Islam

There are two reasons I printed the letter shown in the previous post. The first is that I think there is a misconception in the West that Islam is primarily made up of the extremist terrorists who have so damaged the world. I have to admit that I had all those prejudices in my mind when we first came to Bahrain. What I have actually learned is that by and large, the overwhelming majority of Muslims I've come into contact here are very similar to us. They want to have families, friends, homes, jobs, purpose and to worship their God. Nobody has mistreated us here because we are Americans. Nobody has mistreated us here because we are not Muslim.

My guess is that the overwhelming majority of Muslims fall into this category. Unfortunately, there are a great number of cultural practices here (and from what I understand, in much of the Muslim world) that do not reflect well on Islam. This is the issue to which Ms. Fleetwood is referring.

For the record, Islam has Five Pillars (things which are required of all Muslims and essential to belief):

1. Profession of Faith (much like professing your belief in Christ, for Christians)
2. Prayer
3. Charity
4. Fasting (especially during Ramadan as an act of submission to Allah)
5. Pilgrimage (to Mecca once in your lifetime if you are of physical and financial means to do so)

All of these are worthy and positive values. I hope that people will read this and understand that Islam is not the religion of the zealots that is portrayed on CNN.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of cultural influences on the practice of Islam that have been breeding negative consequences. I think Ms. Fleetwood said it better than I did, so I will finish my comments here.