Links and information - Muslims and peace

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I made a post on another thread filled with links against the notion that all Muslims tacitly support radical Islamism or are afriad to speak out. As it was a pretty good set of links, I decided to repost the informative part of that post here, leaving out most of the polemical part, for those interested in reading up on this.

You asked for proof of peaceful Muslims. The following links do not even scratch the surface.

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To start, here is a rather good Wikipedia article on Islamism. Here is a quote from the article:

There is some debate as to how influential Islamist movements remain. Some scholars assert that Islamism is a fringe movement that is dying, following the clear failures of Islamist regimes like the regime in Sudan, the Wahhabist Saudi regime and the Deobandi Taliban to improve the lot of Muslims. However, others (e.g. Ahmed Rashid) feel that the Islamists still command considerable support and cite the fact that Islamists in Pakistan and Egypt regularly poll 10 to 30 percent in electoral polls which many believe are rigged against them.

So to some experts, the actual threat of Islamism taking over the Muslim world does not seem to be as great as what gets played up in the media. That does not make it any less deadly and in need of serious attention, but it does put a proper perspective on it.

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Here is a Wikipedia article on Islam. Here is a quote from that article:

The Qur'an contains both injunctions to respect other religions, and to fight and subdue unbelievers during war. Some Muslims have respected Jews and Christians as fellow people of the book (monotheists following Abrahamic religions), while others have reviled them as having abandoned monotheism and corrupted their scriptures. At different times and places, Islamic communities have been both intolerant and tolerant. Support can be found in the Qur'an for both attitudes.

It is easy to see that the Koran contains contradictions, just like the Bible does, and that there are and have been different interpretations among Muslims, just like with Christianity.

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Here is some other general information:

Daniel Pipes

Pipes gives much good information, but he slants toward criticizing the Islamist war-mongering side. Still, you can find much good information on that site. Although he contests many things about Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) , it does have the following page up (and other equally peace-preaching pages):

MUSLIM CONDEMNATIONS OF THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

Here are a few other links chosen at random:

Muslim peace rally attracts thousands

Muslim Peace Fellowship (website)

The Muslim - Jewish Peace Walks

Faiths united over Middle East peace (Jewish and Muslim communities)

Norway grants 27 million rupees to Muslim Peace Secretariat

First Annual Conference of Muslim Peace building

Here is a video. You may not like some of the images, but they are proper to a people practicing their religion in peace. There is some nice singing and beautiful images, too.

Here are two sets of links to Arab and Jewish peace organizations:

List of links to Jewish/Palestinian peace and human rights organizations

Recommended Arab Peace Links

I came across the following online article which spells out some really important things that need to be done.

SEEKING ARAB - ISRAELI PEACEMAKING AND RECONCILIATION THROUGH CULTURE by Ada A. Aharoni.

On Iran, the best place to start is a book (which unfortunately I have not yet read):

Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution by Nikki R. Keddie

The National Council of Resistance of Iran spends a good amount of time criticizing brutal policies of the regime in power, but it obviously gets its information from people who live in the country...

There is this organization, too...: Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran. Here is a Wikipedia article on them.

Here is an interesting blog article. Iranian students will revolt, just not soon

As you can see, there is a lot to look at.

Michael