I+Believe+Paper

__I Believe Paper__

One dark night, as Mohammed lay in his bed trying to sleep, a light appeared floating above his head. Quite terrified of this strange light, Mohammed cried out, "Who are you? What do you want?"

The light suddenly grew, and a voice, seemingly from all around, boomed, "I am Allah."

Mohammed was in awe, and was struck silent by the awesomeness of Allah's presence.

"I have come to test you, to see if your motives are still true," Allah said. "Many women are unhappy with the rules you have set for them. They would like to know why you feel they must be treated in that way."

"I, as well as you, only want to protect them. Before you came to me and gave me these rules, the people were running wild! Sleeping with anyone they found attractive, no legitimate families could be made! Each man and woman had a bastard child in the world whom they could not care for. And only the women were getting punished for this! These rules were meant to promote healthy families. I copied everything exactly as you told me it should be," said Mohammed.

"I am glad that you still understand the true meaning of the Qur'an. Mohammed, there will be people of faith in the future who will misinterpret my writings. They will beat women, do great acts of violence, and lead humanity to believe Islam is unjust."

"But how could they see the Qur'an's message as being something so far from what it means? Don't they know that you called for them to respect women? That you called for them to strive for peace? Why do others allow them? Are there any true Muslims in the future?" cried out Mohammed in distress.

"Yes, there are many true believers in the future. In fact, they outnumber the bad Muslims. However, their voices are not being heard. They protest, but their governments prevent their anger from being heard around the world. In the future, Islam will be the much hated religion of the western world."

"Is there anything I can do, Allah? I don't want to see Islam fall to such shame!" exclaimed Mohammed.

Allah replied, "Alas, there is nothing you can do now, but pray to me that their souls will be cleansed."

Mohammed, quite sad at this thought, said to Allah, "If I cannot do anything, may I ask you to speak to them? Explain their misinterpretations to them. Bring Islam out of the dirt."

Allah replied, "I cannot force them to change their ways. But perhaps in the end, they will see their wrongdoings and begin to follow the right path. Now it is time for me to leave you. Rest peacefully knowing that you are a righteous man." And with that, the light disappeared and the night was quiet again. Mohammed, though still upset, trusted that Allah had good things for the future, and so he succumbed to sleep.

I believe in knowledge. I believe that in order for anyone to make judgments, that person must first be fully educated about the topic. He/she must understand both good and bad points about the subject and should be able to look past the stereotype. Many people, especially Americans recently, have made judgments about Islam without having any knowledge besides the stereotype. They honestly believe that all Muslims are evil, woman hating terrorists who hate Americans. These are the people who are protesting at Muslim religious gatherings and burning Qur'ans. These are also the people who are further angering Muslims in the Middle East and making the US's situation there much more dangerous. If these people had taken the time to gain knowledge about Islam, perhaps their minds would have changed. Perhaps the war would have been resolved long ago through a partnership between the United States and Middle Eastern countries. For now, however, many citizens in Muslim countries dislike the US for our apparent hatred of Islam.

The ability for human beings to recognize and accept many different points of view will be able to lead the world to peace. In also every war, disagreement, or heated argument, a resolution could have been found if both parties fully understood the issue they were discussing. At the core, I believe that knowledge truly is power. You aren't equipped to make judgments unless you are fully aware of all truths and lies about a subject. As a people, Americans need to educate themselves about what is going on in the Middle East and who our enemies are. Lack of knowledge causes 'passionate' anti-war, anti-Muslim people to burn Qur'ans, further endangering the life of the soldiers who are protecting the ignorant people back in their country. I believe that knowledge leads to enlightenment, which in the end, could lead to peace.