Twin Towers

On the 11^th September 2001 I was one of the many people who survived the Twin towers attack. But I was only lucky as I was on the third floor of the building so it was a lot more easy to escape compared to others. But I still wasn't able to breathe as the amount of smoke in the building was toxic. People around me were losing arms and getting fatally injured and paper was flying around everywhere. I was listening to people make phone calls to their loved ones saying goodbye on my fight out of the building, it was horrible. In my head I was praying to God to protect me and keep me alive as I thought I would be one of the people who couldn't make it out of the building.

I was wondering to myself, why would God let this happen to me? Why did he let me come into work today? Why would he let all the people in the building have their lives taken? If God’s omnipotent and all powerful why could he not convince the terrorist bombers to change their mind and respect other people’s lives? If God is also omniscient and saw and knew what was going on why was I and about nineteen others the only survivors? If God is all loving why did he let the other workers in the building lose their lives in such a tragic way? I was upset because all of my work friends and people I did not know was not able to make it out alive like I did, and telling their loved ones the news broke my heart. If God is all loving why did many of their lives get taken so quickly? This was mostly a moral evil as the terrorist bombers were responsible for making two planes crash into both of the buildings taking many lives but why would God let these people do that?

God is the creator and ruler of the Universe, as a Roman Catholic I agree that Jesus suffered and maybe God wanted us to because we need to know the understanding of the suffering like he did. God also gave us free will which means people can choose therefore humans create the evil and suffering but maybe the terrorists that day thought that bombing the world trade center was the right thing to do to. They must have liked the thought of people suffering to show their belief in their own faith and that they would do anything for their own God. Jesus also argued for change and we can do the same, the prayer I said in my head that day was the prayer that saved my life. We don’t know why most people’s lives got taken so quickly that day. God probably wanted their suffering to end and they would've got the reward of eternal paradise when they died and if you were on the higher floors, God may have thought it was better to die quicker than suffer in pain for a longer time; he wanted them to be at peace.
HL @harl3yl

This is why I still believe in God because even though many other people in the building lost their lives, and he let this happen. The best explanation for it was that God gave us free will, we could avoid the evil and suffering by doing god acts and loving one another and showing God that we don’t deserve to suffer. God also spared my life because in my prayer I was telling him how I wasn't ready to die and he saved me. The terrorists may have been tempted by their own God or the devil to bomb the buildings. For the people that did lose their lives, God put them at peace they got the reward of eternal paradise. 

Bringing up Children

Dear diary,
                         I am worried for my children.

I promised myself before Kirsty and Katie were born that I would never be the kind of parent to force my own beliefs onto my children, as my parents did to me, and I am not. Believe me, I am not. However, all the same I feel that my daughters are too young to be making an important decision about faith by themselves.They are ten and eleven years old, and I don't feel they know enough about the world's religions to be able to make awell-informed choice and to stray away from Christianity. Both John and I felt that a strict Roman Catholic school might stifle them, so we did not send them to one, but now I am wondering if this was a mistake.

Also...well, I admit, this isn't all just about them. It's about me too. Catholicism is all I have ever known. If they turn to Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, or any other religion? I'm not ignorant, I do have a working knowledge of most of the biggest religions in the world today, but I am by no means an expert. I won't be able to guide them through it, help them, show them what they must do, because it is simply not something that I have experience in. That thought scares me very much.
Futhermore, the fact is that religious discrimination is everywhere in today's world. I have not experienced it firsthand myself, I admit, but I see it everyday and there is not a thing that I, myself, as one person, can do about it. I want the best for my children and cannot bear the thought of allowing them to take their own religious route knowing full well what they are exposing themselves to. People can be cruel. I do not want my children to lead a life of being insulted, blamed, discriminated against because I did not give them enough guidance when they were young. 
Ultimately, if my children choose to follow a religion that is different from mine, it is their choice, and it is okay. But I worry about the consequences.

Conversion

Converting to another faith or from no faith at all is meant to be a happy time, especially in so called 'Multi-faith' Britain right? Wrong. I have lived in this country for years now, most of those years, were spent as a practising Catholic, and my time in Britain was going well, I had a supportive family and was doing well at University, but when I took a life changing decision to become a Muslim, everything seemed to slowly change.

My family even struggled to accept my decision, I think mostly they were confused, as to why I suddenly decided to convert, changing from a faith that I had been brought up to believe in. And there seemed to be no questioning these beliefs. One main thing I have discovered during my time as a Muslim, is that it is human nature to feel the need to make others believe what you believe, and we seem to find it very hard to accept people's different beliefs. I feel like my choice is not socially accepted in even in this apparent multi faith society. I am 'randomly' searched more often, making me try to avoid travelling when I can, whereas before my intentions were the opposite, to travel as often as possible. After events like 9/11 and 7/7 the Muslim faith was generalised, making some Muslim's lives a living hell, now I'm beginning to experience that hell.

Trying to convert followers of other religions when you are living in a multi-faith society is a form of prejudice and discrimination against others with other faith's to you. Yet I am still asked frequently when I'm going to snap out of this 'faze', by my own friends and family.

Some find it very easy to judge other religions when they know barely anything about them. How can you regard a religion as wrong, or useless, unless you have studied them and compared the differences? Well some find this very easy.

SC

Blog: Multifaith Marriage, Conversion, Children - HH

This weeks Daybreak topic is issues in a multi-faith society, especially in relationships. I asked you to send in your veiws and the response was huge.
  
The first issue I came across alot, to do with multi faith marriages. One letter I recieved was from a jewish boy call Isacc who wants to marry his muslim girlfriend. He wrote saying " It's really hard because I love my girlfriend but my family mean alot to me to. They want me to marry a jewish girl as that is what my religion says is best for me. Either way I willl end up upsetting both of them." As you can see this is a very big dilemma. Isacc will either end up upsetting his family or his girlfriend. This would be a very hard decision for anyone to make, and I wish you all the best, whatever the outcome.
    
The next issue I came across was conversion. Many relationships have two people of diffrent religions or one person religious and the other not. This can be very conflicting as they have diffent views on their faith. I recieved a letter from Claire, who is not religious, who is going out with a catholic boy, John, who is trying to convert her to catholicism. She said " I really love my boyfriend, but it's hard.I have never had a religion before and I don't want to change." This is a hard issue because Claire wants to please her boyfriend, but she doesn't want to have a faith. This issue is very common in our multi religious society and I believe the best solution is talking it out.
  
Our final issue is bringing up of children in a multi-faith society. Many faiths have diffrent views on how they should raise there children. I had a letter from a catholic and muslim couple. Rose is a catholic girl, who is pregnant with her muslim husband Tamwar. Rose said " Me and Tamwar have been discussing the faith of our child since I found out I was pregnant. We both want diffrent faiths for our child, and it is causing arguments between us." Faith is a big part in bringing up a child, but the most important thing is that the child is healthy, then to discuss the faith of the child.

H.H