İslam and Quran are straightness in every way. But when some can not find any argument against İslam then he attacks as if İslam impose violence. İn this way he suppose he refute İslam. I am very nervous because that issue is misused very badly. I think that problem must be discussed with all sides in a fairness way. İt can start from any point. Any question and assertion?
Assertion: There is no central authority in Islam that even attempts to convincingly speak for what Islam as a whole says. “Islam is One” is something that you hear quite often, but even that can mean a variety of different things. For example, some Sunni Muslims will tell you it means all of Sunni Islam is one, and the Shiites (for example) are not true Muslims, and they have some very odd teachings that are not true. The Twelfth Imam, for example. Other Sunni Muslims might say something different, and I would think that Shiites would be more inclined to use “Islam is One” as a means of saying Sunni and Shiite (among others) are united within a common faith. So what is the purpose of this assertion? To demonstrate that among Muslims who use a most common phrase “Islam is One,” even something as basic as the meaning of this phrase is not always clear, nor is the idea that any given Muslim might have when it comes to who is truly a Muslim in teaching and praxis.
And now a question. With that as your starting point, how could you expect such a nebulous group of people to speak with one voice when it comes to how Islam ought to act toward people of other religions, when they don’t even speak with one voice when it comes to the inclusion of certain people within Islam? Let me make one thing clear to everyone- when it comes to Muslims doing violence to other people, there is one particular number that far outweighs the number of Christians and Jews killed by Muslims for religiously motivated reasons. By far, the vast majority of people killed by Muslims for those sorts of reasons are Other People who Also say Allah is God and Mohammed is his prophet. The type of person Most Likely to be killed by a Muslim for religious reasons is someone who prays five times daily to Allah but also has some other teachings that just shouldn’t exist. This has everything to do with wildly divergent points of view when it comes to what is true Islam, who calls themselves Muslim but aren’t really Muslim, and who deserves to die for claiming Islam as their own while being guilty of apostasy or blasphemy is some way (which I do Not mean in the sense that they convert to some other major world religion- this is a different, more common and less-clearly-defined type of apostasy that I am talking about).
With that in mind. Islam speaks with one voice on hardly anything, but I do believe there is more of a trend to act with violence in matters that Christians would look at as internal- Muslims killing other Muslims. It obviously depends on what part of the world you’re in, but I will say this- it seems to me that Muslims are more likely to act in violence to try and purify their own religion than they are to attack someone of a completely different world religion, and as far as I know, there have been major efforts in the past to try and make nice with the other Abrahamic religions at least where violence is concerned. Again, it depends on the situation and on what part of the world you’re in, but if you want to talk about a more universal and widespread pattern of violence, that would probably apply much more to Muslims who have serious problems with a different type of Muslim.
Thank you for venturing into this topic, hasantas, that takes courage. I appreciate your thoughts on my questions and assertions, I hope that my ignorance was not too bad.
