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As a child of the fifties and sixties I felt that many Moslem countries were
more moderate then than now and looked to the West for modernity and cultural and economic guidance. Only Saudi Arabia was then looked upon as the real Islamic country. This started to get reversed in the 70’s. Saudi Arabia and Moslem extremism replaced that need for change. Oil money from Saudi Arabia got more and more influential in reviving the more extreme form of Islam among more Moderate and poorer Moslem countries. During this period I started noticing a shift from Western influence to more rigid adherence of Islamic law. Many moderate Moslem countries were shamed into rejecting Western influence and encouraged to defy it. Women on their own began wearing Islamic clothes emulating their sisters in Saudi Arabia. All Arab women’s hard work for advancement and legal equality and economic parity with men was eroding. Newspaper articles started promoting Jihad and hate. Saudi money started pouring into poorer neighborhoods to build mosques, not to feed the spiritual needs of the flock, but to further radicalize the vulnerable poor and turn them against their Moderate governments. Mosques verbally attacked Christians and Jews violently and openly on loudspeakers of Mosques. Many Christians were the victims of Moslem attacks. I was once visiting a Christian friend during the Friday prayers and while I was there I heard the verbal attacks on Christians and Jews from the mosque’s loudspeakers. My friend looked scared and I was embarrassed and frightened. One day I was criticized by a woman on the street for not wearing Islamic clothes. That did it! That was when I decided to leave the Middle East and move to the USA.
That same Wahabi sect was responsible for 9/11. People like me who escaped the oppressive Moslem society are now facing the same threat right here in the bastion of freedom. Where else would we go if it weren’t for America?
No one should ever believe that 9/11 was for the support of the poor Palestinians. It was a call of warning from Saudi extremists to Western civilization. They announced to us loud and clear “we are coming to Islamize you the same way we did to Moderate Arab countries.” Saudi Arabia never participated with troops in any war against Israel and I never heard of one Saudi dying in a war between Israel and the Palestinians. All the Saudis want is to spread Islam, be the Mecca of the World and maintain the status quo in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I truly believe that what stopped Yasser Arafat from signing the peace treaty were his bosses in Saudi Arabia and other extreme Arab regimes who are financing him. These regimes do not want the Palestinians to live in peace and become a democracy like Israel. The Palestinians are very smart and educated people and are the victims of Arab Dictatorships who want to keep them as pawns in refugee camps for over a half a century.
No one in this day and age should be killed for choosing another religion. Islam is the only religion in the World that does that. Ironically, many Moslems say they want to start practicing democracy, or at least they claim they want to. How can they talk about freedom to vote when they do not allow freedom of thought in choosing one’s religion? The founding fathers of the United States correctly identified freedom of religion as being of primary importance. The right to vote is meaningless if one has no right to choose one’s religion.
Moslem women can be killed if they choose to marry a non-Moslem, and that was my dilemma when I wanted to marry my Christian husband. That was the main reason why I moved to the USA. The UN should issue an International Proclamation for Freedom of CHOICE of ones’ Religion that Moslem countries would have to adhere to. However, the UN has not shown much strength in rejecting Arab money and influence to issue such a resolution and follow it up.
Because Islam cannot tolerate the free market for religious choice and freedom, non-practicing Moslems are left with the one ideology to practice and that is Socialism. Arab intelligentsia, especially in Arab Media, is mostly Socialists. Many oppressive Arab regimes are really secular socialist rather than Islamic. An example would be the “Baath” party of Syria and Iraq. Many Arab Media figures are openly Socialist and agnostic but package themselves in Islam for reasons of practicality and legitimacy. These Arab Media figures, many of whom I know personally quite well, fiercely defend Islam and find excuses for terrorism against the West. You can see them day in and day out on American TV defending the indefensible. I don’t know how they can do it with a straight face. However, behind the scenes they tell a different story and live a different life from that of Islam. They have to please the Moslems to survive and keep their hefty salaries while their Government-run newspapers are losing money. That would have been my destiny in the Middle East; no spiritual life, no inner peace, just playing games to survive. I either would have stayed a non-practicing Moslem or joined the elitist class of Arab socialists. Is it any wonder why the Western liberal media sympathizes with Arab Media?
After I moved to the US I attended a non-denominational evangelical Church and could not help but compare. The Pastor was a peaceful, kind and gentle man and never spoke any ill about other religions, he even prayed for Moslems after 9/11. Love, kindness, grace, forgiveness and elevation of the human spirit were everywhere and among all members of the Church. It was a microcosm of the goodness of the American culture. The Pastor embodied what I aspire to be. On the other hand, many Moslem clergy were a source of repulsive and uncompromising anger, rage, hate and subversion. Moslem clerks seek total power and control over their worshipers and forget that only God is in control.
