I am a 11 year-old ''sunni''American muslim girl.I converted to Islam when I was 10 by my own choice.Here's my advice to non-muslims,if you want to know the truth about Islam,read a book about Islam written by a muslim.
Don't you find it better to believe a person who atiually follows what the religion says,or someone who thinks they know?eg:The media or the pepole on the news.
I am a native-American with African haritage.Both me and my mother proudly ware our hijab and modest clothing in public.Not because my father forces me too,(he is not even a Muslim)but because this is part of Islamic culture.As you may know, people including Christians and Jews have dressed this way for thousands of years before Islam.Muslims simply want to keep with thier culture.Why can the Chinese proudly thrive on their culture but muslims especially arabs, cannot?
One can dress modestly or simply wrap a scarf around their head and automaticly be labled as a nun or a muslim, or a hindi.But sometimes,why should it matter? We are all human beings.Why should someone be treated in-humanely just because of how they look?
Try and check out these web sites.

I think all this fighting between Sunnis and Shites is caused by American imperialism. Even though it is bourne out here with only the authors family as an example, there really was peace and harmony between the Sunnis and Shites before we invaded Iraq. The sooner we get out of Iraq the quicker peace will come. I think this is the message the author is correctly trying to convey.

Mariam, it is sad you blame the Bush administration for alienating Islam. A bunch of Islamic extremists are roaming the world killing innocent people in the name of your religion, and you feel alienated because governments are trying to protect their citizens. I ask "why is the world Muslim community allowing suicidal terrorists to represent them?"

It never fails to amaze me how families are so interlinked with the problems of the east. Seeing pictures of people, who are assumed to have little or nothing, are combing their streets for what? Depending on what we are going to comb are steets for, are we as human beings going to join together and support those with nothing? We hear of efforts but are they real? When will the media address the mothers with their children and the elderly? Our society, as a whole, is failing the most important part of world's population. Religion, could we put it aside for a moment and listen to our neighbor's heart beat or perhaps we're not listening to life's blood.

shia or sunni America Alqida or Saddam.whom to blame is realy not important the important thing is how to stop the bloodshed in Irag.

Most of your responses are from moderate, educated, rational, tolerant, peace-loving, pious and "normal' people--Muslim and non-Muslim. They all "get it"-- that's great. Now, will someone tell me how you deal with the "nuts" who only want to destroy, kill, maim, dominate and hate? Is there an answer?

A day will come when all man kind will and must join together to protect itself. Those who choose to create a hostile life form will one day not be tolerated by the majority and we pray be exstinct.

like creeks, as all religions, are mere tributaries to a great river.. whether you are muslim, shiite or sunni, a protestant or catholic, all of us are created in the image and likeness of God.. our prayers and reigious "practices" are all forms of worship to the one almighty God.. the greatest irony comes to life when people kill each other in the name of religion, or on account of differences in sectarian philosophy or rituals.. driving a noble point through the use of violence can never be justified, especially in the standard of our Creator who espoused "don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you"..

Can someone explain the difference between the sunni and the shia. Thanks. I am a Soldier about to venture out on my 2nd Deployment to Iraq. Thanks

I would give the Muslim religion a certain amount of time to correct their radical problem.Then the World would have to unite and take care of the problem like we did in World War II.Why beat around the bush like we did before that war.Think of all the people we would have saved if we stopped them before they became monsters.

"All it takes for evil to prosper, is for good people to do nothing." - Edmund Burke Therefore too many good people are doing nothing to stop too many angry,evil,misguided people promise heaven for murder.

For those of you who want to vent your hatred for religion and bash religion, this isn't the time or place. The war in Iraq isn't a religious sectarian war. Remember when the US was fighting against Muqtada al-Sadr and his shia followers in Iraq? What happened? When the shia realized that they had everything to gain and nothing to lose by supporting a US backed democracy, they sold their souls to the US in the eyes of the sunnis.

Look anywhere else in the world and you will find shia and sunnis standing together, fighting against Israel and the US except in Iraq. Look at the shia in Lebannon standing together with the sunnis against Israel and the US. Look at the Iranian President standing up to the US. Look at what is going on in Iraq. Where is the opposition to the US from the shia in Iraq? I am not taking sides here since I don't call myself sunni or shia, or advocating violence, but merely point out what is at the heart of the conflict and it's not religious sectarianism. The sunnis see the shia as having sold out.

