So Help Me Allah

Hello my fellow Americans. I am an American Muslim and a law abiding, tax paying citizen. I have lived here long enough that 38% Americans were born after I came to this country.

I hear all these Islamophobes and learned to give them benefit of ignorance.

To a Muslim, God is only one (Monotheism). Whatever you call Him in different languages does not matter.

To me, yesterday Obama sought help from the same God I would ask from.

God bless you all.

abhab :
ZZIM asks:
"If, however, Barack Obama was a Muslim... should he place his hand on the Koran and say "So help me Allah," at the end of his oath? "
Then he answers thus:
“Sure, who cares?”
I, for one, care, and am sure there are plenty like me who care enough about the future of this great nation to hand its reins to someone who believes that all who share his religion around the world belong to the same nation and that everybody else is an infidel who needs to be either converted or eliminated.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Adhab, not every Muslim is an Islamic supremacist. Nearly all American Muslims are ordinary, patriotic, hard-working Americans. If one of them runs for President, we would know long before the election if the guy had ever in his entire life spoken to or associated himself with Islamic radicals.

The 9/11 hijackers were order to stay as far away from American Muslims as possible. The reason for that is simple - they would have been turned in. Because American Muslims are, by and large, Americans first.

The race or religion should not make any restriction. Choosing an African American to be the President of the US has demonstrated the great strength of the American Democracy. Every American should be proud of.
By the way Allah in Arabic is synonym with God in English. A muslim president shall say "so help me God". God for the Christians in the middle east is Allah. Please learn

Folks, Obama mentioned Muslims twice in his inauguration speech. He apparently is NOT inclined to consider Muslims or even Iran as the Axis of Evil since he said America is friends to all people.

You will never destroy Islam. This the weakest time in the history of Islam and you are still powerless to destroy it. What America CAN address is how America deals with the Muslim world.
And first should be American aid to Muslim tyrants. As Emily Bronte said: "The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him, they crush those beneath them."

The Muslim world is grinding away under the tyrants which America supports in order to get ahead and stay on top. And this leads to majorities harming minorities, as the l=plight of Iraqi Christians revealed. And men oppress women. And the rich oppress the poor. And so on.

End American aid and support for the regimes of tyranny.

the Teacher of Ahmet prophet was son-of-uncle of His Wife HAtice, VAraka bin Nevfel and He was with Bible and Israel. "Ellah" is a word as "Christ". "Jesus" is a word as "Ahmet".

codes of nuclear missiles are in a bag and the president shall sleep within 15 meters to the bag. this is a line of a lyrics. this is Russians and Israel and 14 Elders.

Williams Bush, please kiss the stones of the pavement of White House, for my right.

is there a paper in the bag, Williams Bush? is there a book? the papers from Jordan River? that is Nicholas, that is Northern Africa. this is the No Child Left Behind Act (not to be a hind but nicholas)

thanks to Williams Bush that has taken a grand step to the end of slavement in Africa, He has cleaned Ottomans Dutch and Portugueses, and He has taken all to the end of Civil War in USA.

thanks to USA for the grand movement, from Memories of PAst to Vivid Cheerful Life. Ahmet and FAtima are also with Jesus and MAry. we are all together. "Huseyin" is "double beauty".

El-Lah is as a Council of Elders. we are all in the Family on EArth. we leave bodies and we take bodies. this is death and birth, embodiment and exbodiment. we shall walk with the Council.

Err, what?

ZZIM asks:
"If, however, Barack Obama was a Muslim... should he place his hand on the Koran and say "So help me Allah," at the end of his oath? "
Then he answers thus:
“Sure, who cares?”
I, for one, care, and am sure there are plenty like me who care enough about the future of this great nation to hand its reins to someone who believes that all who share his religion around the world belong to the same nation and that everybody else is an infidel who needs to be either converted or eliminated.

"If, however, Barack Obama was a Muslim, as a surprising amount of Americans still believe, should he place his hand on the Koran and say "So help me Allah," at the end of his oath? Yes, because in the coming years he would need his faith as never before."

