Killings in Nigeria and Iraq and death sentence for blasphemy in Pakistan have renewed concerns about the rights and security of Christians in Muslim countries and in Nigeria with its large Muslim and Christian populations. They illustrate the dangerous and devastating consequences of intolerance and challenge Muslims to counter religious extremism and more aggressively and effectively safeguard and institutionalize the rights of all religious minorities. While majorities embrace religious diversity, a significant minority of hardline conservative, fundamentalist and militant Muslims, like their counterparts in Christianity and Judaism, are not pluralistic but rather strongly exclusivist in their attitudes towards other faiths and even co-believers with whom they disagree. These myopic religious worldviews can turn ugly. Substantive change can only come with strong leadership from government and religious leaders accompanied by religious and legal reforms.
Nigeria, home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, has historically been a country where Muslims and Christians have co-existed and interacted for generations. The situation changed dramatically with a conflict that dates back to 1999, and, according to Human Rights Watch, has claimed 13,500 lives and attacks against churches and mosques with no apparent end in sight. Though religion is increasingly playing an important role in the self-identity of combatants and their mobilization, it can mask deep seated economic, social and political tensions and conflicts.
Authorities believe that the mostly Muslim Hausa-Fulani ethnic group raided a Christian village and butchered six people. The attack was eerily similar to clashes that took place between Muslim herders and mostly Christian villagers in January and March that claimed hundreds of lives. Though President Goodluck Jonathan pledged to bring the perpetrators to swift justice, his warnings and admonitions were largely ignored: Another 500 people were killed in a nearby region shortly after his statement.
This incident took place during an equally tragic moment in Iraq. Armed gunmen who identified themselves the Islamic State of Iraq killed more than 50 worshippers at a Syriac Christian Church in Baghdad earlier this month and declared Christians everywhere as "legitimate targets." News reports were quick to point out the dwindling numbers of Christians in the Middle East as evidence of Muslim intolerance. Not often were reported was that Muslims in the neighborhood had interceded with the gunmen.
In South Asia, a court in Pakistan sentenced a Christian mother of four to death for insulting Islam. Asia Bibi, 45, is believed to be the first woman sentenced to death under Pakistan's blasphemy law. She strongly denies the charges. Pakistani Christians are rallying the United Nations in New York to pressure Pakistan to repeal the blasphemy law and overturn the sentence of Bibi.
Continued acts of violence underscore the importance of the ongoing debate in contemporary Islam on the status of non-Muslims in a predominantly Muslim country. Some cling to past practice, a "protected" (dhimmi) status, which enabled Christians and Jews to practice their faith in exchange for paying a tax. Such a solution, while progressive in its time, constitutes an unacceptable second-class citizenship today. Reformers argue that non-Muslims should have full and equal citizenship rights based on Quranic texts that reveal a pluralistic vision such as: "To everyone we have appointed a way and a course to follow'' (5.48); ''For each there is a direction toward which he turns; vie therefore with one another in the performance of good works. Wherever you may be, God shall bring you all together [on the Day of Judgment]. Surely God has power over all things" (2.148); and "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256). These verses support religious diversity in the human community and reflect support for pluralism, not exclusivism.
Muslim leaders need to not only condemn religious extremism and terrorism as many have nationally and internationally, but most importantly implement reforms in law and in society to insure equality of citizenship and instill more pluralistic and tolerant attitudes and values in the next generation of imams, scholars and the general public. Failure to do so threatens the safety and security of religious minorities and the very fabric of Muslim societies.
John L. Esposito, the author of 'The Future of Islam', is University Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University and founding director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Sheila B. Lalwani is a research fellow at the center.
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should have read: Safeguardi ng the Rights of Mus-lims in America
ed.
Safeguarding the Rights of Christians in Muslim Countries
should have read: Safeguarding the Rights of Muslims in America
ed.
You will be attacked for simply having the wrong name.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101122/pl_afp/uscrimesocialracismreligiongay_20101122190340
Europe has been bending over backwards to accommodate Muslim immigrants, with massive welfare benefits and special privileges which they have been abusing over and over, with threats against the European native residents, and in some places creating huge crime waves where Muslim perpetrators of crimes are responsible for 90%+ of all crimes.
Slowly, the Westerners are waking up to this foreign culture that they have unwittingly allowed to settle in their lands. And this is responsible for the "hatred" and "intolerance".
But the way, tolerance of intolerance is no virtue necessarily, and Islam is the among the most intolerant belief systems on planet earth. Consult Popper's work on the tolerance paradox, but basically one cannot be infinitely tolerant of everything, or you will destroy your culture and create intolerance in the process by allowing it to flourish.
