Thanks for the good words.

Some great thoughs there Thank you

No one can read God’s mind or another person’s mind. Nor should any one of any religion believe everything literally that they read in the Bible or the Quran. People should worry more about living in the present time and living by the principles of good and evil. Everyone is taught what is good and knows evil. Unfortunately, many choose evil over good. It’s really that simple.
However, I do have many, many questions for God if I see him one day (I hope he does not judge my redemption on that). My religion teaches that God is compassionate and forgiving and does not punish.

Dr. Hamid, I have another question. You spoke a lot about the First Amendment, freedom of speech. I am very disturbed lately with CAIR trying to silence voices that they say spread Muslim hatred. However, in this country we are supposed to have freedom of expression, yet CAIR doesn’t seem to agree. As far as I can tell, what these people are saying is an honest assessment. I find this extremely disturbing. Again, if they don’t like it here in America, perhaps even if they are Americans, why don’t they move to the Middle East where they won’t have to tolerate so-called hate speech.

As a Christian Catholic, we are attacked on a regular basis not only in the main stream media,
but also by such wonderful people as Bill Maher on HBO. As much as he makes me puke with his religious hate speech, as an American I understand that he has the right to mock my religion and I have the freedom to choose not to listen to him. If enough people agree, HBO will cancel his show. If not, then so be it. I don’t care what he says.

The Post-Dispatch regularly attacks the local leader of my faith, Archbishop Burke. They would never speak about Muslim leaders like they do about him. Most of us Catholics just take it all in stride. Many that have more character than I, just refuse to purchase the PD. That’s just the way America works.

A CENTRIST, it was famously stated by (I think) Mr. Justice Holmes, that the right to freedom of expression stops when your hand hits my face.

On the question of Archbishop Burke, I’d suggest that he has gone out of his way to be a public disciplinarian. Anyone who does that, invites commentary and publicity in response. I think the larger question about groups like CAIR and others gets back to this black/white, right/wrong squabble. I do think that the press in America has done a terrible job of educating the American people about Islam. The various crazies around the world who use Islam as justification for their hatred are not really all that different from those in this country like Matthew Hale or Fred Phelps who use Christianity to justify their hatreds.

What does “Joe Middle-America” visualize when he thinks “Moslem”? He sees a bearded man with wild eyes who is carrying an AK-47 and laughing as he pulls the string on his bomb-laden belt on a public bus or in a crowded restaurant.

For me, God’s mind just doesn’t work in a way that it can be “read”. I think God is concerned with how we treat each other and the world in which we live. As a scientist, I don’t believe God causes earthquakes or tsunamis or natural disasters to punish us.

Many faithful Christian’s seem to believe that God is only about rules and judgment. That if we just follow “the rules” then everything will be OK. I think God asks much much more of us than trying to discern the meaning specific natural or individual traumas . . . a practice that has little to do with the Abrahamic traditions per se.

I believe that God is with us and no “mind reading” is necessary. What is required is surrender to in the moment to the quiet voice of Love that counsels us when we have the patience and skill to put our ego’s aside and listen.

I believe you can read God’s mind with regard to your own personal endeavors. Jesus showed us how to love - which is an endeavor. Love of God is a matter of being true to God, yourself and others. Truth - another endeavor - is essential and we must value endeavors like love and truth more than events. Love facilitates forgiveness and truth sets us free. The life of Jesus shows us the endeavors God wants us to have. Turning to God in prayer, scripture reading and sacrificing personal wants confirms them.

“He has told you, O man, what is good:
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?”

Micah 6:8, NASB

Attributing natural disasters to the hand of God is OK, as long as the right lesson is being learned. Example: The destruction of New Orleans (I’ve been there, twice, on construction trips) could be God’s Judgment due to things like Falwell and others proclaimed. More likely, it’s God’s Judgment against our destruction of the Mississippi Delta and the protecting islands that used to be out in the Gulf. In other words, our sin of failing to be good stewards of the earth is going to bring about our destruction. Katrina was a warning.

Dr. Hamid, I did a little research on my question of whether or not there is a global caliphate of which you disagreed with and accused me of spreading hate speech. This is what I have found for what it is worth to you:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56286

And from a piece by William J. Federal he sited the book of Sura from the Quran.

