Satan Fails Pitting Jews and Christians against Muslims

MARIA ARITA, A RESPONSIBLE REPORTER

The word “Satan” is rarely used in my writings and that is a lot of writings – over 3000 articles! I am using the word Satan today to denote the dormant evil side in each one of us, but remains under control with a majority while messing up a few souls among us.

Those who fall for the Satan make it their business to pit one against the other. They manufacture hoaxes and place wedges between Jews and Muslims, Jews and Christians and invoke nativism. They forget that they were once strangers too. In India, these men place wedges between Hindus and Muslims. They are not happy with what they do, but keep doing it instead of getting out of it. Cohesion is a strong anecdote to division. Occasionally it makes sense to address one or two incidents to bring sanity to the situation.

The two opposite incidents I witnessed today caused me to write this essay.

What a joy it was meeting Rabbi Alana Suskin and Haytham Younis, a Jew and a Muslim who are planning to make short videos about strengthening Jewish-Muslim relationships. It was a reinforcement of the goodness I witnessed a few weeks ago where the Jews and Muslims came together for building a secure America for every American. Jewish Muslim Relationship get a big boost in Washington, DC.

But when I went home and opened the email, I saw an email from a friend who was beholden by the Satan. The evil in us continues to plot one group against the other; it started from the very beginning of mankind and will continue to happen. All we have to do is guard ourselves and not fall in to their trappings.

This man hates Muslims but poses to be a humanist. Most of my friends don’t even want to deal with this man, but I continue to deal with him hoping he would see the light. We can never give up on peace; it is worth the frustration, humiliation and the patience. The article reads “The Mayor of Dorval in Quebec refuses to remove pork from school cafeterias.” In a smart ass letter, that pleases the nativism in the sons of the soil, the Mayor asks the Muslims who demand removal of the pork, why did they come here? He exhorts them to have gone to the 56 other great Muslim Nations? He then admonishes them, “Don’t mess with us, you have to adapt to our ways and not the other way around or go back to where you came from.”

My instant reaction was this cannot be true, and it did turn out to be a hoax.

Way back in 2006 – Maria Arita of Fox News in Dallas called me up and wanted to know what to do with the News items she had just received. “France had banned teaching about Holocaust because French Muslims had demanded it.” I was stunned, here I am, organizing the first Holocaust Memorial event, first time in the world organized by a non-Jew and first time by a Muslim and first time in a non-Jewish space, and I had just fought off Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial in Dallas Morning News and thanks to nearly 30 Muslims who wrote to the Morning News that Ahmedinejad does not represent Muslims and his words are not to be taken seriously.

Maria gave me time till the evening to come up with a response. I dropped everything I was doing and called on my Jewish friend Bernie Mayoff and Late Elliott Dlin, the director of Holocaust Museum in Dallas, they found out it was a hoax. Maria thanked me and the item did not make it to the evening news.

Imagine the damage it would have done to the Dallas community? The ignorant among Jews would have bought the story and build up their hatred for Muslims. Likewise the ignorant among Muslims would have believed it was a victory for them. What a shameful thing it would have been for both the communities.

Around the same time, there was another hoax against Iran that they were persecuting Jews, Bahá’ís and Zoroastrians. We wrote petitions and someone found out from Jews living in Tehran that it was not true, it apparently came from a Jewish Member of Parliament in Iran.

Let me state this unequivocally, and most Muslims would agree with me on this. America is a great nation and we have to do everything to keep it that way including assuring the disaffected Americans that they need not worry; and that their culture and their way of life will not change due to immigrants or Muslims. We are all better off in making sure America remains America.

You are who you are and I am who I am; let’s learn to live with each other by respecting the otherness of other and accepting the God given uniqueness of each one of us. We should be on the same page and yes, we will make the right calls! We the people, the Muslims, love this country and we will keep it that way.

As American Muslims we uphold, protect, defend and celebrate the values enshrined in our constitution. Our faiths reinforce the idea of one nation with liberty and justice for all.

Let no one place a wedge between any two of us, together we can do a lot of good, against each other we both weaken. When politicians play Satan, they don’t see all of us as God’s children, and feel entitled to more privileges than the other. Hell no, we are all created equal, and the anti-dote to division is for us to come together as Americans more frequently than we have been doing now.

