In my econ class today, we had this terrific guest speaker who talked about what Islam really was:

1. There is only one God.
2. You are responsible only for yourself.
3. We are all sons of Adam.
4. There are 5 Holy Books.
5. There are 25 Prophets, but they all had 1 message.
6. Mohammed is the last Messenger.

also, 1 out of 5 people in the world are Muslim.

That is just a little bit of the notes that I took (we didn't have to take them, but I wanted to).

Then he made this very interesting comparison between Timmothy McVeigh and Al Qaeda, saying that even though McVeigh was a Christian, we don't view all Christains as terriorists, but because of Al Qaeda, we view all muslims as terriorists.

I found this a very valid point, since the whole basis of Islam is peace. It is only the extreemists that view killing others in the name of Allah as the sure ticket into getting into Paraidise.

We were asked to write three questions and post them to our WebCT class page. Before posting her questions, this chick in my class completely blew what out Guest Speaker said out of context, saying that McVeigh was just a young kid that needed help, forgetting the fact that maybe some of the young kids in Al Qaeda needed help too.

So, what, it is ok for us to overlook the fact that we have our own brand of terrorists right here in our own back yard just because they are troubled kids? We have to find the enemy in a group of people who just might have as many problems as we do? How typically American of us.

I wrote the girl back and attempted to set her straight about what he was trying to compare. Part of me hopes that she just misunderstood and will now get it, but the other part of me kinda hopes that she flips out an bitches at me. I'd love to see her reasoning behind her thoughts.