I was Muslim for most of my life. And when I was Muslim, I never imagined me ever becoming Christian. And Iāll tell you why, I always felt Christians are self-righteous, they are very judgmental people, and I felt that lacked true spirituality. Iāve never met a Christian and said, āYou know I would like to be him or her.ā
I chose Orthodoxy solely based on its spiritual tradition.
R_Not has NOT done her homework. My skin crawls when I read what she writes, I am ashamed of what she is doing in the name of Christ, because what she is doing is simply unjust and coloring a picture of Islam that isnāt true. There is a difference between, Muslims mis-intrepreting the religion and what Islam teaches. She is basing her conclusion on the misinterpretation of so-called Muslim scholars. And then she blames the whole of Islam as the source of the problem. The source of the problem isnāt Islam and its primary sources but rather a person with a diseased spiritual heart. And to be honest that is the source of R_Not problem as well. No amount of proofs or explanations is going to change her ways. She has some internal problems going on there.
Now if R_Not brought up some valid points like inJesus did concerning the Jiziya, this can be verified. inJesus presented a statement from Umar, a companion of Muhammad. And then I went to a classical fiqh text to see how the jiziya is to be implemented and it is almost exact wording. This is valid objective to Islam.
R_Not present people like Yusuf Qardawi, whose positions goes against many of the classical Islamic scholar its laughable. Justifying the killing of innocent civilian, making permissible unslaughtered meat, making music permissible etc etc. This goes one and one, where Yusuf Qardawi deviates from Orthodox Sunni Islam.
R_Not present countries where Muslim engage in honor killings, a practiced that muslims inherited from the Jewish Traditions and than blames Islam for it, because honor killings has no basis in the Quran and Sunnah, nor can you find the permissibility of such actions among the recognized classical scholars.
R_Not has not done her homework. All she wants to do is paint a bad picture of Islam, by any means necessary, and this unjust, hateful, cruel, wrong, un-christ-like, devlish, and satanic.
I donāt think Jesus would want us to ignore teachings that mis-represent a whole group of people based on someoneās hate of that religion. R_Notās hate for Islam.
Well it would be impossible for her to prove her un-christ-like actions.
I havenāt studied those hadiths, to give an accurate answer. But Islam isnāt based on one or two hadiths, but is based on Quran and Sunnah as the early Muslims understood it. But I will admit the hadiths that you presented are quite disturbing.
In Christ,
Silouan
your first paragraph made me chuckle because when i was little that is exactly how i saw most adultsā¦ judgmental and self righteous.
seriously i know what you mean though.
maybe iām over simplifying things, but here is how i see it.
we have teachings from Christ and they are ALL good.
we have followers of Christ and as human beings we fall short and often do not do ALL the good that Christ has asked of us. yes, some Christians do evil and go against what Christ has asked of us.
it is unreasonable to turn your back on the teachings of Christ, because individuals are not perfect and mess up frequently.
we have the teachings of mohammed. some teachings go with Godās will and some go against Godās will. you have muslim followers that sometimes fall short of doing good. you have muslims that sometimes fall short of doing the evil that mohammed taught (like death to those that leave their religion) and some muslims that DO follow the evil that he taught.
can you not see that the anger or hatred we feel is not directed at muslims as a whole, but towards the teachings of islam that go against Godās will?
when i make a statement like, āi hate islam because it incorrectly teaches God would want one man to kill another man for leaving his religion, or that God would want one man to beat his wife, or one man to whip another for enjoying the gift of wine etcāā¦
do you see that as my hating muslims? you have a soft spot for muslims being treated unfairly and that is fine, but the soft spot has to extend to all of humanity.
i feel sorry for those that have been born into this ideology and donāt really know any better. they love God with all their heart and truly believe that questioning islam is going against his will. i also feel sorry for the soul that is searching and has been taught only the peaceful elements of islam and thus has been duped as to the violence.
they need our prayers big time! BUT, there are some muslims that do believe in the violence and it is very hard to have sympathy for them. in our minds their beliefs are as dangerous as hitlerās. even so we are told to love our enemies.
but how do you expect us
not to go off on such twisted teachings? please donāt get upset, but i see it as a bit judgmental for someone to say that a person speaking out against the violent teachings of islam is pure evil. ESPECIALLY when it comes from a woman. we donāt want anymore victims to a religion that says God is just dandy with beating your wives. please donāt say that most muslims donāt do that. while that may be true it doesnāt change the fact that is is allowed. you simply can NOT call someone evil for speaking out against evil! i am not saying ALL muslims beat their wives. i am saying that islam ALLOWS it. some Christian men beat their wives, but Christianity does not allow it.
sometimes the evil that is allowable is so horrific that it seems ridiculous to mention that good that is tied in with it. that is very understandable if you see stoning adulterers as evil. i know some muslims donāt. one muslim here told me that she thought it was ok, because adultery can lead to prostitution and that would be a societal ill.
there is no central authority in islam. i have a suspicion that if you went over to saudi arabia and told the sunnis there that they are not following islam correctly and made a big stink about it, your life might be endangered. the quran and hadiths are too easy to take literally. the whole system is confusing and just leads to war between the muslims
and non muslims.
regardless of which side you are on the system itself is the cause of trouble.
if one is going to disregard the violent teachings and only focus on the peaceful parts, then why be muslim at all? the muslim would then be shopping for what parts work for him or her. i will pray 5 times a day, but i refuse to accept mohammedās teaching on chopping off the hand of a thief.
i donāt know. now iām rambling, but it really bothers me that you seem to think islam is actually peaceful.
if the sunnis and shias are both not practicing what you consider to be the correct way, could there perhaps be a chance that the islam you were taught is not correct?
i donāt mean that to be insulting, but you have to admit it is possible.
regardless, you seem to be a very kind and sweet soul so please donāt think i am spreading hate towards people. in my blunt and often rough around the edges kind of way, i want you to know that my hatred of islam is only because i love muslims and non muslims so much.
may the good Lord guide you in your studies towards the light of the Truth.
āThere is in Islam a paradox which is perhaps a permanent menace. The great creed born in the desert creates a kind of ecstasy out of the very emptiness of its own land, and even, one may say, out of the emptiness of its own theology. It affirms, with no little sublimity, something that is not merely the singleness but rather the solitude of God. There is the same extreme simplification in the solitary figure of the Prophet; and yet this isolation perpetually reacts into its own opposite. A void is made in the heart of Islam which has to be filled up again and again by a mere repetition of the revolution that founded it. There are no sacraments; the only thing that can happen is a sort of apocalypse, as unique as the end of the world; so the apocalypse can only be repeated and the world end again and again. There are no priests; and yet this equality can only breed a multitude of lawless prophets almost as numerous as priests. The very dogma that there is only one Mahomet produces an endless procession of Mahomets. Of these the mightiest in modern times were the man whose name was Ahmed, and whose more famous title was the Mahdi; and his more ferocious successor Abdullahi, who was generally known as the Khalifa. These great fanatics, or great creators of fanaticism, succeeded in making a militarism almost as famous and formidable as that of the Turkish Empire on whose frontiers it hovered, and in spreading a reign of terror such as can seldom be organised except by civilisationā¦ā - gk chesterton
