Islam-Submission to Allah to find peace

"God (Allah) is great! God is great!
There is no god but Allah,
And Muhammad is his prophet!
Come to prayer! Come to prayer!
Come to abundance! Come to abundance!"

Muslim call to prayer, 5 times daily

Professor Mlecko, "the great communicator", delivered a lecture in Core (a mandatory daily comprehensive class which prepares us for the next port) today that increased my understanding of Islam several orders of magnitude. We do not appreciate the importance of Islam in the daily lives of peoples in this part of the world. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and the U.S. By 2025 it is expected to be the world's largest religion accounting for an estimated 30% of the human race. Ignoring this reality is dangerous. It is unfortunate that we associate it with terrorism because of the radical crazies making the headlines.

The word Islam means "submission". The faith is based on the complete submission of individuals and communities to the absolute sovereignty of Allah, God, in all aspects of life. It is "radical monotheism" with little tolerance for other religions. It is tightly integrated with politics, civil law and the military. The five pillars of Islam are: the confession of faith, prayer five times a day, giving of alms to the poor, fasting in the month of Ramadan and a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Muslims are ambivalent toward the West. They admire the U.S. leadership role and our escape from colonialism. They disdain our grip on the world, our multinational companies, weak moral character, friendship with Israel, our role with the World Bank and our UN veto power.

Caution currently is required in our relations and analysis of Muslims. I have never met a Muslim I did not like. They are gentle peaceful people. The extremists making the headlines are thugs preying on the disadvantaged and oppressed in my opinion. All Arabs are not Muslims and many Muslims come from non-Arab countries. Remember, there are active Christian terrorists in Northern Ireland today. Tim McVeigh was not a Muslim. To stereotype Muslims as terrorists is a gross oversimplification.

Osama bin Laden was probably responsible for hijacking the airlines used in the September 11, 2001 tragedy. He certainly is also guilty of hijacking Islam. He has used religion to gain legitimacy among recruits and convince them that suicide bombings against civilians are acts of self-defense and salvation, not atrocities.