From : isam amarah
Sent : Monday, January 17, 2005 12:49 AM
To : arabtimesnewspaper@hotmail.com
Subject : reply to un-checked hatred

Dear Dr Fawzi

Salam Alykum

I appreciate removing my e-mail address. I receive enough e-mails and I do need more e-mails.

I have tried so many times to write to your newspaper where I consider my self an old loyal fan.

My previous attempts of writing was in response to some articles written by "writers" who declared themselves as such. Writing, in my humble opinion, is not the act of adding lines after lines to describe an idea regardless of how stupid that point is/has been. I thought all this time that Arab Times’s message is constructive criticism to our political system(s) and not to ridicule our religion (by the majority in the Arabic countries is Islam) and our sacred entity.

Writers like Amr "Gendy" and Ahmad Mansour are the most illiterate writers I have seen in my life. Though Gendy have declared him self a graduate of an Islamic university, but he is an atheist at the same time. How does that work? It only reflects the corrupt establishment that produced such wonder, not necessarily the university.

To tell Amr an advice, driving a car does not make you an expert on mechanics. Reading few books for graduation purposes (only) does not give you the authority to ridicule Islam and over one billion Muslims. The latest in his ill informed ideologies was to cancel pilgrimage this year and donate the pilgrimage cost to the Tsunami victims. What a load of crap? To me, this individual should higher a team of psychologists just to understand how he stooped with his personality and ideas to this level. Does he know what Hajj entails?. For hundreds of years Hajj has been coupled with charity, lifting people’s spirits and give a message to better their lives. On the charity level, every year hundreds of tons of cooled or frozen food find its way to millions of Muslims in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and other Muslim nations which has been crushed by imperialism and colonialism or the recent man made Tsunami in Iraq.

This individual and others like Mansour have appointed themselves as the religion crushers without giving clear evidence to support their claims. The collection of evidence they use only explain how ill informed and stupid they are. Example, and there are plenty, is the notion that Bashar Assad is same as Mua’wyah Bin Aby Sufyan. What the hell? It is true the actions of that period was the start of the ruling by blood lines, but is there a comparison between Mua’wyah and the recent dictators. Is there a resemblance between the charity from the Muslims Treasury goes around the Islamic empire and they could not find a man or woman who deserves charity because all in good shape, financially or mentally for that matter. Also, please compare this to G W Bush presidency.

Going down on religion like this is uncalled for. The Gendy fellow pretend that he lives in the US. Does he read or hear the news about the Catholic church scandals. I did not read anything about that in their writing. I have not read articles from these individuals to indicate that all organized religion is invalid (this is if they are atheists). Why target Islam. Islam is an ideology and practice which has made people rise and reach horizons in science and technology all humanity should give it credit and respect. I am reminding my self by the saying of the former Turkish PM during a visit to Chicago 3 years ago. While he was working on his post-graduation studies in Germany. One of his professors told him that they should charge Muslim nations royalties for the German products they are using. The student, the retired PM now, replied that you should pay to the Muslims royalties for every scientific ideas you are using and was discovered by Muslims. Islam was and still is the sense of equality and true humanity. Also, you need to distinguish between culture and religion because they are not the same.

To close I would like to mention that there are scripts in Christianity which dictate that you should follow and support you leader (king in the old days) no matter what. This was a clear message on the American TV after G W Bush’s re-election. When our religious figures mention something to that effect, we call them with the worst names we can find in the dictionary of the Arabic insults.

While I was a student in the UK, I used to know a Protestant priest, our discussions about religion was limited because of our mutual differences on certain issues. When we departed for the last time he told me that he failed to convert me to Christianity. I have replied, both of us think we are right, we will never know until we die and see if what we were told is right and true. May not be the best of answers. However, I have not heard from this man anything so disturbing like the writings of Gendy and Mansour. Their writings make me praise the idea of censorship, because not every filth deserves to be published.

May God show us all the straight path and make us true visionaries in his path.

Salam

I. Amarah, Ph.D.