I have had it with the double standard this board has towards political diatribes.  When people start posting about American tax law that aren't American and call it injustice, everyone sits back and nods in agreement and the Moderators doen't even move it to the Politics section.  When a muslim posts a tribute to a MURDER of Muslims and Non Muslims, we're not allowed to get a straight answer as to whether or not that's what he believes.  When a person posts an article about how a "muslim" country is being oppressive and violating human rights.  We get told, that's not Islam and the thread is closed. 

The constant Anti-West diatribe on this website is ridiculous.  I could just as easily post article after article on the divide of the Rich and the Poor in Saudi, China, Indonesia, but I don't.  Its ridiculous.  I'm not saying the Anti-war threads shouldn't be posted. I'm Anti-War.  I'm not saying articles about Jose Padilla being held for 2 years without charges.  I'm not saying America is squeaky clean.  But, commenting on Estate Tax, Private enterprises and domestic issues that do not affect the poster is going too far.

To me the constant flood of Anti-American rhetoric that has no bearing on our relations with Islam or the East is just spam from a spiteful, hateful person.

I certainly do NOT worship my flag, I don't even own an American flag.  I call my President nasty names and complain about his policies.  I vote against him and his.  Muslima is off base in her "All Americans Are __________", just as Whisper is off base in his constant bashing of this country. 

Those of you who immigrated to the US have Mosques, can wear Hijabs in schools and work, your religion is protected here and you cannot be forced to do anything against your religion.  Now compare us with other European and Secular nations like Turkey????  We are not the ALL EVIL SHAITAN! 

And if you Moderators continue to allow this constant anti-west rhetoric to continue, you are going to continue to loose good Muslimah's like Maryah from the board and you are never going to build the bridges with the common American to get these Wars stopped.  A newbie American coming to the board in continually proven how "militant" http://www.islamicity.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5238&PN=2 - http://www.islamicity.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5238& ;PN=2  and hateful Muslims are to the west and how you really want to destroy us. 

That is what a newbie is going to see.

Why politeness never gets responded to???  And an insult is an insult whether its said politely or not.  The japanese made an art of being able to insult someone and maintain their politeness.

The problem with AbRah and with his being banned.  Is unlike some others who were told flat out about their behavior (nonmuslims) we never saw word one from any of you over his behavior.  We would have only known he was banned when he never responded to anymore posts without my previous request.  The only warning I saw you give him was for Large/bold print.....never once did you chastise him for attacking and demeaning another religion.

So why do the Muslims get private warnings and the non muslims public warnings????

Why are you allowing someone to post tributes to a murderer yet closing topics about FGM?  (I know, I know, that was Rami, but still it happened)

I'm very upset with the Moderators.  Why?  Because I know you all, save Anadalus.   I would expect more from you about making sure and I put this in quotes because I don't know how else to say it, "militant islam" or islamic heretics or however you want to dress that one up are not promoted on this board. 

Then delete the tribute to the Murderer.

But of course, My complaints are my complaints.  You may not wish to say more on the subject.  But, this section is here so I can voice these complaints.

Oh, by the way, I wasn't saying I COULD insult people, I was saying I WAS insulted, even if it was tressed up in a polite manner. 

(Oh and on the moderating the moderators.....seems there are a lot of people who don't like it....that should tell all of you something.)

Angela wrote:

"The problem with AbRah and with his being banned.  Is unlike some others who were told flat out about their behavior (nonmuslims) we never saw word one from any of you over his behavior.  We would have only known he was banned when he never responded to anymore posts without my previous request.  The only warning I saw you give him was for Large/bold print.....never once did you chastise him for attacking and demeaning another religion."

This is simply not true. I warned him numerous times that the language, etc, he was using would not be tolerated. The Warnings are still on the threads. I also edited/deleted numerous posts from him regarding insults to other religions.

Unfortunately in this circumstance perhaps everyone is seeing from their own perspective. Abrah was banned, no one said a word, Fred, who was just as abusive, and was so for much longer, was banned and people were shocked and complained. 

I'm still trying to figure out the Fredi banning....I've seen worse behavior, he'd actually improved from when he first arrived.  But I don't go to all of his threads...AbRah was the worst of the worst with harassing the interfaith section.  I equated him with Katherine and the others here "saving souls".  That's why no one said a word.  But, what is done is done.  I think if you wanted to ban Fredi, you should have done it at post 41, not after he started to calm down. 

