{"id":38,"date":"2011-03-10T20:04:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T20:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/03\/10\/thank-you-representative-king-for-promoting-islam-no-seriously\/"},"modified":"2011-03-10T20:04:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T20:04:00","slug":"thank-you-representative-king-for-promoting-islam-no-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/03\/thank-you-representative-king-for-promoting-islam-no-seriously.html","title":{"rendered":"Thank You Representative King for Promoting Islam. No, Seriously…."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I didn\u2019t watch the congressional hearings today on the radicalization of American Muslims. \u00a0Being an American Muslim, I already know what the problems are and how they should be addressed. \u00a0Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Peter King, channeling the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, was challenged on many fronts as he tried to keep the scope of the hearings narrow. \u00a0He was not interested in hearing about radical militias who secretly plot to kill America\u2019s first black president. \u00a0He was not interested in hearing about drug lords and the long reach of their terroristic gangs that kill many thousands of people every year. \u00a0He was only interested in talking about Moozlums. <\/i>\u00a0You know, those sneaky Moozlums with their scary beards and suspicious headcoverings and the way-too-many mosques they pray to their moon god in. \u00a0Rep. King wants to paint all of Islam with a broad brush, condemning its fundamental practices while trying to mollify protesting Muslims by saying he doesn\u2019t mean them, <\/i>just the radical ones. \u00a0You know, the ones who dress that way and pray and don\u2019t drink alcohol or eat pork. \u00a0Only the practicing <\/i>Muslims are the dangerous ones.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I have been heartened by the reaction of the American Muslim community and by the many, many wonderful non-Muslims who have protested against this latest witch hunt. \u00a0(For previous witch hunts, google \u201cJapanese internment\u201d or \u201cMcCarthy and Communists\u201d.) \u00a0I feel blessed to have such good people around me and I know that we will come through this one way or another. \u00a0And in my tradition of Islam, I say \u201cAlhamdulillah ala kulli hal \u2013 Praise is due to Allah in all things\u201d. \u00a0 In Islam, we believe that\u00a0everything\u00a0happens does so only by the will of Allah and with His permission, and things that we see as bad or evil can actually be good for us. So even though I had an ache in my chest this afternoon reading some of the tweets about the hearings, even though I am concerned about raising my children as Muslims in a society that is increasingly polarized, I say, alhamdulillah for the hearings, and thank you to Mr. King. \u00a0Thank you for bringing Islam to the forefront of the nation\u2019s consciousness, because now those people who have brains will see the hatred and bigotry and many of them will think to themselves, \u201cHmm, that doesn\u2019t sound right, I think I have to do some poking around to see what the truth about Islam is\u201d. \u00a0And those people are going to google around the internet (or Bing around, or Yahoo) and some of them are going to find excellent websites with lots of helpful and accurate information. \u00a0Others are going to get up the courage to talk to a friend, neighbor, or colleague about Islam. \u00a0Some will even have the guts to walk into an actual mosque and ask the Imaam some questions. \u00a0I welcome them, and all my Muslim brothers and sisters will welcome them with open arms. \u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
To all my non-Muslim friends and family, welcome. \u00a0Please ask me about Islam. \u00a0Ask me anything you\u2019ve heard, even if you think it sounds stupid or provocative. \u00a0Trust me, I\u2019ve probably heard it before. \u00a0I promise to give you the best answer I can, and if I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ll try to find out for you. \u00a0I chose <\/i>Islam over seventeen years ago, studied the Qur\u2019an, taught myself enough Arabic so that no one could lie to me about what I was reading, read the commentaries and books of the traditions of Prophet Muhammad, may Allah\u2019s peace and blessings be upon him. \u00a0I\u2019ll be happy to share anything I\u2019ve learned with you.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, can our elected please, please <\/i>give all this crap a rest and go back to doing your jobs? \u00a0You know, ending the wars, helping people get back to work, prosecuting bank fraud and Wall Street fraud, trying to balance the budget without killing health care and education. \u00a0You know, the stuff we elected you for? \u00a0I know the hearings are dramatic and all that, but except for the media, bloggers like me, and people who sell bottled water outside the hearing rooms, you\u2019re not putting one damn person to work while you\u2019re in the yammering for C-SPAN. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah I didn\u2019t watch the congressional hearings today on the radicalization of American Muslims. \u00a0Being an American Muslim, I already know what the problems are and how they should be addressed. \u00a0Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Peter King, channeling the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, was challenged on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThank You Representative King for Promoting Islam. 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