A good story on co-existence from Punjab, India – Muslims Together article

By: Mike Ghouse

In the past I have posted articles about Muslims managing and maintaining Hindu temples in Bengal or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and Sikh Gurudwara near Baghdad. Hindus are managing and keeping up with Mosques including maintaining the first Mosque in India in Kerala built around 725 AD, good stories abound about people every where. Pakistan has set aside funds to restore the temples there; Malaysia punished the guys who desecrated a Hindu Temple. Good things are happening 99:1 Ratio; we just don’t hear them all. How many people know about the good things you have done today?

Dr. Harbans Lal, a Sikh Scholar shared the story of Sikhism, and the beauty and birth of the Sikh tradition germinating from interfaith practice. He told me that the land for the Golden Temple (Sikh’s holiest shrines) was granted by a Muslim King, and the foundation stone was laid by a Muslim…. and then most of the Guru Granth Saheb was written by people from every possible faith that existed in India some five centuries ago. That reminds me of my own father who contributed towards building the Hanuman Temple in my Town and funded other temples on the occasion of festivals.

In the following article, Joga Singh shares this, “it was just a gesture towards restoring the collective heritage of our village” and I wish every Earthling cares about every religious sanctity, particularly of others with the same sentiments. Joga Singh, you are my hero.

Our media focuses on bad things giving the impression that only bad things happen, indeed they do, but statistically insignificant. Watch the Six o Clock news for the full 22 minutes, you see murder, mayhem, arson, fire, rape… that is indeed the fact of the life but only a tiny-weeny speck of the whole truth. In Dallas Metroplex, we are nearly 4 million people, sadly less than 1/100th of 1% of people (400) are a witness and some are a victim to this tragedy.  Where as the 99.99% of the Dallasite may not even notice it – All of us go to work and get back home, go to schools and back to the nest.

When will our Media report Good/Bad news in the same proportion; 99:1?

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, writer and a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day and is a frequent guest on the media.  His  work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/

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Filed under: Asia, Diversity, Faith, Hinduism, Islam, Pluralism, Sikh community Tagged: | Christianity, Hinduism, India, Interfaith, Islam, pluralistic society, Sikh and Muslims, Tolerance and compassion

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Voices: Good Sufi, Bad Muslims – By Omid Safi at Simerg com

One of the lower points in the Park51 Center controversy was the comment by New York Governor David Paterson: “This group who has put this mosque together, they are known as the Sufi Muslims. This is not like the Shiites…They’re almost like a hybrid, almost westernized. They are not really what I would classify inthe sort of mainland Muslim practice.”

In a few short sentences, the governor managed to offend Sufis, Shi’i Muslims, as well as westernized Muslims, non-westernized Muslims, and “mainland Muslims” (whoever they are). Paterson overlooked the fact that some Shi’i Muslims are mystically inclined, and that six million American citizens are Muslims, thus there is no question of “westernizing” or “almost westernizing” for them. There is a more disturbing implication hiding in his assertion: the ongoing way in which the general demonization of Muslims, of the kind now routine on Fox News, is accompanied by an equally pernicious game of Good Muslim, Bad Muslims.

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Filed under: 9/11, Iran, Islam, Media, Muslims Tagged: | American Muslim, Civil Society, Diversity, Ignorance, Islam, Muslims, Shias, Sufis, USA

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