned from them was a simple fact;  If you do something right, meaning something that does not benefit you but benefits others, people will question you and the men in power will oppose you, never think for a moment that you are alone, God is with you when you care about his creation.
The thoughts of compromising surfaced many a times and were even encouraged; dump the Ahmadiyya vocabulary from my work and I will have a ton of support and funding to go forward.  You can call whatever you want, I chose not to compromise, I will do my share of the work to build cohesive societies without discrimination towards any one of God’s creation.
I consider the greatest sin on earth is discriminating others because of how each one of the 7 billion of us looks, works or talks.  As God told Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to just do his work and it is up to others to receive it.  With all my flaws, Alhamdu Lillah, I am committed to do my share of work. I hope someday, at least in America, our future generation will see the value in coming together as Muslims regardless of our hues, as humans regardless of our religion for doing good and knowing each other (Q49:13).
It’s amazing how people are brainwashed, the Pakistan Government declares them to be non-Muslims and many (but not all) Muslims instantly change their heart, as if they don’t have their own mind and keep building on it. The virus has reached the free Indonesian people as well, even Bangalore, my home town is not free from this divisive politics. Is your religiosity anchored in denying others their religiosity?
Americans are no exception, whatever the Bush Government put out, many a Americans believed in it, when Reagan called the Russians an evil empire, a lot of Americans believed in it and looked at the Russians in that manner. Again, no nation or people are free from this bias, Jesus had said the eternal truth, that no one can cast the first stone. We have to be truly free people and be independent of what the Government or the Media bombards us with.
The world has indeed become a global community. Everyone is a neighbor to everyone else; we aspire to nurture the concept of good neighborliness in the world. Our advisory board will be represented by individuals from every faith. It is time for us to be equal citizens of one world, our home. This is a major paradigm shift in how the religious organizations would be conducting their business in the coming years. Our Mission is to work for a world of co-existence through inclusiveness and participation.  (http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/WorldMuslimCongress/Articles/Mission-Statement.asp )
I hear the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “keep working.”

Mike Ghouse committed to building cohesive societies and is available to speak on Pluralism, Islam, Cohesive Societies, Peace and Justice. His work is listed in 3 Websites and 22 blogs at http://www.mikeghouse.net/
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REFERENCES
You are welcome to review over 1000 articles on Islam and co-existence on the blogs, but a few related to Ahmadiyya Muslims are enclosed here:
One Islam for Ahamdiyya, Bohra, Isamilia, Shia, Sunni and othershttp://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2010/04/there-is-only-one-islam.html
You are welcome to join the discussion group by sending an email to :
WorldMuslimCongress-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Friday, February 18, 2011

Cohesiveness is one of the roles of religion

The pledge of allegiance defines the role of faith fairly well; it is to build cohesive societies, expressed as one nation under God (oneness) indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

When conflicting sides believe they have the fundamentals of faith on their side, division is an amicable outcome as a last resort in civil societies, whereas the intolerant societies will resort to harassment and oppression.

Pluralism is a culmination of an attitude in civility, if we can learn to respect the otherness of other and accept the genetic God given (or genetic) uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge for societies to function cohesively.
Indeed, every social, cultural and religious system has a built-in mechanism to sustain its cohesiveness, however when insecure men get threatened, the spirituality (humility) of religion gets knocked over and control aspect of fallible human beings takes over and sacrifice the very purpose of religion; cohesiveness.

Islam was endowed with such a mechanism to deal with issues that had no precedence or choice. The system was called Ijtihad, a process of achieving consensus among parties independent of a given understanding.

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) asked his followers to refer to Quraan for any questions that might come up after he was gone, if no answers were to be found, he said, check out my examples and if there isn't one, then consult among yourselves, struggle to be just and righteous.

That system was weakened nearly four centuries after death of the prophet. The rules were made to exclude those who did not subscribe to the ideas of men controlling knowledge and power. Thus a great tool of keeping the communities together got decimated.

Thanks to America and its spirit of freedom and fearlessness, the institution of ljtihad will flourish and influence the Islamic thinking around the world for Muslims to once again become participants and contributors towards the well being of societies at large.

Research is warranted to determine the factors that split the groups. There was one Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism once, not anymore. Even the smaller groups like Jainism, Judaism, and Sikhism have split into sub-groups and the process will continue with every group as they grow in size, as naturally as the amoeba.
How do we bring our faith to bear in situations where there is no good choice? We have to do our Ijtihad and focus on the purpose of religion; cohesiveness.
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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer. He runs the Foundation for Pluralism championing the idea of co-existence through respecting and accepting the otherness of other and is committed to nurturing the pluralistic ideals embedded in Islam through the World Muslim Congress. Mike is available to speak on Pluralism, Islam, Civil Societies, and Peace & Justice at your place of worship, school, work place, seminars or conferences.  He is a media commentator offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.  Mike's work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at http://www.MikeGhouse.net/

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Muslims condemn Murdering Ahmadiyya Muslims in Indonesia


No Scripture supports any killing;
Certainly Quraan does not support it.

The only condonable killing is in self-defense, even then the scripture commands you to back off, if you see the signs that the offender is backing off, the best among you is the one who forgives and the forgiver is one of the dearest beings to God.

These Muslim-labeled men are hiding behind religion for their evil acts and shame on us, as a society for according them that false label and allowing them carry on those acts as if Islam sanctions it.

As a society, we should condemn every aggression and murder regardless of the label the killers use; religion, security, politics, democracy, capitalism, collateral damage, communism, progress, Quraan, Gita, Bible or the Torah.  There simply is no justification for any murder.

There is belligerency among a few Muslims; they are so arrogant that they knock God out his seat and take over judging other people's faith, shame on us we are letting them take over God’s role, he alone is the master of the day of judgment.  You cannot judge other peoples faith, it is between them and their creator. Only God knows what is in one’s heart and there are numerous examples and stories in Quraan about it.

