Did not the Moors and the Ottomans invade Spain and more of Europe…as well as Turkey and other countries.
Yes, they did. I try to look at the bigger picture though. I am not a supporter of any injustice, regardless who does, be it the Orthodox Church, Catholic Church, or the Muslims for that matter.
There is a universal law, what goes around comes around. Jesus taught this, do unto others as you would have them done unto you.
I believe the oppression that the Muslims are enduring is because of the oppressions they caused others, I believe that is true for the church as well, historically speaking, when the Muslim oppressed the Orthodox Church in Greece, or the Muslim conquering Spain, etc etc. If you study history you will see it is because of an injusitce (oppression) that they caused cause someone else, or it may simply be a test.
But is it not true that “truly peaceful” Muslims wanting to be and remain peaceful need to bring about the cessation of the hostilities caused by the extremists?
With Colonization, the Islamic clergy was dismantled, almost wiped out and the expansion of the western thought into the Muslim world, the intelligent people of the regions are not becoming Muslim scholars, but engineers and doctors. Thus you are left with very ignorant scholars in the Muslim world. The few intelligent Muslim scholars, are working very hard to spread Traditional Sunni Islam, but they don’t have alot of funding.
The Salafi (Wahabi) brand of Islam was spread through the oil billions of Saudi Arabia. This gave birth to the expansion of Islamic extremism. Not to mention the west supported the many dictators of these Islamic countries, which in turned produced varies different splinter extremeist groups.
At anyrate, Traditional Sunni Islam is slowly trying to come back, but with it, it has alot of issues that it is trying to handle.
I guess what I am trying to say…is that today, I fear that there are people of the Muslim faith who lack any tangible understanding of the real Western mentality…
An ignorant man is a person to be feared to a certain extend, there must be more positive ways to educate them. I don’t have all the answers. There is an great ignroance on both sides.
With that being said, you are right, Muslims cannot soley blame the west for all their problems. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, who is an ex-Orthodox Christian, whose father was Catholic, who I believe is a very fair and just man, mentioned this. That the Muslim need to start looking at themselves I was listening to a lecture by him the other day, and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf said, that very bad actions, whether it is killing, stealing, raping, etc comes from a diseased heart. So Shaykh Hamza Yusuf is trying to educate the Muslims he has contact with, and it is alot in America, he is well respected, by producing books, and audio CD’s on purifying the heart.
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf is well read and educated, a very inspirational speaking. To demonstrate how fair of a man he is, he was explaining commenting on the Christian belief of Trinity and he said, they actually believe in One God, it is just the trinity is a mystery for them. He is a fair and just man.
In Christ,
Silouan
