Many Roads ...
Towards Understanding Islam

I've been wondering, not what Islam is - that's another question.

I've been wondering: how did we - whatever our religious or non-religious background - get to our understanding of Islam?

Did we learn it at school, on the street, at home? Did we seek out information or accept what we were told? Have things changed in how we understand Islam? Do we know that we don't really know, what is Islam? Are we sure that we know because we've been pulled to really learn about Islam? Were we born Muslim into a very conservative Islamic family?

And what was it like, coming to this understanding - easy, frightening, slow, fast? If frightening, were we afraid of hell or of something in this world?

I ask this because I don't believe it's only our beliefs that matter - but the routes to those beliefs.

And I also care to see:

- are there common pathways to people's interest in Islam?

- are there common twists in the journeys of Muslims?

- are there frequent places where people get stuck?

- are there common routes out of stuckness?

if we're not Muslim, how much did we have to fight common Western prejudices? And how much did we have to struggle with Muslim sources?

What's your journey been like?

     

****

What got me going is the huge Muslim outrage over a Danish cartoon - something that has still not gone away entirely. Just the other day (October 2009), I opened the newspaper - and 2 men had just been arrested in Canada for plotting to bomb the building that housed the magazine that published the cartoon years ago half a world away in Denmark.

One thing that kept me going is what often keeps me going. Mystery. Both the Muslim outrage and the widespread Western tolerance and even unquestioning acceptance of Muslim rage at the cartoon were mysteries to me.

Another fuel for my interest in Islam was, again, a common fuel for me: not being heard. All around me people were nodding: yes, of course Muslims are outraged. So very understandable.

What????? With all the violence being done by Muslims in the name of their religion - often against other Muslims - how could people not pay attention to the lack of Muslim outrage over the violence, and be sympathetic to the massive Muslim outrage over the cartoon.

My shock fell largely on deaf ears.

Here, my interest was not in understanding Islam - but in ... what in the world is going on in the West???? I've heard a lot about political correctness gone mad.

But that didn't help me get widely heard. And not being able to get heard is for me a trigger to keep trying, to find the magic key to get past the blockage against hearing what I saw as my very reasonable words.

I felt as I imagine Galileo and Copernicus must have felt when they tried to get others to see the world was not the center of the universe. They had all the facts - more than enough facts. I don't know enough about them to know what inner hurdles they had to go through: internalized fears, doubts to come to recognize that the sun is the center of the solar system - and what frustration (if any) they felt when those around them would not listen. Maybe they could easily understand those around them, because they had had to face their own massive inner reluctance to accept their own findings.

There's a third part to my drive - even more powerful than curiosity about the mysterious (to me) acceptance of Muslim rage at a cartoon. The drive: to help figure out how to stop terrorism. Because I saw the excessive rage at the Danish cartoon as a major underpinning of terrorism.

****

I just had another thought: I actually have very little interest in understanding the Islamic religion.

My core interest: more peace in the world.

Another big drive, already given, is being heard when I am saying something I know is very reasonable.

****

One of the obstacles I've bumped into is Islam - so I have ended up wanting to understand it.

I've also come across other obstacles that I've found even larger, though in some ways less threatening.

What others? Western taboos that are more taboo than incest.

signed,
Elsa

November 1009
copyright © Elsa Schieder 2009, 2011 - all rights reserved

and now ... other roads to interest in understanding Islam

JOURNEYS

posted by Vince Lombardo, October 15, 2009:

To learn about Islam, I found, is much like crossing a river by carefully stepping from one stone to another.... into the mysterious and complex world ruled by about one million mullahs.

I picked out this difficult path and connected the dots until I reached inevitable conclusions....

Click here for the full journey towards understanding Islam.

posted by Vince Lombardo, July 8, 2009:

What got me started in my interest in Islam was 9-11. I was glued to the TV all day. At first, I thought, “Oh, this is a small group of fanatics.” Then, I became gradually aware ...

Click here for what came from the spark of interest in Islam.

posted by Vince Lombardo, November, 2009:

My thoughts are still evolving on the veils of Islam. The next phase involves the original Arabist politico-religious 'movement' and the obvious cover-up of it that occurred following the death of Mohammed.... [Later] between 700 and 850 AD, ceaseless, bitter differences to the point of mutual assassination and slaughter among the Moslems who were closest to knowing the truth....

Click here for more of this saga on learning about Islam.

***SOCIALIZEIT***

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