[Vision2020] True Muslims and True Americans

[Tom Hansen]

How about these terrorists, Mr. Sherwin?

http://www.freemuslims.org/

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


********************************************

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"

- Thomas Jefferson

********************************************

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of nickgier at adelphia.net
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 11:07 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] True Muslims and True Americans

Hail to the Vision!

I'm disturbed by distorted views of Muslims and Americans that are coming up
the hill from Lewiston. It has the same effect as the Potlatch mill when the
wind is right, except that wind blows in all directions in cyberspace.

I would like to follow up on Sunil's comments about his Christian family
growing up peacefully next door to a Muslim family in India.  Although they
grap the headlines, radical Hindus and Muslims are a small minority in
India.  

Out of 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide, 350 million live in India, Indonesia,
and Malaysia.  These countries are good friends and allies with the U.S.
Only a small number of them would side with the jihadists.  This is true for
many other Muslim countries.


I may have mentioned a paper that I did for a conference in Spokane in May.
It is entitled "From Mongols to Mughals: Religious Violence in India from
the 9th-18th Centuries."  Contrary to widespread misconceptions (which I
myself held), Islam was not spread by the sword in India and Indonesia.  In
fact, those areas where Muslims tried to coerce conversion are now exactly
those areas that have the fewest Muslims.
You can read the paper at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/mm.htm.

On December 8, 1992, I was invited by graduate students in Gandhian Studies
at Panjab University to visit a Muslim village outside of Chandigarh.  Their
project was to teach Muslim children Hindi or English.  Four students were
Hindu and the other two were Sikhs.  The first thing they did upon arriving
at the village was to pay their respects at the Hindu Goddess temple (the
two Sikhs also).  (The mosque appeared to be in ruins.) The Hindu priests
were busy preparing rice and curry for the entire village.  This is Gandhi's
India where Indians of all faiths (six major ones) get along just fine, even
celebraring many festivals (some of them religious) together.

When I returned to Chandigarh that night, I walked into the faculty hostel
and was shocked to see radical Hindus tearing down the Barbri Mosque In
Adyodhya with pick axes and their bare hands.  The world saw this rather
than the peaceful Muslim town, which, as I was told, was the norm in
hundreds of thousands of other Indian villages.

Blaming all of Islam for the jihadists is just about as bad as blaming all
Christians for the Aryan Nations.

Respecting all religious beliefs?  It is a no brainer!!!

Nick Gier

=======================================================
 List services made available by First Step Internet, 
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================