A Welcome Murmur

Tonight, on American TV's public broadcasting newshour, we caught a really important conversation. On this four articulate Muslims Weigh Issues Of Islam and Violence.

A powerful excerpt:

ASRA NOMANI: We're up against a formidable enemy and we cannot dismiss that fact. What I've brought is a copy of the Koran, which comes from Saudi Arabia, you know, one of America's best friends, and the very first chapter says, "Guide us to the straight way, the way of those on whom you have bestowed your grace, not the way of those who have earned your anger." Then in parentheses is, "such as the Jews, and... nor those who went astray such as the Christians." So in parentheses -- so these are the interpretations that are added into the layers of Islam that are a manifestation of the Muslim world.

IMAM SHAKER ELSAYED: But they are not e text, you have to admit this much.

ASRA NOMANI: But this comes...

IMAM SHAKER ELSAYED: You have to admit this much, it's not the text.

ASRA NOMANI: This comes from the House of Saud.

IMAM SHAKER ELSAYED: But the House of Saud is not Islam.

ASRA NOMANI: But this is imported into America and this what is we have to face, and we have, while the law enforcement authorities are watching the borders and the boundaries, we have this ideological hatred spewing into America, into communities in England. I mean, right here I have a text also distributed at my mosque in West Virginia, that also takes the text and says that women can be beaten. And then we have sermons downloaded from Saudi Arabia that say that we should not be friends with the Jews and the Christians. And we've heard this thousands of times, and at the end of the day, this is what we're facing. I mean it's a machinery; it's Wahabiism incorporated, it's fundamentalism incorporated. It's beyond an individual; it's an entire system that we're up against.