God Bless America!

Mike Ghouse is committed to build a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Religion - My fascination with religions

www.TheGhousediary.com - My Fascination with religions

Religions fascinate me, although I was an Agnostic-Atheist for nearly 30 years of my life, I was respectful of religions and attended religious rituals of almost all religions.

In the last sixties and early seventies, I was a big fan of Dr. Abraham Kovoor, the father of modern Atheism, and also followed the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Swami Vivekananda, Allama Iqbal, Jiddu Krishnamurthy, Rumi, Dale Carnegie, and a German Scholar who wrote the book Man and Religion.

Some day, I will elaborate on this, but for now, here is the summary.

I am grateful to my father for opening the windows of knowledge to me. He was always kind and respectful to me. Except once, he never hit me or belittled me. I hope my kids can say the same about me.

On the day of Ramadan Eid celebrations,  the Muslims in my town (Yelahanka) gather near the mosque, and walk a mile to the outdoor Mosque by the cemetery to pray and pay respects to the buried ones; a beautiful Muslim tradition that I have come to respect even when I was an atheist.

On that particular Eid, I refused to go to prayers as I did not believe in God or the prayers. My father looked me over, I had dared him. He gave me a short lecture and explained – "One day, I will be dead and gone, and you will be living in this town and have to live with others. No one will trust or do business with you, including my Hindu friends if you do not follow a system. Religion is a part of the society and it is up to you what you do with your life… God doesn't need your prayers, but you have to live with others"…. of course, I went to the Mosque, had he pushed me, I would not have gone and would probably have hated religion. I wish all parents treat their kids in that fashion, particularly the rebellious ones.

Thanks to my parents, they had friends from many religious traditions and have carried on conversations with them in the most civil manner I can imagine. My mother had weekly conversations with the only Zoroastrian lady in town, whom we called ‘Parsiamma” Behramji and chatted with our neighbor Sugalchand, a Jain family.  

My 5th or 6th grade social studies book has never left me, it created a positive life time impression about religions. There was a page dedicated to each one of the great religious teachers including Krishna, Rama, Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus, Moses, Prophet Muhammad, Zoroaster and Nanak, and the there was a two page summary of each one of the faiths. Top it up with my parents consistent reminders from Quran - that each faith is beautiful to its believer and that we must acknowledge it. Faith is like a mother to the believer.  

Most of my friends that I knew and grew up with have a similar respectful attitude towards religions, including every member of my family. I will have to find that dream book, and see if it is still there, and if not why not?

I am concerned about the future of India, I wish Prime Minister Modi was taught in a similar school as I did. I went to a public Urdu Medium school,  and he went to RSS Madrasa where exclusivity is taught, and no mention of other faiths and traditions, had he gone to a school like mine, his language would have been inclusive and he would have wished festival greetings to Muslims, Christians and others.  
Of course, the leaders in Pakistan, Malaysia and other Muslim nations do not greet their Hindu, Christian and other minorities either. Do we want to be like them?  Or do we want to set a new standard of inclusion for them to emulate us? Are we leaders?

As a young man I attended the Mahabodhi (Buddhist) Society every Wednesday in Bangalore and went to Friday prayers in a nearby Mosque (I went to different Mosques) and joined the Bhajan Mandir across my home on Saturday evenings to chant the Hindu Kirtans. I enjoyed my lengthy conversations with Sikhs who came from the Air force base to our Flour Mill on Sundays, and like wise, I learned a lot about the Adivasis (native Indian tribals) and Banjaray who made it to our mill on Sundays.  

I listened to hours of conversation between my father Abdul Rahman, maternal grandfather Shaikh Hussain and a Shia scholar Hussain Sahib. My English Teacher Rama Chandra was a big Sai Baba devotee and my friend Fakhru Bhai was a Muslim Sufi, the three of us would spend Saturdays discussing religion. I grew up with our Christian neighbors Robert and Swaran Latha since I was three or four years old. The last time I met them was upon my mothers’ death in 2001.

