It’s the biggest sin you can imagine.
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How should Christians address such dilemmas and engage Muslim neighbors, including those who perpetrate atrocities like the recent ones in Orlando?
The FBI says agents twice investigated the man who killed dozens inside Pulse Orlando, but they closed those cases after interviewing him.
And the haters come in all colors and faiths, of course.
In the past, extremist acts committed in the name of Islam have been met, like clockwork, with forceful denunciations of violence by Muslim leaders (despite rumors to the contrary).
Emphasizing that he was “hurting beyond expression”, Qureshi addressed this dichotomy and was quick to state that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and do not desire to harm Americans or gays.
American Muslims say Omar Mateen did not represent Islam. That’s less than Jews (77 percent) and Catholics (60 percent), but more than white evangelical Protestants (28 percent). Among them are Unity Mosques, which began in 2009 in Toronto, that include mixed-gender prayer and women-led services, although the sites sometimes struggle to stay open, said El-Farouk Khaki, an immigration lawyer based in Toronto and founder of Salaam: Queer Muslim Community. “They never belonged to this handsome faith”.
“This was an attack against all of us because this was an attack on who we are and what we are as a country”, Fishman told the crowd of hundreds. “Those who take the latter position are endangering my Muslim family and friends, loving and patriotic Muslims that are as innocent and American as the rest of us”. In a 2013 Pew Charitable Trust study, 97 percent of Jordanians said homosexuality should not be “accepted by society”; in Egypt, 95 percent agreed; in Tunisia, it was 94 percent. “We reject the hatred and anger that leads to this kind of abhorrent violence”.
Just like the victims at Fort Hood and in San Bernardino, these were Americans murdered by an enemy whose only allegiance is to a religion/ideology of violence and death.
How many GOP leaders who denounced Mateen have engaged in their own brand of anti-gay bigotry, blocking same-sex marriage or even anti-discrimination measures?
“There’s always that concern, here we go again, now we have to explain ourselves all over again to everybody who already does not understand what Islam is all about”, said Iqbal.
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“This right here is America”, said Suleiman. She explains, “We are every bit embedded and woven into the fabric of this nation”. “We have to be unequivocal that justice is for everybody, regardless of your opinions about them”. “You have to know that by heart in order to do your daily prayers”, he said. I will not deny that, and neither will many Muslims. “We stand shoulder to shoulder with them, and we’re grieving”. He is the author of the upcoming “Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know”.
