No the media is not the enemy of Islam. And I am not kidding!

Submitted by Reema (United Arab Emirates), Aug 7, 2006 at 09:11

Dear Donald,

Now… you also left a note with regard to me saying that I blame the media in general for the way I Islam is perceived in the West. However, I also said that I blame Muslims themselves for not taking measures to present their true identity. Okay, first I work in the media. So I believe in the media and its power. I know the media is the messenger not the message. But please in Journalism 101, I learned about objective reporting… at least balanced reporting.

Believe me, the media in the West does not show half of the things that happen here in the Arab and Muslim world. I am not saying the Arab media is better, but what I am saying journalists have a duty to try and show the truth no matter what… not to censor and not to change facts.

You talk of certain things like zawaj mut'a, well, Islam forbids such a marriage and if people still do it, I am sorry but this has nothing to do with Islam. You talk about circumcision of women. In fact when I read about this, the first thing I did was see what Islam has to say about it and it is not required for women one bit and any prophet sayings mentioning this were labelled as da'eef or weak. As for circumcision for men, yes it is mandatory, however you are telling me if Allah is omnipotent why has He created Muslim men with no foreskin. I am sorry, Muslim men are just men and they are from different walks of life. A Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Sikh… any man from any religion can turn Muslim, so really I don't see the argument.

Plus, I am just a human being just like you. I have no idea what God intended with his creation. Now with Fatwa… not anyone can come up with a fatwa. A group of well educated Muslims who have a lot of knowledge about Islam, Hadith…etc can do that and they just don't come up with something and go like… hey Muslims I have a fatwa for you. In Islam, the first reference Muftis go to is the Quran then followed by the hadith. If the Muftis can't find what they're looking for, there are other ways like Qeyas, where you look for similar situations or issues and measure accordingly. There are also many other ways.

However, with all due respect, as a Muslim, I have heard the most ridiculous fatwas from people who claim to be knowledgeable. But that does not make them the rule. That's the exception. You talk of Kuffar. Well, a kafir is a person who does not believe in the existence of God, as simple as that. Some people go to other extents.

But in general, as a Muslim I am not allowed to claim someone is a kafir, just like that. It is in fact forbidden in Islam. There are certain criteria that constitute a Kafir and I have not looked that up. You ask why do I pray five times a day? Why not? God is not waiting for me to thank him or worship him, that's true, but it is my duty to acknowledge Him and the fact that He gave me life. Isn't that enough? Now what happened in 9/11 is not martyrdom. In simple terms that's murder. Why? Because again– as a Muslim and you might not like my sourcing I respect that– Prophet Mohammad specifically said in his hadith that it is forbidden if Muslims go to fight to kill women, children, unarmed men, cut trees, burn places of worship of whichever religion…etc. It is also mentioned in the Quran.

So if a person decided: "I am going on a Jihad and fight America" , well do it the right way and fight soldiersYou want to fight and surprise them do it, but don't kill an suspecting American woman in her office in the name of Islam and Jihad. I am not with what happened one bit, just for the record. Islam is not anti-Jews or anti-Christians, because it is a continuation of these religions. If you look at the books and testaments, there are so many similarities there.

Plus think about it, if I am an ambitious Muslim and I want Islam to spread around, how can I be so hateful to the Jews and the Christians who will only see hate and nothing else in the message. How will I make them convert? That's just a simple way of putting it. So no I do not hate Jews or Christians. In fact one of my closest friends is a Christian. I have nothing against Jews, even though I am Palestinian and people blame the Jews. I hate Zionists. So there. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask anything or comment on anything.

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