A Centrist:
I will not debate every article, book and person that does not like Islam or does not understand it, and expresses it in the vast cyberspace,. You need to do you homework studying Islam if you care to know anything about it. I do suggest a very reasonable translation of the Quran with great commentary by M Asad called the Message of the Quran (http://www.amazon.com/Message-Quran-Muhammad-Asad/dp/1567441386). It is your choice whether to seek understanding Islam better or, alternatively, to select what reinforces some other held beliefs about Islam if you think you already know the truth.
I have come against Muslims and atheists who hold opinions about your own religion (Christianity in general, and Catholicism in particular) that are similar to your attitude towards Islam. None of them made any effort to understand Christianity from neutral sources or from its original scripture before agreeing with every thing negative they hear about it. I hope you are better than they were.
There position was “Christianity is a horrible religion and nothing can change that because is the a fact. Period”. Think about it for a second from their point of view: Crusades, Protestant vs. Catholic massacres, intra-European wars, colonization of the Africa, Asia, the New World, near extermination of aborigines in many places, largest scale of slave trade in history, apartheid and racial segregation states not to mention two World Wars (and possibly a third if some of our current leadership have it their way) Not to mention IRA in northern Ireland, ETA in Spain, or Genocide in Rwanda (with the recent conviction of catholic clergy in genocide by the courts there).
Actually, even Nazi regime still counts as Christian for some people, I will leave it up to you to find their arguments and judge how valid it is about the Church and Papacy complicity with the Axis forces in WWII.
The links between Racism in the south of USA and in apartheid South Africa on one hand, and the Church on the other hand, (at least some churches) mount, in some people’s minds, to a solid historic proof that Christianity - in the core - supported those horrible regimes.
Of course I can tag along Serb and Croat atrocities in Bosnia, Army of God in central African nations, Lebanese Phalangist Christian massacres in Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps , etc. Before accusing me of being selective, I will tell you I am being selective, so you can see how bad your religion would look like if one wishes to be selective.
What to you is defined as a religion of love and peace is to others a religion of hegemony and White domination.
I do NOT subscribe to such opinion; neither does 99% of my Muslim community. Most of us understand that religion is one of many factors that shape history and politics. And when it does, is it a minor factor, dominated by economy, human greed and human desire for a sense supremacy material and moral, even if it is a fake one.
I happened to agree that Christianity is a religion of love and peace, NOT because you said it, but because I did my home work learning about it, not from Hagee, Falwell, Paterson Jim Crow law or from the opinions of the abundant zealots. I learned it from original scripture (in proper historic context) and from Christian friends and non-friends that I see around me every day.
Can you count 5 or 10 Muslims you know personally? If you can, have you tried to reach out and talk to them? Not to preach them, or convert them but to KNOW them?
And just to cover of the points you raise:
- CAIR is not against the first amendment, the same way Anti Defamation League is not against it. But, this is country where there are laws against hate, libel and slander.
Asking the courts of law to assess whether these laws apply in certain situations is NOT restriction of the freedom of expression.
- If someone accuses you in public of being a child molester because you are Catholic, do you consider that as actionable slander? If a school near you refuses your participation in their activities because you are Catholic, and they are worried about their children, what would you do?
- You mention that your friends ‘who have character more than you’ (in you own words, not mine) boycott the PD for its criticism of the local Catholic leadership. CAIR public campaign against Michael Savage and his hate speech got many decent people to boycott him and not advertise on his show. That is NOT violation of the first amendment. It is actually an exercise in it (the freedom of assembly part), by recruiting people with the same sense of decency to stop something that is indecent simply by not funding it with ad money. And, let me quote you verbatim again: “ that’s just the way America works”.

To all:
As if my previous comment was not lengthy enough, please also read my response to Centrist’s comment on my other posting “Why do Muslims vote Democrat” (http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/civil-religion/politics/2008/04/why-do-muslims-vote-democrat/). The same reader made pretty strong statement and offensive generalizations about Islam and Muslims, that I felt needed a response there as well.

