Islam a Religion of Peace?

[pointer]

I feel I have adequately explained my points.

You certainly have totally failed to justify your own claim that Scripture supports violence. You have totally failed to even attempt to support it.

I will not be replying to you further.

That does not surprise me in the least. The claim you made has never been substantiated in the face of genuine scholarship.

It is so very predictable that, any time that the blatant (and illegal) incitement to violence of the Qur'an is mentioned on the 'net, some person will bring up this total nonsense about Scripture, and often decline to even try to justify the accusation. Some people would, it seems, prefer to live under Sharia law than have their ears troubled by the sound of the gospel of life and freedom.

Christians are mocked for their peaceable and supposedly impractical ways, because they are commanded to turn the other cheek, and are commanded always to love their enemies. However, this 'defect' is instantly forgotten whenever Islam's violence is brought up. The protean principles and hypocrisy of anti-Christians are astonishing.

Edited August 17, 2006 by pointer

[vox]

I feel I have adequately explained my points.

You certainly have totally failed to justify your own claim that Scripture supports violence. You have totally failed to even attempt to support it.

I will not be replying to you further.

That does not surprise me in the least. The claim you made has never been substantiated in the face of genuine scholarship.

It is so very predictable that, any time that the blatant (and illegal) incitement to violence of the Qur'an is mentioned on the 'net, some person will bring up this total nonsense about Scripture, and often decline to even try to justify the accusation. Some people would, it seems, prefer to live under Sharia law than have their ears troubled by the sound of the gospel of life and freedom.

Christians are mocked for their peaceable and supposedly impractical ways, because they are commanded to turn the other cheek, and are commanded always to love their enemies. However, this 'defect' is instantly forgotten whenever Islam's violence is brought up. The protean principles and hypocrisy of anti-Christians are astonishing.

I couldn't agree more.

[vox]

2ndeve, ladyraven and georgesbg

Greetings, rather than reply to each it is just as easy to reply to all three, hope there is no objection.

In your collective replies it is implied that:

1. Most Muslims are peace loving.

2. You equate Christianity with Islam or Christian with Muslim.

3. You claim the article provided is biased.

1. If most Muslims are peace loving, where are they when the Mohammed cartoon were published? Why such violent protest around the world by all Muslims from Indonesia to Britain to Arabia? Or don

[jgredline]

The modern world has been consumed since September 11, 2001 with Osama bin Laden (b. 1957) and his version of Islam. Islamic terrorism is the military outcome of the growing radicalization in Islam since the early 1800s, both in response to the spread of Western colonialism and the demise of Muslim political supremacy. Todays Islamic terrorists are particularly angered over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the role of the United States in the Middle East.

Osama bin Laden traces his radicalism to the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia, a movement that began with the reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (170387). The Wahhabis advocated a puritanical and strict reading of Islamic law and belief. The Wahhabis threatened the interests of the Ottoman Turks and, in concert with the Saud dynasty, eventually gained control of Mecca and Medina, Islams holiest cities.

A fundamentalist thrust in Islam emerged in Egypt as well, with the formation of the Muslim Brotherhood (also known as Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun) in 1927. Tormented first by the presence of British rule and then by a tepid Muslim government, Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, his chief intellectual heir, sought by any means, including violence, to restore true Islamic rule to Egypt.

The brotherhood started branches in Jordan and Syria, and militant groups in India, Iran, and Iraq imitated its radicalism. Muhammad Nawab-Safavi started his Fedayeen-e-Islami movement in Iran in the 1930s and told his followers: Throw away your beads and get a gun: for beads keep you silent whilst guns silence the enemies of Islam.Abul Ala Maududi organized his militant Jamaat-e-Islami in the Punjab in 1941.

Western awareness of militant Islam came with the radical overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979 and the establishment of harsh Islamic rule under the Ayatollah Khomeini. Islamic terrorism came to the west with the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the explosions at U.S. embassies in Africa, the attack on the uss Cole in Yemen, and then the horrors of September 11. Recent terrorist bombings in Madrid and London have intensified concerns in the West about militant Islam.