Still, my core complaint here is still that this site did not allow others to get an honest answer about why a member posted a Memorial to Zarqawi and it was left up.  If I posted a tribute to one of the butchers of Fallujah who might be killed in action, it would be deleted and I would be banned.

Zarqawi killed MUSLIMS, what part of that don't people understand?  Why is there even a debate as to his martyr status?  Isn't intentionally killing a civilian or heck, even just a Muslim a grave sin?

You want to say this site doesn't promote militancy.  Well, I would agree it doesn't promote it, how about some vocal denouncements from the Ummah.  Zea J is the only Muslim on this board to spell it out in plain terms.  Why are the Ummah so afraid to denounce a terrorist and be vocal about it?  Why are you all so afraid to flat out say, he's a murderer?  We're not talking Republican Guard here. We aren't talking about a farmer shooting soldiers who manhandled his wife. We can't argue justification when a bomb goes off in a mosque. 

This is my frustration.  I will flat out tell you, the soldiers at Abu Graib need to be punished.  What they did was a disgrace with no excuses!  But I keep seeing the Ummah shy away from saying, there was no excuse, it was murder. 

Then a Muslim man had the audacity to "warn" a good man and woman that we'll anger God because we speak the Truth??? I'd rather tell the truth than swear to a lie anyday.  MURDERER, MURDERER, MURDERER.  If God judges me badly because I call a spade, a spade.  Then so be it.  His final judgement is God's, but that doesn't mean he gets to be called a big fluffy bunny here on this planet.

Hi Anglea:  

Greetings to you.

Angela: "If I posted a tribute to one of the butchers of Fallujah who might be killed in action, it would be deleted and I would be banned."

The topic starter of that thread in question had been banned. If you recall, he was allowed only after many apologies that he would behave well in the future. I have warned him many times in public, and also in private. Other moderators too have warned him in different ways, both public and private. I had also warned AbRah in public, de facto, all my warnings to him were in public. Rules are same for everyone, and there is no double standard here. That doesn't mean that we can't make mistakes as we are all human beings. But, we improve with each day by the grace of Allah.

There is no need to use the term "militant Islam" because Islam is peace and submission to Allah. I have also answered in that thread that killing innocent civilians anywhere under any circumstances is not allowed in Islam. Period. I hope that is clear.

Angela: "I'm very upset with the Moderators.  Why?  Because I know you all, save Anadalus."

You had problem with Brother Andalus, and that was peacefully resolved. Sister Mishmish and I both had asked Brother Andalus not to start a topic on Mormonism, and he complied with our request. Now he is moderator, and I don't see if there has been any problem between you and him since then. Why to bring him in this complaint in the first place?

Sister Angela, we think that you are here to sincerely learn about Islam, and hope that you would continue to do so. Things always don't happen as we wish, but we still keep moving towards our goal, as that is part of our faith.

Peace

Allow to say that I understand both sides of the coin here. Angela I agree that the moderators do the best they can. I equate them with politicians. We all know that politicians ideally are to serve the best interest of the people however even when coming into office everyones needs may never get met. Not saying that the moderators do not meet the needs of the people in the sense of being the "forum police" they do the best they can in censoring people. BTW Angela in the Announcement section (if you haven't noticed) they did post the names of people that were banned.

On the flip side of it I do see Angela's point here. There is continuous postings of the negative image of the United States. There is a double standard (indirectly if you would say) that there is the allowance of the dislike and hatred towards the United States. I can say that even one of you moderators had posted articles about the United States military killing people. I probably shouldn't say this but in a similar comment Angela to brother Rami and I asked him why the allowance and acceptance of postings against the United States and he told me: "Because the United States is the number one aggressor in the world." Although he is right I still think in my opinion that that is crap and a double standard. We Muslims have so many negative images already why continue the cycle by allowing members to talk freely about America and yes I agree with Angela why live in India but talk crap about the tax system and call it "global injustice!?"

So yes I agree and see Angela frustration because I too as an American and as a member on the forum. On this forum there is no such thing as "freedom of speech" the moment you make rules for anything freedom is out the door. I think what we need here are discussion about the wars and such but dialogue should not shift to how bad America is. For any Muslim inAmerica who dislikes America its hypocritical when they live here and send they kids to the institutions here in my opinion but this is going off topic....