A Boston Globe reporter sent out a request that turned up on the Islamic Society of Boston/Muslim American Society email list. A moderator of that list sent it on with the comment: "very interesting opportunity and it is IMPORTANT to get positive pieces about Muslims out in the media so do consider volunteering." The Globe reporter explained:
I am interested in speaking with young Muslim men and women in the Boston area (for transportation and logistical reasons, the closer to Boston proper, the better) about how they see themselves in Boston and American society. As you are aware, governments and news media alike have given a lot of attention to disaffected Muslim youth in Europe (because of last year's London transit bombings and last week's foiled terror plot), and I am curious how Muslim youth in America compare.Questions floating around my head include, do Muslim youths here feel "American"?; do they feel scrutinzed or under suspicion by their general surroundings, especially since the 9/11 attacks five years ago?; are young Muslims here at risk of "radicalization" as they reportedly are in Europe, and if not, why not (what makes America's Muslims different from those in Europe)? What insight into the mindset of their European counterparts can young Muslims here provide?
Etc., etc.....
I apologize for the generalized phrasing of those sample questions. Obviously, no one Muslim (nor any other single person, for that matter) can speak for an entire group of people, and of course this story cannot fully explore this huge issue all by itself. But I do want to address the nuances as best as possible....
You want nuance? Here's some nuance. Please feel free to use these additional questions. No charge at all. Don't even bother to thank me:
Does your mosque have teachers in it who adhere to or sympathize with the goals of the global jihadists? If so, have you contacted authorities? If not, why not?
Does your mosque have a program teaching a peaceful version of Islam and refuting the jihadists' use of the Qur'an and Sunnah? If not, why not?
Do you support Hamas and/or Hizballah? If so, how do you distinguish the ideology and goals of those organizations from that of Al-Qaeda?
Do you believe that Islamic terrorists were responsible for the 9/11 attacks? If not, who do you think was actually responsible?
Do you believe that Muslims and non-Muslims should live as equals before the law on an indefinite basis in a society in which there is no established religion?
Do you believe that women should enjoy equality of rights before the law with men?
Todays yoots will have grandchildren who are mujahadeen , muslims living in america and just trojan horses and broodmares . The real Islam has taken hold here yet.
Good morning all,
I am looking for suggestions. I live in a semi-rural area of Pennsylvania near a city. We have 2 mosques in the area. I would like to find out what is being taught there. Can an infidel attend friday jumar anonomously? Should I pretend to be interested in reverting? It's a little creepy, reminds me how in Catholic school we were warned not to fool with the occult or we might get caught up in it and now I know who allah really is. Anyway, I have seen puff pieces in the local papers about how peaceful these people are so I know that if I show up as a concerned local infidel seeking information they will feed me a load of malarkey. Any ideas?
Good questions Robert but no Muslim is going to give an honest answer to any of them if he knew it would damage/tarnish his image or discredit his belief system in the eyes of kaffirs within the host culture. So, it would a complete waste of time asking them. The practice of taquiya.Don't want to let the cat out of the bag.
Sure, Recoveringpig, go in and take a look around, will do no harm.
But, do you know if they speak only arabic there? Or English as well? It may take some time to gain their trust as well, given the atmosphere of distrust currently.
Take a look at Daniel Pipes' site to see what's going on in Northern Europe. Apparently Stockholm's largest mosque has two taped sermons - one for the faithful and another for the infidel (translated without the more firery rhetoric/demands).
What you will probably find is that as in Turkey they have sermons on social welfare and supporting the country you live in, and how to be nice to each other. The problem is that their source, the Koran, has many violent passages that appeal to many.
Apparently in the UK some 13% of Muslims in a recent survey thought the 7/7 London bombers were "martyrs", "heros for the faith". This corresponds to some 250,000, enough to do a lot of damage if they all go pop at once.
Anyway, do let us know what you think if you do go!
Hugh, I don't know where your comment went but I read it all. I am not sure how confrontational I want to be. I was thinking of starting off with semi-undercover observing and picking my time and place for confrontation. You have to be careful. I heard these people are prone to violence and don't like being mocked.
ask these questions to any Muslim you encounter, at the deli, in the cab, as you are screened at the airport, and so on. Do not be surprised if they become angry and start to spur venom.
Recoveringpig, I applaud you! Please keep us posted on what you hear there. And where did Hugh's post go? I would like to have seen what he had to say on this.
Wait a hold it!
One of Robert's questions:
"Does your mosque have a program teaching a peaceful version of Islam and refuting the jihadists' use of the Qur'an and Sunnah? If not, why not?"
I know there are different sects within Islam, but don't they all read the same version of the Qur'an? Are the jihadists misusing the Qur'an and Sunnah?
Isn't there just one 'version' of Islam?