We did not have any Jews and Baha’is’ in our town; if not more than likely we would have attended their festivities as we did with others. However, I made it up with Jews, here is that part of my story; Holocaust and the Muslim guy. and also with Bahai's as I am closest to being a Bahai and perfectly align with Unitarian Universalist. My father was a Mayor of the town and his friends were mainly Hindus, and Bellur Muniyappa was the closest of them.   They discussed politics every day, yes every day in the evenings. 

While I was in Saudi Arabia, I had the greatest exposure to people from 40 different cultures and nationalities. I was the Chief Cashier with Fluor corporation, and every one of the group leaders came to me with bills for reimbursement in Shedgum, Saudi Arabia. I learned about each one of them, and additionally, I developed my abilities to understand English in just about every accent.

Coming back to Dallas, I published a paper called Asian News (1993-2001) and the information about all religions and festivals became a major item. In 1996, I started the first commercial radio for the Asian community called Asian news Radio, and again religion was a major part of it.

Between 2004 and 2005, I did 520 hours of Radio show, an hour a day, 5 days a week and it was called “Wisdom of religion, all the beautiful religions of the world” and did 100 hours each of Christianity, Islam and Hinduism and 50 hours on all other religions including Atheism. We completed Torah, Bible, Quran, Bhagvad Gita and other books on the show. 

In 2005 and 2006 two sets of three hour workshops were done for 13 traditions from Atheist to Zoroastrians and everyone in between.

In 2009 I camped out for a whole 9 days at the Parliament of World’s religions in Melbourne and attended every possible religious event I can. I moderated a few Panels and presented a few papers.  I danced with the Pagans, animists, and spent time with the Native Australians and their Museum.

Here in Dallas, I have been to most places of worship, and took my children to them as well.

Thanks to Huffington Post and other news papers I continue to write the essence of festivals, all the major festivals of the world and God willing I will continue the work. The work is also logged at www.FoundationforPluralism.blogspot.com and www.TheGhousediary.com

The Foundation for Pluralism came into being, when my application to be a member of Thanksgiving Square was rejected in mid Nineties, because I did not fit into a pigeon hole, at that time, I was a Humanist (another name for Atheist) and was told to belong to some religion. I said to myself, we need an organization that includes all humanity, thus the Foundation for Pluralism was officially born, even though it was in practice since 1993.

Ironically, I my application was rejected in an Atheist group in 2006, when I wanted to become a member and include them in our Unity Day program.

Presently, I am a member in most of the religious groups. Do you know God is a life member of every religious group I belong to? LOL!
I regret not completing my PhD in religion, but pleased with the amount of work I have done on religions, all the beautiful religions.

I must say, pluralism runs in my veins. Please feel free to read my yet to be updated profile as pluralism speaker at: http://www.mikeghouse.net/InterfaithSpeaker_MikeGhouse.asp

Thank you

Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916 text/talk
............................................................................................................................... Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is a staunch defender of human rights and his book standing up for others will be out soon, and a movie "Americans together" is in the making.  He is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in 63 links atwww.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. 

Gee Dad, God can be worshiped in so many ways!.

GEE DAD, GOD CAN BE WORSHIPED IN SO MANY WAYS. LESSONS IN PLURALISM

I am pleased to share the wisdom of a seven year old girl, my daughter. Who wants to raise their child as a bigot? Some of us recklessly do.

When we hear hate spout out of the mouths of men and women in politics or religion against Jews, Muslims, Christians, Atheists, Hindus, Blacks, Mormons, Gays and Lesbians, Hispanics or Immigrants, we just shake our heads with disbelief, that is of course, if we are not bigots ourselves.

I must give credit to face book, a great equalizer for humanity. Even though the hate mongers and bigots don't survive on the face book, they still continue to rant with a few or no friends liking their hate material. They still don't get the message - hate is not natural. .

When she was visiting the Baptist Church, as a father, I just advised her, if the Pastor by any chance denigrates other faiths, he is not being truthful and you don't need to listen to him. She was around 9 then, and argued with me, a part of our routine to argue as equals, "Dad, if he does not say bad things about other religions, why would people to go his Church when they can go somewhere else? I know it, don't worry Dad, I won't hate anyone".

I took my kids to every place of worship, so they were raised with familiarity of fellow humans with no bigotry towards others. At each place of worship, I would summarize to her what they were saying…over the years, I learned that, all she wanted to hear, a six year old, was a simplified version of the talk. I had gotten it down well - a standard reply - "Sweetie, they are telling that we must thank God, that God gives us life, ability to breath and live…" Mind you, I was an atheist then, but not anti-religious.

