DUNLAP: Islam convert would help build mosque
July 4, 2010
Several points have been raised by concerned citizens about the mosque in Murfreesboro and its plans for a new 53,000-square-foot facility that the Muslims there are planning to build.
Everything from where their funding comes from, to conspiracy theories about trying to implement Shariah law in the quiet suburbs of Middle Tennessee abound unabated. There have been calls by some for the Muslims to "go back where they came from" or, a more specific quote, to "build mosques in their own country."
It is an interesting theory. Perhaps Muslims should go back to where they came from and establish a mosque. In this case, I hope the citizens making all of this noise will not object to me — a Caucasian American citizen who converted to Islam nine years ago — returning from Egypt (where I am currently residing) to Murfreesboro (my hometown) to help build the mosque in question. Hopefully my tongue-in-cheek approach here was not missed. Islam is no longer a "foreign" religion. It is not a belief of some people from "over there." According to an NBC News report by George Lewis, approximately 20,000 Americans convert to Islam every year.
Such facts should not be surprising, when we consider that Islam is a religion that professes a belief in familiar biblical characters such as Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and even Jesus. Islam need not be considered a foreign religion that exists in some sandy, camel-laden desert in a far off land. But it is easier, I suppose, to make suppositions about Muslims stealthily trying to enact Shariah Law rather than researching facts.
Many might be surprised to know that it is part of Shariah Law that it cannot be implemented, even in a Muslim majority country, if the Muslim people are not spiritually ready to live by it. Muslim sages throughout the centuries have deduced this idea from a verse in the Qu'ran which states, "Indeed he succeeds (in his endeavors) who cleans (purifies) his own soul, and he fails who corrupts it." (Chapter 91, verses 9-10).
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