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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (154008)	1/7/2006 10:18:49 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793887

These links might be a bit more current, and appropriate...plus they are free...<gg> Here's a Gandleman post, and other bloggers with their comments from one of your favorite links.... Seems the other bloggers disagree with the ventriloquist/comentator themoderatevoice.com and another from South Africa does disagree as well... Embassy of the United States of America in South Africa Public Affairs Office September 21, 2005 Media Release "Muslims in America" Consul General Moosa Valli Interviewed on Cii Channel Radio pretoria.usembassy.gov [See related document: CG's paper on "United States and Islam"] TRANSCRIPT: CG MOOSA VALLI ON Cii CHANNEL – SEPTEMBER 21, 2005 Interviewer: Mrs. Najma Khota >>>>>>>>>>>>NAJMA I quote: Almost immediately following the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, Muslims throughout the United States began to experience harassment and violence against them in their homes, workplaces, schools, mosques and in shopping malls. In the aftermath of the attacks many key government figures including Pres. Bush made a point to reach out to the Muslim community. President Bush visited the Islamic Center in Washington DC and in the company of national Muslim leaders appealed for tolerance and understanding, reiterating that Islam was not to blame for the terrorist attacks. Unquote. Mr. Valli do you believe this is true? CG Yes I think that’s true. The president was quoted extensively and he made some very specific comments about his own feelings and the feelings of the government about Islam and about Muslims. So yes I believe that. NAJMA And you know these attacks that followed then, apart from the actual aftermath and so on, the attacks that we talk about all the time (on Muslims) and the fanaticism and the fundamentalism and the prejudice that had come after that, and increasingly causing Americans to equate Islam with terrorism. Now this is where I think the rest of the Muslim community throughout the world is actually apprehensive shall I say, or despondent, in that media has just started this whole fanaticism/fundamentalism and to quote you again, equates Islam with terrorism. This is where the misunderstanding has come in. Can you elaborate on that? CG Well I think we in the Muslim community in the United States are as concerned as you are about all of that and we are trying to reach out to the American public to explain who we are, to say that Islam is not a violent religion, Islam is a religion of peace and to counter some of the negative perceptions that Americans hold. Now you have to understand that there was a lot of anger in the United States right after the attacks and it developed obviously that all of the highjackers were Arabs and were Muslims. So the anger was directed at anyone who looked like he was an Arab or Muslim. And in many cases even sikhs were singled out and in fact several sikhs were killed and their businesses attacked. So it was an anger that grew out of 9/11, basically. But there were also huge numbers of people in the United States I must say who were very supportive of Muslims. And I point that out. And there is still a great reservoir of goodwill in the United States towards people of other religions and Muslims in particular. And there are lots and lots of efforts now to bridge the divide between Muslims and non-Muslims by all kinds of people in the United States. So it is not one-sided. There is to be sure an element that is very anti-Arab and anti-Muslim. But there is a whole lot more besides that in the United States and I think it is fair to say that.<<<<<<<<<<<snip