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a great threat from the Western culture, which in media, advertising, and actual dress, reveal as much as they can possibly get away with. If honest, we must admit that this is true. As I wait in a check-out line at the grocery store, and have to look straight ahead in order to avoid seeing what can only honestly be termed soft pornography disguised as popular reading magazines, as I consider a nation which spends millions in support of hard core porn across the nation in seedy dives and on the internet, degrading men and women, I can understand how threatening that looks to a devout Muslim.

3. Culture of Indulgence: It cannot be denied that we live in an instant gratification culture, where appeals to the physical pleasure drive most advertising, where greed and avarice are often admired, where self-denial and sacrifice seem like an old, oppressive religion, (except perhaps among our military, who still understand selfless sacrifice), it is no wonder that Islam, which teaches as pillars of the faith the self denying virtues of fasting, and alms giving, is appalled by Western values.

4. Public Education. I really understand this as I have experienced the tension of having the faith of my children challenged and ridiculed in government sponsored public schools, all in the name of enlightenment or science. We may see Madrassas as oppressive and indoctrinating, but before we yell too loudly perhaps we should look internally to our own schools which mock faith, teach evolution, force filthy literature upon our students in English classes and try to teach sex education without any reference to values or God. I wonder which type of education system is really most oppressive. The millions of home schoolers across America are a witness that the Western concept of secular public education is not just a threat to Islam.

While we may not agree with Islam, and our doctrines may differ, we must try to understand the reasoning behind their hatred and fear of Western culture. Perhaps that understanding, will be the first link toward overcoming that fear and the animosity it generates.

Learn more about this author, D. Keith Shurtleff.
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