DON'T KNOW = AFRAID

I was thinking about an Arabic sentence that I heard before. It says; "الإنسان عدو ما يجهله" => "Man is an enemy of the Unknown".

That's true. If you are ignorant about something, then you'll be afraid from it. When you walk in a forest for the first time, you're afraid, you "don't know" where the danger will come from. When you walk in a dark street, you're very cautious, you "don't know" what is hiding where. Even if you meet another person from a different culture, you maybe afraid from him, you don't know what his behavior would be. What if you were told thousands .. maybe millions of times that this person comes from a "Kill-Culture"?!! That he will blowup himself in you.

Now you understood me? Yes, I'm talking about Muslims, whom I belong to and proud of this. Were you told before in the news that Muslims are "terrorists"? Were you told about the bombings related to Muslims? Were you told about the hundreds of innocents that have been killed by Muslims? 

ARE YOU AFRAID FROM MUSLIMS?

That's my point. Many Westerns are afraid from Muslims, they suffer from "Islamophobia". If they saw a Muslim in the street they would say; "Where he's hiding the bomb?" or "Officer, please arrest him!!" :) If they heard an Arabic word, they would question; "Is he preparing for bombing himself?". An American friend was talking about "madrasa" as a place where young Muslims are taught to hate Jews. I was amazed, because "Madrasa" (in Arabic: مدرسة) is "School"!!

I would never dare to claim that this fear is not justified. I would be cautious if I were told in my Media in the morning, afternoon and in the evening that there is a vast religious group that kill others with no mercy. I would think; "And when my turn to be killed will come?". I completely understand that. But I blame Westerns that they just follow their Media with no questions, without letting their minds to work for a second; "Is that true ALL Muslims are killers?", "Is that true that they abandon every drop of the mercy that they would use their own children as human-shields?!!", "Is that true there is a Holy Book that more than 1.5 Milliards believe in is inviting to killing the rest of other peoples?".  I blame Westerns that they just follow what their Media say without trying to use neutral knowledge sources to gain the facts, without trying to listen to what the majority of Muslims say. Many know about BinLaden, Zawahri, Zarqawi, Qaeda, etc, but if I asked a Western to name one moderate Muslim who say; "Peace must prevail." or "Muslims love non-Muslims" Would he name someone?

Bridges of exchanged understanding must be founded. Muslims must talk about the love, peace, cooperation and helping others that are in their religion. Westerns must listen to them. We're all fed up with listening to the voice of bombers and killers of innocents by the name of Islam. It's a must now to hear the other voice of Muslims, the voice of peace in Islam, the real core of this religion. We should cooperate so as not to give those who use the name of Islam to justify killing innocents any chance. We shouldn't encourage them to kill more. When Westerns begin to listen to the voice of Muslims who believe in the message of Islam, peace and love this world will be changed.

I'm inviting every Western to read what Muslims say. If you have a copy of the Qur'an read it, if you have a book about the sayings of prophet Muhammad read it, if you have a book written by a Muslim scholar read it. You can visit tens of Islamic websites created by Muslims who want you to listen to them. I recommend the following websites:

IslamOnLine 

Sultan

Also try to watch the videos of Ummah Films on YouTube