Osama wants Americans to embrace Islam. His is a missionary faith that has aggressively sought converts (choose your sense of the word aggressive) from the beginning. We know that the Saudi Wahhabis have spent much money to promote their religion. All this leaves me wondering why we don't see commercials for Islam along the lines of the ads made by the Mormons. The LDS airs utterly innocuous spots that make Mormons look like utterly ordinary folks who nevertheless have some secret key to happiness. Why can't Muslims do the same? Can't you see it already?
Whitebread couple, with kids, smiling in suburbia: "We were looking for answers and looking to Jesus for guidance, when we found a book that reveals Jesus's real message for mankind. This book finally tells the whole truth about Jesus and the whole truth about God. It's a guide to every aspect of life, straight from the source. It changed our lives for the better, and it can change yours as well."
If Muslims want us to take seriously their insistence that they don't just convert by the sword, then they'd use some of that oil money for commercials on U.S. TV. If they really want to convert the majority of Americans, they have to do something to counter the impression that Islam is just a religion that says No to everything and makes people miserable. I suspect, however, that bin Laden's Muslims aren't really interested in persuading Americans to convert. My guess is that they'd rather have Americans stay Christian, for the most part, so in their caliphic dreams they'd have the satisfaction of keeping Americans as second-class subjects. If Muslims don't want people to have such suspicions, they need to try harder to win hearts and minds, even if they'll never win mine.
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Heh, Osama probably hates Mormons, too.
He's "aggressively sought converts"? Laughable. Islam is about peace, not war, but try telling that to bin Laden, who has an axe to grind with our country and has brainwashed a generation or two of Muslims into misreading what it says in the Koran.
The Mormons walk among us in the capital region. You can tell them by the name badges they wear. You have Jehovah's Witnesses walking our streets, but you don't see Muslims with Korans trying to convert people. That's because of the misperception created by the likes of bin Laden, making it difficult for many of us to recognize what are the true teachings of Islam. I'd not be surprised to find a few Muslims, especially businessmen in this region, who have their own issues with bin Laden because of that misperception.
Think back to Muhammad Ali, who chose not to go to Vietnam 40 years ago. You know what happened to him then, but what he represented was a more pacifist Islamic teaching. In his heart, Ali felt he was right. Bin Laden has allowed his hate for the US to poison his mind and those of his followers. The American people still respect Ali as a cultural icon long after he fought his last fight. They'd accept him as an ambassador to Islam ahead of bin Laden.
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