The great majority of Americans do not know much about Islam but nonetheless fear it as violent, expansionist and alien to their society. The problem to overcome is not hatred, but ignorance.
Interpretation
Fear of Islam stems from a lack of understanding rather than genuine hatred.
This quote highlights the misconception that many Americans hold towards Islam, associating it with violence and expansionism due to ignorance. It suggests that the root problem is not animosity towards the religion itself, but rather a lack of knowledge and understanding about its teachings and beliefs.
In practice
In a discussion about cultural awareness, this quote could emphasize the importance of education.
If people who cherish freedom, who know the importance of mutual respect and are aware of the imperative necessity to establish a constructive and critical debate, if these people are not ready to speak out, to be more committed and visible, then we can expect sad, painful tomorrows. The choice is ours.
My experience of living with people of diverse religions and cultures taught me that one will never be at peace with the other if one is at war with oneself.
I believe my religion is the truth, but I am not the truth and the truth doesn't belong to me I'm trying to belong to the truth.
Compelling a woman to wear a headscarf is against Islam, and compelling her to remove it is against human rights.
This simple truth is the essence of my message to Muslims throughout the world: know who you are, who you want to be, and start talking and working with whom you are not. Find common values and build with fellow citizens a society based on diversity and equality.
Instantaneous and mass communication is the mother of mass naivety. Should we then lose hope? Is there any hope? But to lose hope is as dangerous as to nurture false hope. Where then can we find hope that is responsible?
True education is awakening a love for truth...opening the eyes of the soul to the great purpose and end of life.
It's one of the biggest fibs going that American newspapers are now being forced to give up their commitment to investigative reporting. Most of them gave up long ago as their greedy managements squeezed every cent out of the bottom line and turned their newsrooms into eunuchs.
If every parent understood the huge educational benefits and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to their children, and if every parent- and every adult caring for a child-read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to the children in our lives, we could probably wipe out illiteracy within one generation.
When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend.
If your children want to alter society, listen to their reasons and the idealism behind them. Don't crush them with some clever remark straight away.
The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.
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