The NEW Original TAM - The American Muslim

November 16, 2006

I am honored to have been invited to participate in The Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity Conference (WISE) in New York to empower Muslim women to play a greater role in their societies worldwide.  This means the site will not be updated until November 22nd.

KEY WORD SEARCH - Many current issues are discussed in articles or referred to in news items - we have attempted to use a key word to make it easy to find all the references to a particular topic by simply typing the key word (listed below in all caps) in the TAM search field.

Over the last few years there have been a number of articles in the news that are basically PROPOGANDA.  There have been hundreds of incidents and STATEMENTs made that are seen by many Muslims as ISLAMOPHOBIA.  MOSQUEs have been vandalized and attacked.  Our CIVIL RIGHTS have been limited, and there have even been calls for INTERNMENT.  A movement to reform Islam called RELIGION BUILDING has been initiated which would deform, not reform Islam.  False accusation have been made, for example that non-Muslims in IRAN would be forced to wear a special BADGE, and some strange translations of AHMADINEJAD’s speeches that made it appear that he said something he did not, and many of those accused of various crimes have been CLEARED.  The Afghan APOSTASY case and the CARTOON controversy were blown out of proportion.

In many Muslim countries - IRAN, LEBANON, PALESTINe, SUDAN, BOSNIA, etc. we have seen crisis after crisis.  We have seen sectarian violence between SHIA and Sunni and thankfully many calls for unity.  We have also seen a lot of discussion about the Greater Middle East (GME) and what that really means.  There has been a lot of discussion about the Israeli LOBBY and the extent of its influence on U.S. Foreign Policy.  And, of course the influence of OIL on all of these political issues.

JUSTICE seems to be the only thing that EXTREMISTs of all persuasions are unable to feel strongly about in their push for a CLASH of Civilizations and their avoidance of DIALOGUE.  Muslims in general have been accused of not speaking out against terrorism and extremism although they have spoken loudly and clearly (MAE).  There has been a rise in the numbers of religious EXTREMISTs including those who are wishing for ARMAGEDDON and DIALOGUE is becoming difficult.