“…I must confess that I too have wondered why the moderate Muslims (who are, by far, the majority) have not been more outspoken about terrorism contradicting the peaceful teachings of the Holy Quran…”

it’s very simple. the media doesn’t want to show us, or put Muslims that are against terrorism on TV, Radio or on the frontpage of news articles. Although this is very different abroad. In fact, when I was in Canada, this one major newspaper had a front page article written by a Muslim condemning terorrism by both extremist Muslims and the governments of Israel and America.

“…I want to know what prompted these people to become terrorists (or as they prefer the term, “freedom fighters”), and if possible, try and correct the problem(or problems) with my votes…”

there are many reasons why: destruction of there homes, family members killed, sisters/mothers raped, occupation of there land, and other things.

how to correct the problem? there has to be another way then war and randomly shooting any so called looking terrorist. the way the US goes about in finding terrorists is just by names and nothing else. that’s all they have is names, sometimes pictures, but not always. now as a Muslim, names can be very easily changed and mis interpeted and since a lot of the names are common, anyone can be a terrorist, even a 3 year old child named Osama. i’ll leave you with a beautiful quote for the solution of this worldwide conflict by shaykh Hamza Yusuf of the Zaytuna Institute: “the problem is not religion. the problem is the absences of religion.”

“It is a given that we should fix what we have broken, yes? And it’s only right that we should help the people of Iraq learn to live life without a dictator.”

the Iraq war could have been prevented. America could have killed Saddam very easily rather then invading the whole country. it is very clear what Bush and his administration wanted: Oil. The largest and most profitable business in the world right now is Oil, and the richest companies are the American owned oil companies, not the countries that supply them. the conflicts in the middle east is just an excuse to raise the gas prices.

why is it that no company or government funds heavily into researching in improving electric cars?

iraq war is a waste of american tax dollars and is killing american soldiers who are sacrificing there lives to fill the pockets of rich oil companies.

Yes, people are tarnishing the name of Islm. However, I am not rationalizing for Hezbollah. You are rationalizing “collateral damage.” There is none. If a Muslim killed a bunch of civilians and claimed it was “collateral damage” I’d jump right on the bandwagon and tell them it was unIslamic. You cannot kill innocents. Period. So please don’t make these conclusions about us.

The “moderate Muslim” is trying to show people Islam but is met with people who are increasingly unwilling to listen. What would you like us to do? Please tell me. No one is siding with al-Qaeda here. We just hope you can open your eyes to see the wrongs on both sides. Yes, BOTH. Not to be pigeonholed into a one sided view of the world. You’re right, Muslims shouldn’t be strapping bommbs to themselves. Just like Israeli snipers shouldn’t be shooting at innocents. And don’t tell me I’m wrong. Besides what I read in the media, I KNOW someone it happened to. He was shot in the head. Luckily, the sniper was a bit off.. And he didn’t DIE. Otherwise he would have. And maybe you’ll get tired of this, but Rachel Corrie? A non-Muslim? Plowed over while wearing a bright ORANGE jumpsuit?

Is that justified. Yes, if someone is bombing your neighborhood, you should fight back. But now what about Lebanon? Torn to pieces? Corpses everywhere? The Israeli defense is far more powerful than those rockets Hezbollah fires. You know, it’s kinda like when those Palestinian kids throw rocks as Israeli TANKS? The tank is not even hurt. Possibly a scratch. But when that tank fires at something. It’s obliterated. Lebanon has been obliterated. By Israeli and US weapons. Justify that. What business does the US have over there? Condoleeza Rice descrives this as the birthing pains of a new Middle East. That’s just dumb. What chance does the Middle East now have of living up to US expectations? Growing anger and hostility doesn’t help anyone.

Civilians die in lebanon because of the gorilla tactics they use, they fire their rockets from residential areas, just like in iraq when they hide in a mosque but then cry when the mosque is damaged.

Please, take a look at what these apes are doing to your religion. You the so-called moderates will pay the price when islam is defamed for the next 100 years as it has been already.

Continue to let them kill in the name of your God Allah.

