"I don't know that I suggested a peace plan."
I didn't mean to suggest that you had suggested a plan but I know the lack of peace in that region drives you up the wall with frustration.
"Muslims need to want peace before the path to peace can begin, and it has to start in the grassroots of Islam.
One of the grassroots concepts of peace for Islam is widely not understood here. Lefties, for example, define peace as the condition that exists when everyone stops fighting, and can't figure out why that doesn't work for Muslims. That kind of peace is easy to achieve, just surrender and you have it. Peace in Islam is defined only as a state of peace in your soul. If you are confident that you are standing on sound principle, you can find peace even though some tyrant is whipping you and throwing you in prison for refusing to bow to his demands. Even though you are engaged in violent conflict attempting stop a brutal rapist, you can find peace in your purpose. You can not have peace in your heart, knowing that you are living according to the dictates of an oppressive regime. So at the grass roots Peace must be with Justice. Stand against the wrong and for the good and peace is available, even or especially when persecuted for it.
"And just as the grassroots of Catholicism are 50 years ahead of it's leadership, so the educated and the rational within Islam have to begin to condemn the radicals who preach an end to the rights of others and the imposition of Islamic Ideals on those who are not part of Islam."
Ok. I absolutely agree with that statement. I, btw, see it happening almost everywhere I look, many people don't and I understand their frustration; but many of those people aren't looking at places much different than this anti-Muslim site, so I don't expect them to see much of it. |
