In the United States, despite the fact we have millions of Muslims living here, Islam is a little understood religion. I would be the last person to say I understand the faith. I do know I tried to learn more about it and it's history after September 11, 2001.
But unfortunately September 11, 2001 was a turning point in outright bigotry toward Islamic people in the United States and the western world. Because of the actions inspired by the 19 madmen who flew those jets that day and their supposed pychopath leader Osama bin Ladin, a frenzy of hatred was whipped up against Muslims.
My liberal partner who was more inclined to side with the Palestinians prior to 9/11 suddenly was very hateful toward Muslim people. Even then I strongly criticized him for his overly emotional reaction not based in reality, but fear and anger.
On 9/11, my manager at work, now a US citizen, was born in Pakistan, still had relatives living there and is a devout practicing Muslim. In my very large international company I work with a lot of Muslims.
I learned about the Prophet Muhammad who lived in the late 6th and early 7th century. He was a multi-faceted man, with both acts of good and not so good (like all men). People can debate this and obviously Muslims take by faith his revelations from who they call god - Allah.
The people from Arabia in conjunction with their new Islamic faith went on to spread their influence and faith throughout the Middle East, northern Africa and into southwest Europe. Some of this was done brutally (as other religious people did) and a good deal of modern civilization was promulgated under Arab influence.
Does the Quran include passages of violence? Does it include passages against certain type of people, including the subjugation of women? I cannot say for sure as I have not read the Quran, but it is my understanding it does. But this is no different then the Torah or Holy Bible. And like the Torah and Holy Bible, as I understand it, the Quran also has passages of beauty, of love and peace toward god as well as fellow man.
Human beings are SO capable of using their fears to demonize people and turn them into objects, not human beings. Religion can be a force for both good and evil depending how human beings choose to use it.
Evil men can use religion, whether Christianity, Judaism or Islam, for evil reasons, evil gain.
We in the West recoiled in horror when we witnessed on the Internet evil men beheading innocent people shouting 'Allahu Akbar'. For many westerners that phrase became a phrase representing mad men. That is very unfortunate.
Over the last week the West is now witnessing something quite different, proud Iranian people demanding their free voices be heard, demanding tyrants be brought down and held to account. The nation George W. Bush called a member of the Axis of Evil, the nation that allowed 52 American hostages to be held for 444 days in 1979-1981, the nation that executes people because of their sexual orientation, the nation that allows clerics to have the ultimate political control.
Yes, it is difficult for many Westerners to understand some of these things and to forgive some of them (just as it's hard for the proud Persian people to forgive the West for it's criminal interference in their sovereignty like the CIA sponsered 1953 coup in Iran), but if we TRY, just TRY to find a common humanity with the people of Iran, not the extremists, the criminals, but the people (as well as Muslims all over the world), if we just try and respect each other and have decency toward each other, always ready to defend ourselves against those who are actually evil, not the vast majority of the rest of the people, it would be a true advancement of humankind.
I was inspired to write this diary when I heard this YouTube:
At first, one might cringe at 'Allahu Akbar' until one hears it in a different light, as a cry in the night for god (Allah) to hear their prayer, to see their pain and deliver THEM from evil - a very common human desire.
Then I read this on Huffington Post to accompany this YouTube. Something to think about as we all wish our Iranian brothers and sisters well:
I cannot in any way claim to know what people are thinking or meaning on the ground, but for centuries, 'Allahu Akbar' has been in the Muslim world a battlefield of meaning and ultimately of political legitimacy. They are five syllables pregnant in meaning, mutability and richness, not simply a ritualistic or fundamentalist dogmatic trope. Nor is 'Allahu Akbar' simply a prayer. In fact, despite all its negative, violent connotations in the West, 'Allahu Akbar' has been uttered by Muslims throughout history as a cry against oppression, against kings and monarchs, against tyrannical and despotic rule, reminding people that in the end, the disposer of affairs and ultimate holder of legitimacy is not any man, not any king or queen, not even any supreme leader, but ultimately a divine force out and above directing, caring and fighting for a more peaceful, rule-based, just and free world for people to live in. God is the one who is greatest, above each and every mortal human being whose station it is to pass away.
The fact that 'Allahu Akbar' is echoing through the Iranian night is not only an indication of the longing of people there to find a peaceful and just solution to this crisis. It also points to how deep the erosion of legitimacy is in whosoever acts against the will of the people, in whosoever claims to act on God's behalf to oppress his fellow human, including in this case some of the 'supreme' Islamic jurists themselves. This all goes to show that Islam, far from being merely an abode of repression and retrogression, has the capacity of being a fundamentally restorative and democratic force in human affairs. In the end, so it seems, at least in the Iranian context, 'Allahu Akbar', God is greatest, is a most profoundly democratic of political slogans. So deep is this call, that what is determined out of this liminal moment may very well set the terms for (or against) a lived, democratic Islamic reality for decades to come.