To the peaceful
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Peace all,
I found this in my e-mail today
The Peaceful Majority
by William HaynesI used to know a man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War Two. They owned a number of large industries and estates. I asked him how many German people were true Nazis, and the answer he gave has stuck with me and guided my attitude toward fanaticism ever since. "Very few people were true Nazis "he said," but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories."
We are told again and again by "experts" and "talking heads" that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.
It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the "peaceful majority" is the "silent majority" and it is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia comprised Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual prior to World War 2 was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were "peace loving"?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points
Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awake one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.
As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
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Who are these fanatics, tanveer? You sound like a fanatic yourself.
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Peace Tanveer,
Thanks for posting the article by William Haynes that someone else emailed (<---to clear up any confusion).
It seems the peaceful majority, then, can be considered accessories to fanaticism. Here's a snippet from wikipedia describing how an accessory to murder can be chargedTo be convicted of an accessory charge, the accused must generally be proved to have had actual knowledge that a crime was going to be, or had been, committed. Furthermore, there must be proof that the accessory knew that his or her action, or inaction, was helping the criminals commit the crime, or evade detection, or escape.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_%28legal_term%29
So are we, the majority that does nothing, complicitly linked with with the radical minority? It seems God's law has a little more compassion then the law of the land
495
Not equal are those who stayed behind from the believers; except those disabled; with those who strived in the cause of God with their money and lives. God has preferred those who strive with their money and lives over those who stayed behind by a grade; and to both God has promised goodness; and God has preferred the strivers over those who stay by a great reward.Peace,
Tay -
Peace all,
Thank you Tanveer for the article. Indeed, I think that the majority of people all over the planet are peaceful, with a mad and insane minority.
What I dream of, is an international party of peaceful (or as I would prefer "peaceable" persons that would stand in front of any war, wherever it may be. It is a shame that we, as humans, in this communication age, are not able to talk as adults to resolve whatever differences of opinions we would have. But then again, this only serves the interest of this minority that keeps duping and luring the majority, and attracting them into endless wars.
We can unite around the peace, but evildoers would never be able to unite even if they seem as one group.
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Peace A_O_K, ??? You did note that Tanveer is not the author of the article, right?
Peace Zenje.
I did. I reacted because an atheist jinn, used very similar arguments against Islam, comparing it to neonazism the other day.
However, do you know what minority is in question here? Does indeed not the Quran speak of only a minority that is right, while the majority is astray? -
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My only problem is you called Tanveer a fanatic, when it wasn't even his words to begin with.I can understand your reaction to the article, but 'don't kill the messenger', right?
Peace
Ok, I see, my apologies. I thought he agreed to it, but now I see he just reported it.
Peace. -
peace
The peaceful majority will never act. People just don't care about things that don't affect them. That is the problem with democracy too. But the majority does eventually act, after the problems have hit home, and under the influence of another minority.
But I don't think this concept can be applied to the followers of a religion all over the world. Even if they could do something, what would they do? -
Salam.
I think that the main problem here is that the minority, the one that wants to create evil, takes action and the majority who wants peace, doesn't.
This minority of evil men are united in their plan - to kill, to destroy, to take over, .... you know, whatever.
The majority is not united - sure they all want peace but they take initiative. They wait others to take action for them so the others do - others being the minority mentioned above.
Peace.
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Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem
Lets have a little thought experiment.
Say, I know the religion in it's true form.
I come here, and tell you, and you disagree, most of you.Then you would be the warmongering majority, and I would be the peacekeeping minority.
However to you, I might look like a madman.
And few listen to me, while you continue to wage wars over your interpretation.
And that is the problem of all wars isn't it. Lack of a unifying religion.
In the end, your ways represent self-destruction. And like pharao, you will. -
Peace all,
Thank you for the comments and thank you brothers Zein and Tay for clearing Arif's misunderstanding. The peaceful should indeed strive to spread the message of The God in the land and strive to stop all the wars and hatred going on in the world......only then will they truly be the peaceful/muslimeen. After all, the strivers are preferred by The God over those who stay per 495.
I come here, and tell you, and you disagree, most of you.Then you would be the warmongering majority, and I would be the peacekeeping minority.
The majority here agrees with the basic teachings of al-qur'aan of believing in The God, the Last Day and doing good works, which are the most important teachings relevant to guidance.
262 Surely those who believe; and those who are Jewish, and the Nazarenes, and the Sabiens, whomever of them believes in God and the Last Day and does good work; they will have their reward with their Lord, with no fear over them, nor will they grieve.
569 Surely those who believe; and those who are Jewish, and the Sabiens, and the Nazarenes, whomever of them believes in God and the Last Day and does good work; then they will have nothing to fear nor will they grieve.
The disagreement is only over minor differences within the qur'aanic limits. If there was only one right interpretation of every verse then the following verses will not make any sense, which allows us to choose the BEST out of the many interpretations.
3918 The ones who listen to what is being said, and then follow the best of it. These are the ones whom God has guided, and these are the ones who possess intelligence.
3955 And follow the best of what has been sent down to you from your Lord, before the retribution comes to you suddenly when you least expect it.
In addition to that The God tells us to remain within limits in many matters, thus allowing minor disagreement WITHIN THOSE LIMITS. The qur'aanic teachings also allow the peaceful/muslimeen to peacefully co-exist under a peaceful treaty with those of other religions in an islamic system, as long as no one violates those treaties and does not aggress.
And that is the problem of all wars isn't it. Lack of a unifying religion.
The problem of all wars is not lack of a unifying religion but lack of the truly peaceful striving to end those wars, no matter what religion those peaceful belong to.
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Peace
Does indeed not the Quran speak of only a minority that is right, while the majority is astray?
No sir. That is not wholly correct. It seems a generalization that the majority is in the wrong. The majority at times may be correct, obviously (to me). Besides, speaking of guidance to the system of God the majority is usually in some wrong concerning it, but at times the majority may be correct and guided rightly .
Joe