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{"id":197,"date":"2011-12-13T10:12:08","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T15:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/?p=197"},"modified":"2011-12-13T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T15:12:08","slug":"okay-i-confess-we-are-trying-to-take-over-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/12\/okay-i-confess-we-are-trying-to-take-over-the-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Okay, I confess, we ARE trying to take over the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>
\nOnce again Islam is in the news as a major kerfluffle is underway due to Lowe\u2019s decision to pull advertising from the TLC reality show \u201cAll-American Muslim\u201d.\u00a0 Islamophobes opine about creeping sharia law, while Muslims try to reassure them that, no, we don\u2019t want sharia, we are perfectly content with American law and we are fully integrated in society.\u00a0 Well, time for me to confess.\u00a0 For religious Muslims, that\u2019s a load of horse hockey.\u00a0 We want sharia law.\u00a0 We want Islamic law to be the law of the land, the law of the planet, the law of the universe.\u00a0 May as well just put it out there.\u00a0 It\u2019s the truth, and no amount of pandering to non-Muslims will change that fact.<\/p>\n

I would love to have laws against drinking alcohol.\u00a0 Yeah, yeah, I know, we tried that years ago with Prohibition and it didn\u2019t work.\u00a0 But if I could have a world without booze, trust me, I\u2019d take it.\u00a0 No drunk drivers crashing into minivans full of innocent children?\u00a0 No hepatic livers taking their owners to an early grave?\u00a0 No men getting stinking drunk and using their significant others for punching bags?\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019d give up my cocktail hour or nightcap for that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love laws against fornication.\u00a0 I\u2019m so old-fashioned, I know.\u00a0 But we keep not dealing with this issue and then we have to deal with the consequences.\u00a0 It\u2019s like leaving a bunch of sharp knives in a room full of toddlers and thinking that slapping band aids on when they cut themselves is the cure.\u00a0 Put the dang knives away!\u00a0 Everyone is wringing their hands over single teenage moms, abortion, child abuse, disease.\u00a0 Would AIDS ever have been able to take hold in a chaste society?\u00a0 Herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis?\u00a0 What would our abortion statistics look like if we could just about wipe out unwanted pregnancies?\u00a0 I know it\u2019s not fashionable to \u201csave it for marriage\u201d, but if we did, a huge number of social ills would simply disappear.\u00a0 Not to mention the emotional devastation of our hookup culture.<\/p>\n

I would really love Islamic banking laws.\u00a0 If we had laws against usury, interest, there would have been no Wall Street crash because there would be no predatory practices of charging people money for money.\u00a0 People would engage in trade and business rather than short sales and credit default swaps, whatever the heck those are.<\/p>\n

I would love to see people deal with their fellow human beings in a true Islamic manner.\u00a0 Children would love an honor parents and never say even one disparaging word to them.\u00a0 Parents would cherish and nurture their children, sons and daughters, and raise them to be strong, self-sufficient, and humble.\u00a0 Neighbors would treat each other so well that you\u2019d think they were family.\u00a0 People would work together to help the less fortunate and lift each other up.<\/p>\n

Wait, you say.\u00a0 What does this utopic vision have to do with Islam?\u00a0 I thought Islam was oppression of women, and ignorance, and shooting guns and explosive vests and hatred and narrow-mindedness and everything bad in the world?\u00a0 Well, perhaps you\u2019ve been looking at Muslims, or those who call themselves Muslim, and have been mistaking that for Islam.\u00a0 It\u2019s a common mistake.\u00a0 We Muslims do it all the time.\u00a0 It\u2019s unfortunate that so many who are supposed to carry the banner of Islam don\u2019t really live according to its tenets, and that makes it harder for people like me to share the truth of Islam, the wisdom of Islam, the commonsense-ness of Islam, the beauty of Islam.\u00a0 The media doesn\u2019t help when it ignores the millions of \u201cnormal\u201d Muslims going about their day and focuses on the deviants.\u00a0 It would take a lot of courage and intellectual curiosity for the average non-Muslim to set aside all preconceived notions about what Islam is and to actually learn what Islam IS.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I\u2019m asking you to do.<\/p>\n

Essentially, Islam is a religion that believes in One God, the same God of the Torah of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus, may Allah\u2019s peace and blessings be upon them.\u00a0 If you can get that far and ignore those who say the Muslim God is a moon god or an idol or something, then we have a place to begin our dialogue.\u00a0 Once we start there, I think any non-Muslim will be so surprised to see how similar our faiths are.\u00a0 I mean, really, doesn\u2019t Christianity call for chastity?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t Judaism expect Jews to adhere to certain behaviors?\u00a0 We\u2019re not so far apart that we can\u2019t have a discussion and come to an understanding.\u00a0 And in my heart, I\u2019ll be rooting for you to be so impressed by the truth and beauty of Islam that you\u2019ll be compelled to learn more about it, compelled to read the Qur\u2019an and listen to Muslims and search the internet and then become Muslim yourself.\u00a0 Do I have an agenda to convert you?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 Not because I want to dominate you or oppress you, but because I truly want you to have what I have.\u00a0 I want you to know what I know about Islam.\u00a0 Not what you see on CNN or Fox or read on conservative blogs or even what you might see being practiced by your Muslim neighbor or the guy in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 But the pure Islam as preached by Prophet Muhammad, may Allah\u2019s peace and blessings be upon him.\u00a0 Now, I don\u2019t have any power to convert you, that\u2019s true.\u00a0 I can only tell you what I believe and what I\u2019ve learned over twenty years of learning about Islam.\u00a0 If that\u2019s not enough, well, it\u2019s in Allah\u2019s hands.\u00a0 If you are willing to listen, I\u2019m willing to talk.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"