In defense of Islam, pursuing a civil dialogue

In defense of Islam, pursuing a civil dialogue
Steve Blow
Dallas Morning News
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, September 19, 2010
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/sblow/stories/DN-blow_19met.ART.West.Edition1.356a575.html

Over and over you hear it said: If Muslims oppose terrorism, why don't they stand up and say it?

If that has been you, Mike Ghouse ought to be your hero.

It is hard to imagine that anyone has worked harder than the Carrollton resident to demonstrate the peaceful and moderate side of Islam.

And that effort includes personally visiting Dallas' First Baptist Church last Sunday just to put a friendly face on the "evil, evil religion" that the Rev. Robert Jeffress denounced a few weeks before.

"It was wonderful," Ghouse said of the visit. "We were so warmly received."

He hopes a quick chat with Jeffress will be the start of deeper discussion about Islam and the importance of respect between religions.

"I want to have a dialogue with him, not to say he is wrong but to share another point of view," Ghouse said.

The 57-year-old Muslim was born in India and has lived in the United States for 30 years. He owns a small property management firm. But most of his day is devoted to building bridges between people of different faiths.

"It is my passion," he said in his distinctive raspy voice.

He has been a guest a dozen times on Sean Hannity's TV and radio talk shows. "I don't like the way Sean cuts me off, but I have to honor him for giving the American public a semblance of another point of view."

Ghouse said he can understand fear and criticism of Islam because he went through a time of similar feelings. As a teen, he was troubled by passages of the Quran. He called himself an atheist for a while.

But he said deeper study led him to realize the Quran had been purposely mistranslated down through history.

In the Middle Ages, European leaders commissioned a hostile Quran translation to foster warfare against Muslim invaders.

Later, Muslim leaders produced another translation to inflame Muslims against Christians and Jews.

"It was all for politics," he said.

Ghouse said he hopes to present Jeffress with a modern, faithful translation and challenge him to find evil verses.

"If he can, I will convert. I will join his church," Ghouse said. "If he can't, I will call on him to retract his statements and become a peacemaker."

Ghouse acknowledges that deep problems persist within Islam. "Three steps forward, two steps back," he said with a sigh.

And he agrees that mainstream Muslims have not done enough to counter violent images of their faith.

"That is very true," he said. "But part of it is that many Muslims have given up hope that we will ever be heard."

He said repeated denunciations of terrorism seem to fall on deaf ears.

And some efforts have backfired – like the proposed Islamic information center in New York. He said it should be hailed for furthering the moderate Muslim cause.

Instead, it has deepened hostility toward Muslims.

I have been astounded by the amount of anti-Islam propaganda that circulates via e-mail. Tons of it has come my way in the last few weeks.

One theme is that people like Mike Ghouse can't be trusted, that Islam encourages deception.

But Ghouse says actions speak louder than words. And he points to elections in Muslim nations.

More than half of Muslims live in countries with some degree of democracy. And time and time again, Islamist parties are overwhelmingly rejected in favor of secular, mainstream parties.

"The religious parties don't get more than 3 percent of the vote," Ghouse said.

Polls show deep mistrust of Muslims. "But the most important question in those surveys is: 'Do you know anything about Islam?' " Ghouse said. "Most people say no."

What keeps him going is faith in Americans, he said.

"The majority of Americans, if they know the truth, they will change their minds."

Dallas Quraan Conference 2010

DALLAS QURAAN CONFERENCE
SUNDAY 12/05/10

Myths are manufactured about others; it is an old business of maligning others to have a gain. Qur’aan and Islam are no exception. It all started in 1142 by the Monastery of Abbey who were paid to deliberately mistranslate Quraan to foster hate towards Muslims in the name of Christianity and then in 1922, the hate was resuscitated towards Christians and Jews by a Muslim Hilali Khan.

Thank God for the comments at Dallas Morning News, thank God for opening people’s hearts and minds to share what is bothering them. I want to thank abh00 for sharing the following statement, “In fact, in this very book, it states that they are to pretend to be friends with non-Muslims in order to take advantage of their non-Muslim counterparts in order to force their beliefs upon our society.” This is one of the strongest reasons to hold the conference. Please highlight the verse from the Qur’aan that even matches closely with the statement. Let’s do it in open public forum to remove the phobias and fears based on hearsay and propaganda. One of my friends suggested that it would be great Christmas Gift to Christians and Americans to remove the fears and ill-will from all our hearts and towards each other.

Unless Pastor Jeffress wants another date, I want to announce Sunday, December 5th to hold a conference to demystify the myths propagated out there. You cannot get a better challenge than this, bring all the fears, all the hearsay and all the propaganda, let’s put it all on the table and find solutions. Let's have a civil dialogue and address those issues.

We owe it to our country; we owe it to our nation to build safe and secure America, where no American lives in fear, anxiety or discomfort. We cannot let anything destroy the social cohesiveness of our nation. Join me with your skepticism and good will, let's find the way forward. We are all Americans with a common goal; peace and prosperity of every one of the 301 Million Americans.

Mike Ghouse