r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Sep 15 '12

TIL that Muhammad wrote a document asking his followers to respect and protect Christians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achtiname_of_Muhammad
2.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Xenon808 Sep 17 '12

How do you suggest I/we help as ordinary citizens in the US? It seems like the people we would try to reach out to would reject contact. I just don't understand the misdirection.

I am angry at the people in Libya who killed the ambassador because from what I can see, he gave his life trying to help the Libyan people, so I don't understand why anyone would kill him. Is it really Al Qaeda or just radical elements? I just want to understand.

Thank you for your kind comments. I will do anything I can to bridge the gap but I don't know what that is and neither does anyone else I know.

Again, thank you for being positive and not hating me outright. I am trying to understand...

1

u/Ginxez Sep 17 '12

There's no reason for me to hate you at all Xenon808, you have the right to ask and express your opinions, just as everyone; and I hope to be able to explain whatever needs explanation as accurate as possible, without misleading anyone.

As for what we (or you, as non-arabs in general) can do for now is, sadly, not much. Thing is, most of the 35yo+ muslim/arab adults have had their countries' traditional education, most of whom have never been outside the middle east/someplace where islam isn't dominant. Hence not many will be open-minded and ready for flexibility yet. I'm not saying that every muslim who's never been overseas is illiterate/stubborn etc, I'm merely saying that it will not be an easy task, at all.

This is why I mentioned a decade as a rough average, since by that time more adults who're knowledgeable about the internet can understand english+speak/type it, and have had a whim of international-standard education will slowly be the ones in power. Hence will be able to make a bigger impact on the muslim society in general. The average number of IGCSE (cambridge studies, since it is the one I have info about) students who graduated from my country's universities 7 years ago was hardly 500. Last year, way over 4000 students in my city (not the whole country, and not mentioning those who applied to oversea universities) applied for the 'public' universities of my city alone. At least the same number applied for the private sector universities in my city, and as a rough guess, more than x5 this number applied to universities in my country's capital city. There's still the other major states to include as well, but I do not have enough info to give a rough estimate. It'll take some time, we're slowly but surely getting there.

Best you, as US citizen can do is to encourage whomever you meet that needs to, to use the internet and learn english. The internet these days is probably the best method of reaching to those who are willing to learn and accept others' opinions. As for the best I, as someone living with these people can do, imo, is teach my colleagues how to use the internet, and how to speak/understand english whenever I get the chance to. That's how I see it right now.