Towards understanding Islam. Personal journeys about what is Islam, interest In Islam, coming to learn about Islam, understand Islam.

 HOME   IDEA EMPORIUM  IDEA 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * 10 * 11 * 12 * 13 * 14 * 15 * 16 * STUPID OPINION * HOW TO THINK    updates
 

menumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenu

menu

REGISTER
FOR UPDATES

WELCOME

THE IDEA EMPORIUM

- FULL MENU -
explorations on
ANIMAL RIGHTS,
AN INNER VOICE,
GAMBLING IMPULSE,
STUPID OPINIONS,
RELIGIOUS RAGE,
GOOD THINKING,
and more

- MENU -
The West and Islam

WESTERN TOLERANCE
AND ISLAM

seen through
my curious eyes

MY JOURNEY
from one question
to the next

THE EXPLORATIONS

****

- MENU -
The West and Islam

MY JOURNEY
from the start
to the present


MANY JOURNEYScoming to
our understanding
of Islam

Steps & Stages

Muslims,
a Danish Cartoon,
and Me ...

The Exploration
Continues

Muslim Outrage
meets Western
Political Correctness -
toxic Western tolerance

Western Blocks -
The Enemy Within

tolerance of intolerance,
lack of critical thinking -
a veneer for fear?

The Muslim Religion -
A Religion of Peace?

Exploration of Evidence -
and a question:
why the insistence,
among the evidence
of Muslim violence
and the lack of general
censure of the violence

The Role of
Muslim Moderates
Muslims for peace,
Muslims against terrorism
- call to action

Still More
Explorations

The Rottweiler Pope,
A Dangerous Temptation,
and more

An Ongoing Barrier
- Fear

a core part
of terrorism

The Hope
Give Peace a Chance

What Do I Want? -
Perception,
Critical Thinking,
and ...?
and a core quality -
easily blocked
in humans

Overview -
All the Steps,
Stages,
Idea Pieces

****

THE
EXPLORATIONS


Explorations
- starting with
a look at anger


The Rage of the
"Righteous"

on Muslim outrage
at a Danish cartoon
Feb/July 2006   MORE

Mirror, Mirror,
Who is that Horror?

on the rage of the
righteous when coming
across mirrors
Sept 2006  MORE  ALL

Political
Correctness
and
Fundamentalism

Jan 2008  MORE   ALL

****

More Explorations
- Western tolerance
and other blocks
to good thinking

Stupid Opinion #1
the opinion that
all opinions are equal
Aug 2006    MORE

Walls in the Mind,
They Cripple and Bind

inner walls, inner blocks -
invisible from within,
frustrating for outsiders
Jan 2007   MORE   ALL

How To Think -
Tip Number One -
Ask This One Question

Apr 2007   MORE   ALL

The Ingredients
of Good Thinking

Feb 2009   ALL

Breaking the Spell
of Stupid Opinions

rule #1 - don't start by
calling it a stupid opinion
Aug 2006  MORE

****

Urgently Needed
Information

Is Islam a Religion
of Peace?

Muslims, Islam,
Koran, Reality

March 2008     ALL

****

More Thinking
re Islam,
Muslim
Moderates,
and more

The Pope Speaks
outraged Muslims protest,
kill nun, demand apology
Sept 2006  MORE   ALL

The Rottweiler Pope,
The Danish Cartoon
and Muslim Moderates

the pope's remarks -
help or hindrance?
Sept 2006  MORE  ALL

A Dangerous
Temptation -

Counter-Prejudice

the lure of hating back
and hurting back
Sept 2006  MORE  ALL

****

The Hope

Give Peace
a Chance

- by giving empathy
a chance
An Open Letter to
All People, and
for now, especially
all Muslims
-
Feb/Aug 2006
MORE      ALL

****

About
the Explorer

Elsa's Quest:
to explore

Elsa Asks
a Final Question:
What is
Islamophobia?

This Is Not Me
but it's a tempting
disguise due to the
"righteous"
MORE


****


~ more ~


- FULL MENU -

top of page

 


 


comment

contact

top of page

 


updates
elsa's creativity emporiumelsa's creativity emporium
Opt-in for Updates

NEWSLETTER

menumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenumenu

 

The Idea Emporium

Elsa, brain trainer - always looking with ideas cooking  

Towards understanding Islam.
Personal journeys about what is Islam,
interest In Islam, coming to learn about Islam, understand Islam.

Understanding Islam: What is Islam? , Coming to Learn About Islam, Understand Islam
 

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?

smart comments     all comments

****

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.

 

smart comments

Towards understanding Islam.
Personal journeys about what is Islam, interest In Islam,
coming to learn about Islam, understand Islam.

top of page


blue green idea

* UNDERSTANDING ISLAM - THAT MAY COME FROM INTEREST IN ISLAM, LEARNING ABOUT ISLAM *

blue green idea

Roads to Understanding Islam

We will see what roads people let us know of -
if the journey was smooth and uneventful,
difficult and perilous ...

Elsa,
brain trainer
always looking with ideas cooking

Nov 1
, 2009
copyright © Elsa Schieder 2009, 2011, all rights reserved

Towards understanding Islam. Personal journeys
about what is Islam, interest In Islam,
coming to learn about Islam, understand Islam.

blue green idea

* LEARNING FACTS ABOUT ISLAM AND ISLAMIC HISTORY *
THE OUTCOME, ONE HOPES: UNDERSTANDING ISLAM

blue green idea

***SOCIALIZEIT***

MORE ...

social bookmarking sites  

 

Register for
FREE updates.


swirl updates - elsa's creativity emporium

Why register?
Click here for
3 good reasons
.

 

top of page



 

 

THE IDEA EMPORIUM
A CELEBRATION OF GOOD THINKING

 

"It is a fact readily acknowledged,
that for humans,
an idea is much more powerful
than a fact."

 

WHEN I HEARD THAT,
I HAD A EUREKA MOMENT.
YES, I HAD SEEN THAT SO OFTEN.


CLICK HERE
TO SUBSCRIBE 
FREE UPDATES


elsas-creativity-emporium-updates.html

 

idea emporium

 

 

Elsa's Adventures in Internet Land

______________________________________________________________

home      about      site map      privacy policy      terms of use      contact
______________________________________________________________

design, site construction - Elsa Schieder
copyright © Elsa Schieder, 2006-2012 - all rights reserved
copyright © elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com, 2006-2012 -
all rights reserved

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT
Elsa


______________________________________________________________