Public perception of Islam

[Ruthie]

Why does the West have such a poor perception of Islam?

I remember the Christians who murdered abortion practitioners. There were letters to the Editor saying those people did not represent all Christians; there were statements from heads of churches rejecting the murders.

There’s also a long history of words and actions, by both Christians and secular folks, against the sectarian murders of and by both Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

When an artist desecrated a crucifix by placing it in a jar full of urine, Christians did not take to the streets with signs saying “Death to those who mock Jesus.” Muslims did, when cartoons featuring Mohamed appeared in a newspaper.

It seems to me, at least, that the jihadists, murderers, and terrorists are, if not in the majority, at least running the show. They are certainly forming the public image of Islam presented to the West.

As long as the Muslim countries do nothing to rein in the terrorists, this perception will persist. As long as Muslim countries persecute other religions with discriminatory laws and taxes, this perception will persist. As long as Muslims persecute and murder those who convert to other religions, this perception will persist.

I would love to see a headline like “Prominent Imam says Terrorists Misinterpreting the Quran.”

Our peaceful Muslim posters could do us a favor and post links to such articles. In fact, I’m asking you to!

Ruthie

 

[Dempsey1919]

When an artist desecrated a crucifix by placing it in a jar full of urine, Christians did not take to the streets with signs saying “Death to those who mock Jesus.” Muslims did, when cartoons featuring Mohamed appeared in a newspaper.

You have answered your own question.

Muslims do more to damage Islam than anybody else. They are very militant people and they do not appear to be very peaceful. Christians do not protest everytime Christianity is publicly disrespected, but the Muslims violently campaign against anything they deem to be offensive. This is what turns people against them. The protests aren’t the main issue; the main issue is the violent manner in which they are carried out. There is no need to issue death threats or carry placards calling for the death of those who insult Islam.

Muslims have every right to defend their faith, but the hateful banners and proclamations are not necessary. Christians protest in a democratic non-violent fashion but the Mohammedans issue death threats! This is why the public has a negative attitude towards Islam.

 

[Isambard]

To be clear, christians send in death threats as well, and there are several groups within the religion who would love to see the freedoms of others restricted. The only reason Christians (in general) dont go bananas to the same degree as muslims these days, is because they have had a long history of getting poked fun at. One need only look at the history of Christian cultured countries to see that the relative mellowness of christians is actually recent.

Id say muslims are slowly calming down given that before, a pro-Eastern world book (Satanic Verses) created an uproar simply because it contained a reference to Muhammed. Still, the key is to hold nothing sacred and allow freedom of speech despite how much believers may whine.

 

[MugenOne]

Our perception of Islam comes from Muslim themselves. They are the ones who blow up their own people and other kaffirs daily while calling it’s from Allah. They play victimization. They demand, but give none in return. They preach peace in disguise as hate. That’s the religion of peace.

**UK: New Documentary to Show Growing Islamic Supremacism in Mosques

**The UK’s Security Service MI-5 report recently leaked to the UK Guardian newspaper is reported to show that “there is no single pathway to violent extremism” and “there is evidence that a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation.”

However, a new documentary “Undercover Mosques: The Return” by UK’s Channel 4 is to be broadcast on September 1 that shows Islamic supremacists promoting such radicalism directly in British mosques: “Channel 4 announces return of Undercover Mosque,” by Tara Conlan for the Guardian, August 22:

In the new documentary, a female reporter attends prayer meetings at an important British mosque which claims to be dedicated to moderation and “dialogue with other faiths”.

According to Channel 4, “she secretly films sermons given to the women-only congregation in which female preachers recite extremist and intolerant beliefs”.

In one scene, as hundreds of women and some children come to pray, a preacher calls for adulterers, homosexuals, women who act like men and Muslim converts to other faiths to be killed, saying: “Kill him, kill him. You have to kill him, you understand. This is Islam.”

Channel 4 also said that in the same mosque, “the reporter visits the bookshop and discovers books and DVDs still on sale, promoting extremist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic and intolerant messages”.

The undercover reporter also “films inside a key Saudi-funded Muslim organisation, which claims to promote tolerance and integration yet distributes literature which promotes intolerance for non-Muslims, an extreme version of sharia law and teachings which support discrimination against women”.

In addition, Undercover Mosque: The Return also “investigates the role of the Saudi Arabian religious establishment in spreading a hard-line, fundamentalist Islamic ideology in the UK - the very ideology the government claims to be tackling”…

**More in Source Article **- jihadwatch.org/archives/022329.php

 

[Dempsey1919]

To be clear, christians send in death threats as well

I do not deny that there will be small independent Christian groups who send death threats but this is extremely rare. However, death threats are extremely common in Islam. Islamic leaders such as Ayatollah Khomeini even went so far as to issue a fatwah calling for the death of Salman Rushdie. This would be the equivalent of the Pope issuing a bull ordering the death of an author. It just wouldn’t happen!!

 

[Kaninchen]

I think the problem is really a Muslim problem and we’re the witnesses and, from time to time, collateral damage.

Until the late 20th Century, Muslims suffered the West’s colonization but that didn’t really impinge very much on Muslim life itself on the farms and in the villages. Then things changed and the Muslim in the street and on the farm was faced with ‘the modern’ and that bought an entirely different crisis. On the one side there’s the desire for the advantages of consumerism, on the other - the conservative ‘reformations’ of people like Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab and Mawlana Mawdudi with their certainties and ‘mission’.

The thing is that the Muslim world is having to face what happened in the West over centuries in a very short period of time. In the West we’ve had more than a little trouble adapting - revolutions, horrific wars, genocides - but here we are expecting poor people, with very little than their ‘honor’ to comfort them, to take the ‘shock of the new’ in their stride.

 

[M0nkey]

Still, the key is to hold nothing sacred and allow freedom of speech despite how much believers may whine.

Well a Christian who takes their religion seriously and really strives towards Jesus will hopefully understand that there is a certain level of detachment towards the world and the problems therein. Christ taught us that he did not come to bring peace to the world, but to bring you His Peace (on a personal intimate level).

A Muslim who takes the Quran seriously will eventually attack those who disbelieve, and set a number of intolerant rules that do not allow for any kind of flexibility nor freedom. It’s very clear from the beginning of Islam Mohammed came to bring Islam to the nations by the sword, not peace.

 

[Ruthie]

I know we have peaceful followers of Islam on these forums. I really want to hear from them about movements within Islam to quench the fires of the jihadists. They must exist!

Do you interpret the threatening parts of the Quran as hyperbole?

Do you interpret the parts of the Quran that seem to diminish women to possessions as overridden by the part Sister Amy quotes in her sig? (If it’s not Sister Amy, I apologize for my lousy memory!)

Please answer! I really didn’t want this thread to devolve into another Islam-bashing party.

Ruthie

 

[Dempsey1919]

Do you interpret the threatening parts of the Quran as hyperbole?

Is this hyperbole?

2:191 And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.

I don’t think so.