Well, I'm not a purist.(please don't tell me I am) If anything I'll say
I'm a bettermentalist. This is
why I got involved in raw food. Because the evidence was pointing to raw
food as better and because the philosophy coincides with a philosophy
that i have from a source that I have found fully credible. My issue is
not purism my issue is bettermentalism(to coin a novel phrase). A concept I
read in the Qur'an and
one that I felt was my duty to take up. It extends from diet to all other
things. Because diet, I believe, is key to health to better my health and
to help better the health of others who wish for this is my focal point.
Because a text is 1000 years old does not mean it is wrong or that it
cannot keep up with the times. The key to finding this out is by justly
reading it. Now whether a culture is 600 years behind. This is a very
biased statment. technology is the way we do things. Though another
cultures technology may be different the real merit is in that technology's
effectiveness, safety and usefulness. I have no qualms with technology
but how I would want it to play out in my life is in a wholistic manner
not in an unwholistic one which our society obsessed with the gaining of
capital produces. Capital is not bad, it is the obsession with gaining
capital which can be an undermining factor to human health and true human
prosperity. Having grown up as a Muslim, i feel that I know where Muslims
go wrong, and it is the same reason that many of us go wrong. It is the
failure to justly criticize, to fully study and to try to put things into
proper context. In a word 'prudence'. If one's goal is to truly better
society then prudence will allow this to happen in the best way that it
can. But when someone's motives are fame, money or the like then any goal
of truly bettering the world or even one's community will be undermined
by these underlying motives. But this is personal advice if anything. I
would be a hypocrite if I tried to enforce these values on others. But i
have the right to express my beliefs and whoever agrees with me agrees. A
purist i am not, but a bettermentalist I am. I couldn't give a damn
about 'pure', what I care about is betterment. Where are we know, where
could we be going and how can we get there are the questions I ask and
using intelligence, prudence and discernment are the methods that I use
to get there. All these principles i have learned from the Qur'an, i have
agreed
with them as i've read them because they appeared to be just to me and
befitting. And through these principles I've have come to believe in
the credibility of the Qur'an also. But as the Qur'an says, I will say 'laa
ikraaha feedeeni' or 'There shall be not forcing/coercing concerning
religion, order or way of life'.

Godbless,
Anwar



Liza May wrote:
>
> Robert Ratliff:
> > Is this a raw food diet support list?
>
>
> Liza:
> This is my fault. I introduced this off-topic subject, thinking it was
> warranted because of the extraordinary times we are in.
>
> Let me pose a question, which might make the (one might think "stretch,"
> but actually not) connection between the war - and - raw food.
>
> Please, anyone who can see this clearly, help me out here.
>
> WHY do raw food types, organic simple-lifestyle, shun-materialism,
> types, those who would have been in demonstrations to protest against
> the WTO and globalization and now are in demonstrations to protest
> military action, African-American-blacks in dreadlocks and those
> colorful crocheted caps, and whites with natural hemp clothing flat
> shoes and no make-up, lesbian-feminists, good union activists, lefty
> poets and artists, and RAW FOODISTS  -   why is it that these people
> want to band together in the streets to say "We protest the military
> actions against Bin Ladens and those who shelter bin Laden?"
>
> Why is this? I don't understand.
>
> For those of you in France, Germany, UK, Singapore  ...  those
> listmembers I've corresponded with privately and all you other countries
> represented on this list ... maybe can you see this more clearly than
> me? The "types" I've described above are American "types" - I don't know
> if you outside America have equivalents in your countries.  But I'm
> hoping that maybe with your outside-of-America clearer view perspective
> you can maybe see more clearly the sociology of this to help me
> understand.
>
> It feels to me like there is some bit of arrogance or confusion
> preventing people from seeing something here.
>
> Is the problem just a "style" thing? Is this as simple a thing as simply
> whether a person is wearing cotton clothing - or polyester? Or what
> music they listen to? I don't want to think that people are actually out
> in the streets communicating a message to the world - and it's all based
> on something as superficial as style.
>
> Or, an even darker view, maybe this  "style" is actually the non-verbal
> expression of a philosophy? If that is the case, then I guess I would
> have to say goodbye to many old friends and loves. And goodbye to a
> lifetime of devotion and commitment to leftist causes.
>
> It feels to me that there is some very fundamental disagreement here,
> and I can't quite wrap my brain around it. Or define it even.
>
> It seems to me that the current threat is a movement against modernism
> in our world  --  modern meaning the world of secularism and that
> utterly new-in-human-history brave and radical focus on the importance
> of separation of church and state.  That this movement and attack is
> coming from a culture which is 600 years behind every other religion and
> culture, and is based on a defensive, fundamentalist literal
> interpretation of 1,000-year-old texts. No coincidence maybe that the
> same black-and-white, no grey area, no room for interpretation thus no
> room for doubt rigid reliance on literal meaning of text dogma  --  that
> this very same type of dogma might be attractive to those here in the
> United  States and elsewhere who have that same need and longing - the
> longing for simple, black-and-white, good-and-evil, clearly defined
> answers to human questions.
>
> Namely,  in our case here on our list,  food.
>
> I don't know.
>
> I'm tired, having some sort of crisis here. I'm tired, going to bed.
> Maybe it's time for me to leave this list, and other purist,
> fundamentalist enclaves. I've always been proud of being a "purist." I
> think I have suddenly, finally, grown up.
>