CAIR Tampa Executive Director speaking out against the violent reaction by a few Muslims in response to Pope Benedict's recent comments against Islam and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). In a statement Bedier "While I was upset by and disagree with the Pope's comments on Islam, I am more upset by the violent reaction by a few ignorant people." CAIR announced a new campaign to raise money for the damaged churches in the mideast that were vandalized in reaction to the controversy.
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Did you even listen to the Pope's comments? He was reciting a document nearly 700 years old. He was not expressing his own views but of course this has gone completely over your head. You say that a "few Muslims" have burned a "few houses of worship"?
Doesn't the hypocrisy of this statement make you feel ashamed? Churches and synagogues have been burned down in vast numbers in Gaza, Serbia, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistan, and in just about any other Muslim country you can think of.
That you say only a few Muslims acted violently towards the pope's comments again shows either a selective memory or a purposeful attempt to deceive. Anger broke out throughout Europe, Southeast Asia and throughout the Middle East. These were large-scale demonstrations and some were surely supported by the governments of certain Islamic countries.
Please speak the truth.
American Crusader: I'm speaking the trut and speaking out. If you unplug your ears and stop being selective, you'll clearly hear me denouncing violence. I said that Muslims MUST NOT use violence when accused of being violent.
What's your problem?
You have a very distorted view of history. The entire world knows that it was Christian Serbs who massacred, raped and destroyed Muslim Bosnians.
In reaction to the recent attacks on Churches in Palestine, not only did we speak up against it, but we also raised the money and I personally delivered $5000 to the Catholic Charity for the repair of churches.
What have you done, but run your mouth, how are you helping bring people together. You and your buddies are only spewing hatred. Your comments are only one sided hate speech.
Why don't you read over the history of Jews in Christian Europe and compare that to the history of Jews in the Muslim lands, like the Golden Era of Jews in Spain, Egypt and Turkey.
A distorted view of history Bedier? Please. Not if you are to bring up Spain and Turkey. Then you must be honest for once! You must know, of course, that in those two places conquered by Muslims that the Christians did not always fare too well! Sometimes yes, sometimes not. But La Reconquista didn't happen overnight, it was a long fight of pushing back invaders. Before you rebut that, yes I am aware of the aftermath, as well as the tu quoque arguments that you are fond of.
Christians fared far worse in Asia Minor, where they were subject to the devshirme, jizya and all of the humiliations placed on them in their status as dhimmis. I'm sure you also know how their residence in their homeland was also abruptly terminated. Yet I, as the descendent of Ionian Greeks (and even a few Spaniards, while we're at it), have no hatred towards modern Turks, and even something of a detatched admiration for Ataturk. I realize that admiration for Kemal is rare amongst those with Greek blood even more than among most Muslim communities (excepting Turks), but there you go.
You see, if you REALLY want peace and to bring people together, you will refrain from misleading people and instead choose to tell the truth, yet not be angry by it.
I'm glad that you are speaking out against violence over the Pope's comments. You should be. Anything less would be political suicide, and as a member of CAIR, you are obviously well aware of political implications. This is a wise move, as the violence that DID occur over the Regensberg speech were so appalling as to have created a tremendous backlash against Muslims that can now even be felt in the mainstream Western press. But then perhaps that is why you are so active on YouTube?
Thank you for your interaction on the web. It has been most enlightening.
I have no problem with Ahmed's claim that this violence was limited to a few Muslims (in proportion to the whole). The biggest estimations of the protests numbered in the tens of thousands. It's a sizable number, but remember, there's 1 BILLION Muslims in the world.
Now let's say that there were actually 50,000 protestors (mid-range tens of thousands). And let's even go further to increase it by saying that for every person that showed up to protest, there were 100 supporters who couldn't show up but felt the same way. That gives us 5 million Muslims. That's disturbing, and a serious problem, but 5 million Muslims is only 0.5% of the entire Muslim population in the world! One-half of one percent.
And again, 5 million is an extreme exaggeration so that just strengthens Ahmed's claim even more.
Also, check out this article, which beautifully puts things into perspective (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4685886.stm)
It's says "... despite how it looks on television news, the response to the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad has mostly been non-violent so far. There were no demonstrations at all in a sizeable number of Muslim countries. In Iran, Egypt, Pakistan and Iraq, the demonstrations passed off quietly. There has been serious trouble in Gaza, Damascus and Beirut, but in each case, local tensions clearly boiled up and found their expression in this particular issue. In Syria, such violence is so rare that some people have wondered whether the attacks on the Danish and Norwegian embassies might not have been provoked by government agents, in order to discredit the beleaguered Islamists there. In Lebanon, the continuing tension between supporters of the Syrians and supporters of the Americans played a part in the violence in Beirut. When a breakaway group started to attack a Christian church at Ashrafiya, a group of Muslim clerics did everything they could to stop them."
I'm not in any way diminishing the violent acts of those who DID violently protest. I utterly condemn those actions. But at the same time, I think people do a great disservice to the situation when they try to paint Islam and it's followers with a broad brush.
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