The silent majority of Muslims do not approve this, but at least a few of them need to speak up. This is not acceptable and we express this disgust by signing the name below.

As a Muslim I will urge Muslims to condemn any evil act. We cannot allow religious stamp on the evil things men do. It is up to Hindus, Jews, Christians and others to do their work in the name of their faith if their faith is used to justify crimes.  

We must resist temptations to point fingers at others; it amounts to justification of our own wrong doing. Each one of us is answerable to the creator for our silence, just like each one of us will receive a traffic ticket for speeding, others get away on the same road, but there is nothing we can do about it. We were wrong and it is our own responsibility to fix ourselves. If we do that, then our voice will carry value.

You and I have the power to express, we can boldly say that using religion to kill any one is wrong, that is the least we can do. 

I hope and pray that the community of nations and societies treat this as capital crime and every one involved in killing must be punished.

I request that this note or a different note be circulated among the “silent people” to let them sign, a first step in being righteous.

Are you gutsy enough to sign up? If you are, write your name and the name of your town down in the comments section. Or create your own appeal and do it, but please do it.

Please join Mike Ghouse to nurture the pluralistic ideals embedded in Islam. Islam is about justice and fairness and balance in a society, that is all God wants in Quraan (49:13); for us to get along. http://www.worldmuslimcongress.net/

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In a message dated 2/9/2011 9:12:28 A.M. Central Standard Time, xxxxxxx@aol.com writes: I have just viewed the clip of the murder of Ahmadiyyas in Indonesia.  I have a question.  The Quran says:  109:1-6 -to you your belief, to me mine.   So why are the Ahmadiyyas being murdered?  What scripture supports this terrible travesty of justice? 
Blessings, Marylou

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MUSLIM SPEAKER
Email to: SpeakerMikeGhouse@gmail.com

Voice of Moderate Muslims

Voice of Moderate Muslims
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quraan burning

Planned Muslim Response to Qur'an Burning by Pastor Jones on September 11 in Mulberry, Florida

PRESS RELEASE
August 19, 2013| Dallas, Texas

Mike Ghouse
Text/Talk: (214) 325-1916
MikeGhouse@aol.com

Mirza A Beg
(205) 454-8797
mirza.a.beg@gmail.com

www.WorldMuslimCongress.com


PLANNED MUSLIMS RESPONSE TO QUR'AN BURNING BY PASTOR JONES ON 9/11/13 IN MULBERRY, FLORIDA

We as Muslims plan to respond to pastor Terry Jones' planned burning of 3000 copies of Quran on September 11, 2013 in positive terms.

Our response - we will reclaim the standard of behavior practiced by the Prophet concerning “scurrilous and hostile criticism of the Qur’an” (Muhammad Asad Translation Note 31, verse 41:34). It was "To overcome evil with good is good, and to resist evil by evil is evil." It is also strongly enjoined in the Qur’an in the same verse 41:34, “Good and evil deeds are not equal. Repel evil with what is better; then you will see that one who was once your enemy has become your dearest friend.”

God willing Muslims will follow the divine guidance and pray for the restoration of Goodwill, and on that day many Muslim organizations will go on a “blood drive” to save lives and serve humanity with kindness.

We invite fellow Americans of all faiths, races, and ethnicities to join us to rededicate the pledge, “One nation under God”, and to build a cohesive America where no American has to live in apprehension, discomfort or fear of fellow Americans. This event is a substitute for our 10th Annual Unity Day Celebration (www.UnitydayUSA.com) held in Dallas, but now it will be at Mulberry, Florida.

Unwittingly Pastor Jones has done us a favor by invigorating us by his decision to burn nearly 3000 copies Quran on September 11, 2013. Obviously he is not satisfied by the notoriety he garnered by burning one Qur'an last year.

As Muslims and citizens we honor the free speech guaranteed in our constitution. We have no intentions to criticize, condemn or oppose Pastor Terry Jones' freedom of expression. Instead, we will be donating blood and praying for goodness to permeate in our society.

We plan to follow Jesus Christ (pbuh), a revered prophet in Islam as well as Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) – that of mitigating the conflicts and nurturing good will for the common good of the society.

We hope, this event and the message will remind Muslims elsewhere in the world as well, that violence is not the way. Muslims, who react violently to senseless provocation, should realize that, violence causes more violence, and besmirches the name of the religion that we hold so dear. We believe that Prophet Muhammad was a mercy to the mankind, and we ought to practice what we believe and preach. We must not insult Islam by the negative reactions of a few.

We can only hope it will bring about a change in the attitude of the followers of Pastor Jones, and in the behavior of those Muslims who reacted violently the last time Pastor sought notoriety – We hope this small step towards a bridge to peaceful coexistence would propel us towards building a cohesive society.

Like most Americans a majority of Muslims quietly go about their own business, but it is time to speak up and take positive action instead of negative reaction. May this message of peace and goodwill reverberate and reach many shores.

Lastly, we appreciate the Citizens of Mulberry, Florida, Honorable Mayor George Hatch, City Commissioners, police and Fire Chiefs for handing this situation very well. This will add a ‘feather of peace’ in the City’s reputation. We hope Mulberry will be a catalyst in showing the way in handling conflict with dignity and peace.

We thank the Media for giving value to the work towards peace rather than conflict.






URL- http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2013/08/planned-muslim-response-to-quran_18.html



Thank you.

CIVIL DIALOGUE

The people in Dallas are making an effort to understand and clean their own hearts first, when we are free from bias, it would be easy to share that with others. Islam teaches us in so many ways to "respect the otherness of others" and it is time we find simple practical ways of doing it.