You've really piqued my curiosity, here.
Can a peaceful 'version' acutally be taught? If so, how? And how would the violence/warfare passages be handled?
There is some sort of agenda going on at the Boston Globe- it could be the personal crusade of a reporter who feels Muslims are being discriminated against and wants to "make reparations," or it could be something a bit more nefarious- perhaps part of the CAIR agenda to remind everyone in the greater Boston area that Islam is a ROP.
Robert's questions are excellent, but no one will ask them- to me, it sounds like the reporter is going for the 'warm and fuzzy' approach, and has no intention reporting any 'non-nuanced' questions. Perhaps it might be more useful to ask questions like:
Is it difficult for you to live in a country that supports Israel?
Do you wish there was more support from the U.S. public and government for humanitarian groups like Hezbollah and Hamas?
Is it hard knowing that Muslims are blamed for 9/11 when it fact it was orchestrated by the U.S. government?
What's it like to live in a country that's home to so many who are morally bankrupt, and do you think that the implementation of certain Islamic laws would make the U.S. a better country?
All questions would have to be asked in a very sympathetic tone of voice and accompanied by a lot of nodding in agreement. Then, by an indirect means, one might (key word might) find out their attitudes are towards terrorism, anti-semitism and sharia law.
Once upon a time I lived in the NE. The anti Israel bias of the Boston Globe turned me into a Boston Herald customer. The Globe had more than one op-ed columnist weighing in against Israel. HDS Greenway was the worst.
Now the Globe is owned by the New York Times which is anti Israel. The NYT was founded by two Jewish families. These days it's run by Pinch Sulzberger who despite the Jewish name is Episcopalian, same as his mother. Some Zionist media we have here!!
"HDS Greenway was the worst..."
-- from a posting above
Was, and is. Though officially retired, his vaporings can be found on Fridays at The Globe. He spent many years there, a Peter-Jennings sort of fellow, never liked the Jews, preferred the Arabs, lots of friends among them, charming, liquid brown-eyed, he found them his sort. Not quite as bad as Fisk, more sure of himself than the uncertain but vicious Chris Hedges, more intelligent than the vacuous Tom Ashbrook, who after having proved his intense dedication to journalism by leaving The Globe for a get-rich scheme of some Internet company that was going to sell household goods, rushed back and begged for a job, and was finally taken in by Jane Christo, and while the smarmy Dick Gordon was fired, the just-as-smarmy and even dumber Ashbrook was kept on, and there he is today, with his "On Point" that, whenever it comes to the Middle East, apparently vets the callers so that those offering a word of support of Israel are always swamped by the others (I know several such callers whom Ashbrook has banned -- he has their phone numbers and names, and the young people who answer the phone take these down, then go away, look up the list of those whom Ashbrook has banned because they are too damn convincing, and then they always come back -- several people have told me -- and always say "Gee, we have another question just like that ahead of you" or "Gee, afraid we won't have time to get to you" -- so much for the phoniness of that invitation to "join the conversation" that Ashbrook keeps repeating).
Well, back to Greenway. Would show up on Morrissey Boulevard, wowing the inkstained wretches with his rotation of cars each day, and his Yankee bowties (there's one bow-tie wearer in every Ropes & Gray or Hill & Barlow, and so too at The Boston Globe), and the Winships thought he was just fine.
He knew, and knows nothing, about the Middle East. He knows nothing, even though he spent years reporting from there, because he has never understood Islam, its centrality, its relevance to everything that happens. He deeply believes in the existence of the "Palestinian people." He deeply refuses to find out very much -- he never showed any interest -- the history of the Mandate for Palestine, the history of land ownereship in that area under the Ottomans and later, the demographic history of the area, or for that matter the demographics related to Jews and Christians in what became Mandatory Palestine, or all over what Greenway no doubt thinks of as "the Arab world." He has no linguistic gifts, no historical training. Some find him ornamental, and from time to time he has been pressed into servicde to introduce a visting speaker for some local foreign-affairs-council, for those who like to think they keep up with events, and for whom a good lecture by, say, Rami Khouri, or someone else of that ilk, will tell them all they need to know in order to understand the Middle East.
Greenway fits right in with an Op/Ed page that favors outside commentators of the Wiliam Pfaff-Jonathan Power variety, all of whom overlap on one point: their complete lack of sympathy or understanding for Israel, their deep belief that there is no problem with Muslim peoples or polities that cannot be solved by giving them what they demand from Israel, now and in the future.
Has H.D. S. Greenway ever taken the trouble to study the Qur'an, the Hadith, and the biography of Muhammad? In the hundreds of thousands of words he has produced, in his mere reporting over many years, and in his attempt more recently to make his own kind of sense of men and events, he has never given the slightest hint of having done so. His entire professinal life has been, thus, worthless.