Dear Editor,
I write in response to the article, “Bill Maher’s comments grossly misrepresent the nature of religion,” dated Oct. 16, 2014.
I whole-heartedly would like to thank you for your courage to publish an honest and powerful piece in an effort to portray an accurate image of Islam and Muslims.
It is very troubling for mainstream American Muslims, who are disgusted with the un-Islamic actions of groups like ISIS, to face growing anti-Muslim sentiment resulting from the public opinion shaped by the sweeping generalizations made by today’s pseudo-intellectual pundits.
These pundits, who try to equate the cruel and barbaric acts and ideologies of militant groups with the fundamentals of the religion of Islam, tarnish the image of Islam, harm and further isolate the American-Muslim community and, as you stated, drive us further away from establishing meaningful partnerships with the Muslim and Arab World.
It’s a breath of fresh air to see a voice in today’s media contribute to humanizing Muslims. Again, thank you for using this medium to dismantle the misconceptions about Islam and Muslims and help to validate the mainstream Muslim voice.
Ojaala Ahmad is a CSULB alumnus and serves as the CAIR-LA communications coordinator.
Even if you leave terrorism out, which is a lot to ask, statistics released by the Pew Research Center, show that in more than 20 Muslim countries where surveys were conducted, in many of those countries, more than half of the people believe Sharia Law is the revealed word of god, and they support imposing Sharia Law in their country.
And in some countries the percentage of support is around 70 or 80 Percent.
So we are not just talking about a few thousand people, as the article tries to portray.
We are talking about hundreds of millions of Muslims who support a radical form of government that would establish the brutal treatment of citizens, especially women and gays. A system that would include mutilations or executions for minor offenses, and a complete lack of freedom.
Se I think we face two separate threats.