As a possibly irrelevant aside: The first person who I was aware of being Muslim who I did have occasion to know socially was a Pakistani friend of mine in college. After getting to know me for some time, and after a long conversation in which my theories for being a moral person and interacting with the world were discussed, he stated to me that in his (admittedly unusually liberal view) I was a Muslim. His argument was that despite not believing in God personally, I had still Submitted myself to His Will in the most important area of trying to be a good and moral person in the ways that my friend considered important to his own faith. As such, he argued, I was a Muslim in the true sense that I had "Submitted to God" in the manner that he felt was truly important.
Now, this is certainly not a conventional view, or one that I expect anyone to share. And I don't know enough about the theology of Islam (interpreted highly liberally OR more conventionally) at this point in my life to even really intelligently discuss his assertion, which is surely not a representative one.
The only reason why I even bring the story up is to make the point that I considered it to be one of the greater compliments that has been paid to me when this conversation happened. In November of 2001.
In short, not all Americans have bought into the post 2001 anti-Islam hysteria. In my experience, most thinking people are rather distressed by out culture's latest bout of frothing petty bigotry.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-25 12:19 pm (UTC)Now, this is certainly not a conventional view, or one that I expect anyone to share. And I don't know enough about the theology of Islam (interpreted highly liberally OR more conventionally) at this point in my life to even really intelligently discuss his assertion, which is surely not a representative one.
The only reason why I even bring the story up is to make the point that I considered it to be one of the greater compliments that has been paid to me when this conversation happened. In November of 2001.
In short, not all Americans have bought into the post 2001 anti-Islam hysteria. In my experience, most thinking people are rather distressed by out culture's latest bout of frothing petty bigotry.