Muslim Saves Jews
 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/12/sub...ack/index.html

Two things:

1. This war on Christmas thing is getting out of control and starting to produce backlash. People need to chill.

2. I really love the Muslim angle on this story, Lord knows they need all the good PR they can get. I hope there will be a follow up to this story where they can get a reaction from the Jews that were saved.

1. The whole "war on Christmas" nonsense belongs in the lap of folks like Bill O'really. He incites people to be enraged about something that does not exist. What a pitiful man.

2. I have another angle on the story that I think has been forgotten for too long. "We" - Muslims, Jews and Christians -are all the children of Abraham and we share in many of the same prophets, as well as the same god. The great tragedy is that variations in religious doctrine has pitted brother against brother for centuries.

Doctrine.

I think that it goes both ways though and produces reactionary responses. I think there was a bit of the ridiculous war on Christmas at first, blew out of control, fanned by the media, people reacted to it and fed into it, and now that the pendulum has shifted so far to one side, it may have begun to start swinging the other way. I think in time it will all calm down and not be such a big deal.

That's the crazy thing about the Abrahamic faith isn't it. Like a family squabble gone horribly wrong. That's why I like stories like this one. It shows that we can transcend the nonsense. I wish the media would spend more time on stories like this rather than fan the flames of hatred.

Actally I am too amused at the similarities between the Jew, Islam and Christianity .. Is it just coincidence bec of geographic location ?

Well said, again. Where do I sign up for the jorgelito fan club? :D

Uh, no. Literally, the jews, muslims and christians followed from the house of Abraham. He is the geographic center, if you will.

Abrahamic faiths...

A pretty good article in Time Magazine a few years back...
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...3355-2,00.html

Thanks, Cyn. That article explained the relationships very well to me.

Muslim or not, Askari did the right thing. Just goes to show that man can treat others like human beings regardless of religion, creed, color, etc. I think this puts too much focus on the fact that it was a Muslim that helped Jews, and not someone that stood up against many to do what was right.

I wish that those punks are tried for hate crimes. I wish those punks could be tried for being ignorant and inhumane... but the world could be even more of a fucked up place if my wishes were given. No joke.

@Cynthetiq:
Good read.

Jews and Moslems and Christians helping one another (on a personal level) is nothing new. It happens every day in Israel and elsewhere. Unfortunately the media doesn't consider it ”news-worthy”. I'd like to stick my size 42 clogs up their asses.

Agreed, to me the story is not about Muslim helping a Jew, just one person helping another. I really hope it inspires people to just help others, that are in need and that is basically it.

Individual people are most often good, and kind, and will do what is right to help a fellow human being.

In groups, we are savage bastards; we have most of the animalistic pack mentality that our caveman forefathers had. Conformity to the group = good, different = bad.

Quoted for truth. I've discovered that individuals are nice; groups are not. It's pretty much a universal that groups, unless they've come together for that express purpose, are less likely to help someone in need. An individual might separate themselves from the herd, but that's an individual action.

Quoted for truth again.

people of the book...

Glad to see that people are more open minded then the media makes us out to be. I thought this article was a nice counter balance to the "Muslim Father Kills Daughter" thread. Interesting to see how drastically different these two threads are and how little interest there is in a thread about a Muslim doing a good deed versus a thread than a thread about a Muslim doing a bad thing.

Hey, did I say I was done having an opinion on this? :D

The article you shared with us is getting more and more traction in the press, maybe because it's a feel good holiday tale. I think it represents more than that on several levels. We are not savage bastards simply by congregating at a train station. Leaders emerge and rise above the pack mentality.

Couple of observations.

First that guys girlfriend is WAY to hot for him and unless red hair is now a Jewish thing, not Jewish.

Second, kudos to Hassan Askari, that took balls.

Apparently there were other Jews on the train that didn't help, I'd like to hear a more neutral account.

The only reason this is a story of course is the religions involved. Guy helps guy getting beat up on subway doesn't warrant a headline in the media. On the other hand a Muslim helping a Jew instead of killing them or denouncing them does. That says quite a bit.

nothing to say

I do wonder a drop about the other Jews (I can tell you they were not from Williamsburg though, and if you get that then you know a lot more about Jewish culture) on the train, but really I wonder about how many other people were on the train total, how many others did nothing. I can talk about the Holocaust and people turning a blind eye until massacres underway, but that is taking it more to an extreme then this slim example is.

But the truth is I think it is all our jobs to speak up, and help out if we can.

Wow, I guess you don't know many Jews.. like pocon said, red hair is pretty common. Fire red, too, not just auburn.

It could happen too if the media would change its tone.

If the news upsets us and causes us to grumble about "this and that" most of the day - and such news strengthens our prejudgices and racial tendandcies - then more of the humanitarian "good news" simple must have the opposite affect. Apparently, "good news" doesn't sell newspapers so we're stuck in the shit indefinitely.

Personally, I NEVER buy newspapers and I stay clear of the TV news too. Does that make me less informed about the world? I travel a whole lot so I don't think so. But what about the people who don't have the time or money to leave Hicksville? They've got nothing but the media for international community information . Now that really is BAD NEWS.