Author: (---)
Date: 07-03-04 20:13 PDT
---, here you are pretending to be two people and you're
saying discordant things to a forum full of people who have
EMBRACED Islamic and Moroccan culture with love and understanding.
You're like the Catholic priests who used to tell people
IN CHURCH that they would go to hell if they didn't go to
church! That misplaced haranguing is called "preaching
to the choir." Those priests should have gotten their
rear ends outside of church grounds and looked for the Catholics
who never went to church to threaten them with hell. Yes?
In fact, this reminds me that, years ago, one of our parish
priests was doing that preaching so much that he got a LOT
of complaints from parishoners who were mad as the devil at
him. So, one Sunday he "apologized" by telling the
attendants at Mass how good they were. Of course, he was being
facetious and snotty through the whole sermon--because he
was a facetious and snotty man--but he was given hell for
that, too, so he finally cleaned up his act and started treating
people with the respect they deserved. He had to learn that
he was an imperfect human being no better than anyone else.
---/--- you sound to me like you are very young. Well, I
am getting very old. And I can tell you that NO CULTURE, NO
PEOPLE, NO RELIGION IS PERFECT. Women all over the world are
suppressed--dare I say it--even in some of the Muslim cultures
that you try to convince yourself are perfect. Only God is
perfect.
Look at Queen Noor of Jordan. A wealthy woman of great influence.
She has more freedom than all of us put together. AND, she
makes no bones about the fact that the supression of women
in Jordan, particularly with regard to "honor killings,"
is a terrible problem that she and her husband the king are
striving to overcome. (I like him and her very much. Loved
his father, too.) I have to love and respect her for that
honesty and courage because such honesty is the only thing
that will ever put an end to such crimes against girls and
women. Denying the problem exists would not achieve that.
The great prophet, Jesus, cautioned his followers not to
try to take the speck out of a friend's eye until they had
removed the blinding beams in their own. Every time you say
that you're "pissed off," or "annoyed"
or "so angry" over people's questions or misconceptions,
you're insulting the very people who are making an honest
effort to learn and understand. Americans, by the way, who
were greviously wounded by the horrendous deaths and injuries
of 9/11. And, yet, in spite of that disgraceful crime by Muslims,
we tolerant and open-hearted Americans are still willing to
learn, to understand, to embrace Islamic culture. You don't
want to be insulting to the very people who are trying to
be friendly to you.
The hardest thing in the world is to learn to be honest with
yourself. I think you're old enough and smart enough to start
examining your own thought processes. I've said many times
that you've done a lot of good when you answer questions that
people ask. BUT, you're so blinded by your own prejudices
and lack of experience that you turn around and undo that
good in spades with your negative remarks which are the product
of your negative thinking. Be honest with yourself. Moroccan
culture and Muslim culture may be wonderful, but they're no
more perfect than any others. It has been my observation that,
in most cultures, wealthy women are free women. The farther
away you get from wealth and/or cities, the greater the chance
you have of seeing supression in countries around the world.
There are Muslim women on this forum who I've come to dearly
love as special friends. It never would have happened without
El Clon, and this forum, and their gracious answers to our
many questions. Not one of them ever got "pissed off"
or "so angry" or "annoyed" at any of us.
I have been fond of you, and just wish you would stop that.
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