@Lynn
-I mean the Muslims who I have encountered in the mosque are very upset about how the terrorist are damaging the image of Islam. In fact, many Iraqi-american muslims I have encountered have lost their beloved one in Iraq because of suicide bomber. In the mosque, they talk about their opposition to extremist in almost every lecture. They also visit church around them to clarify the misunderstanding between the two religion.

-as for your second question: you said :”We hear that all the time don’t we? Can you blame us if when we hear that as a response we come to the conclusion that the speaker is PRO what the terrorists are doing? It’s making excuses for them. Do you understand what I mean?”
can you clarify more? because I couldn’t understand the question.

-as for your last question in regard the reason of Muslims silence and whether or not they fear their fellow Muslims if they speak up!.
for American Muslims, I don’t think they have a fear of anyone here in US. They have freedom of speech and no one can threaten them.
as for Muslims in Middle East, it is different.
1) Muslims can speak up against terrorist but they have to show their opposition to US government in the same time
2) There is a group of Muslims in Saudi Arabia and in Egypt and many other arab countries that believe that the suicide bombers that target american soldiers in Iraq aren’t terrorist, their justification of that is that they think that there are so many Iraqi families and children that have been killed by American troops. Muslims don’t trust american troops when they saw a pictures of Iraqi prisoners in Baghdad Central Prison. so as I said for oby, the problem is way complicated and there are so many historical events that plays roles. and the problem will continue as long as american troops are there in Iraq. It is very hard to convince Iraqi for example to stand up against suicide bombers when they show you pictures of their loved one who has been killed by american troops regardless of whether that happen by mistake during the mission or not.

All I hope is that american troops return home safely to their families, Iraqi start taking responsibility of their country and we all stand together against one common enemy (the terrorist).
I am very hopeful about the future. I have encounter many Muslims who show their opposition for extremists, I have encounter many Christian who are upset about Iraqi civilian being killed during the war. so we all seek peace!
Thank you again for your question. I really appreciate your time in writing them.

Who are they working very hard to speak to? Non-Mulsims or their fellow Muslims?

In your response to Oby you say ‘I encounter many Muslims who said that the many american have been silent in regard the killing of innocent people in Middle East…’

We hear that all the time don’t we? Can you blame us if when we hear that as a response we come to the conclusion that the speaker is PRO what the terrorists are doing? It’s making excuses for them. Do you understand what I mean?

Wouldn’t you say that the real reason more don’t speak up against it is because they are afraid of what their fellow Muslims might think of them if they did?

Just a few thoughts out loud…

thanks again.

Thank you so much for your answers. You are right it is a really complicated problem. I can see both sides better now. I don’t know that much about politics and I can see how political it actually can be.

I totally agree with you about Palestinians and that situation will need to be worked out sooner rather than later…it’s been too long already…I hate what is being done to them. It is funny, only the other day I asked several people “Why does the USA support Israel so strongly?” no one really clearly knew why…and these were pretty intelligent people.

As for attitudes about Muslims…I am old enough to remember a time before all this terrorism…Muslims were considered peaceful and no one thought of them or Islam as violent. It makes me sad that things have changed so much to make people suspicious of each other. I hope that one day that can change and we can see each other as people once more rather than representatives of ideologies.

Thank you Murtadha for your answers and honesty.

@Chiara & coralbead
as always you enrich the discussion by your participation. Thank you so much for that

Thank you so much for these letters from both sides…they are very important questions that MUST be asked and answered…

My heart has been feeling so heavy as of late because I think that when it gets all boiled down to basics, people, whether they be Muslims or Non Muslims, want the same basic things in life. Productive work, health and happiness for their families, to worship in the way that they would like to without threat or discrimination, basic needs of life met and perhaps most importantly a peaceful world and future full of hope that they can leave to their children.

I have traveled all over the world and the thing that always struck me no matter how different the culture or religion was(even in remote parts of the world) is that human beings all want pretty much the same things in life…that always gave me a sense of community with the world and always left me in awe of the simplicity of what humans need/want. Yet how can people who have the same basic desires more or less be so opposed to each other? I think that the answer is that they need to know each other better and once they realize their commonalities perhaps they won’t be so afraid of each other and will lose the misconceptions on both sides. Maybe that is a first step…

I have a question for you Murtadha…I hope that you don’t mind answering…I just want to get it from you who would know better than any non Muslim I could ask…

Why do you think that Muslims are not more outspoken about terrorism, especially those here in the USA where they are absolutely free to say what they feel? It seems that terrorists are not just a threat to the West but they kill many innocent Muslims as well and it is a threat to the Muslim community around the world too.