" Allahum athelohom kama athalona, Allahum ersel ghadabaka aleyhom, Allahum elanhom fe al donya wa al akhira "

Translates as: "our god: humilate them like they humilated us, our god, send your wrath on them, our god, damn them in this life and the afterlife."

Typical angry Muslim prayers heard in Mosques with the Imam (man heading the prayer congragation) breaking up in tears whenever a brutal war breaks loose against any Islamic country. i.e : Bosnia, Chechnia, Afghanistan (during the Soviet invasion and now with the American army targeting the Taliban and Al-Qa'eda), Kashmir, Palestine and the list goes on.

There have been more than 300 arrests in Saudi Arabia targeting such angry Imams praying in Mosques, Saudi is committing itself along with Pakistan and many other Islamic nations to rid it self of angry prayers and Muslims preaching hate. Mecca as the religious capitol has been preaching peace while the various scattered Mosques have been preaching hate.

It is in my humble opinion that the only way to truly achieve peace in the middle east is if both sides, Jews and Muslims, rid themselves of extremism and hate preaching. Now I'd really like to know what goes on at the Wailing Wall or inside Jewish temples in Israel; perhaps a Jewish reader living in Israel would create a node about it?

I wonder how much of a role censorship (religious or otherwise) plays in a view of peace and long lasting harmony in the middle east. Islamic opinions, especially true and frank ones, expressed sincerely in their ultimate form, the prayer, are going to be unpopular with those who have caused suffering to the supplicant. This is a natural feature of the private prayer, and regardless of what one may say about the political orientation of an imam, the act of prayer in a mosque is as intensely personal as it is public from what I can gather. (1)

As regards to the anger felt by the Islamic world, silencing it through those who simply express public opinion will only deepen and strengthen the roots of resentment, making them harder (if you'll excuse the pun) to root out. The traditional tactic of impairment of a heirarchical clergy structure doesn't really work with Islam, as there is no formal clergy, and even when someone is appointed, all actions done in accordance with their wishes are voluntary, hence no one is compelled, and thus there isn't the authoritarian or political leverage one finds in other societies. This makes it all the more difficult to 'remove' Islamic anger, or stifle the channels of it's expression.

Of course the real question isn't the extent or nature of the anger, but rather it's source. Do they have a specific list of complaints based in reality? If so, do they not have a right to be angry? Or are we just upset because they are angry at us?

(1) Source: - Oxford University Gazette, 22 January 1998: Lectures :- Sat. 21 Mar.–Sun. 22 Mar.: `Inside the mosque—outside the mosque, the anthropology of Muslim prayer across the Indian Ocean.' (With the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology)

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