Rethinking Islam with Sultan Shahin

Letters to the Editor

25 Feb 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com

Islam’s emphasis on equal respect to all prophets and all religions

To      sultan.shahin@gmail.com Date   25 February 2010 09:58 Subject:       Islam’s emphasis on equal respect to all prophets and all religions Dear Sultan Shahin, I am an American. I was born into a Jewish family and attended 6 years of Hebrew School as a youth and of course was Barmitzvahed in 1968. Today I am a rather militant and very devout Atheist, not that it's important to this discussion but that it might help the reader to understand my perspective. Out of respect and because my own beliefs are not generally accepted by a very theological American population generally accepting Christianity I have chosen to accept all religions as being universally assumed truths which should be viewed with equality. I wish harm to no one. Let's examine the phrase "equal respect to all prophets and all religions" as it applies to America today and I would like to ask your opinion on what I would consider a vital question for the Islamic world today. America, to say the least and to also treat it very mildly, is in a state of inner turmoil never before experienced in its history. It's foreign policy and even its national policy dictated solely by the events of 9/11. We are living a lie and we are engaged in an active clash of civilizations which is responsible for, between 2001 and today, the deaths of well over 1 million Muslims, believers in Islam. This is no small matter as I'm certain you are well aware. We are exporting religious fear at the same time that we are entertaining it as the solitary and exclusive basis for our actions. While you might know, and the Muslim world might also know, and even I know that this is false, Americans, most of them, do not. How does a Muslim, a true believer in Islam, who might recognize the truth behind 9/11, that it was not perpetrated by Muslims, reconcile this fact with his or her religious beliefs when professing that a believer is much like a "UPS delivery man, dropping off the divine revelation of the Qur' an at the doorstep of humanity, maybe pausing long enough to obtain a signature to ensure that the item has been received, and then departing, never to be seen again." It seems to me that universal truths are necessary and equally so, universal lies should be not only forbidden but attacked with a vengeance to expose the truth. I have seen little action in the Muslim world related to exposing the truth behind the conspiracy known as 9/11 but I know in my heart it was a Zionist and Neo-Con conspiracy and that Islam had little to do with the perpetrators other than their desire to vilify it by their diabolical actions. So, why the silence. Wishing you good health, peace and prosperity, Jeff Prager Founder & Publisher - Retired Senior Magazine URL of this page: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamLetters_1.aspx?ArticleID=2501