One day, we were in DFW Hindu Temple joining the group singing Bhajans (Chanting) in the sanctuary. In the middle of a Bhajan, she leans over me, and asks the standard question, "Dad, what are they singing"… out came my standard reply. To that, oblivious to the crowd, she gets up, and throws her hands up in the air, and cheerfully announces "Gee Dad, God can be worshiped in so many ways" to the amazement of the devotees!

That, my friends is pluralism. "Respecting the otherness of others." Thank God she ain't a bigot today. She is a rationalist and would question any one's ill-will or hate towards the other. If nothing else in my life, I have feel good about raising my kids with no bigotry. Like me, she would defend any faith, we won't let any one put down a faith, any faith - individuals yes, but not their faith.

I am writing a fuller article with Religion News with a few more anecdotes with my daughter. Meanwhile, enjoy this.
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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and a book with the same title is coming up. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.
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Google Search for Mike Ghouse

My curiosity led me go from one search to the other, 
and here are the results as of 1:30 PM on May 20, 2013.

mike ghouse Christianity - 362,000

mike ghouse judaism  - 281,000

mike ghouse buddhism - 181,000

mike ghouse sikhism - 126,000

mike ghouse jainism - 85,800

mike ghouse bahai - 73,600

mike ghouse islam - 64,300

mike ghouse Native americans - 55,400

mike ghouse zoroastrianism - 35,400

mike ghouse hinduism - 35,200

mike ghouse wicca - 34,400

mike ghouse pluralism - 21,300

mike ghouse interfaith - 20,000

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mike ghouse sunni - 189,000

mike ghouse shia - 163,000

mike ghouse ahmadiyya - 115,000
mike ghouse ismailia - 107,000

mike ghouse wahhabi- 64,000

mike ghouse bohra - 12,100

mike ghouse wd muhammad - 5,560

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mike ghouse muslim speaker - 30,100

mike ghouse islamic speaker - 30,100

mike ghouse plualism speaker - 13,200

mike ghouse interfaith speaker - 12,600

mike ghouse indian speaker - 27, 400

 

Mike Ghouse

What % of Hindu, Christian, Jew or a Muslim are you?

As a pluralist, I take a quiz at Beliefnet every year, and have consistently found that I am 100% Unitarian Universalist, 97% Quaker, 88% Buddhist, 85% Reformed Jew, 85% Neo Pagan, 79% Baha’i, 80% Muslim, 68% Hindu and 28% Catholic among others. 

My low score about Catholic faith bothers me, and I am committed to read books on Catholicism. I want to improve my understanding to at least 50%.

To be in tune with the whole humanity, meaning peace within, we have to remove ill-will, bias, hatred, anger and other elements that disturb our tranquility. That is what Vedas teach Vasudaiva Kutumbukum (Hinduism), Rabbul Aalameen (Islam) and all of us are God's children (Christianity) and Mother earth (all native and earth based traditions including wicca and Pagan).

We can call ourselves a good Muslim, a good Hindu, a good Jew, a good Christian or a good Sikh when we don't have hatred for any. Most people get their religion right and a few don't. We need to develop the ability to see the ones who do and not re-act to the ones who don't get it. 

1. Every one of us should score 50% on all religions.

2. It is the rituals that separate one from the other. My score of 80% in Islam is strictly due to a few ritual questions.

3. Philosophically, we should score at least 66.7% on all.

4. In essence, we should all score 100% if we believe the purpose of religion is to bring tranquility to an individual and create cohesiveness with others. 

I will update it later today with more information.

Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net 

INTERFAITH WEDDINGS

One must admire the couples that marry outside their tradition, ethnicity, faith, and race. Indeed, they are doing what the spiritual masters had done for thousands of years; to fall the barriers between people, and learn to respect the otherness of other and accept the God given uniqueness of each other.

I have seen disappointments, where couples from different faiths wishing to marry were not able to do that.  Either the parents or the guardians of the religions were not comfortable with the situation and did not want to be a part of it, which we must respect.  All that the couples wanted was a touch of their own tradition and I feel their anguish and a sense of in-completion in their marriage when the tradition is not followed.  I recall a situation where a Jewish mother disowned her daughter for marrying an “infidel” Baha’i, it happens with every religion including Atheists. 

