From: ccav38@ccsun.strath.ac.uk ("I.Ballouz")
Subject: Re: reward
Organization: University of Strathclyde
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 19:39:35 GMT

In article <1992Nov10.145004.13557@njitgw.njit.edu> elie@hdtv.njit.edu (Elie I. Mourad) writes:
>ccav38@ccsun.strath.ac.uk ("I.Ballouz") writes:
>My problem with ElieM is something to do with his remarks towards
>Muslims in general and Honourable people I happen to consider a little bit
>less than Saints. Peolpe like Hoss, Hariri..etc.
>
>Elie replies:
>I personally think you are a bit constipated on issues concerning Islam.
>You have said on a few occasions that you are uneasy to talk about such
>issues.

I did not say that I AM UNEASY to talk about this issue, I said I FEEL UNEASY,
there is a big difference as you see.
Anyway, I don't want to talk about the issue because I don't want to do like
what you have been doing. You take few examples, and you imply that this is
Islam.
I could easily focus on BOSNIA, get examples from the western media and say:
look at Xtianity, they are raping women, they are starving people to death,
they are burning people alive. Newspapers are full of such stories.

I did not want to do that. This is why I feel uneasy to talk about religion 
because we could easily slip down to that road and get entangled in exchanging
such stories. 
>
>I personally think it is wrong for the Egyptian govt. to jail and 
>subject to torture people merely for becoming Christians.
>
>Now, as to some images and captions I posted a few months ago, some which
>showed Arabs and their slaves somewhere is Saudi Arabia in the 1920s, this 
>should have prompted your concern that such things do/did exist.

If you wanted to protest the action of the government, then it is your right
but you know full well that they are doing something that religion has nothing
to do with. These are things we deplore and we do not accept. 
It did not happen in the past and we won't start practicing it now.
What were the motives? I thought you wanted to slander and project a distorted
image about our religion.

Regarding slave trading, freeing slaves is one of the deeds that Islam has
strongly pushed muslims to do.
Before Islam, enslaving used to be a practice in Arabia, Islam has 
abolished this trade. Some elementary reading would do you good.

And suppose for arguments sake that Islam called for slave trading, Arabs
were doing it in Arabia, but who was doing it in America and South Africa?
Surely, you can't accuse moslems now, can you? I won't be surprised.

Another intriguing remark, did you notice the date of the photo? It is in the
1920, after the turks were beaten back to Turkey and others took over! Is it
a kind of happy coincidence that these places were trading in slaves and in the
same time they were governed by the same people? Somebody has definetly was
giving a blind eye there. It did not certainly happen under the Moslem turks in
Arabia. Intriguing remark, is not? 

Again may I ask what were the motives? If you sent us photos of slave trading
in South Africa beside those you had sent from Arabia, I would be the first
to applaude your humanitarian stance. Why did not you send us about slaves in
South Africa? 

>
>It took the Vatican hundreds of years before they gave Galileo a 
>clean bill of health couple of weeks ago. Everybody does mistakes.
>So please refrain from characterizing me as some form of anti-Moslem Nazi,
>the most I could be accused of is hanging out dirty laundry.
>
I am not denying the existence of the dirty washing, I am accusing you of
mixing the dirty laundry with the clean ones. This only makes the whole
mixture dirty, does it not?

Please do your housework well, do not mix the dirty laundry with the clean
one , unless you want everything to stink. 
>Regards, Elie.


-- 
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* IBRAHIM BALLOUZ            **           DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE          *
* ccav38@uk.ac.strath.ccsun  **  STRATHCLYDE UNIVERSITY GLASGOW SCOTLAND U.K. *
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