Angela wrote: AbRah, Why do muslim men beat their wives, lock them in their home and don't let them go to school after the age of 8??  Or why do the Morality police refuse to let young girls out of a burning building because they didn't have time to grab their veils?  Why do Muslim Shariah courts demand the death of a convert (who was mentally ill) when the Quran states their is no compulsion in religion????  Why do muslim men blow themselves up killing civilians in a war when both suicide and murder of innocents are forbidden in Islam???? The fact is that the actions of a few cannot speak for the religion as a whole.  My church has 54,000 missionaries in the field....yet, the incidents of violence are less than 1%.  There are 1000s of priests, and only a few dozen have committed the crimes you are talking about with the Catholic Church. I could start asking similarly stupid, racist and ignorant questions just as I did in the beginning of the post.  The only difference.  I'm smart enough to know that humans are fallible and that the actions of a few cannot speak for the actions of many.

It is my pleasure to prove that you are wrong for attacking Islam.

Any misjudgment or mistakes done by Muslims do not reflect the teachings of Islam.

Since you are attacking Islam lets me compare Islam with Christianity:

The Bible states: The Catholic Bible states explicitly that: "The birth of a daughter is a loss" (Ecclesiasticus 22:3).

A daughter is considered a painful burden, a potential source of shame to her father:

"Your daughter is headstrong? Keep a sharp look-out that she does not make you the laughing stock of your enemies, the talk of the town, the object of common gossip, and put you to public shame" (Ecclesiasticus 42:11).

"Keep a headstrong daughter under firm control, or she will abuse any indulgence she receives. Keep a strict watch on her shameless eye, do not be surprised if she disgraces you" (Ecclesiasticus 26:10-11).  

Angela wrote: The fact is that the actions of a few cannot speak for the religion as a whole.  My church has 54,000 missionaries in the field....yet, the incidents of violence are less than 1%.  There are 1000s of priests, and only a few dozen have committed the crimes you are talking about with the Catholic Church. I could start asking similarly stupid, racist and ignorant questions just as I did in the beginning of the post.  The only difference.  I'm smart enough to know that humans are fallible and that the actions of a few cannot speak for the actions of many.

Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual-abuse allegations are Protestant, and most of the alleged abusers are not clergy or staff, but church volunteers.

These are findings from national surveys by Christian Ministry Resources (CMR), a tax and legal-advice publisher serving more than 75,000 congregations and 1,000 denominational agencies nationwide.

CMR's annual surveys of about 1,000 churches nationwide have asked about sexual abuse since 1993. They're a remarkable window on a problem that lurked largely in the shadows of public awareness until the Catholic scandals arose.

The surveys suggest that over the past decade, the pace of child-abuse allegations against American churches has averaged 70 a week. The surveys registered a slight downward trend in reported abuse starting in 1997, possibly a result of the introduction of preventive measures by churches.

Tuesday March 20 10:36 AM ET

Report: Priests, Missionaries Sexually Abuse Nuns

By Steve Pagani

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican acknowledged Tuesday a damning report that some priests and missionaries were forcing nuns to have sex with them, and were in some cases committing rape and forcing the victims to have abortions.

Some nuns were forced to take the contraceptive pill, the report cited in the Rome la Repubblica daily said.

The Vatican said the issue was restricted to a certain geographical area but the report cited cases in 23 countries, including the United States, Brazil, the Philippines, India, Ireland and Italy.

Dublin sex-abuse cases near $7 million damages

Dublin, Mar. 08 (CWNews.com) - More than 100 priests serving in the Dublin archdiocese have been accused or suspected of sexual abuse, and the Irish archdiocese has paid nearly $7 million to settle lawsuits against clerics, according to statistics released by the archdiocese.

The Dublin archdiocese reports that 91 priests (68 diocesan and 23 religious) have been the subject of allegations of sexual abuse. Another 11 clerics (7 diocesan, 4 religious) have been placed in a separate category as the subject of "suspicions."

To date 8 priests been convicted on criminal charges. Victims have filed 105 lawsuits, of which 65 have been resolved. The archdiocese has paid a total of �5.8 million ($6.9 million) to settle plaintiffs' claims, including �1.7 million ($2 million) in legal costs. Another 35 lawsuits remain unresolved.

40 years of abuse detailed in church papers
Boston Archdiocese releases documents showing history of rape, drugs, coverups

Elizabeth Mehren, Josh Getlin, Los Angeles Times

Wednesday, December 4, 2002

Boston -- For more than 40 years, Catholic Church officials here overlooked abuse ranging from the molestation of girls studying to become nuns to drug use by priests with parish youth to homosexual rape, according to thousands of pages of confidential archdiocese documents made public Tuesday.

The records show that as recently as last year, bishops and archbishops in Boston consistently ignored parishioners' complaints while protecting priests and striving to minimize financial damage.

Many examples of clerical sexual abuse have become public since the nationwide clerical abuse scandal erupted in Boston last January. But the memoranda, letters and court filings released Tuesday casts light on offenses and church practices not previously reported.

"This material is qualitatively different than anything we have seen until now," said David Clohessy, national chair of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Donna Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, acknowledged the damaging contents of the memos.

