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So I'm watching PBS and I see a special with this guy Tarek Fatah. This guy is awesome .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarek_Fatah. We need to bring this guy to America. Tarek is on a crusade to remove the Wahabi influence from Western Islam. For his trouble he has been put on a list of the 5 most dangerous people against Muslims.

I think he's got a lot of important things to say.

The PBS show was called "need to know" and it was about all these Muslims that are taking a stand against Wahabism, and terrorism, that si promoted throughout many mosques in the west.

Why don't we hear more about these guys?

Why don't we hear more about these guys?

Because they're regular, reasonable people, and thus make for a very poor OMG EBIL MOSLEMZ story?

Laughing Man wrote:

Why don't we hear more about these guys?

Because they're regular, reasonable people, and thus make for a very poor OMG EBIL MOSLEMZ story?

Really, this.

We don't hear more about them because of ratings. What will bring in the ratings. I mean look at Fox News, they always go on about how they're the number one rated network for news.

Also most of America has this preconceived notion that all Muslims are bad people, or at the least, suspicious. Just look at the Ground Zero Mosque.

It would just be too much of a shock to learn that there are Muslims that oppose the terrorists.

Actually, I would say that the biggest issue with the American perception of Islam is ignorance. Its often viewed as this monolithic 'other' despite being a highly fragmented faith, moreso than even Christianity (of which many Americans are also ignorant).

But anyway, Fatah is a commendable guy. I don't agree with all of his ideas, but he's certainly someone that I support in terms of general message. His struggle is very much reminiscent of what went on in the Black and Feminist movements during the 80's.

dogma wrote:Actually, I would say that the biggest issue with the American perception of Islam is ignorance. Its often viewed as this monolithic 'other' despite being a highly fragmented faith, moreso than even Christianity (of which many Americans are also ignorant).

What, exactly, is to blame for that ignorance? Stupidity or the media?

I mean, I've never made presumptions about Islam (having been raised in a tolerant left-wing family), and after reading up on it and talking to Muslims at my school I was amazed at how wrong so many Americans have it. I hear people raving about 'jihad' and other 'extremist' concepts without knowing what they even mean.

What the hell is wrong with people? I can understand that prejudice originated with a general lack of interaction between most Middle-eastern Muslims and the rest of the world, but don't they think twice before making those assumptions?

Cheese Elemental wrote:
What, exactly, is to blame for that ignorance? Stupidity or the media?

Not really anything. Islam is a foreign religion, and even the domestic one is poorly understood. I've met people that say things like "I'm not Christian, I'm Catholic." Most people don't pay attention to, let alone study, these sorts of things.

Cheese Elemental wrote:
I mean, I've never made presumptions about Islam (having been raised in a tolerant left-wing family), and after reading up on it and talking to Muslims at my school I was amazed at how wrong so many Americans have it. I hear people raving about 'jihad' and other 'extremist' concepts without knowing what they even mean.

What the hell is wrong with people? I can understand that prejudice originated with a general lack of interaction between most Middle-eastern Muslims and the rest of the world, but don't they think twice before making those assumptions?

No, and that's the primary problem in all cases similar to this one. Well, that, and the tendency of people to assume that education with respect to one thing is education with respect to all things.

Also most of America has this preconceived notion that all Muslims are bad people, or at the least, suspicious. Just look at the Ground Zero Mosque.

It would just be too much of a shock to learn that there are Muslims that oppose the terrorists.

You know that Tarek Fatah is actually against the Ground Zero Mosque right?

" The fact we Muslims know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith and in Islamic parlance, such an act is referred to as “Fitna,” meaning “mischief-making” that is clearly forbidden in the Koran."

"The Koran commands Muslims to, “Be considerate when you debate with the People of the Book” — i.e., Jews and Christians. Building an exclusive place of worship for Muslims at the place where Muslims killed thousands of New Yorkers is not being considerate or sensitive, it is undoubtedly an act of “fitna."

The sad thing is that I think if Tarek Fateh was the head of the Ground Zero Mosque, I'd probably be all for it, but he would never put one there. From what I have seen and read about him, he really seams like the kind of guy that should be the head of a interfaith tolerance and education center.

I was using that as an example of America's distrust of Muslims.

" The fact we Muslims know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith and in Islamic parlance, such an act is referred to as “Fitna,” meaning “mischief-making” that is clearly forbidden in the Koran."

I don't think he really gets to decide that considering he has absolutely nothing to do with it. It does well to ingratiate him to western audiences though.

The sad thing is that I think if Tarek Fateh was the head of the Ground Zero Mosque, I'd probably be all for it, but he would never put one there. From what I have seen and read about him, he really seams like the kind of guy that should be the head of a interfaith tolerance and education center.

As opposed to the other moderate pro american guy that you dislike despite also having learnt about him this month.

I really like how Tarek Fateh says that Muslims should abandon the idea of an Islamist state with Shariah law and instead create a secular state with respect to human rights and separation of church and state but when Muslims attempt to exercise their human rights in a secular nation with separation of church and state he states Shariah law to get Muslims not to use those rights.

I don't know if he sees the irony or not.

Andrew1975 wrote:The sad thing is that I think if Tarek Fateh was the head of the Ground Zero Mosque, I'd probably be all for it, but he would never put one there. From what I have seen and read about him, he really seams like the kind of guy that should be the head of a interfaith tolerance and education center.

How many times do I have to explain to you that the guy heading up the Park 51 project is a moderate? Feisal Abdul Rauf wrote a book called "What's Right with Islam Is What's Right with America" because he believes in close ties between Islam and the West based on mutually shared values. Seriously, how many fething times?


And yeah, I've heard of Tarek Fatah. He seems an interesting guy, and I share his view that the wahhabist element of Islam coming out of Saudi Arabia has had a poisonous influence on Islam. I'd like to point out he's one of thousands of voices saying much the same, part of a powerful debate going within Islam over their faith. We don't hear about them because there's no real interest in the media to tell stories about peaceful muslims, the narrative demands scary muslims so that's what we get.

Hell, up until very recently Rauf was one of the good guys, he was even on Bush' council to discuss close relations between Islam and the West. But people didn't like Cordoba House, and the narrative was better served by calling him a terrorist sympathiser, so we get that rubbish. Even though it's obviously not true.