We often hear of Moslem worshipers leaving the Friday prayer to attack Churches and Synagogues. They call us the great Satan because our social ills are not concealed in an open society. On the other hand, many Moslems forget that they too have a great Satan alive and well but hidden in the caves of Afghanistan, in the palaces of Iraq, in their dictatorships and in many Middle East closets. Self criticism is a virtue many Moslem countries need to learn. Mosques are not like churches, families do not attend as a unit. It is not an event where fathers, mothers and children unite in asking for God’s blessings and forgiveness. In the Middle East only men attend Mosques. Mosques spread the word of Allah harshly through loudspeakers heard over miles. There are several mosques in each neighborhood and one often can hear 3 or 4 mosque’s call for prayers at the same time 5 times a day!
It did not take me very long to know where I belong. I now belong to the greatest and most moral country that ever existed on the face of the earth. The US Constitution and Bill of Rights were written by men in the Judeo-Christian tradition who told their citizens that their rights were given to them by their creator. These great men did not try to take any credit since one’s human rights are given by God not by man. Consequently, the citizens lived with relative internal peace and confidence in their government. This graceful country allowed me to practice any religion or no religion and gave me human rights I could only dreamed of under Islam. I am lucky and more than lucky, I am saved.
I was never discriminated against even after 9/11. The reason is that I love this country and grieved with the rest of America following the attack. The key to happiness in America is to love America.
In the church I realized that a religion should bring about the love of all of humanity in my heart and never ever teach hatred of anyone. It should bring out the best in me and all its followers. Jihad, anger and terrorism should not be advocated by any religion. My husband and I were brought to our knees in tears and for the first time I felt I could trust and surrender my heart and soul to the God of peace and love. I said to myself “You, God, are in control! The terrorists might think they are in control, but they are wrong and their culture will suffer eventually by this evil”. It was the love of God I was desperate for but never found in Islam. I lived half my life in Islam and my soul was empty and in this Church in the US my soul was revived and nourished with love of all of humanity. I learned what it means to be grateful. Oh God I am grateful for leading me from chaos and confusion to hope and humility in your Way. The US has been blessed by many Churches like this, which other countries emulate instead of envy. I pray for Moslem countries to see the light that all men are created equal and not that all Moslems are created equal. Many come to this great nation in search for material gain which is fine, however, the biggest prize I gained was my religious freedom and to find myself in the glory of God.
by Nonie Darwish
As a child of the fifties and sixties I felt that many Moslem countries were
more moderate then than now and looked to the West for modernity and cultural and economic guidance. Only Saudi Arabia was then looked upon as the real Islamic country. This started to get reversed in the 70’s. Saudi Arabia and Moslem extremism replaced that need for change. Oil money from Saudi Arabia got more and more influential in reviving the more extreme form of Islam among more Moderate and poorer Moslem countries. During this period I started noticing a shift from Western influence to more rigid adherence of Islamic law. Many moderate Moslem countries were shamed into rejecting Western influence and encouraged to defy it. Women on their own began wearing Islamic clothes emulating their sisters in Saudi Arabia. All Arab women’s hard work for advancement and legal equality and economic parity with men was eroding. Newspaper articles started promoting Jihad and hate. Saudi money started pouring into poorer neighborhoods to build mosques, not to feed the spiritual needs of the flock, but to further radicalize the vulnerable poor and turn them against their Moderate governments. Mosques verbally attacked Christians and Jews violently and openly on loudspeakers of Mosques. Many Christians were the victims of Moslem attacks. I was once visiting a Christian friend during the Friday prayers and while I was there I heard the verbal attacks on Christians and Jews from the mosque’s loudspeakers. My friend looked scared and I was embarrassed and frightened. One day I was criticized by a woman on the street for not wearing Islamic clothes. That did it! That was when I decided to leave the Middle East and move to the USA.
That same Wahabi sect was responsible for 9/11. People like me who escaped the oppressive Moslem society are now facing the same threat right here in the bastion of freedom. Where else would we go if it weren’t for America?
No one should ever believe that 9/11 was for the support of the poor Palestinians. It was a call of warning from Saudi extremists to Western civilization. They announced to us loud and clear “we are coming to Islamize you the same way we did to Moderate Arab countries.” Saudi Arabia never participated with troops in any war against Israel and I never heard of one Saudi dying in a war between Israel and the Palestinians. All the Saudis want is to spread Islam, be the Mecca of the World and maintain the status quo in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I truly believe that what stopped Yasser Arafat from signing the peace treaty were his bosses in Saudi Arabia and other extreme Arab regimes who are financing him. These regimes do not want the Palestinians to live in peace and become a democracy like Israel. The Palestinians are very smart and educated people and are the victims of Arab Dictatorships who want to keep them as pawns in refugee camps for over a half a century.
