Islam is like a candy wrapped in different flavours but what about its core called Quran? Its full of violence, anger and scornful of the kuffars(jews and christians), which suspiciously seems not from a God, but from a very very bad tribal lord living in 7th century arabia in his time. No matter what kind interpretation these imams gives to the violent verses and gender inequality mentioned in the Quran, muslims believe that every letter of koran is from their God and nothing in can be deleted to suit the world we’re living in. This is the problem and every muslim must be honest about it.

Ye, Imaam Rauf. You have really made it so clear as to how compassionate one must be. I give credit where credit is due. I myself come from a mixed back ground. Christian married into Islam. Well, I beg to differ, my husband lived out his Islamic faith to the bone. He was violent and angry and would not show no compassion at all when it comes to a woman. You know, back in the day when we grew up with the mindset that Islam and Christianity led to the same God…we were convinced that the Quran was Arabic and the Bible English, it was just different languages… We used to have assemblies Monday mornings and ALL of us would pray the Lord’s prayer..”THE OUR FATHER” and no one was hurt thereby, we used to pray in class over our food to Jesus and no one was offended. We respected moslems by not sharing our food with them but enjoy their food with them. Especially through Rhamadaan, we would not eat in their presence as they would be fasting. We would all understand if they leave early on a Friday if they have to go to mosque. Yes, the feelings was mutual…. and their was peace in the land. Not Compassion….but RESPECT! Therefore we would cross marry as we saw no difference… still believing it was a language barrier. In time and age we got to the truth…NO, it is not! There is too much confusion. The God of the Bible is one of MERCY & FORGIVENESS. Whilst the God of the Quaran is of VENGEANCE & PUNISHMENT! Therefore they are not the same. If Islam was soooo compassionate, why would they go play on people’s feelings and build where they are now near GROUND ZERO? They want it their way all the time. It is not easy to marry a Moslem and convert the the Moslem to Christianity but they will force their way to do the oposite. With all due respect Imaam Rauf, let us rather go back to the olden days and work on RESPECT rather than COMPASSION! I can go on and on and on…..but my computer is up to tricks.
Thanking you especially for that good presentation of speech.
Jeanette Hendrix.

Wow! Violence right! Have you ever read the “The Old Testament”? That came many years before the Koran.

The cultural Center: When will people understand that 9/11 was not Islam but terrorists hiding behind the veil of Islam. That’s like saying the Christians terrorized the Indians – guess what, they did. We just called them the government. And that was a much larger population of people than a handful of terrorists gone astray. It was a hate crime, not an Islamic uprising. Don’t blame everything on religion. We have infiltrated this part of the world for the last century. Can no one understand some resentment would come from this?

Doug, Yes old Testsment has violence. How many christians or jewish or buddhist or hindus blow themselves up and fly planes into buildings and kill hundreds of people? The reason is all religions made a nice turn around, for examples the christians come up with new testament. Muslims must do it now but they cant do it ’cause they consider quran a word of god, direct from god. Go and ask any muslim about the voilent verses of quran. They just dance around the question and comeup with unconvincing answers.

I don’t want to get into an argument about terrorism Doug, but the Oklahoma bombing, Air India, attacks on abortion clinics and doctors, etc, comes to mind. Terrorists do not represent religious people of any denomination. They are misguided people with black hearts.
Most holy books contain violence. It was the nature of the times in which they were written. It is also the modus operandi of religious people to convert others to their religion. I can’t think of a religion that doesn’t tell it’s members to go out and recruit.
Jeanette, I am sorry to hear of your experience with a violent husband. My former husband was abusive as well to the point where he cracked bones in my face before I left him. He had anger in his heart, not God.
Imam Rauf – hearing him speak affects me deeply – so much so that I write with tears in my eyes. He speaks of a vision where our differences don’t define us, but our similarities. I just can’t throw away everything he stands for and speaks to because of the location of a community centre that is supposed to foster interfaith relationships. I wish him Godspeed in bringing us all together. The sooner the better.

The debate over the “Ground Zero Mosque” has really taken off. Religious freedom and sensitivity are many of the issues driving this debate. I have found a great website on ProCon.org dedicated to the “Ground Zero Mosque” debate, and highly recommend it to everyone.
http://wtcmuslimcenter.procon.org/

“In a July 2005 speech, Rauf has even stated that “the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than Al Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims.” [58] In a Sep. 30, 2001, interview on 60 Minutes about the 9/11 attacks, he said that ” United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime” and that “Osama bin Laden was made in the USA.” from procon.org
What part of “lose your ego, find your compassions” is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf referring to in his comments? I believe he has no one but himself to blame for the controversy & anti-mosque sentiment. I would have been more than happy to support the mosque until I started to pay attention to what he actually says about America & came to the conclusion that the only thing I can find in his statements is his ego.

I thank everyone for responding to this video. It has certainly generated some conversation and I’m glad to see the dialogue. As I said in my post, I am not taking a position on this issue. I presented Imam Rauf’s video as part of the Charter for Compassion series.
I will offer a couple of observations. We can always find facts to fit our positions on an issue. Often these facts are taken out of context. Fox News is quite expert at this. So the first thought is to consider things thoroughly and in context. We’d be better served if facts served our opinions rather than the other way around. Next, I think it is difficult to generalize across 1.5 billion people; an entire religion. I don’t think any group can be reduced in that way.
Violence can be justified in any belief system and by any individual. The Buddha noted that greed, hatred, and delusion led to suffering and that generosity, love, and wisdom lead to good things. As far as I can tell the benefit of generosity, love, and wisdom and the destructive potential of greed, hatred, and delusion are universal.
So let’s get on board with that!