apology

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   Dear Muslim friends:

First of all, let me clarify my background, but please read my entire post. Many would consider me a Christian, but I am no longer comfortable with that identification, but I do consider myself a follower of Jesus.

My purpose for this post is to apologize to you. I am sorry for the way that I have treated followers of the Islam faith. I would love to apologize for Christians in general, but that would be rather arrogant, and therefore the apology must only come from me and only me. As a Christian I have been judgmental, arrogant, narrow minded, and bigoted towards people who think and believe differently than myself. I have especially acted like this towards Muslims and for that I want to apologize. I have had no right to act better than anyone else or act as though I have everything figured out. 

So I want to ask for your forgiveness for the way in which I have treated and rejected Muslims. My interest now is to be open to people of other faiths and see what they have to teach me about faith and life. I am interested in finding areas of commonality, rather then division. And frankly, I am interested in learning about how people from other faiths understand and view God, life, and the world.

Have a good week.

-Jeff

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jeff Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Starter Joined: 22 March 2005 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 1	Post Options Post Reply Quote jeff Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: apology Posted: 22 March 2005 at 6:56pm
	Dear Muslim friends: First of all, let me clarify my background, but please read my entire post. Many would consider me a Christian, but I am no longer comfortable with that identification, but I do consider myself a follower of Jesus. My purpose for this post is to apologize to you. I am sorry for the way that I have treated followers of the Islam faith. I would love to apologize for Christians in general, but that would be rather arrogant, and therefore the apology must only come from me and only me. As a Christian I have been judgmental, arrogant, narrow minded, and bigoted towards people who think and believe differently than myself. I have especially acted like this towards Muslims and for that I want to apologize. I have had no right to act better than anyone else or act as though I have everything figured out. So I want to ask for your forgiveness for the way in which I have treated and rejected Muslims. My interest now is to be open to people of other faiths and see what they have to teach me about faith and life. I am interested in finding areas of commonality, rather then division. And frankly, I am interested in learning about how people from other faiths understand and view God, life, and the world. Have a good week. -Jeff

Yusuf. Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 02 July 2001 Location: far from home Status: Offline Points: 2385	Post Options Post Reply Quote Yusuf. Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22 March 2005 at 7:20pm
	That was very nice. All people of faith should work together, not against each other. We have our share of narrow minded people too. Salam
	Yusuf

M_Hafez Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 19 March 2005 Location: Egypt Status: Offline Points: 67	Post Options Post Reply Quote M_Hafez Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23 March 2005 at 2:36am
	salmualkyom actually i don't know what happened to say that but i think it's ok all muslims here in this wonderfull site are kind.
	I Love Khaled Ebn Al Waleed ( Sword Of Allah)

IslamicGirl Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 13 March 2005 Status: Offline Points: 120	Post Options Post Reply Quote IslamicGirl Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23 March 2005 at 5:44am
	*Heya Jeff...* I don't know what the apology is about, i haven't been here long enough, only my 2nd day actually. I would like to add something here... I know how fustrating it would be not knowing why, for example: another religion believe in the same prophets as your religion, however not understand why we (in Islam) DO NOT call Jesus Peace Be Upon Him, the son of God. Out of interest, I studied the New Testement Bible and I have not read in one place where Jesus PBUH claims to be GOD/Son of God himself. I believe one of the ten commandments in the Old Testement Bible too, as in the Qur'an, states that God is not suppose to be associated with another being or anything at all (this can be seen as Idol Worshiping=BIG SIN in Islam as well as Christianity). Jesus cannot be a mortal version of The One and Only Almighty Immortal God (in arabic Allah, in Hebrew: Illah). A dear friend of mine was unsure about his faith in Christianity, he said he couldn't justify and conclude the Father, Son and Holy Spirit bit of things. I told him that there is One God, and no other, therefore we don't compare our Prophet Jesus PBUH to God an associate Him to his Level & certainley do NOT put up statues and pictures in our mosques and bow down to them. Jesus PBUH is a creation of God and worshiped God as most of us do today in Islam and was a chosen Prophet because of His good deeds and humbleness, as the other prophets were (ie. Moses, Idris, Imraan, Mohammed etc...P.B.U.them). I explained a bit more about the similarities in how Christains prayed (ie. prophets, as explained in the old & new testements in the Bible) before, and that we still fall to the ground and pray to God that way in Islam today. We cover our head in prayer and give charity, fast and strive to humble our hearts if we are true believers of Islam today. We should not HATE and keep a grudge (ie. keep anger in our hearts), instead believe in forgivness. We do not believe that Jesus PBUH died on the cross, he didn't die to forgive mankinds' sins, if God wanted all our sins to be forgiven, there'd be no test for us of good and bad acts we perform on earth, therefore no purpose of heaven & hell in the hearafter (which we as well as Christains are suppose to believe in). There are many things I found to be similar in the Christian religion (the new testement Bible that I have read) as we practice today, one I read was not to consume the flesh of swine, a woman must cover her head when praying... not in these words ofcorse, but along the lines. If you read the Qur'an you will see a lot of the points I have roughly covered in my post. I can go on for ages but I won't... Anyway, with my friend.. he converted to Islam (with no regrets) from his heart. He prays 5 times a day, fasts everyday in the month of Rammadaan for the past 2-3 yrs now. I talk to him now and then, and he said it's the best thing i've done in my life.. despite the fact that nearly his whole family are saying they are following Christianity ("but are they"?? he says). I know i've introduced many topics briefly.. but if you search on the Internet in the search engines, I found there are websites that highlight similaities between the two religions. All the Best Jeff!

rami Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Male Joined: 01 March 2000 Status: Offline Points: 2549	Post Options Post Reply Quote rami Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 25 March 2005 at 2:18am
	Bi ismillahir rahmanir raheem Hi Jeff, That a very moving post, your intention is noble. I think though rather than apologise to muslims you should seek the forgivness of God/Allah as he is the most gracious and most forgiving. as he has said "my mercy overshadows my wrath". The aim of seeking forgivness from those you have wronged is to ultimately find the accptance and forgiveness of Allah.
	Rasul Allah (sallah llahu alaihi wa sallam) said: "Whoever knows himself, knows his Lord" and whoever knows his Lord has been given His gnosis and nearness.