It isn’t fair to tar 1.8 million for actions of a few

Members of the Auburn Ministerial Association published a shared statement to disown Rev. Rudy Tidwell’s hatefull description of Muslims in an article published on the Opelika-Auburn News online newspaper. In this letter titled “Muslim religion should be feared in the US,” Tidwell describes Islam as “…a dangerous body of more than 2 billion people who are determined to convert or kill and there is no compromise to be made.” As disturbing as it is to read such hateful remarks that are also full of misinformation (or disinformation) from a member of the clergy: it is equally assuring to see that majority of Auburn clergy people don’t share Rev. Tidwell’s disturbing views on a peaceful people. Tidwell thinks that the Arab spring is in fact a Muslim spring “…meaning that the growing takeovers we see in various Middle Eastern countries are Muslims rising up worldwide.” We would recommend doing some meaningful reading before attempting to comment on geopolitical events. Fortunately the members of the Auburn Ministerial Association who possess the commonsense and sound judgment that would be expected from religious figures acted before any further misunderstanding was created.

We, the undersigned members of the Auburn Ministerial Association, wish to disassociate ourselves from the remarks made by the Rev. Rudy Tidwell about Islam and Muslims in the Sept. 20 edition of the Opelika-Auburn News for these reasons:
Any religion that demands its members to pray five times a day and to fast for an entire month (Ramadan) must be doing something correct and pleasing in the sight of God..

Is it fair to tar 1.8 billion members for the actions of a few? Should we not distinguish between Islam the religion and Islam as an ideology? Islam in itself is a peaceful religion, although a few radicals act against its religious precepts. One of the Sunni intellectuals, Fethullah Gülen, who has a faith-based movement in Turkey, has argued persuasively that “a true Muslim cannot be a terrorist.”

Source: http://www2.oanow.com/news/2012/oct/04/letter-it-isnt-fair-tar-18-million-actions-few-ar-4683513