"We can't change the past," she said. "We can recognize the inadequacy of our policies and change them and recognize the suffering and the pain the victim-survivors have gone through and are continuing to go through."

The disclosures come amid speculation that the Boston Archdiocese may declare bankruptcy because so many abuse cases are pending against it. The revelations were mandated by court order as part of a series of civil suits brought by sexual abuse victims and their families

Salam Alaikoam

It is true there have been grievious horrors in the name of Religion or those pretending they know what Allah wants.

The task is to educate, train, counsel and consult the people, not just some but all of the people to root out ignorance once and for all.

Though it is true some people use ignorance as their excuse hopefully that is short lived.

If you go by the belief that Islam is an ancient way of life and means submission to the will of Allah, God, the Creator then that means we are all Muslims regardless of what religion we do or do not belong to.

Saying this means that Muslims from all walks of life have been good some of the time and they have been not so good some of the time.

Unfortunately many people have suffered because of ignorance and power hungry people.

We need education and training in good comminications skills, how to establish and keep healthy boundaries, effective conflict resolution skills, parenting skills, training in how to cope with frustrations of every kind and education in the stages and levels of sexual frustration so people know how to cope with these challenges when they arrive.

Wearing or not wearing clothing is not really an issue because we have seen here in the west that it does not matter what you wear people here will respect you. 

There is hope....

W/salam to amlhabibi2000
I quote your word: Wearing or not wearing clothing is not really an issue because we have seen here in the west that it does not matter what you wear people here will respect you. 

Response:

The University of Michigan released a study to show widespread abuse and harassment of Arabs and Muslims in America. From the Washington Post:

Derogatory comments -- "Go back where you came from!" or "Ooh, are you a member of al Qaeda?" -- were the most common form of abuse. Others alleged job discrimination and a small number reported physical assaults, researchers said.

Forty-two percent of Muslim Arabs interviewed for the survey in Detroit -- an area with one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans in the nation -- feel their religion is not respected by mainstream society. Nearly 60 percent said they worry more about their families' future than before the attacks.

WASHINGTON The State Department's fifth Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, released on Dec. 18, shows a frightening increase in anti-Muslim attitudes in several European countries, including some of America's strongest allies. The report cites the growth of Europe's Muslim immigrant population as the most common reason for anti-Muslim tensions in that particular region.

In Britain, where 1.6 million Muslims live, a London-based Islamic human rights group reported 344 incidents of anti-Muslim violence against Muslims in the year after Sept. 11, 2001, including the stabbing of a Muslim woman.

Since June 2002, British Muslims have reported assaults, acts of vandalism and attacks on mosques, some motivated by negative and irresponsible media coverage. In June 2003, for example, anti-Muslim remarks were drawn on walls at the Birmingham's Central Mosque shortly after the airing of a fictional BBC television program showing the recruitment of suicide bombers in a Birmingham mosque.

In Italy, home to about a million Muslims, several political and religious leaders, including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, have contributed to anti-Islamic sentiment by portraying Muslim immigrants as a "threat" to Italy and by claiming that Muslims were unable to integrate with the rest of society.

In September 2001, Berlusconi fueled the anti-Islamic movement by describing Islamic civilization as inferior to the West. At a news conference in Berlin, he said, "We must be aware of the superiority of our civilization, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights - and in contrast with Islamic countries - respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its values understandings of diversity and tolerance." Berlusconi's remarks angered Muslims all over the world and were denounced by several Western leaders.

According to the U.S. report, state restriction of religious freedom is the second key cause for anti-Muslim discrimination in Europe.

On Dec. 18, John Hanford, the U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom, criticized France for its stance on the issue of Muslim women wearing of head scarves and affirmed his belief that Muslim women should be able to wear head scarves to fulfill their religious duties. "All persons should be able to practice their religion and their beliefs peacefully without government interference, as long as they are doing so without provocation and intimidation of others in society," he said, adding, "We're going to watch this carefully."

The debate over religious symbols, especially Muslim head scarves, has intensified in France since President Jacques Chirac proposed on Dec. 18 a law to ban religious symbols in French public schools and to regulate them in the workplace.

Muslims constitute the second largest French religious faction in number, with roughly four million to five million adherents, or about 7 percent to 8 percent of the French population.

Another head scarf debate erupted in Germany in June 2002 after an administrative court upheld a 1998 ban in the southern state of Baden-W�rttemburg on Muslim teachers wearing head scarves in the classroom.

In July 2002, the Federal Administrative Court supported the lower court's ruling. A Muslim teacher affected by the ruling appealed the decision to the Federal Constitutional Court, which held its first review of the case in May, the first time the country's highest court has examined this issue. A decision is expected soon. In the meantime, Muslim students remain free to wear head scarves in the classroom. There are about three million Muslims living in Germany.

In Spain, Muslims, Jews, and Protestants complained that the government favors Catholicism, the dominant religion, in political relationships and financial support.

"Leaders of the Protestant, Muslim, and Jewish communities," the State Department reported, "continue to press the government for comparable privileges to those enjoyed by the Catholic Church."