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2007-11-08 Olde Tyme Religion

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Posted by Beavis 2007-11-08 07:48|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 The two young women featured in this piece (Melissa and Kelly) have not really studied islam or, if they have, then they simply don't understand what they've read. They're both more in the mold of what I think took place regularily on the college campus in the 1930's: Hey...let's become communists! It's revoluntionary and since we're the first on the block to convert, that makes us soooo hip and coooool.

Spit.

Posted by Mark Z">Mark Z 2007-11-08 11:02|| 2007-11-08 11:02|| Front Page Top

#2 Let's wish them luck changing the religion they've chosen as much for the sparkles on the hijab as because it puts them in revolutionary solidarity with... whomever. Their odds aren't good, but if they can attract enough Americanized Muslims to fight for their faith, Islam will have a chance of coming through this conflict its puritans have created.

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2007-11-08 11:20|| 2007-11-08 11:20|| Front Page Top

#3 This reminds me of two bits of personal experience from my college years.

First, an american woman who married a Muslim and had a child. She was soon risking her life to retrieve the child which was kidnapped to the ME by her husband.

Second, a band-following Dead-Head. Defined his entire existence and I witnessed his popularity and vast network of hippie friends in the pre-concert parking lots. He did a 180 and embraced a christian cult because it filled some void in his life. Some people are just into extremes.

Posted by Captain Lewis 2007-11-08 12:10|| 2007-11-08 12:10|| Front Page Top

#4 The Islam I have embraced is one that protects the rights of women, is tolerant of multiculturalism, promotes peace among mankind and encourages spiritual enlightenment through religious practice, critical thinking, and the quest for knowledge.

Then its not true Islam.

I was also told that because Arabic is not my native language, I was not qualified to interpret religious text.

See, I told ya.

Posted by BrerRabbit 2007-11-08 12:37|| 2007-11-08 12:37|| Front Page Top

#5 they can't gather at a moskkk but a UU church had no problem letting them use their facilities.

Posted by Broadhead6 2007-11-08 14:17|| 2007-11-08 14:17|| Front Page Top

#6 It did not bode well that every mosque I visited practiced strict gender segregation.

Welcome to Islam, Baby!

As a feminist with a minor in women's studies, I have never found this sort of restriction necessary or beneficial.

I guess the part about "women's liberation" didn't stick too well, now did it?

During a study circle called a "halaqa," at a mosque in north Atlanta I was told music was "haram," or forbidden. As a fan of bluegrass, classic rock, reggae, hip-hop, jazz, folk, pop, opera and just about any other musical style, I found this edict impossible to swallow.

Get used to it, you've intentionally chosen the world's most intolerant creed and this ban on music is just the beginning.

I was also told that because Arabic is not my native language, I was not qualified to interpret religious text.

Notice how the person who told you this was a MAN?!?

Finally, on one of the holiest days of the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Fitr, the day celebrating the end of the monthlong fast during Ramadan, my good friend Kelly Wentworth attended the congregational prayer at one of the largest mosques in Atlanta. The sermon vilified the "West." The imam, or religious leader, told the congregation that Islam is incompatible with "Western" values, and the "West" is a corruption. My friend returned home that night incensed. After all, she and I are the West and were inspired by our Western ideas to choose Islam. In all of my studies, Islam was the one faith most compatible with so-called Western thought. It is because I live in the West that I have the freedom to practice Islam. I do not feel the need to choose between my spiritual path and Western values. Both Islam and the West are integral parts of who I am. Needless to say, I was disappointed and frustrated.

Yet, you idiotically maintain that "Islam and the West are integral parts of who I am". You are a cognitively dissonant moron and a dangerously cognitively dissonant moron at that.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-11-08 16:11|| 2007-11-08 16:11|| Front Page Top

#7 Hmm. I might have to visit and check it out, just out of curiosity, since its right down the road. However, I wonder how much of a "community" two Western women converting to Islam really make? If its just the three of us at their meeting, that would be awkward - not quite sure why they are in the news - I could see them on fark.com but why the AJC?

Posted by Beau 2007-11-08 19:39|| 2007-11-08 19:39|| Front Page Top

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