Five Questions
Dennis Prager plays five questions with Muslims, asking:
- Why are you so quiet?
- Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?
- Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?
- Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by Muslims in the name of Islam?
- Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?
Hundreds of millions of non-Muslims want honest answers to these questions, even if the only answer you offer is, “Yes, we have real problems in Islam.” Such an acknowledgment is infinitely better — for you and for the world — than dismissing us as anti-Muslim.
We await your response.
related articles
- D’Souza Smackdown (August 29th, 2007)
- C-CPAN Must-see TV (July 6th, 2007)
- Livingstone v. Blair (July 1st, 2007)
- Five Years Later: Americans Trapped in Saudi Arabia (June 27th, 2007)
- Constantly Directing? (June 23rd, 2007)
November 17th, 2005 at 12:23 pm
Great questions.
But I don’t expect to hear any real answers from Muslims or their sympathizers.
Jeff
November 17th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Questions 1, 4, & 5 can easily be asked about Christianity.
And we could ask one question about Christians who support war? Why do so many Christian believe it is wrong for the Muslim faith to advance their cause through means of violence but have no ethical qualms about supporting violence to protect their own ways of living?
Seems sort of hypocritical to accuse another of the same thing we are guilty of.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. It not the Christians invading the Middle East (even though that is how Islam sees it) its just our government which is completely separated from the Christian faith — while we invoke the blessing of God through prayer each time congress opens abother session.
Islams and Christians are both wrong for using violence as a means of persuasion.
If both of us ever figured this out, then maybe there would be a little more peace in this world. It is like two boys who constantly fight… one of them has to be big enough to say I refuse to fight anymore because there is a better way at resolving our differences… especially when one of those boys makes a claim of faith that his victory has already been sealed in Jesus Christ.
November 18th, 2005 at 8:47 pm
Really?
\1. What “Christian” terrorism are Christians silent about?
\4. See #1. What atrocities are committed and threatened in the name of Christianity?
\5. What nation led by Religious Christians persecute other religions?
Because not all violence is equal. The fact that you stubbornly refuse to recognize this basic fact does not mean that such distinctions do not exist. Intentionally targeting innocents (as Muslim suicide bombers do) is not the same as mounting a violent defense against such barbarity.
America’s defense of civilization is not “a means of persuasion.”
It is not like two boys fighting. It is like a sheepdog protecting the flock from the wolf. The wolf doesn’t want to find a better way of resolving differences. It just wants to rip your throat out.
November 18th, 2005 at 10:52 pm
Preemptive strikes in Iraq is not defense its offense supported by Christian voters and supposedly a “Christian” republican congress that can claim was is for the cause of justice while they pass a budget reduction which only hurts the poor.
As for the Christian nations which advance their cause by violence, go read Christian history — it is filled with such stories. It is our history which I was mainly referring too.
Yet at the same time, why would we want to use war against the Muslims? We say that it is a political difference but to the Muslims, it is religious because they do not separate church and state like we do so they only see us as Christian invaders. That is why we will never be sucessful using warfare.
Does your post not generalize Muslims to much and lump them into one catagory?
It seems that the radical Muslims want to lump all Christians into one catagory too.
I do not know about you but there are certainly some people who confess to be Christians which I do not want to be associated with.
I think we need to be careful about lumping all Muslims into one “evil” catagory
November 19th, 2005 at 9:43 am
What was your opinion of the unilateral U.S. intervention (without U.N. approval) in Bosnia for the purpose aiding Muslims who were the subject of “ethnic cleansing?” When Bill Clinton took us to war against people “who didn’t attack us,” did you protest then? Should you have? Is there a difference? This intervention freed the Kurds and the Shia from Saddam Hussein’s concentration camp-state. That is not merely a preemptive strike.
Did you read Dennis Prager’s article? It is quite clear from his article that the point is not to generalize about all Muslims. Quite the opposite. The point is to invite dialogue with the non-terrorist Muslim majority.
There is a fundamental difference between the few Christians whom you don’t want to be associated with and the mass movement we call Islamofascisim. There is no coralery Christofascist movement.
Are there a couple of isolated violent nuts who call themselves “Christian.” Sure. Do you see posters and t-shirts of these people on sale throughout the Bible belt? No. But Bin Laden is hailed as a hero by — yes a minority, but a significant and large minority — of Muslims. Millions and millions of them.
There is simply no similarly bloodthirsty phenomena in Christianity. We ought to be able to recognize and talk about that difference without being labeled anti-Muslim. That is the point of the Prager article.
November 19th, 2005 at 11:38 pm
For the most part of President Clinton’s two terms in office I was not a Christian and hence my view on war then was that the U.S. could do whatever it had to do to put any other country down. Obviously I have changed.
Most of what I was talking about when it comes to Christianity is in our history. You have heard of the Christian Crusades? Sounds pretty facist to me when a Christian can carry a sword and force conversion by threat of death.
But it even comes closer to home. What about all of our ancestors who drove the Indians off of there own land and were so kind as to give them blankets infested with small pox? Most of those who supported such actions also sang “Amazing Grace” in some Protestant church on Sundays, where such barbaric actions was even supported in the pulpit. And what about all those Christians from the 1800’s until atleast the 1960’s who either actively supported racial oppression by carrying out acts of hatred or passively supported by simply tolerating it and even quoting a few Bible verses out of context to support their own racism and hatred?
Thankfully most Christians do not believe in such behavior now. BUT if we are going to condemn the radical Muslims who practice hatred and violence now TOO THE POINT that we rarely, if ever, pray for and forgive even our enemies — THEN — LET US ALSO CONDEMN OUR ANCESTORS and proclaim that there very acts, some of which established this nations territory, was of the most rank evil as well.
That is what I am talking about. Most of those I hear who are so quick to condemn, judge, and seek vengence against the Muslims are also the same people who are so reluctant to say that some of our own ancestors who we laud (dare I say worship) as heros were guilty of the same injustices that we now condemn.
I know that now most Christians consider racism, ethnic violence, etc… to be sinful and would never participate or even tolerate such behavior.
But FYI… Last year I visited a church where I spoke as the preacher (and it is the only and last time I will speak there) where two of the men were active members of the Klu Klux Klan. Other members did not see that it was such a big deal. Funnything is that this same church would condemn a person to hell for worshiping in a church with instrumental music.
The epitamy of hypocracy!
November 21st, 2005 at 11:34 pm
[…] Some professor attempts to “answer” Dennis Prager’s five questions for Muslims, but mainly just quarrels with them instead. Permalink TrackBack […]