Center of Peace and Hope in Christ for Afghanistan issues challange to moderate Muslims

Recent threats and acts of hatred against American Muslims, Asian Muslims, and non-Muslim Asian Americans across the United States is wrong. The horrible acts of war committed against the United States on September 11 are a fertile ground for wrong headed Americans to demonstrate their ignorance toward people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds.

The Center of Peace and Hope in Christ for Afghanistan condemns this hatred. The United States Constitution allows all Americans to freely worship in the religion of their own choosing. Also, Americans who choose not to worship or adhere to any religion are free to do so.

It is clear that all genuine seekers of truth would not engage in ethnic hatred, bigotry, or acts of violence. Recent statements of Muslim leaders in America that not all Muslims should be blamed for the September 11 are correct. A small percentage of people who called themselves Muslims are responsible for their own actions. When one who calls himself a Christian commits a crime, not all Christians are responsible for the crime. So too, all Muslims are not responsible for what happened in New York and Washington.

While the government of the United States takes action against these acts of war, people of faith have a great opportunity to assert tolerance toward one another. Now is the time for Christians to demonstrate the love of Christ to our Muslim friends. Christians should pray for God’s greatest blessing on Muslims living as a minority in America.

And now is the time for moderate Muslims to demonstrate their acceptance of Christians and the ideals of tolerance and freedom in our republic. It is exactly this point which is the great need of the hour for Muslim leaders in America to address.

Moderate Muslim leaders need to clearly make the case that as Americans they support the freedom of all people to choose their own religion. Do these moderates tolerate the idea of individual Muslims deciding for themselves what religion to follow?

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of former Muslims in the United States who live under the threat of death because of their own personal decision to no longer follow the Islamic religion. Freedom of religion is a cornerstone of the American republic. Former Muslims do not always experience this aspect of freedom because of the hatred and intolerance of others.

Moderate American Muslims need to clearly denounce those misguided people who, in the name of Islam, call for the death of those who leave the Muslim religion. To do otherwise is to promote intolerance toward our fellow Americans who choose to no longer adhere to the Muslim religion. And to do otherwise will demonstrate that even the most moderate form of Islam is incompatible with the United States Constitution.

Now is the time for “moderate” Muslim leaders in America to clearly define the limits of their tolerance.

John Marion, Jr. is the director of the Center of Peace and Hope in Christ for Afghanistan in Fairfax County.

I would advise all American Muslims to go on a huge PR campaign targetted towards the Muslim world asking them to reject the extremist among them. An Indian that I work with tells me that he thinks that the US Military has far more personel than the combined Muslim world has terrorist. According to him, there are not as many monsters as we may think.

I keep hearing that Islam rejects their kind of Islam. We all know the story of a few of these monster's going to a titty bar the night before. Never mind that the Taliban will severely punish women in Afghanistan for just showing as much as a neck. I would think that any faith would totally reject this kind of monstrousity and hypocracy.

Yes. This is exactly what moderate Muslim leaders and followers need to do. This would put a quick end to the misguided violence and hatred currently directed at them.

This is offered in the spirit of family ties.

They are deceptions meant to keep people from the knowledge that ONLY Jesus Christ, the sacrificial lamb of God, can take away the sins of this fallen world. Posted by Russell Scott This truth is easily understood by you because you have His spirit indwelling your human spirit, but His spirit didn't get there by force, force of His doing or force of some evangelist.

Thumping people of other faiths with the Bible of our beliefs seldom converts anyone. Truth is never a weapon; truth is a means by which His Spirit-voice may bring reason to the dying soul, if that soul will but crack open the door to the heart.

The knowledge of Christ within cannot be described sufficiently to all at any given moment such that the world comes to Christ en masse. Being born again is a person-by-person phenomenon. When the world is at war with Islam very few if any in the Islamic world will come to a knowledge of Christ. Whom do you suppose that pleases? Seeking to squelch the extremists factions of Islamism that fanatically seek to destroy this nation has a chance to re-establish peace for a time, during which time Christians will be sharing their belief via their lives and actions, not merely lipservice. But never forget that the narrow path/door of salvation are not the broad avenue/gate of destruction, so don't expect vast numbers of sadly misguided folks to come to a knowledge of Christ; don't seek to force it. We ought strive for peace, as it is the atmosphere in which our faith may become attractive to others. We are not required to accept our destruction passively; we are admonished to fight against evil, but we must have discernment, to blast away at the evil yet love the individual's sadly being led to their spiritual doom.

Bottom line? ... You cannot force salvation upon anyone, and that is a major difference in the Christian religion as opposed to the extremist Islam faith.

Your post contains some very important points. For one thing the attacts spreading accross the U.S. are indeed wrong. There are attacks against Muslims and those who many think are Muslims but they are not, it shows how ignorant many are when they lump certain types of people together when they are totally different, like Indians many who are Hindu and Afghans who are mainly muslims. After the Gulf war one would figuremany people in the U.S. would go out and learn the difference between other religions and various types of peoples of the world. Unfortunately they havent. What is also unfortunate is that many will refuse to think of Muslims in America as their friends. I really dont blame them totally. After years of ridiculous Hollywood movies sterotyping and brainwashing the public about Muslims, I can see why many are against them. The news media doesnt help either. We rarely see anything positive about Muslim countries except the poor living in squalor or men waving guns. To address your point about Muslims accepting Christians is this. There is a great difference between Muslims who are from Arab countries now living in the U.S. as citizens and those who are plain ol Americans who became Muslims. My self for example though my whole family isnt, just my immediate family. We are Black, German, and American Indian. I was taught when growing up by my grandfather everything about our forefathers and what they went through. I was also taught wen your the minority in the country when it comes to the dominant relgion you respect the dominat religion. After all I do believe the forefathers did incorporate their religion in the foundation of our country, and that should be respected period. It is much more difficult for foreign Muslims to see that for one thing many were not born here. I do feel since they are living in this country now as citizens, they need to take the initiative to learn about their home. And that goes to any foreigner moving to the U.S. in my opinion. Lastly to address your point about Muslims who leave their religion. Moderate or not that is a no no. One cannot bend the rules just because its 2001. Doing so one might as well not bother to call themself a Muslim. Its like some one changing the constitution because they dont like a clause in it or its not update enough which would be totally ridiculous. Death is called for those who used to formally be Muslim and that is the law and man cant change that. Another point is that I dont recall the United States Constitution discussing what religions are compatible or not compatible with it. Islam has nothing to do with going about and changing the constitution. I dont feel that any religion was ment to adapt to the "times" for one thing we arent God and its not our job to change his laws whether you follow the Bible, Quran, or whatever else one might follow. If it was his laws were ment to be changed by man there would probablly be written somewhere in the books to change the Bible or Quran when one is unhappy with what it says or change it because it needs to fit with the times.

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