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It Is Part Of My Responsibility As A Bridge Builder To Speak The Truth About What's Great About America, What We've Done Right, And What Our Less Glorious Moments. And Many People Feel That The Iraq Adventure, For Example, Has Been One Of Our Less Glorious Moments.

-Feisal Abdul Rauf

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It Is Part Of

Feisal Abdul Rauf

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It Is Part Of My Responsibility As A Bridge Builder To Speak The Truth About What's Great About America, What We've Done Right, And What Our Less Glorious Moments. And Many People Feel That The Iraq Adventure, For Example, Has Been One Of Our Less Glorious Moments.

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Americans Must Outgrow The Unbecoming Arrogance That Leads Us To Assert That America Somehow Owns A Monopoly On Goodness And Truth - A Belief That Leads Some To View The World As But A Stage On Which To Play Out The Great Historical Drama: The United States Of America Versus The Powers Of Evil.

When I Arrived In America, I Experienced Serious Culture Shock. For Someone With A Religious Upbringing, The 1960s Were An Extremely Difficult Time. Even Though Religion Was A Big Part Of The Civil Rights And Peace Movements, In My College Religion Was Treated As Irrelevant, Hopelessly Stodgy, And Behind The Times.

Koran Says Whoever Believes In God In The Last Day Shall Be Saved. It Is A Religion Whose Very Name, Islam, Comes From The Word Shalom, Which Means Peace. It's About Establishing Peace. We Greet Each Other With Peace Be Upon You, Which The Jews Do In Greeting Each Other.

The Truth Is That Killing Innocent People Is Always Wrong - And No Argument Or Excuse, No Matter How Deeply Believed, Can Ever Make It Right. No Religion On Earth Condones The Killing Of Innocent People; No Faith Tradition Tolerates The Random Killing Of Our Brothers And Sisters On This Earth.

Staying Chaste Until Marriage, A Commandment Of My Faith, Was One Of The Most Difficult Challenges Of My Young Life. I Had A Powerful Sense That If I Did Not Get A Grip On My Identity, My Ethics, And My Religion, I Would Go Off The Rails.

God Says In The Quran That There Is Only One True Religion, God's Religion. It's The Same Theme That God Revealed To All Of The Prophets, Even Before Muhammad.

In Malaysia, Where Western Culture Was Extremely Influential, I'd Grown Up Listening To Elvis And The Beatles And Watching American Movies. People Wanted To Be Like Americans. In Contrast, When I Got Here, I Saw Prosperous Middle-class American College Students Wanting To Somehow Join The Third World.

I Was Completely Surrounded By Religion From A Young Time. I Was Taught By My Father. I Engaged In Discussions With Him And Many Of These Scholars Who Visited And Came Around The Dining Table, The Lunch Table, And Attended Many Lectures With My Dad. And So I Learned The Apprentice Way.

It Is Part Of My Responsibility As A Bridge Builder To Speak The Truth About What's Great About America, What We've Done Right, And What Our Less Glorious Moments. And Many People Feel That The Iraq Adventure, For Example, Has Been One Of Our Less Glorious Moments.

The World Wants To Like America. The Guiding Values That Thomas Jefferson Articulated So Eloquently - Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness - Resonate Strongly Around The World, Transcending Countless Superficial And Cultural Differences, Not Because These Are American Values, But Because They Are Universal Values, Embedded In The Human Heart.

I've Spoken With Friends Who Are Rabbis And Priests And We've Agreed That Most People Have An Emotional Attachment To Their Faith, A Desire To Fulfill Their Spiritual Longings, But They Are Not Experts In Understanding The History Of Their Religion.

Sufis Teach That We First Must Battle And Destroy The Evil Within Ourselves By Shining Upon It The Good Within, And Then We Learn To Battle The Evil In Others By Helping Their Higher Selves Gain Control Of Their Lower Selves.

The Islamic Method Of Waging War Is Not To Kill Innocent Civilians, But It Was Christians In World War Ii Who Bombed Civilians In Dresden And Hiroshima, Neither Of Which Were Military Targets.

'jihad' Can Mean Holy War To Extremists, But It Means Struggle To The Average Muslim.

I As A Muslim Want You, As A Christian, To Really Be A Perfect Christian. I Want My Jewish Friends To Be Perfect Jews, To Live According To The Highest Principles Of What It Means To Be A Jew, To Be A Christian, To Be A Muslim.

The Battleground Has Been Moderates Of All Faith Traditions In All The Countries Of The World Against The Radicals Of All Faith Traditions In All Parts Of The World.

Countries Of The World

I Condemn Everyone And Anyone Who Commits Acts Of Terrorism. And Hamas Has Committed Acts Of Terrorism.

Any Organization Or Any Individual That Targets Civilians And Kills Them For Political Agenda Is A Terrorist Organization.

Yusuf Qaradawi Is Probably The Most Well-known Legal Authority In The Whole Muslim World Today.

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I Am An American Citizen Born In Kuwait Of Egyptian Parents. I Grew Up In Great Britain, Malaysia, And Egypt And Have Lived In The United States Since 1965, When I Was Seventeen.

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There Are Always People Who Will - Who Will Do Peculiar Things And Think That They Are Doing Things In The Name Of Their Religion.

My Life Has Been Devoted To Peacemaking.

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The Sources Of Human Problems Have To Do With Egotism, ‘i.’

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Civilized Society

What's Brilliant About The United States System Of Government Is Separation Of Power. Not Only The Executive, Legislative, Judicial Branches, But Also The Independence Of The Military From Civilians, An Independent Media And Press, An Independent Central Bank.

If Muslims Curse The Christians, Then The Christians Will Curse The Muslims. And People Will Curse Allah, And Allah Will Hold Us Responsible For That.

I Have Never Made A Threat. I've Never Made A Threat, Never Expressed A Threat, Never - I've Never - I Would Never Threaten Violence Ever, Because I Am A Man Of Peace, Dedicated To Peace.

Religion Is Defined By The Relationship Between God And Man. And Islam Is The Submission And The Acknowledgment Of The Human Being To The Creator.

A Kind Of Racism Still Exists In The United States, And Islamophobia Is A More Convenient Way To Express That Sentiment. There Has Also Been An Attempt To Paint Muslims As Enemies Of The United States.

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I'm Not An Agent From Any Government, Even If Some Of You May Not Believe It. I'm Not. I'm A Peacemaker.

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I Am A Supporter Of The State Of Israel.

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I Read, Read Enormously On All Different Fields Of Islamic Thought, From Philosophy To Islamic Literature, Poetry, Exegeses, Knowledge Of The Hadith, The Teachings Of The Prophet. That's How I Trained Myself. And Then I Was Appointed Imam By A Sufi Master From Istanbul, Turkey.

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I Worked As A Teacher In The Public School System In New York City For Several Years, And I Was A Victim Of The Layoffs, You Know, In The Mid-'70s. And Then I Worked As A Sales Engineer For A Company In New Jersey That Was Selling Industrial Filtration Equipment.

Islamic Law Is Clearly Against Terrorism, Against Any Kind Of Deliberate Killing Of Civilians Or Similar 'collateral Damage.'

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There Are Individuals Who Are Working Very Hard To Promote Fear And Antagonism Towards Islam And Muslims In This Country. It's Fueled, In Part, By The First African-american President That We Have. Obama's Father Was A Muslim And People Have Used This To Arouse Hostility Against Him.

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