What's Right with Islam is What's Right with America (?)

Notes taken March 7, 2007 on lecture by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, author of What's Right with Islam is What's Right with America, and the Imam of a Sufi Mosque in lower Manhattan.

Born in Kuwait, educated in England and India, and received a masters from Columbia University.

Major theme from the book:

Sense of an Alien religion from Christianity and Judaism, but it is the last of the Abrahamic religions, underlied by a belief in one God and no belief in the divinity of the monarch. Also, was classless. Theme that God is one and the creator is one and all were created from one male and female, so at core we are all brothers and sisters and every human life is equal.

Fast forward

Late 18th century in America, the founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence, emphasizing the equality of humankind and endowed by the (singular) creator with certain inalienable rights; two Abrahamic ethics.

Sharia, all Islamic Law, has one over all objective: to serve the best interest of humankind in this life and in the next life (the permanent life).

5 major objectives of
Protection of Human Life/Dignity
Free Practice of Religion
Right to Family, Marriage and Sexual Relations
Right to Property
Right to Develop Intellectual Capacity

So... the US is a Sharia compliant state? According to Imam Rauf, yes.

Discuss.

Slavery in the 21st Century

Attended a lecture by Francis Bok on Feb. 22 at St. Edward's University. Mr. Bok was enslaved as a 7 year old boy and sold to a Muslim man in the northern part of the Sudan. He's from the tumultuous region of Darfur, and witnessed first hand the genocide executed upon the Christians who live there.

Though the lecture strongly appealed to my pathos -- Mr. Bok's stories made you want to weep for his stolen childhood and for the children still enslaved -- I didn't really find any proposed ways for us here in America to help until the final five minutes of his speech. In his conclusion, he praised the efforts of the Bush Administration and their work to help relieve the suffering of the Sudanese people, and he chastised the United Nations for sitting back and not taking action though they have known of these human rights violations on a mass scale since the early to mid-eighties.

Finally! Something I can respond to! Yes, I agree that the United Nations is more of a feel good sugar pill than any sort of remedy. They have a hard enough time throwing a birthday party, and unless everyone's mostly in some sort of agreement then nothing gets done. Then, even if representatives agree to lend their support, the UN's "strongly worded memos/suggestions" have all the efficacy of toilet paper to the dictators and despots they address.

Get with it United Nations! Stop electing random figureheads that look pretty and then use their influence for shame (*cough*Kofi*cough*) and start doing things. Start talking and acting on things that matter. Work for world peace. Make a beauty pageant speech, then get back to work. I like the idea of an multinational forum as much as the next idealist international relations major, but stop disappointing me. You've had sixty years to get your act together and I have only had 18. Get with it.