"Now look at this implication of the blasphemy law in Pakistan. [http://tribune.com.pk/story/79853/rights-activists-protest-against-aasias-sentence-blasphemy-laws/] Keep this in mind, Christians think Jesus as the greatest man while Muslims feel the same for Mohammed (pbuh). Now ask a Christian, “In light of your knowledge of Mohammed (pbuh), who is the best man who ever lived?”
If the Christian’s answer is in line with his religious dogma, he can be put to death. It’s 295-C taken to the legal extremities of its philosophy. The law is not just about outright, inflammatory or hateful blasphemy but even inferences from normal discussions between non-Muslims and Muslims. All you need is someone to litigate."
http://tribune.com.pk/story/80276/the-one-person-who-can-save-aasia-bibi/
Further proof that Sharia law is incompatible with the standards of justice in the West. One has to change. Western Muslims who claim to be Sharia compliant cannot follow both standards.
http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/23/pakistan-will-not-repeal-blasphemy-law-minister.html
Seems the bigots are considered too strong to stand up to... shame.
Enough.
Can't you see people are getting hurt?
Can't you see?
The desperation of some to get even with America, Europe and there minion, Israel are sometimes redirected to the innocent christian
So.
If anyone can call 'Whoa. Time Out.'
How bout me?
Whoa!
Time out!
Hold fire, Tex, and you too, Tamar! Hold the Mother-loving *phone!*
Oh. Phone? What's that?
Hello.
Hi.
How you doing.
Personally, you know, I'm getting a little tired of you guys fighting over who gets to like burn me at the stake or whatever your great goodness motivates.
How bout...
Stop.
Please?
Has anyone asked like that, yet?
Say it's a personal favor. Just for like ....me.
How bout it? Maybe if it don't work out you can each yank a limb off of me. That'll show 'em.
Come *on* people. At the very least get off the whole killing LGBTs thing till you work your deal out.
It's really just not fair waiting around in whatever limbo you believe in to find out who was more righteous about it and all.
So, Time. Out. How. Bout.
Still not believing stupidity could possibly be involved, here?
About those Bible verses...READ this article in your own press. Here is the link.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-military-weapons-inscribed-secret-jesus-bible-codes/story?id=9575794
Secondly the people you are killing in Afganistan, including children and women for the most part dont even know why Americans are there. If Americans cant find and defeat a threat from a nation that is pretty much 19th century in technology with the most advanced weapons on the planet, the intention all along was not to defeat an enemy, but to occupy the land.
Of course, they dont make weapons that can kill the will of a man to defend his house and his family in his own land. This is your problem. You arent fighting people who are 'trying to blow you up', you are fighting people who want you to leave them alone.
Not even weaposn with Bible passages on them can do this.
More abhorrent is that fact that a significant number of muslims somehow justify that it was OK for mohammed to engage in regular intercourse with a child of 9, or to kill children POW, as anyone can read in islamic scripture. THAT, mam, is truly abhorrent.
I can't even imagine what would be of this world, if like mohammed, Jesus had killed inside and outside of the battlefield. I can't even imagine.
The thing is, all of the rant you put in your responce didnt address what I wrote. It is a tactic to change the topic. It is what apologists do when they have no answers, or cant respond, or more likely dont want to face the truth.
So...lets go. I always ask these questions to people who accuse Muhammad of pedophilia.
First question. In the context of the time and place Muhammad lived, what law did he break? Who were his accusers? Was this normal practice?
Secondly, since Christian apologists are the ones who usually bring this accusation up, show us in the Bible the age of consent, or the age in which a person is deemed fit to marry in Biblical law. Show us where you are SURE that none of the prophets or main figures in Christianity NEVER married or had intimate relations with pre pubesent girls.
If you can do these things. I will leave Islam now.
"Please donate to your local "Plant A Pig Foundation" today. Not tax deductible, but well worth the effort.
In Spain, at Seville some local people found a way to stop the construction of another mosque in their town. They buried a pig on the site, making sure this would be known by the local press. Islamic rules forbid erecting a Mosque on "pig soiled ground". The Muslins had to cancel the project...this land had been sold to them by government officials... No protests were needed by the local people ... and it worked!!
Not dummies …. the Spaniards. They found a solution !!! No protests needed! In Texas they have an over abundance of feral pigs. They could send them all over the country and just plant them everywhere! After all…contaminated soil would surely drift and they could create new job programs by having soil testers to determine where contaminated soil existed. Of course, high on the mountain tops of the Rockies or other mountain ranges they might find some uncontaminated soil, but then…building a mosque there would pose some problems…Americans…put on your thinking caps and let’s find a solution to this problem of a spreading menace to the American way of life! If pigs are the answer…let’s do it!
Your Committee for the Betterment of America
Let’s keep this going….send it on!