MSU prof b**** slaps Muslim Student's Association

[BDS]

gatekeeper said:

Well, I took it as the prof was referring to a certain group of Muslims. He doesn't say "you Muslims" he says, "you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems. "

I can see how you took it that way, though.

It's hard to not take it that way. He's writing the letter directed at the student association, and specifically references "your infantile protests" in sentence in question. He's either directing it at them, or he somehow didn't learn to properly articulate himself with the written word in his journey to become an academic.

From the details of the story, all they've done is launch a protest, which doesn't sound much like the activity of univilized slave-traders. In fact, they're just exercizing the very right protected by the First Amendment that he mentions in his letter. If the protest turned violent or they took some Scandanavian slaves during their protest, then it's an entirely different story. But as it is, he's projecting the crimes of an entirely different segment of their religion onto them, and that's wrong.

gatekeeper said:

It's hilarious to me that there are people of every religion who go out and commit murder and think it's justified, because they're doing "God's work." The radical Muslims are just the latest group of a religious sect to commit violent acts in the name of God.

There have been wars between religious groups and even within the same religion. Catholic-Protestant, Sunni-Shiite, etc.

I took a religion class in college and all the "books" say basically the same thing. That's the ironic thing. They're all much more similar than they care to acknowledge or admit.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all are religions that worship the same God by different names: Yahweh, God, or Allah. We are all "Children of Abraham." The three religions share some of the same holy texts. Ignorance of this, or a desire to ignore/exterminate this fact, causes a whole lot of pain and destruction, and it's one of this world's great tragedies.

[pikemojo]

I should have posted this with my original post but while I tend to agree with this professor I don't think it was entirely professional for him to do so.

[Darth Turkish]

The professor's words may have been too strong, but his message is spot on. It is hypocritical to claim that the woes of your group are external forces when members of your group, no matter how "extreme" them may be deemed, are committing cowardly acts of of violence and murder. They have to clean up their own mess. Right now, those extremist are talking for the entire group. The rest of the world hears the voice of aggressive acts against bystanders, not protests over a drawing.

[offspring515]

Some muslims commit horrible acts of violence. Therefore other muslims don't have the right to protest or complain about an issue that is offensive to them?

So I guess after Columbine, school students (after all, that's the group that shot up the school) can't protest or complain over other issues. It would be hypocritical for them to complain about other woes when their group is committing these horrible acts.

I guess The Klan is the responsibility of all white people. We need to clean up our own mess! After all it's our group that is being racist and performing horrible acts.

This is seriously the kind of thinking that leads to "nuke all dem sand *******! Wooo boy git er done!" crap. Lumping a group of people together and judging all of them by the actions of a few is dangerous, and a slippery slope. Don't participate in the "Toby Keith-ing" of our society.

[Trent Lawless]

The Toby Keithing of our society. I gotta remember that one. I like it!

[Mad Dog]

pikemojo said:

Honestly, what I see out of all these Muslim groups is this...There are all these terrible, terrible things that are happening all around the world in the name of their religion and you really don't hear anything about them denouncing it. Sure you see a few on the news saying that Islam is a peaceful religion but the next week we see another car bomb or terror attempt. Instead of protesting a cartoon that was not that big of a deal in the first place they should be protesting these terrorists and trying to prove that Islam IS about peace. They could be doing so much good if all of the Muslims that say they are good would join together and do some good around the world.
As a Christian, I feel it is my duty to try to put to rest the bad stereotypes about Christians by living my life in a way that shows what being a Christian is all about. Christ wants us to act in a way that he would act and I try to do that in my everyday life. Now if Muslims would act the way they say Mohammed wanted them to then we would have some Muslims doing really terrible things all around the world and we would have some really great Muslims doing really great things around the world.

These are pretty much my thoughts on it.

[thedragonreborn]

offspring515 said:

Some muslims commit horrible acts of violence. Therefore other muslims don't have the right to protest or complain about an issue that is offensive to them?

So I guess after Columbine, school students (after all, that's the group that shot up the school) can't protest or complain over other issues. It would be hypocritical for them to complain about other woes when their group is committing these horrible acts.

I guess The Klan is the responsibility of all white people. We need to clean up our own mess! After all it's our group that is being racist and performing horrible acts.

This is seriously the kind of thinking that leads to "nuke all dem sand *******! Wooo boy git er done!" crap. Lumping a group of people together and judging all of them by the actions of a few is dangerous, and a slippery slope. Don't participate in the "Toby Keith-ing" of our society.

Totally agree Offspring!!

[Trent Lawless]

One could only hope it were that simple. Unfortunately, I fear it won't be that way for most Muslims in the Middle East, whether they want to stand up for a peaceful Islam or not. They're probably afraid they'll be the next targets of the fanatics, and who can blame them? If some sort of Nelson Mandela/MLK Jr./Gandhi type can rally people around him or her and not get assassinated (at least before change is truly on the way), it'll be hard for the moderate Muslim community in the Middle East to get on board. Hell, I'd be afraid in their shoes, too.

There's a really interesting book I read called No god but God (the lowercase G on the first is intentional), written by a moderate Iranian Shiite living and teaching in America by the name of Reza Aslan. He gives a pretty good overview of Islam from its roots in Muhammad's day until the present. His chapter on Wahhabism -- the fanatical Sunni sect that pretty much hijacked Saudi Arabia and lots of other places over there -- is very enlightening as to the Arab/Persian mindset, as is the chapter on Sufism (the mystical branch of Islam). His basic premise was that if Muslims don't abandon these violent, backward trends that lead to terrorism, they will eventually wither on the vine as the rest of the world leaves them behind, technologically and otherwise. Spoken by a Muslim, it could wind up carrying some weight. But it would carry more if he actually still lived over there. Good read if you have the time.

[thedragonreborn]

I'm going to have to check out that book Mark. I've seen some video histories of Islam, but I don't think any are written by Muslims.

[Chewey]

I'll have to check that book out too.

I'm glad to see that others agree with me. I don't necessarily have a problem with people saying "love her or leave her," that's an opinon even if I don't completely agree with it. But calling a group of people slave-trading moslem rapists and telling them to get the hell out of this country is a bit far I think, especially coming from a figure of authority such as a school professor. BDS, Mad Dog, and Offspring have pretty much summed up my thoughts on this.