Only problem here is, the same Christians who claim this is about 'religious freedom' if a Christian does it, also scream bloody murder if a Muslim is elected to the Minnesota state Congress.

It's not about 'freedom' ...it's about their way or no way.

Transparently.

Indeed!

Not only is it the case that, when speaking in English, a Muslim would use the phrase "So help me, God!" , but it is also the case that, all over the Middle East, not only Muslims but all denominations of Christians (Maronites, Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants) use the word 'Allah' to denote God, and in Malaysia, Christians insisted (over the misguided objection of a very few Muslims) on their right to use the word 'Allah' to denote God, and their right to do so was fully honored.

Allah just means God in Arabic. Arabs who are Christians say Allah as well when referring to God. So, if a Muslim president were speaking in English, he would say God as well.

Fuzzytruthseeker,

I do not hate muslims. I hate injustice, dishonesty, and violence. Interestingly,you have equated the two, not me.

I said read history and Koran. You call that "facts taken out of context".

I did not insult you, so why do you consider insulting me?

Who is truly "open to reason" and who is trying to not address the facts? Pretending to be for peace and interfaith dialogue without an honest and rational discussion of facts will not solve the problem of violence.

Peace be upon ALL.

Clearthinking1,

You cherish your hatred of Muslims?

Be my guest!

If you had been open to reazon, I would have provided websites on "perception" to demonstarte to you how you (or anyone) can be fooled by appearances (or even 'facts' taken out of context), but what would be the point? You cherish your hatred of Muslims and wish to cultivate it.

How can I help you maximize your extasy?

By insulting you here?

Don't count on me!

Peace be on you!

Islamic terrorism for RELIGIOUS goals will never stop. Good luck with "rational interfaith understanding". Please read history and the Koran.

Islamic terrorism for POLITICAL goals can be easily stopped. Just tell Saudis to stop funding it and Pakistanis to stop supporting it.

Clearthinking1,

Thanks for the qualified compliment.

For the innumerable initiatives by Muslims to fight so-called 'Islamist' extremism, I invite you and anybody who is interested to visit Juan Cole's website "Informed Comment" at http://www.juancole.com/

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute and Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan.

He has a special page on "Muslim Denunciation of Al Qaeda and Terrorism" at http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/jim_wallis/2009/01/so_help_me_allah/all_comments.html

There are an innumerable number of initiatives started by Muslims with the collaboration of activists of inter-faith understanding dedicated to promoting rationality and inter-faith understanding. If you wish to join please contact any of them.

Also, do yourself a favour and read Arundhati Roy's aclaimed opinion piece titled "The Monster in the Mirror" which both Outlook India and Tehelka published, and was applauded by millions of all faith.

Regards.

Garak wonders:
“Who would America elect first: a Muslim or an atheist?”

If that ever happens, Allah forbid, it would no longer be the USA we know today as the worlds' only superpower, but a failed entity very much like North Korea or Afghanistan.

To fuzzytruthseeker:

You make a beautiful point with Kabuliwala.
Unfortunately, that was a movie. The reality is more disturbing. The human experience is a shared one, ideally. The innocent dead in Mumbai and thousands of victims of islamic terrorism in the 21st century aren't really a "shared human experience". It is injustice and evil.

You, Mr. Wallis, and everybody has a duty to fight injustice and evil first. The pain and emotions of the victims and their families are more real than any movie. I hope the intensity of emotion you felt watching the terrorist attack is more than what you feel watching the movie. Act on the real emotions and real world. Then you can return to the land of dreams, movies, and poetry.

Subhan'Allah, Babu, Subhan'Allah!

How well, you write!

