Feisal Abdul Rauf Quotes

When I Arrived In America, I Experienced Serious Culture Shock. For Someone With A Religious Upbringing, The 1960s Were An Extremely Difficult Time. Even Though Religion Was A Big Part Of The Civil Rights And Peace Movements, In My College Religion Was Treated As Irrelevant, Hopelessly Stodgy, And Behind The Times.

I Was Completely Surrounded By Religion From A Young Time. I Was Taught By My Father. I Engaged In Discussions With Him And Many Of These Scholars Who Visited And Came Around The Dining Table, The Lunch Table, And Attended Many Lectures With My Dad. And So I Learned The Apprentice Way.

I Worked As A Teacher In The Public School System In New York City For Several Years, And I Was A Victim Of The Layoffs, You Know, In The Mid-'70s. And Then I Worked As A Sales Engineer For A Company In New Jersey That Was Selling Industrial Filtration Equipment.

In The 20th Century, The Muslim World Created A Vision Of Religious Nationalism. Turkey, For Example, Had To Be Ethnically Turkish. Kurds, Armenians, Other Minorities Didn't Have A Place In Such A Vision Of A Nation-state.

I've Spoken With Friends Who Are Rabbis And Priests And We've Agreed That Most People Have An Emotional Attachment To Their Faith, A Desire To Fulfill Their Spiritual Longings, But They Are Not Experts In Understanding The History Of Their Religion.

In Spite Of The Polls, The Fact Is That American Muslims Are Very Happy And They Thrive In This Country.

What's Right With America And What's Right With Islam Have A Lot In Common. At Their Highest Levels, Both Worldviews Reflect An Enlightened Recognition That All Of Humankind Shares A Common Creator - That We Are, Indeed, Brothers And Sisters.

The Battleground Has Been Moderates Of All Faith Traditions In All The Countries Of The World Against The Radicals Of All Faith Traditions In All Parts Of The World.

The Islamic Method Of Waging War Is Not To Kill Innocent Civilians, But It Was Christians In World War Ii Who Bombed Civilians In Dresden And Hiroshima, Neither Of Which Were Military Targets.

I Have Never Made A Threat. I've Never Made A Threat, Never Expressed A Threat, Never - I've Never - I Would Never Threaten Violence Ever, Because I Am A Man Of Peace, Dedicated To Peace.

We Are Americans. We - We - We Are - We Are Doctors. We Are Investment Bankers. We Are Taxi Drivers. We Are Store Keepers. We Are Lawyers. We Are - We Are Part Of The Fabric Of America. And The Way That America Today Treats Its Muslims Is Being Watched By Over A Billion Muslims Worldwide.

In Malaysia, Where Western Culture Was Extremely Influential, I'd Grown Up Listening To Elvis And The Beatles And Watching American Movies. People Wanted To Be Like Americans. In Contrast, When I Got Here, I Saw Prosperous Middle-class American College Students Wanting To Somehow Join The Third World.