By the way, these issues are prevalent chiefly among immigrant families; however, it is not an issue with the 2^nd and 3^rd generation down the line.

Recently I officiated a Jain-Muslim wedding, and it was a pure delight to see the parents on both sides focused on giving their kids a sense of fulfillment that I really had to give them a hug. After the ceremony the parents were literally crying with joy, it was a beautiful moment for me to witness their heartfelt joy. I was literally taken back with the admiring looks they bestowed on me.

Here is one of the many paragraphs of the sermon. The others paragraphs dealt with specifics of each faith and their commonality of values.   

The Dharmic (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism) religions point out that it is your Karma that determines your life path in terms of continuation of the journey after the body form collapses, into possibly a new form. The same thought is echoed in the Abrahamic (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) traditions in a different format; a life after the death – both sides prop up the idea that there is an eternal heaven, Mukti, Moksha, Nijaat or salvation from the cycles of suffering.  The interfaith (Sikh and Baha’i) religions, the independent (Zoroastrian) religion and the native traditions as well have a similar take.  It is all there, it is our arrogance that prevents us from seeing the good in others.

I just could not believe the request to officiate the weddings since then. I am happy for them that they saw the essence of each beautiful religion as I shared with them.    A Hindu-Jain, A Muslim-Catholic, and a full Muslim wedding are in the making. And today, I had a call to do, a Hindu/Agnostic wedding.  God willing, it will be a delight to be a part of happiness of others.

I am writing an article on the topic and will be including part of the sermon I gave after the main ceremony – I will be happy to share it, if you are serious and have a need for it. Please  send an email to SpeakerMikeGhouse@gmail.com . It will not be on my blog.

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Mike Ghouse is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India, Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he writes weekly at Dallas Morning News and regularly at Huffington post,and several other periodicals. www.TheGhousediary.com is Mike's daily blog.

HAPPY NOWRUZ

I have not attended the Nowruz festivity in a while, but it is fresh on my mind. My Zoroastrian friends had a gathering and it was a pleasure to be a part of the festivity… fruits and veggies, sort of Jewish Purim festival.

Way back in 1996,  I had a weekly radio show on Saturdays called "Festivals of the world", where in we shared the essence of every festival occurred during that week. When we announced about it for the first time on the radio, assuming it was a Zoroastrian Festival; our Baha'i, Ismaili and Iranian friends called in and said, it was theirs too. Well Happy Nowruz to all!

Zoroastrian faith has been in my domain since I was about ten, my mothers close friend was a Parsee lady (Zoroastrian) Mrs. Bahramjee, we affectionately called Parsee Amma ( In Bangalore, we have a habit of tagging Amma to every senior lady) she came to visit my mother on Tuesdays and they talked for several hours…God only knows what. My first encounter with Baha'i was with Ben and Simi Moghaddas in 1993, they were on my Radio Show to talk about Bahai faith and my first Iranian contact was when I was in college- they came to Bangalore Medical College and Bangalore Agriculture College from Iran.

I could not find my piece on the festivity…but I found my CD I bought from the stall at Nowruz… it's in Persian, I can read it, and understand a few words… but the songs and music is fabulous. Somewhere I have a CD in Avesta language as well... the gentleman is in Californian and he and I have the same  voice. Even I was taken back listening to him, it is a rare voice.

Here is the story:

Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in Iranian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed. As well as being a Zoroastrian holiday and having significance amongst the Zoroastrian ancestors of modern Iranians, the same time is celebrated in parts of the South Asian sub-continent as the new year. The moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year and Iranian families gather together to observe the rituals.

Originally being a Zoroastrian festival, and the holiest of them all, Nowruz is believed to have been invented by Zoroaster himself, although there is no clear date of origin Since the Achaemenid era the official year has begun with the New Day when the Sun leaves the zodiac of Pisces and enters the zodiacal sign of Aries, signifying the Spring Equinox.

The Jewish festival of Purim is probably adopted from the Persian New Year. It is also a holy day for Sufis, Ismailis, Alawites, Alevis, and adherents of the Bahá'í Faith.