Islamic terrorists like bin Laden use the concept of jihad to defend their actions. It is obvious that jihad in Islamic history carries the meaning of military action as well as spiritual struggle. However, thankfully most Muslims believe that nothing in the life of the prophet Muhammad, the Quran, or Islamic law allows for the wholesale and indiscriminate violence carried out by Al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups.

Significant attention in debates about Islamic terrorism has been given to the argument about a Clash of Civilizationsbetween Islam and the West. This view was advanced first by Harvard professor Samuel Huntington in a famous essay in Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993). Writing just after the first Gulf War, Huntington analyzed the competing ideologies of our time.

On this, a number of Muslim intellectuals are calling for a new and radical self-criticism within Islam. This point has been articulated best by Kanan Makiya, author of Republic of Fear (on Saddam Husseins Iraq) and Cruelty and Silence. Makiya wrote in a London Observer article: Arabs and Muslims need today to face up to the fact that their resentment at America has long since become unmoored from any rational underpinnings it might once have had.

to read more http://www.pro4machineworks.com/Islam.html

[georgesbluegirl]

There is a quote from the eighth surah of the Koran which has been oft-cited by Osama bin Laden and, famously, by Yassir Arafat as one to push all Muslims toward fighting "infidels."

"Frighten [bin Laden would have it be 'terrorize'] thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them, whom you do not know (but) Allah knows them."

In other words, said these leaders, the Koran says to fight your enemies (purported to be Israel or the West).

They didn't include the next part of the passage:

"...And if they [desire] incline to peace, then incline to it and trust in Allah."

The Accessions (Surah 8), V. 60-61

The point? Violence in the Koran is often tempered - if your enemy does not want to fight, don't - rely on God! Most modern readings of the passage recognize it as a call to be strong rather than to fight anybody who doesn't like you/whom you don't like.

In other words, maybe you should consider the fact that Muslims committing heinous crimes in the name of Islam are doing so against what the Koran really teaches - letting their own misinterpretations lead them.

As for Islam being aggressive about other religions - Christians too say that ours/theirs is the other way - that Jesus is the one answer....hm.

[ayin jade]

military/violent action in the koran is generally very tempered. for example, a quote that osama bin laden used to use frequently (the exact escapes me right now, i'll look it up later) is followed by a line saying that if an enemy should not wish to fight, do not force war upon them.

Which is countered by the sura that states that if they (infidels) are willing to pay money to islamic leaders as a form of submission to islam, then it is ok not to fight them. Otherwise they (islam) must always try and conquer them, to force them to submit to islam or force them to pay the ransom tribute.

[billie]

Jesus IS the one answer, or do you believe there are other ways to God? I thought you were Catholic? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.

But I agree with you on some Moslems twisting The Qu'ran to suit they're agendas as do some of our misguided brothers and sisters to with Scripture....

[georgesbluegirl]

i believe in a different interpretation of the "I am the Way" verse than most/all people here, but there's really no point in getting into it...it's neither here nor there anyway. but yeah, Christianity preaches itself as the only way too...that was what I was saying.

[georgesbluegirl]

apparently i must say this again:

jihad is NOT a pillar

repeat

NOT a pillar!

it's claimed to be along with the others (declaration of faith/shahadah, alms, five times daily prayer, hajj/pilgrimage and fasting) by radicals, but most mainstream Muslims reject that.

jihad is NOT central!

[secondeve]

military/violent action in the koran is generally very tempered. for example, a quote that osama bin laden used to use frequently (the exact escapes me right now, i'll look it up later) is followed by a line saying that if an enemy should not wish to fight, do not force war upon them.

Which is countered by the sura that states that if they (infidels) are willing to pay money to islamic leaders as a form of submission to islam, then it is ok not to fight them. Otherwise they (islam) must always try and conquer them, to force them to submit to islam or force them to pay the ransom tribute.

What you're referring to was the tax on the dhimmis (non-Muslims) in lieu of military service in medieval times, in multicultural societies like Spain and Baghdad. Only Muslims could fight in the armies of the state, so because they could not provide this service, non-Muslims paid a levy instead. This is hardly what you're making it out to be, and I'm pretty certain it is no longer imposed, nor has it been for several hundred years.