In society, all free societies, there are rules of conduct. It is no different here on our forum or anywhere else.

• You go to work, there are rules of conduct.
• You go to school there are rules of conduct.
• You run a business there are rules of conduct.
• You sign up for memberships at your local gym there are rules of conduct.
• You sign up for membership on any forum, there are rules of conduct.

Most of us abide by the rules within a free society.

Freedom doesnt mean allowing chaos or people to infringe on the rights of others.

Its as simple as that.

Freedom of Speech doesnt mean we can shout obscenities at all of the patrons in a local supermarket because we dont like the way they look.

It doesnt mean being able to walk into a Church, Synagogue or Masjid and shout obsenities and insults at everyone.

It doesnt mean coming on a blog, website or forum and typing offensive text either.

Its funny how the same people who wouldnt think of walking into a Church, Synagogue or Mosque to shout insults at everyone are the same people who would come on a website and type offensive text, then cry and complain that they are being oppressed and denied their freedom of speech.

You cant come into our Masjid (Islamfactor) and shout obscenities.

Again, plain and simple.

In a free society there is rules of conduct that all of us are responsible for upholding. If we cant uphold those rules in society, people will kindly show us the door and in some cases bring the police to help!

Freedom is not without responsibility.

The same goes for our forum. Those who cant understand this concept should keep walking.

One recent example is that of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. As you know, I have spoken about the good, bad and ugly of both sides of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

I think this is a hot topic and thus should be put here in the Cage section. Please mind the rules of discussion for this section.

I read today, and it is heart breaking, about the recent Israeli action in Gaza which has caused a humanitarian nightmare that amounts to collective punishment in the viewpoints of many people. I think it serves as a good discussion example (though is not the only example) for us:

(CNN) — Israeli airstrikes pounding Gaza are deepening the humanitarian crisis in an area that was already in deep distress, according to a United Nations aid official.

A man carries a wounded Palestinian boy into a hospital in Gaza City on Sunday.

“The situation is absolutely disastrous,” U.N. official Christopher Gunness told CNN on Sunday, as a second day of aerial attacks brought the death toll in Gaza close to 300. Hundreds more people have been injured.

Israel has said the airstrikes are a necessary self-defense measure after repeated rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by Hamas militants. Israeli leaders say they are trying to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza.

Here are some questions:

What is meant by “collective punishment”?
How can it be avoided?
How should the folks on the receiving end be expected to deal with being punished as a people for the crimes of a faction among them?
What should we do (Muslims, Christians, Jews, whoever) to help when we see conflicts evolve into this?
Should blood be thicker than water and we all side with one side or the other on the basis of religion or nationality, etc?

Give also your opinions and concerns.

For example, the Mumbai attacks.  OPed aside, every major news source reported the same or similar stories on the topic.  OPed pieces especially in the Hindu papers were the portions that showed any bias.  Yet OPed is really not news, but opinion just as it is called “OP”ed.  This article (post) is an example of OPed.

The reason I bring this up is because it is common in the Muslim community upon hearing of a crime of terrorism involving Muslims to immediately react and call it lies and biased reporting, etc.  Just like in the Mumbai attacks.  This was the first reaction from many hardline Muslim activists, yet we find out that initial reporting (as reported by Indian media as well as every other source worldwide) was accurate.  It was Muslims.

Sure, reporting is not always accurate, but only in minor details usually.  Reporters are human and subject to the same vices and faults as anyone else.  Even through those vices and faults, the basic event remains in tact.

The world is no longer the compartmentalized place that people perceive it to be. There are no true nation states when it comes to what goes on in the world.  There is no “what goes on in my house is my business” anymore.  We are all in the same house and what goes on is everyone’s business now.  People may have their slant on the events, but the events are there for everyone to see.

Time to be honest with ourselves, Muslims, and clean our own house before someone we don’t wish decides to do it for us.  Time to stop burying our heads in the sand in love for our lives amusements while ignoring the real problems that exist in our communities, fearing the extremist gangster thugs and standing up for what is right.

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!”

Mark 12:28-32 “Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them well, asked Him, ‘Which is the first commandment of all?’ Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment.’ And the scribe said unto him, ‘Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is One God; and there is none other but He.’”