The term Nowruz in writing, first appeared in Persian records in the 2nd century AD, but it was also an important day during the time of the Achaemenids c. 548-330 BC), where kings from different nations under the Persian empire used to bring gifts to the Emperor, also called King of Kings (Shahanshah), of Persia on Nowruz. The significance of Nowruz in the Achaemenid empire was such that the great Persian king Cambyses II's appointment as the king of Babylon was legitimized only after his participation in the New Year festival (Nowruz).

Happy Nowruz


http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2012/03/happy-nowruz.html 

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MikeGhouse is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer onpluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India, Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he writes weekly at Dallas Morning News and regularly atHuffington post, The Smirking Chimp and several other periodicals. His daily blog iswww.TheGhousediary.com

TEXAS FAITH: Why do some religious affiliations produce more political leaders?

The world's history records endless stories of chasing minorities or the powerless out of their own dwellings and it continues today. They were driven out, annihilated, enslaved, forcibly converted or made to run, whether you are a native American, African American, Jewish, Catholic, Mormon, Palestinian, Hindu, Muslim, Baha'i, Zoroastrian, Sikh, Buddhist, Dalit, Pagan, Wicca, Gay, Falun Dafa, Tutsi, Bosnians, or other minority or the powerless. You know your painful story.

This is a weekly column in Dallas Morning News that I contribute to, this weeks questions was why do some religious affiliations produce more political leaders? This week 9 members of the panel responded to the question, here is mine:

This week 9 members of the panel responded to the question, here is mine:

MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas

The world's history records endless stories of chasing minorities or the powerless out of their own dwellings and it continues today. They were driven out, annihilated, enslaved, forcibly converted or made to run, whether you are a native American, African American, Jewish, Catholic, Mormon, Palestinian, Hindu, Muslim, Baha'i, Zoroastrian, Sikh, Buddhist, Dalit, Pagan, Wicca, Gay, Falun Dafa, Tutsi, Bosnians, or other minority or the powerless. You know your painful story.

Oddly, chasing-out took several avatars in the guise of civility; creating reservations and the idea of 'paying to move' was born. In 1649 the Puritans paid a stipend to Solomon Franco, the first Jewish man to step on American soil to go back to Holland. Indeed, the Jewish people have the longest recorded history of enduring oppression; the birth of Israel gave hopes of security and peace to them. Thus, protection of Israel became their prime motivator followed by instinctive involvement in affairs of the nation, and the disproportionate representation will continue until they feel secure.

Gays, lesbians and Muslims are next in line to seek representation in governance and at the beginning it will be a disproportionate representation. I am writing a book to nurture a balanced approach for Muslims with this theme: "What is good for Muslims has got to be good for others and vice-versa to sustain a balance in a cohesive society."

It will take some time and momentum for members of Congress to be truthful about their affiliation and it is getting closer. When I came to America some thirty years ago, I was taken back by the bizarre looks when I said I was an atheist. It was not acceptable. Indeed it was demonic to be an atheist then.

America has come a long way in accepting and absorbing the non-majoritarian norms and practices into her mainstream and the strand of political representation of minorities was born out of necessity. The need for security will continue to drive groups to seek representation, and until such time we become a cohesive society and accept the otherness of other as legitimately as our own, the pendulum will swing from over-representation to under-representation.

Thank God for the vision of the founding fathers to inculcate and nurture the values of separation of state and church, the biggest contributor towards the political stability of our nation and our way of life, a value we need to worship.

 To Read 8 other response - http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/01/texas-faith-why-do-some-religi.html

Mike Ghouse is a speaker on Pluralism and Islam offering pluralistic solutions to the media and public on issues of the day. His blogs and sites are listed at www.MikeGhouse.net 

Bottom line prayers-wishes

Right in the middle of the devotional songs, the six year old stands up with her eyes wide open, and in an excited voice blurts out, “Gee Dad, that’s cool, God can be worshipped in so many different ways!” Indeed that sentence has become a part of my teaching in Pluralism. Pluralism is simply respecting the otherness of other and appreciating the god given uniqueness of each one of the seven billion of us.

Continued: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2010/07/bottom-line-prayers-wishes.html

http://www.mikeghouse.net/