[Rhodes22-list] Politics - Is Islam inherently hostile?

[Robert Skinner]

Brad,

Very interesting.  As I was contemplating the day, dozing off 
last night, I was wondering whether the core tenets of Islam 
required continual war on other beliefs, and/or whether sharia 
(sp?) law was directly derived fron the quoran, or the result 
of "interpretation".

This piece casts a litle light.  I need more.  Any experts here?

/Robert
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Brad Haslett wrote:
> 
> OK, folks, we may disagree on Iraq and most other issues but this should be
> a no-brainer.  This article is from Slim's newspaper published this
> morning.  Despite Slim's bias against the author, she's been all over this
> story. How can we stem the growth of Islamic radicalism outside our country
> if we don't have the balls to stop it domestically? This is PC  gone wild.
> As Paul Harvey would say, "and now for the rest of the story."
> 
> Brad
> 
> --------------------
> 
>  [image: StarTribune.com] <http://www.startribune.com/> KERSTEN102606
> 
> Last update: October 25, 2006 – 9:50 PM
> Airport taxi flap about alcohol has deeper significance The airport taxi
> controversy may go deeper than the quandary over whether to accommodate
> Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to carry passengers carrying alcohol.
> Behind the scenes, a struggle for power and religious authority is
> apparently playing out.
> 
> *Katherine Kersten,* Star Tribune
> The taxi controversy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has
> caught the nation's attention. But the dispute may go deeper than the
> quandary over whether to accommodate Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to
> carry passengers carrying alcohol. Behind the scenes, a struggle for power
> and religious authority is apparently playing out.
> 
> At the Starbucks coffee shop in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, a
> favorite Somali gathering spot, holidaymakers celebrating Eid, the end of
> Ramadan, filled the tables on Monday. Several taxis were parked outside.
> 
> An animated circle of Somalis gathered when the question of the airport
> controversy was raised.
> 
> "I was surprised and shocked when I heard it was an issue at the airport,"
> said Faysal Omar. "Back in Somalia, there was never any problem with taking
> alcohol in a taxi."
> 
> Jama Dirie said, "If a driver doesn't pick up everyone, he should get his
> license canceled and get kicked out of the airport."
> 
> Two of the Somalis present defended the idea that Islam prohibits cabdrivers
> from transporting passengers with alcohol. An argument erupted. The
> consensus seemed to be that only a small number of Somalis object to
> transporting alcohol. It's a matter of personal opinion, not Islamic law,
> several men said.
> 
> Ahmed Samatar, a nationally recognized expert on Somali society at
> Macalester College, confirmed that view. "There is a general Islamic
> prohibition against drinking," he said, "but carrying alcohol for people in
> commercial enterprise has never been forbidden. There is no basis in Somali
> cultural practice or legal tradition for that.
> 
> "This is one of those new concoctions."It is being foisted on the Somali
> community by an inside or outside group," he added. "I do not know who."
> 
> But many Somali drivers at the airport are refusing to carry passengers with
> alcohol. When I asked Patrick Hogan, Metropolitan Airports Commission
> spokesman, for his explanation, he forwarded a fatwa, or religious edict,
> that the MAC had received. The fatwa proclaims that "Islamic jurisprudence"
> prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because it
> involves cooperating in sin according to the Islam."
> 
> The fatwa, dated June 6, 2006, was issued by the "fatwa department" of the
> Muslim American Society, Minnesota chapter, and signed by society officials.
> 
> The society is mediating the conflict between the cab drivers and the MAC.
> That seems odd, since the society itself clearly has a stake in the
> controversy's outcome.
> 
> How did the MAC connect with the society? "The Minnesota Department of Human
> Rights recommended them to us to help us figure out how to handle this
> problem," Hogan said.
> 
> Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, thinks he knows
> why the society is promoting a "no-alcohol-carry" agenda with no basis in
> Somali culture. "MAS is an Arab group; we Somalis are African, not Arabs,"
> he said. "MAS wants to polarize the world, create two camps. I think they
> are trying to hijack the Somali community for their Middle East agenda. They
> look for issues they can capitalize on, like religion, to rally the
> community around. The majority of Somalis oppose this, but they are
> vulnerable because of their social and economic situation."
> 
> *The society*
> 
> What is the Muslim American Society? In September 2004 the Chicago Tribune
> published an investigative article. The society was incorporated in 1993,
> the paper reported, and is the name under which the U.S. branch of the
> Muslim Brotherhood operates.
> 
> The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. The
> Tribune described the Brotherhood as "the world's most influential Islamic
> fundamentalist group."Because of its hard-line beliefs, the U.S. Brotherhood
> has been an increasingly divisive force within Islam in America, fueling the
> often bitter struggle between moderate and conservative Muslims," the paper
> reported.
> 
> The international Muslim Brotherhood "preaches that religion and politics
> cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic,"
> according to the Tribune. U.S. members emphasize that they follow American
> laws, but want people here to convert to Islam so that one day a majority
> will support a society governed by Islamic law.
> 
> How are society members to respond when questioned about a Muslim
> Brotherhood connection? The Tribune cites an undated internal memo: "If
> asked, 'Are you the Muslim Brothers?' leaders should respond that they are
> an independent group called the Muslim American Society."
> 
> The April 2001 issue of the society's magazine, the American Muslim, lists
> "essential books" for understanding Islam. They include works by Hassan
> al-Banna, the Brotherhood's founder, and Sayyid Qutb, one of its most
> violent theoreticians.
> 
> Here's the flavor of these authors' writings:
> 
> "Always cherish the intention of jihad and the desire for martyrdom in the
> Way of Allah, and actually prepare yourself for that," wrote Al-Banna.
> 
> Osama bin Laden relied heavily on Qutb in formulating his world view,
> according to the 9/11 Commission. Qutb had "an enormous loathing of Western
> society and history," states the commission's report. He taught that "no
> middle ground exists" in the "struggle between God and Satan." All Muslims
> must therefore take up arms in this fight, he said.
> 
> Hassan Mohamud is vice president of the society's Minnesota chapter. The
> society is independent and has no connection with the Muslim Brotherhood, he
> said.
> 
> The Minnesota chapter's website, however, states that the organization's
> roots lie in the Islamic revival movement that "brought the call of Islam to
> Muslim masses ... to reestablish Islam as a total way of life."
> 
> Mohamud says the society has three goals: to present the "real image" of
> Islam in American society, to preserve the identity of Muslims here and to
> "make that identity fit without having clashes between cultures and laws."
> 
> He emphasizes, however, that Muslims must follow shari'a, or Islamic law, in
> every aspect of their lives. "There are two conflicting systems here -- two
> ways of life -- that want to live in the same place and respect each other,"
> he says. The society aims to facilitate conciliation between the two.
> 
> Mohamud adds that Americans need to learn about Islamic law because the
> Muslim population here is growing. That's why the proposed two-tier system
> for airport cabdrivers is important, he says. It could become a national
> model for accommodating Islam in areas ranging from housing to contractual
> arrangements to the workplace.
> 
> MAC officials will hold another meeting today about the airport controversy,
> and Mohamud says he will try to revive the two-tiered pilot project for
> taxis. Whatever the meeting's outcome, we now have reason to believe that
> the issue is only a prologue to a larger drama playing out in Minnesota and
> the United States.
> 
> Katherine Kersten • kkersten at startribune.com
> 
> (c)2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.