
WHY REGISTER?
- to ease the pain
- to get pleasure
- to learn
WHY CREATE
THE SERIES?
I'm a
truth sleuth
CAN THIS SERIES HELP YOU
WITH YOUR PAIN?
The theory: to reach people, find out where they hurt and show how your stuff can heal the hurt.
The question then becomes: how are people in pain because of the current state of affairs regarding Islam in the West?
PAIN POINTS
A huge pain is the the inner pain of not being heard. Then there is the pain of being told we are bad, evil (Islamophobes) if we ask questions that are not popular. Plus, we may face the pain of being shunned, ridiculed.
This is
just like, 40 years ago, people faced the pain of not being heard if they talked about rape or incest or battering. There was also the pain of being dismissed as man-haters, bra-burners.
It's horrible, not being heard. Maybe you can think of examples in your life.
Imagine knowing something, and over and over being told you don't see what you see.
It can also be horrible, being bullied, here by the politically correct, and sometimes also by Islamists using their resources to financially drain those who oppose them. I think of Ezra Levant who dared publish the Danish cartoons in Canada, and was hauled before a so-called human rights commission - very very expensive for him.
In The Emperor Who Had No Clothes, the little boy who spoke of this was HEARD. The emperor acknowledged he was naked
Now imagine the little boy SHUNNED, RIDICULED, PUNISHED, OSTRACIZED.
Extremely painful. At the very least, frustrating.
I know I've felt this pain.
I have also felt the pain of confusion. What is happening? Things don't make sense. How do I make sense of things?
Around us answers that don't make sense may often be shouted at me.
There are millions in Europe and North America who feel this pain when we speak about Islam outside a circle of like-minded friends.
The biggest confusion may happen at the beginning, as we start asking: what do Muslims believe? They believe, we hear, in no coercion in religion. They believe, we hear, in world domination - death to apostates and infidels. Muslim beliefs: Islam, religion of peace. Muslims beliefs: jihad, terrorism, violence, a worldwide caliphate.
It can take a long time to muddle through from confusion to some solid ground.
Another problem. Some who see the truths in the Qu'ran are blanket anti-Arab or anti-Muslim. Most of us find it important to separate the Qu'ran from a blanket evaluation of a people.
There's yet another pain for those who speak out. The fear of death, of being murdered. Quite a significant pain.
For someone terrified when her cover was blown, watch Blowing Her Cover:
Blowing her cover
her fun is over
she is scared
because she dared ...
I know that when I first wanted to bring up my view on the Danish cartoons in class (the huge outrage did not make sense to me), I was warned over and over.
A colleague: Don't do it. He agreed with me, but was afraid to say this in his classes.
My partner: Use another name if you pass out something you wrote. Otherwise, it could be too dangerous.
And in fact, the first time I passed out, in a class, a short piece I wrote, I used a pen name.
Yet I dared.
And slowly I dared to write about my developing views uder my own name and post my stuff on the internet. There was some fear of fatwas - death threats. I had people sympathetic to my approach write to me using fake names - afraid to use their real names. Why? They were saying nothing non-factual. Such simple stuff.
I suppose you know that over 100 people associated with The Satanic Verses have been murdered (publishers, translators, editors). The author is still in hiding. But everyone else could not hide.
How's that for pain? Not just some irrational fear of death - but knowing that fatwas do happen.
Some Muslim students in my classes have spoken of having other more traditional Muslims walk past them and make throat slitting gestures to them.
How does this teleseminar series attempt to help with the pain of not being heard, the pain of confusion, the pain of fear?
The people interviewed have been selected because they have devoted a lot of time and attention to exploring Islam, Islamic religious texts, the history of Islam, present days strands of Islam - from the Muslim Brotherhood to Sufi Islam. There is a solidity to what they say. You know, for instance, that Mark Durie and Bill Warner are meticulous researchers and care very much to be accurate.
All the people interviewed have also dared to speak out publicly, have faced the threat and reality of intimidation, and have continued. Sometimes, listening to them, we feel heard ourselves. Their example may also help us feel more courage.
Then, things change. This series is an attempt to create positive change.
Now, in the south of the United States, where once people were beaten to death for sitting together, black and white, at a lunch counter, such a level of prejudice is unthinkable.
Maybe soon fatwas will be unthinkable. Maybe soon denying the content of the pro-jihad Qu'ran will be unthinkable.
In the meantime ...

The Inner Pain, Emotional Pain of
Confronting Political Correctness.
Overcoming Fears,
including Fears of Death,
and Facing Facts About Islam.


WORLD TRUTH SUMMIT
Personal Journeys Toward Difficult Truths:
Understanding Islam, Understanding the West
MORE PEOPLE
OF INTEREST
Bat Ye'or

Bruce Bawer

Jamie Glazov

Phyllis Chesler

Hege Storhaug

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