You will pay the price. The everyday muslim.

Look at yourself – you are rationalizing for HEZBOLLAH! a terrorist regime!!

Do you also side with al-qaeda? I bet you would defend their cause, I don’t even have to ask.

yeah, collateral damage.

There is no such thing. Sorry. And killing Iraqi civilians with “precise weapons” is appalling. You can’t justify that.

And Hebzollah started it? Regardless of if you believe that or not, what is going on now? Are the Israelis justified in how many people they’ve killed. Is that collateral damage? Are you kidding me?

The weapons Israel has and is being supplied by the US are far superior than the ones Hezbollah has. Yet you’ve killed more civilians than they have. They’ve killed some SOLDIERS and some civilians. But the majority of the Lebanese killed are children, women, and innocents. What about that? How come the US isn’t fair in its politics? They pretend like they’re all for diplomancy but here we are aiding the killing of innocents in blatant vilation of treaties and bans we’ve signed. Good job.

“The fact is that rising sentiments, even if they are in a non-voilent, peaceful protesting manner, is further conflict. ”

Explain?

>(1) concerning the Muslim rulers: can so-and-so be called kaffir based on his non-implementation of shar`ia and his allowing of riba and other anti-Islamic laws.

Yazid drank wine and killed dozens of sahaba; he was not called a disbeliever but dissolute and depraved, i.e. fasiq.

>(2) “So-and-so’s non-implementation of shar`ia goes to show that whilst he has the ability to implement this law, he is denying it by not implementing it in the holy lands of Hijaz.” Is this a valid statement?

No, it is invalid both logically and legally.

>(3) where do we stand with regards to voting in a government which is responsible for the bombing of Islamic nations such as Iraq, Afghanistan and others. Does voting in itself constitute shirk or kufr for we are voting in a man-made system and kufr laws?

To the extent countenanced by the Shari`a, which recognizes [1] the validity of non-Muslim laws, especially those which are based on heavenly Scriptures, and [2] the fact that “the law of the land” is motivated by the protection of populations from inequity and crime.

>(6) Are we living in dar al-Harb?

Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti confirmed to me the view that at the present time there is nowhere on the face of the earth a declared state of war between any two respectively Muslim and non-Muslim states.

>(7) The hadith, ‘one who dies without pledging alliegence to the khaleef dies a death of ignorance,’ is presented by these groups to show that the muslim masses are in a state of jahiliyya for they do not giving bayah to their khaleef. What is the tafsir on this from a scholarly perspective?

The meaning of this hadith according to the Salaf and the Ulema is “one who dies without recognizing the caliph to whom the Jama`a of the Muslims have pledged their loyalty” such as in the case of the Khulafa al-Rashidin, the Jama`a being defined as the Sawad al-A`zam i.e. the masses of the Muslims. There is neither such caliph nor such jama`a in our time.

>These ideas, as extreme as they appear, have a significant hold on people. So much so that stealing from non-muslims has been declared as halal under the concept that the lands of UK and US are dar ul-Harb. Fraudulent transactions have been legalised under their law in the name of ‘Islam.’

Such are thieves who are passible of the full brunt of the law, as well as depraved innovators if not kuffar for misrepresenting the haram as halal and vice-versa.

>Somebody needs to stand up and defend the pure and pristine deen brought to us by sayyidina Muhammad (alahimus salam) but how is this possible with the lack of scholarship in these lands.

“Somebody”? Rather, every person of sound mind and belief. It is just another false notion that one needs to be a scholar to stand for what is right, while the rest scratch their heads before sheepishly joining the line that ends at the slaughtering-block.

Moreover, a Muslim in a non-Muslim state, in the eyes of the Shari`a, is never more than a guest even if he is a voting, tax-paying, and even a born citizen in the eyes of that state.

Since before the fall of the Ottoman Sultanate, politicized Muslims, accross the spectrum from modernists to purists, have consistently preferred to adopt unislamic strategies of power politics rather than what the Shari`a commanded. Any call to a return to Khilafa by the very products of those philosophies is a masterpiece of hypocrisy.

Was-Salam,

gibril