As a Muslim born in America, it pains me deeply to see the senseless violence to continue endlessly. This is really a quagmire that the US has gotten itself into and I pray for a peaceful solution.

It seems to me that we in the United States are being conditioned by the "media" and whoever controls the media to think of Moslems, shiite and sunnis alike as bad. There are interests running in the media to put down these people. I wonder who these people are. Be careful, take the news from your tv and newspapers with grains of salt.

Of course your daughter and son-in-law don't know--in Tunisia 99.7% of the country is Sunni Muslim so it would never come up. But in the Mid-East and Pakistan, the hatred between Sunni and Shi'ite and other sects is intense. It lead to the Iran-Iraq War, to Saddam's Baathist Sunni Party destroying the life of the Marsh Arabs and abusing and killing hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites

For a Sunni, Shi'ites are apostates and vice versa. And worse than an infidel (Christian or Jew) being an apostate is a major sin deserving of death. While many cross-marriages may occur and many neighbors may live in peace, any excuse stirs them up. The suicide bombers from Palestine and Jordan flocking to Iraq say they want to kill Shi'ia.

With the recent report that during the past 3-6 weeks Taliban/Al Qaeda have been issuing warnings for Muslims to leave Washington, D.C. and New York City suggesting a nuclear threat.

Why is there no coverage other than ONE interview with an intelligence-connected source that aired Saturday, September 23rd, 2006? There has been no follow-up of any kind on any net!

Was that just a OWG blip to test public response? Or another 'missed' opportunity like the dozens prior to 9/11?

If you Muslims (part of the group) can justify other Muslims if should not suprise anyone that muslims justify killing Christians of which I am one. I think the none violent muslems are kiding themselfs if they think they are not going to be grouped with those doing the killing and spreading the heatred. I am reading the Qur'an and I can see how some Muslims can use it's teaching to justify killing christians like me.But, I can also see how their iterpertation can be countered by Muslims who do not practice violence from that same Qur'an. Just as in the Christian faith all will be judged by the wold be the actions of a few fanatics,so also noderate Muslims must speak out against the extreamist in there faith. Infact it the moderates do not contol the extreamist they will suffer with them. I wonder how many mulins realize that Muhammad was exposed to Roman Chatholic and Jewis teachings before he decided to start the true relogion? God will have his justice in his timing.

Maybe if "normal" Muslims were more involved in helping stop this "misunderstanding" we could learn how to work together. Where are the "normal" Muslims condeming the violence, why arn't they rising up in prostest and condeming these acts? I don't see it, I don't hear about it, I don't see any of the Muslim leaders creating a strong stance and coming in and helping. Makes me wonder why.....

I am not surprised at all. Most of what we hear today is conjecture, or some form of 'official view' or another. Those who still doubt that should use 'Baghdad burning' as a searchword...If what you read there does not make you weep, then you have an icicle for a heart.

I am a soldier and I guess a christian. I have served two years in Iraq. Most of my two years have been spent in Northern Babil province. The Northern Babil province is a good mix of Sunni and Shite. We had contact with the population on a daily basis. Discussions would come up ( with the local transaltors ) about the Sunni Shite split. In our eyes (US) we could not see or identify Sunni or Shite. For the most part, it was the same their. Alot of the population is inter - married (sunni-shite). From what I was told, their really wasn't much into the split until recently. I am not blaming Bush or any other government offical. I believe and witnessed that this is the work of extremists. The Sunni extremist ( whabbists ) have identified Shites as inferior and the Shite extremist ( Al-Sadr ) as done the same with Sunnis. From my own expirence over in Iraq, this is not a problem. The real problem is the extremists on both sides and excellent properganda skills. From 03- 05 you have never heard of this kind of violence, until recently. The properganda has picked up and the government of Iraq is afraid to step up, due to the percieved support for extremeists on both sides.
To fix the problem, ask any private, or NCO who has spent time in Iraq. Most of the population does not act on this extremeists. But the population has no other choices. Show the population another route, a route that is visable. For instance let MSNBC or CNN show pictures of Americans and Iraqs' building schools and hospitals, yes we do that. Show pictures of Shite and Sunni imons shaking hands after completion of a water plant project, yes they do that too. The majority of population believe more in CNN and other American media outlets then Al-Jazzera, remember, Iraqi people do have satellites now. If we could even create half the effort in properganda that these extremists do, the war would be over, and please stop showing the extremeists we are a divided country, we are not and it makes our jobs alot harder. Thank you.