On occasion the Spirit of God is referred to as the Angel Gabriel who is the primary Angel or Spirit that God uses to communicate His Will to mankind. However, when God speaks of committing (or sinning by) blasphemy of His Spirit (Arabic: Shirk) He refers to the practice of polytheism, which is the assigning, equating, or worshipping others (individuals or objects) along with Him or besides Him. In fact, this act is the epitome of disbelief and concealing the truth about God (kufr). Equating anyone or anything with God, as equal to, aside from or worthy of any form or level of worship, is blasphemy against the Spirit of God (in Arabic the word is ‘Shirk’) and if pursued intentionally is punishable by hell-fire. The Spirit of God is not a person nor a personality but the essence of God’s being as a singular God. Claiming God has any other person, object or personality beside Himself and offering worship to them is the utmost disbelief in God and denies the most basic fact that God is One God, alone in Deity and Unique among all creation. God allows mankind to repent from this sin while we are still alive in this world, but if we die committing it then God will not forgive us. All sin can be forgiven but God tells us that the sin of committing shirk will not be forgiven if one dies while in the state of committing this great sin.

I have gone through this process as I became more and more educated by Muslims and Islamic scholars that are from non-western, traditionally “Islamic” countries.  Many of these countries being ruled by brutal dictatorships or generally oppressive or unstable regimes, not by Islam.

It is firstly important to realize that no country that exists today is an “Islamic” country, that is, ruled by shariah 100% without diluting it with either former colonial roman laws or made up laws by the dictatorships themselves.

It is my proposal that Islam and Islamic viewpoints do not have to be intrinsically anti-west or anti-American.  As an American revert, I see a heck of a lot more good in my country than most others, especially today’s countries that are mostly populated with Muslims.  In fact, America is still one of the safest places to practice, gather in numbers, and freely speak about any religion, despite the current Bush Administration scrutiny that attempts to curb terrorism by our group.

In my experience, it is the leftist ideologies predominant in many Muslim countries that often gets infused with Islamic understanding.

I remember one worldwide well known scholar (who will go nameless), whom I met personally and witnessed speaking in public in the US, state that his culture is superior to western culture because he is from a “Muslim country”, a society based on Islamic values.  In response, another well known scholar from Canada (who will also go nameless) stated in pubic to him, and I agree, that much of his countries culture, though Islam originated there, is based on unislamic culture predating Islam and still carries many stark unislamic practices.  You can still get prostitutes, drugs and many of the things in his Islamic country just as you can get these things in western societies as well.  Hence, neither culture is superior except in that which is good.  The only difference being that western culture has yet to embrace Islam and much of western is much safer to practice and preach Islam without being jailed or executed by the dictator that you are preaching against according to your beliefs, case in point the sham trial and execution of Syed Qutb by hanging.

Also, Muslim countries have fought many unjust wars, not just against non-Muslim, but Muslims as well.  So, America is not the only country we should look at, but we should also look at ourselves and our countries.

Preaching and railing against the west while using an Islamic platform as a moral high ground is hypocritical and counterproductive.  Muslims can ally with the west on common ground as the Prophet (pbuh) did in his time and by living in the west we ally ourselves by default with them.  So, we should abide by our civic agreement to live in our western countries peacefully and abide by the laws of the land in exchange for security and freedom.  This is what is commonly known by political scholars as a “social contract”.  The Prophet (pbuh) did this when he sent the sahabbah to flee from oppression to the Abbasid King (who was Christian) and the early Muslims abided by the agreement to live peacefully in a non-Muslim land in exchange for protection.

As Muslims, we dont have to be against our government any more than any other government, even Islamic ones.  We can be patriotic and allied to the land that we grew up in and love.  If we love our country, we will do everything possible to peacefully impart Islamic knowledge to them.  We should not defame, rail, plot against it in the name of Islam.

I don’t hate America.  I want what is best for America and our constitution give us the freedom and opportunity, equal to any other group, to alter the course of its policies that we dont agree with. We just need enough people involved in the political and social process.

As American (or western) Muslims, we should not tolerate any other Muslim defaming or speaking unjustly or hypocritically about our nation.  We should separate nationalism from Islam and recognize when our scholars are speaking like this.  We should correct them and always speak with justice and fairness in all things.  Nationalism infused into Islamic rhetoric will divide and destroy us as a people.

Read my signature and you will understand.

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How many of you think that Obama will finally give each black man his 40 acres and a mule (reparations for slavery mandated by law)?

Do you think Obama will promote the black agenda that Jesse Jackon and Al Sharpton are salivating over?