A Centrist:

1. The Koran (Q’uran) is divided into around 150 chapters, or Suras, which are then broken down into verses. There is no “book of Sura”

2. The worldwide Caliphate referred in the Koran is most commonly understood in similar light to the second coming of Christ. It’s part of their eschatology. There are those within in Islam who want to force the Caliphate into being, just as there are those within Christianity who want to force Armageddon to hasten the second coming. (Some of them are advisors to the President of the United States)

Dr. Hamid, you have an excellent knowledge of history. However, how do you explain that currently all the world conflicts are Muslims killing other Muslims or Jews or Christians or whomever they don’t like. Can you give me a current example of where in the world that Christians are killing others just because they want to? Just for the record, I concur that Christians do not have “clean” past and never said they did.

I also respect the Muslim religion and how devoted its followers are. I have no Muslim friends and do not know any Muslims. I don’t have any real reason why. That’s just the way it is. That is why I am asking you questions. Sorry if they disturb you, but I am just going by what I see in the news everyday. That is all I have to go on.

And since you don’t care for the present leadership in this country, what would you like to see the next administration do about Muslim terrorists attacking our country? President Clinton did nothing and look where that got us. Would you prefer to still have the Taliban in Afghanistan terrorizing innocent Muslims? Would you rather still have Saddam and his thug sons still terrorizing Iraqis. Tell me what you would like your country to do?

I am sorry if you were so offended by my strong and offensive generalizations. If I had advertisers I guess you could go after them to shut me up too.

hs - what a simply explanation. I don’t know if you are Muslim, but you give an easier explanation for a lay person such as me. Sometimes I think that Dr. H dost protest too much. I have clearly gotten under his skin. So you are saying that there isn’t a global Caliphate by Muslims to kill all non-Muslims. Is that correct? Or does it just seem that way with so much radical terrorism going on around the world? What really is their end game here according to the Quran? (I made up that book part because I didn’t know what else to call it, but the quoted verses I read came from Sura.)

Dr. Hamid, you conveniently forgot to answer my question about why if Muslims prefer Democrats because they are so compassionate and are called to “share their wealth” with the less fortunate, then why don’t all the Saudi oil sheiks give all their oil money (which God blessed the Arab states with) to their starving brothers in Africa and around the world instead of just building giant castles and lavishing in worldly goods.

Centrist: May be you should look for it where you left your comment about them. Please READ before you you make statements like ‘you conveniently forgot to answer my question‘.

A CENTRIST: I am a Christian who grew up with parents who served as teaching missionaries in a Moslem country (what was then West Pakistan, before East Pakistan became Bangladesh). So, you might say, I’ve seen Islam up close and personal…a long time ago, certainly (over 40 years ago).

The whole question of the caliphate is much too complicated to try to discuss in this space. As I said, it’s my understanding that it’s part of the eschatology. The major Sunni/Sh’ite split in Islam revolves around what it means, and who will be the one to come. I haven’t studied it a lot, but I’ve had the impression that the ‘end game’ as it were isn’t all that different from the Christian vision: A world-wide war that ends with the appearance of a savior who sets all things in order.

HS (comment #5)
I think you made exactly the point I wanted to clarify. Yes, God can use nature to send a signal, but no one on this earth can tell what the signal means so we can collectively’ do something about it. For exampleHurricane Karina message is a result of
A. The local gay parade.
B. Legalized abortion
C. Bush supporting Sharon’s disengagement plan
D. Starting The war in Iraq
E. Us not not taking good care of our environment.
The answer does not matter it it helps us personally (reinforcing or adjusting) our opinions and beliefs. But once we want to extrapolated from that to influence other people’s lives and determine our national policy towards anything, then it is not that simple anymore.

To HS (comment #9)
I agree with you in essence.
I have a very minor correction though (and really just for your info only): the Quran chapter count are 114.
Regarding the Caliphate issue: It is an issue that almost never comes up in a discussion for Muslims (I have not heard about it from any Muslim in the past 25 years) except when someone is replying to the topic raised by a non-Muslim worried about ‘Muslim’s true intentions’.
It is a political term with no roots in theology or early Islamic teaching. The word caliphate is derived from Caliph, simply a successor in Arabic. That was the title given by the community to early Muslim rulers following the Prophets death.

Regarding the Second Coming, there is one verse in the Quran (4:159) alluding distantly to a second coming (as a sign of the end of time) of Jesus, depending on how you read the verse.
The Shi’a have special place for this concept in the belief system with Jesus and a ‘Rightly Guided’ teacher coming at the end of time. Other Muslims simply acknowledge the verse but realize it absolutely has NO impact on anything Muslims do or plan, at a personal level or otherwise.