No one in this day and age should be killed for choosing another religion. Islam is the only religion in the World that does that. Ironically, many Moslems say they want to start practicing democracy, or at least they claim they want to. How can they talk about freedom to vote when they do not allow freedom of thought in choosing one’s religion? The founding fathers of the United States correctly identified freedom of religion as being of primary importance. The right to vote is meaningless if one has no right to choose one’s religion.
Moslem women can be killed if they choose to marry a non-Moslem, and that was my dilemma when I wanted to marry my Christian husband. That was the main reason why I moved to the USA. The UN should issue an International Proclamation for Freedom of CHOICE of ones’ Religion that Moslem countries would have to adhere to. However, the UN has not shown much strength in rejecting Arab money and influence to issue such a resolution and follow it up.
Because Islam cannot tolerate the free market for religious choice and freedom, non-practicing Moslems are left with the one ideology to practice and that is Socialism. Arab intelligentsia, especially in Arab Media, is mostly Socialists. Many oppressive Arab regimes are really secular socialist rather than Islamic. An example would be the “Baath” party of Syria and Iraq. Many Arab Media figures are openly Socialist and agnostic but package themselves in Islam for reasons of practicality and legitimacy. These Arab Media figures, many of whom I know personally quite well, fiercely defend Islam and find excuses for terrorism against the West. You can see them day in and day out on American TV defending the indefensible. I don’t know how they can do it with a straight face. However, behind the scenes they tell a different story and live a different life from that of Islam. They have to please the Moslems to survive and keep their hefty salaries while their Government-run newspapers are losing money. That would have been my destiny in the Middle East; no spiritual life, no inner peace, just playing games to survive. I either would have stayed a non-practicing Moslem or joined the elitist class of Arab socialists. Is it any wonder why the Western liberal media sympathizes with Arab Media?
After I moved to the US I attended a non-denominational evangelical Church and could not help but compare. The Pastor was a peaceful, kind and gentle man and never spoke any ill about other religions, he even prayed for Moslems after 9/11. Love, kindness, grace, forgiveness and elevation of the human spirit were everywhere and among all members of the Church. It was a microcosm of the goodness of the American culture. The Pastor embodied what I aspire to be. On the other hand, many Moslem clergy were a source of repulsive and uncompromising anger, rage, hate and subversion. Moslem clerks seek total power and control over their worshipers and forget that only God is in control.
We often hear of Moslem worshipers leaving the Friday prayer to attack Churches and Synagogues. They call us the great Satan because our social ills are not concealed in an open society. On the other hand, many Moslems forget that they too have a great Satan alive and well but hidden in the caves of Afghanistan, in the palaces of Iraq, in their dictatorships and in many Middle East closets. Self criticism is a virtue many Moslem countries need to learn. Mosques are not like churches, families do not attend as a unit. It is not an event where fathers, mothers and children unite in asking for God’s blessings and forgiveness. In the Middle East only men attend Mosques. Mosques spread the word of Allah harshly through loudspeakers heard over miles. There are several mosques in each neighborhood and one often can hear 3 or 4 mosque’s call for prayers at the same time 5 times a day!
It did not take me very long to know where I belong. I now belong to the greatest and most moral country that ever existed on the face of the earth. The US Constitution and Bill of Rights were written by men in the Judeo-Christian tradition who told their citizens that their rights were given to them by their creator. These great men did not try to take any credit since one’s human rights are given by God not by man. Consequently, the citizens lived with relative internal peace and confidence in their government. This graceful country allowed me to practice any religion or no religion and gave me human rights I could only dreamed of under Islam. I am lucky and more than lucky, I am saved.
I was never discriminated against even after 9/11. The reason is that I love this country and grieved with the rest of America following the attack. The key to happiness in America is to love America.
In the church I realized that a religion should bring about the love of all of humanity in my heart and never ever teach hatred of anyone. It should bring out the best in me and all its followers. Jihad, anger and terrorism should not be advocated by any religion. My husband and I were brought to our knees in tears and for the first time I felt I could trust and surrender my heart and soul to the God of peace and love. I said to myself “You, God, are in control! The terrorists might think they are in control, but they are wrong and their culture will suffer eventually by this evil”. It was the love of God I was desperate for but never found in Islam. I lived half my life in Islam and my soul was empty and in this Church in the US my soul was revived and nourished with love of all of humanity. I learned what it means to be grateful. Oh God I am grateful for leading me from chaos and confusion to hope and humility in your Way. The US has been blessed by many Churches like this, which other countries emulate instead of envy. I pray for Moslem countries to see the light that all men are created equal and not that all Moslems are created equal. Many come to this great nation in search for material gain which is fine, however, the biggest prize I gained was my religious freedom and to find myself in the glory of God.
by Nonie Darwish
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