my comment is ouside the topic but its related to the last few comments a recent documentary i watched discussing the zionist lobbyist in america regarding the palestinaian issue is Occupation 101. heres the link

http://www.occupation101.com

It is a truly remarkable book and a must-read for anyone remotely interested in the Palestinian issue and the lobby’s work in America.

http://www.amazon.com/Israel-Lobby-U-S-Foreign-Policy/dp/0374177724/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7441316-2926339?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190993730&sr=8-1

The book is newly released.

Siraaj

Amazing isn’t it that you can’t bring God into the speech but you can bring homosexuals into it… very academic topic indeed.

the Muslim lobby is much larger and much more powerful in DC.

You are joking, aren’t you? In fact, I think you are a baby troll that enjoys throwing in strange absurdities in order to make people react. You know as well as I do (unless you live in a cocoon) that the Muslim lobby as compared to the Israel lobby is like a house-fly compared to a bull.

Why is it that Jews are the only foreign people whose Lobbying of the US government is a bad thing?

Don’t conflate Jews with Israel. True that a lot of Jews support the lobby, but there are non-Jews who support it as well, like the Christian Zionists. And most of them are Americans, not foreign, as is the case for the few Muslim lobbyists.

Oh and the “Israeli Lobby” line. Please, the Muslim lobby is much larger and much more powerful in DC. Why is it that Jews are the only foreign people whose Lobbying of the US government is a bad thing?

I think what you’re discussing is a separate issue. We’re talking about politician’s, not scholars. Politicians deal with different issues and pressures, and the respect is for his commitment to his stances in the face of pressure and the luxuries he could have as leader of Iran, which he has discarded.

As for Ash’ari scholars, I know that many of our brothers fight tooth and nail on a regular basis online against them and their ideology. I used to be one of those people, but I have left that behind in favor spending my time bettering my life and trying to come closer to Allah subhaana wa ta’aala. In Chicago, I actively work to cement relations between AlMaghrib Institute da’ees and da’ees from other organizations, whether it’s YM / MAS, or Dar-ul Hikmah. We go as far as even promoting good events which don’t relate to aqeedah because we would prefer that people go to these events than stay home and waste their life watching television when we ourselves have no program that night to offer.

I agree with you that those of us from Ahlus-Sunnah need to stop engaging in petty ad hominems. Besides being juvenile, they are the hallmark of weak intellects. Even during the days of my internet debates, I never, in my memory, spoke ill of specific individuals and focused on criticizing priniciples and practices.

Siraaj

I definitely agree that we don’t follow the creed of Ahmedinejad, but we are giving him respect, right? Therefore, why can’t be jus not follow the creed of the ashari and give them respect at the same time? You know when a popular Ashari ’scholar’ comes to town for a weekend intensive or something, do many of us not over-enthusiastically tell the people this man is from Ahl-Bidah and we encourage people not to go to the masjid to hear him speak? I mean, I understand Ashari are heretics, but still, can we still respect their scholars somewhat with the same type of respect we give Ahmedinejad? I know of Ashari scholars that lives very close in their practices of the Sunnah (obviously except in terms of their creed). Many of us don’t respect these Ashari at all, we hate them with all of our over-zealous hearts, why cant we at least be somewhat respectful? I mean when Shaykh Yasir Q signed this Pledge of Unity, did many of his students even start losing respect for Shaykh Yasir? SubhanAllah, yet we’ll still give respect to this Shia-leader…

It’s not his creed that we respect – it’s the amount of pressure he’s withstanding without either bending backwards in political doublespeak to sugarcoat his beliefs or retracting positions “for the good of all.”

And, the other thing worth noting is that this is perhaps the only political leader who truly lives an austere lifestyle reminiscient of what we’ve read about the 4 khulafaa ar-rashideen. I’m not saying he’s like them, don’t get me wrong here, what I’m saying is that relative to what’s out there from sunnis, the man is respectable from many different angles.

Doesn’t mean I’d follow him. It just means I respect him.