The Barbara Walters Special

As'Salaamu Alaikum ya Muslimeen and the blessings of God to non-Muslims!

My apologies as I didnt see exactly the whole show but I saw maybe 90% of the show. Basically Barbara Walters begins her interviews by travelling to different areas of the world getting various views. She firt starts her journey here in the States and discusses the understanding of heaven with a priest. Of course the priest (or theologian) discusses this in the Christian view and from there, discusses what Christians view of Jesus and heaven and so forth.

As the show progresses she goes from religion to religion and eventually comes to the Islamic understanding of heaven, but in this interview she does it in two parts. Her first interview is with a failed, convicted suicide bomber. She begins to discuss what he did and then she inteviews him in prison. Next to that is her interview with a "moderate" Muslim Imam from New York. Basically she wanted to get both sides in the understanding of heaven. On one side she got the fanatical view and the other pretty much the Orthodox view.

The extremist Muslim pretty much said that only Muslims go to heaven and was taught that to kill in jihad as to die as a Matyr is instant paradise. But basically the Imam in the other interview contradicted that and even went as far as to say that Muslims are not permitted to say such things and to act in such manners (the act of suicide I mean).

As it progresses she interviews the Dali Lama in his lavish house. From there Barbara discusses the Buddhist view of heaven. Obviously they (Buddhist) don't believe in a deity but they do believe in a temporal paradise after death until reincarnation. The temporal paradise is some type of blissful realm where the person waits to be reincarnated. Obviously this is the argument for the soul in this case only, Buddhist don't believe in a soul so I thought that part was weird. Ms Walters then interviews Richard Gere a famous star who is also a practicing Buddhist. I still call tis guy Mr. Gerbal LOL! long story if yo don't know

Then evutally it lead up to the scientific view. This was perhaps the most interesting as scientist evaluate the concept of heaven scientifically. The theory goes: "When a person dies clinically the heart and breathing obviously is stopped but the brain still is functioning and takes 4-6 minutes to die. As the brain ceases to get the pxygen it needs while dying, the memories in the brain begin to go crazy which themind at this points goes into a relapse where the individual begins to experience various memories in the form of strange experiences. White lights, familiar people, family and friends are all illusions of a dying brain."

To counter this people who have died were giving their side of the story and they gave an interesting side. Also scientist even went further in the interview that there is a "spiritual gene" that humans have which perhaps give them this emotional state or sense of spiritual belonging. This perhaps was the scientific view of how humans begin to become spiritual entities. This is pretty much all of it in a nutshell. What do you guys think?

Al Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatu Allahi Wa Barakatuh.

   I just saw that show and it shocked me. When Barabara was interviewing the Muslim extremist, she asked him if he ever considered getting a girlfriend and raising a family instead of attempting a suicide bombing operation. He answered in Arabic saying something along the lines of 'yes i did but i wanted to go somewhere else' (persumingly he meant heaven - which is a theory I am totally against), and I was astonished when the translator translated this into 'yes I did but I want to kill Jews, I want to kill Israelis'.

   I can't believe the lengths media people will go to further ruin the image of Islam.

It is the job of media people to pass on a message truthfully or not pass it on at all.

Brother these poor media people have to survive in the "market place" and in a system which is not fueled by morality or justice - but just by dollars.

I wonder if you ever watched "My Fair Lady"? Dr Doolittle couldn't afford shame when he was trying to pass of Liza (his daughter) to Henry Higgins in that movie. Till then I had never known that some people could not afford "shame".

The media simply can't afford Truth.

Even the masters can't!!