Jews/Christians have decided to gloss over the more gory bits of the Torah/Bible so Muslims need to to with the Qur'an.
Christians now accept that the Bible should NOT be taken literally…even Archbishops do not believe in the matter of fact creation of the universe in seven days. Likewise, rarely do you here the Pope reminding his Catholic flock of Exodus 35:2 which clearly states that "…whosoever doeth work on the Sabbath shall be put to death". For Christians to reject these outdated beliefs did not mean the abandonment of the entire religion (it is not necessary to throw out the 'baby with the bathwater'). It just means putting things that were written 2,000 years ago into context. [My personal view is that a religion is only truly representative of the original prophet for about 500 years after which time the message has become too diluted from the original, but lets not go there…]
I can imagine representatives of the Taliban saying that this is the reason that Christianity is not the force that it once was (i.e. because it doesn't follow the Bible to the letter), and I can understand this. It would be difficult for any 'progressive Muslims' (as Mirza calls them), which I think would be the majority of Muslims living in the West, to agree with this though.
I hope this doesn't come across as judgemental or preachy. No-one can question the power, importance and beauty of Islam and its role in establishing and continuing great societies the world over, but like Christianity it needs to come to terms with its harsher elements if it is to continue to develop and influence people. Either that or you should all really be taking up arms and smiting my neck!!!
Asalam-a-laikum
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9 comments:
People can believe what they like and practice their religion in any way they want as long as it does not conflict with the civil and criminal law of their host country.
If they want to make themselves look like total mugs thats up to them.
I don't think Christianity or Judeism have anything to be proud about and in the same sense Islam has nothing to learn from either. Few religions move with the times because it weakens their argument of "one way".
Surely you hve to admit that there are very few Christians/Jews who live STRICTLY according to their religious tenants?? Whereas many Muslims do.
Likewise, surely you have to admit that a parody of Christ can never cause the same reaction as a parody of Muhammed?
Everyone should just convert to Sikhism. They have killed all their real enemies, so there is no one left to hate or parody.
That's a good point, a parody of Christ would never cause that kind of a reaction. In the same way that if an author Like Rushdie decided to write his own version of the Virgin birth it would not spark a call for his assasination from the Vatican. A few weeks back, the Pope (who incidentally, IS the anti-christ) referred to an ancient passage (stupidly) which inferred that Islam had brought little else to the world except pain and suffering through violence. Whether you agree with his statement or not, the sad part was that the only Islamic reaction recorded was essentially a call to kill the bastard. Clearly, this is the voice of extremism but where is the moderate response? Where are the moderate muslims who believe both these statements to be crap? Where are the Christian who believe this statement to be the ramblings of an old fool? Going back to your initial argument, people use parts of these old books for their own purpose. An extremist will use those parts of the Qur'an to recruit youths to carry out his will, unfortunately, young people are too young and angry to understand that there are other parts which speak of peace and love.
I think we are missing an important point here.
We don't actually know anything. You may all imagine the universe is being understood by science, but if you read a little closer, we haven't a bloody clue. So on that scale of measurement, the Quran, and even the Bible could be right. They can only be measured properly as a mode of life and morality, proven in their example.
Of course we would have to agree on what measures indicate good, moral, and actually speak to the human condition.
There are certainly segments of Christian society that would want to kill you for a parody of christ, and in some places in Africa and probably USA, they would. We just give great voice and expression to these extremists because it is exciting and part of the propoganda mission of our current leadership. Since when did the insane fringes deserve or have a right to speak for an entire culture? Since the press decided it was good press.
Every day they try to give us some entertainment in the form of mis quoted politicians, misquoted politicians attacking other misquoted politicians, and all being attacked by a fringe element of insane people who have become media stars, like Abu Hamza. And we deliver this propoganda and drive new disciples into each camp.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED in fact. 911 was not a revelation that shook the world. It was simply an attack by some disgruntled people who are still disgruntled over attacks we executed against targets amongst them. This is a simple and rational war that is being turned into the same demoniac good versus evil battle that defined our struggle against communism... or rather the struggle against communism.
Don't believe the hype. Look past the extremism the abusers in charge are trying to engender... look at your thoughts from 5 years ago, to two years ago, to today... have they not done their job well? Have they not indoctrinated us through a never ending and ceaseless onslaught which would have seemed out of place even 3 years ago?
Well done Poxinfinite: "The Quran/Bible could be right", is without a doubt the most outrageous and ridiculous statement to appear on this blog!
Gonna have to do a new post to discuss it!
You've lost me on the rest of what you say!
The point was that shouldn't Islam agree that 'watering down' the rigidness of the religion would be a good step - focusing on on the great cultural family aspects of Islam and not the dogmatic rules?
Actually my point is that if you really believe something, you are entitled to follow it through unless I can prove to you it is false. So if you believe you are an alien who can fly over tall buildings I'd be happy to point out that's probably not true... if you chose to leap off a building, so much the better.
What the rest of us need to do is ensure the fanatics don't impose their dogma on us. We should also argue... but that's probably just going to lead to loud singing.
My point is only that people should be allowed to believe fully what they want to believe. Our freedom of belief itself is attacked by the fanatics, but that just means we have to be better than them.
We can ALLOW them to believe what they want to believe but we don't have to show some sort of sacred respect for it...in the same way that they won't show respect for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
I should be able to take the piss out of their foolishness, whether it be that the world was created 7000 years ago; man has been around since creation; or we shouldnt eat onions/garlic coz God doesnt like the smell.
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