Mariam, Islam alienates itself everyday with the actions and intolerance of it followers across the world. Death to all non-believers seems to have become its mantra. I personally have no use for religion in any form. Religion has been and I believe, will continue to be, a means of control for the masses.The underlying teachings of all religions are quite beautiful (Love,Peace,caring etc.) but the practical applications have become a nightmare. The world would be a better place without it.

Two Points to make....First...It is said that "More wars have been fought in the name of religion than for any other cause in history of the human race!!!" Get rid of the clerics and preachers in all religions, and you've gotten rid of the instigators of such rift. Just as we have made discrimination "illegal", we must dictate in every country that by law, each and every citizen has the right to practice whatever religion he or she chooses to practice, so long as it's behind the privacy of the closed doors of his/her home.

Second...Imagine what we could have accomplished had we redirected and deployed every dollar that we have spent directly to fight the Iraq war, or towards mitigating the increased security risks as a consequences of that war?

Todate, we have spent over $300 Billion towards Iraq War alone (and that's only the "overt" funds). Covert funds, which cannot be reported "in the interest of national security" not included. We have spent at least a trillion dollars combined among all national globally for the higher price of crude oil as a result of the Iraq war and the "uncertainty" it supposedly brought about to the supply of oil. We have spent hundreds of billions if not almost a trillion dollars, towards added security and equipment in buildings, airlines, airports, police, intelligence, etc. and will do so for a long long time to come. We have lost hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children, American and Foreign, directly and indirectly, from the War in Iraq; and, from the terrorism fueled by the anger that the war created in people. And, what we continue to spend (and waste) on and as a result of the Iraq war, will continue for the foreseeable future...

Had we used this money to pay down our National Debt, imagine what we could have done for our children...If we had used this money to help the Palestinians and those displaced around the globe, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, imagine the good will, peace and joy we would have created on this planet and how much safer it would have made this world, and thereby paid a "peace dividend" similar to what we obtained but pilfered away from the fall of the Soviet Union. Just Imagine...

Well said Khan06,NY... based from this blog, we can see that both christian and muslim are actually very understanding... what we dont want is if you are at the extream part of it. live and let live.. For those muslims... Happy Ramadhan month.

Islam is an ideology & as other ideologies it seeks to rule the masses via the message of Islam, but not by force as this is prohibited. We are not like capitalists who seek to rape resources of the land with corporate conglomorates & make CEO's rich & the people of the land poor. History testifies to the FACT that when a land was opened to Islam, the indiginous population embraced Islam in droves & it was those people that carried Islam to the world. No other ideology can state this fact. Yes Islam came to rule mankind & this war we are witnessing in Iraq is a war of ideas (as Bush stated). When the muslims win, they will establish a caliphate which will unite the worlds 1 billion plus muslims into an ideological state, which will be carried to the for corners of the world by its people.

John Mleczynski (14th article above)is right.
Literacy is the key. A lot of these people cant read or write so the fanatics translate things and quote things that they want in order to turn people to their own path. majority of us muslims dont harm people but just want to get on with life. The innocent are caught in the middle while the political leaders both in the west and east etc wage their war. But who do u blame when innocents are killed (COLLATERAL DAMAGE)... And what reaction do u expect from these thousands of innocents who are caught in the middle who have lost loved ones with hardships of no food, security, etc. the story goes on and on,,,,Can only say the west will create more Osamas. People only see what is happening now ..why we peer into the the not too distant past as to who the sponsors of all this war rubbish is....... this is a never ending circle and yes ...the world is not a safer place and to punish a few there has been too many innocent deaths...... cmon this is not rocket science... people lets use our minds and look at why and when also rather then just the now..

We should keep difference in peace and terror.Let us change our hearts.There are severe problems with the Christians in the Muslim world as well.So let us forget these things and think of a better world which is possible by our actions.