The first line above is a slightly modified adaptation of a brief conversation (as depicted in a poignant scene in the 1961 artistic film of Bimal Roy on Rabindranath Tagore's short story Kabuliwala) that the Kabuliwala has with the Indian saadhu whom he encounters singing an eternal melody on the banks of the river Ganges. Tagore's Nobel Prize winning work probes the human condition and often celebrates the shared cultural and geo-political heritage of Central-and-West-Asia nd Europe. The lonely Kabuliwala has just succeeded in overcoming the fear of Mini, the daughter of the famous poet/story-teller to whose doorstep his perambulations selling the wares he carries in the bag on his shoulders have brought him. Mini had feared that the Kabuliwala may catch her and smuggle her in the bag he carries on his shoulders to Kabul, a fear that her mother had encouraged as a stratagem to keep the child indoors, but that the poet-father reproved as xenophobic. Having gained the child’s trust, Kabuliwala had shared with her the story of his own motherless daughter whom he had left in Kabul when he came to India to work and accumulate enough money to pay back a debt at home, and his deep emotional attachment to her and impatience to go back to hug her again. The melodious singing of the saadhu makes his spirit soar. When the saadhu finishes singing, Kabuliwala exclaims “Subhaan’Allah! How well you sing!” “ You like the song? Do you understand [hindi]?” “ I don’t comprehend [the words, with my brain], but I understand the emotions {with my heart]”.

Beyond Eurasia, in the Western Hemisphere, in Africa, in Australia, the human experience
is a shared one.

Thanks, Reverend Wallis, for reminding us!

*So Help Me Allah* if any President says so,that will be End of American Civilization.

Naive idealists like Jim Wallis are dangerous. The history and present behavior of Islam have often been often violent. This is fact. Just look from Algeria to Philipines with Pakistan shining inbetween.

Until the acceptance of violence is reformed and removed, a true believing muslim as president is a little worrisome, to be honest.

To paraphrase: the right to complete freedom of religion ends where another persons nose begins.

"Take it away."

The problem is that the Religicos misinterpret that as Divine Destiny. They're not smart enough to distinguish subtle differences. It's the same as giving a loaded gun to an infant. Neither one knows what to do with what they have. Just keep both away from them.

Before the day arrives that a president pledges help from Allah it would be useful if Islamic terrorism is vanquished from our modern world.

And when a Satanist gets elected, we'll all be cool with a hearty "So help me, Satan?"

Here's a thought: why doesn't the president honor the Establishment Clause and the "no religious test" clause (Article VI, section 3) of the US Constitution by leaving his personal supernatural beliefs (or lack thereof) out of official government ceremonies?

Herbert Hoover got it right: he put his hand on a copy of the Constitution, and said the 35 words that the Constitution prescribes, ending with "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

It's a shame that Roosevelt and every president thereafter failed to follow Hoover's secular example, choosing instead to wrap religious trappings around this Constitutionally mandated ceremony.

Personally I cannot bring myself to believe that Obama actually buys into the god hypothesis.
We still live in a country where we have to pretend to be superstitious fools before we can run for office.
Best thing to do is pretend along with everyone else; only way to get ahead in politics, and many other professions.
It's a funny old world for sure.

It is for the people of faith a real big a deal to say the words " So help me God " . It changes one's life for ever. Though in general conversation Muslims use God instead of Allah . In Arabic language there is no other gender for the word Allah , closer to Muslim belief in the oneness of Allah . It is a matter of faith, if you belive it is your God other wise a stone!

Who would America elect first: a Muslim or an atheist?

"If, however, Barack Obama was a Muslim... should he place his hand on the Koran and say "So help me Allah," at the end of his oath? "

Sure, who cares?

Nice article, thanks for writing it.

Actually, were he Muslim, he'd probably just say "So help me God," since to Muslims (and Christian Arabs) Allah is just the Arabic word for capital-g God, and as such, when speaking in English saying "God" is perfectly fine. Just as French Muslims can say "Dieu" and even Persian Muslims will say "Khoda." It's all the same. It's only Christians who make this Allah/God disctinction, and tend to do so pejoratively.

Personally, I'd rather they all just say, "So help me the Constitution and the people of the United States of America who elected me."

Once again, a division of faith rejecting the transcendence of One Who Is Above All Else. God or Allah, call with any name, the identity is ultimately yours.