9-29-04 Islam show: please post questions here
Some people claim that the Quran teaches violence against non-Muslim's. In a web search, here (below) is a website that lists some of the alledged Quranic verses. How should these verses be interpreted? Also, are there verses that tell Muslim's to live peacefully with non-believers?
------------------------------
From:
Some have said that all Muslims are not bad. But, if a person says he is a Musalmann, giving the Islamic ‘Declaration of Faith’ (There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger). And the Koran is one long ‘DECLARATION OF WAR’ against us! - Then ALL Musalmanns must be bad - they are ALL at war with us!Page 32, ‘Fighting is obligatory for you Muslims. (Koran 2:216)’. Page 137, 'If you do not fight, He Allah will punish you sternly, and replace you by other men. (Koran 9:39)’. Penguin, ISBN 0140445587In Islamic Jihad (war), no Muslim is innocent. You kill for Islam, or Islam kills you. You are a Believer or you are a Kafir. The Koran defines Islam. If there is no moderation in it, no Muslim can ever be a moderate.Page 26, ‘The unbelievers are like beasts which, call out to them as one may, can hear nothing but a shout and a cry. Deaf, dumb, and blind, they understand nothing. (Koran 2:171)’Page 127, ‘Cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads. Strike off even the tips of their fingers! (Koran 8:12).’ What can incite greater hatred than language such as this? What had anyone ever done to deserve such virulent hatred? Could the Koran be any less clear! When it also states repeatedly - Page 52, ‘ Believers do make friends with any but your own people of Islam’ (Koran 3:118).Page 75, ‘Give warning to the hypocrites that woeful punishment awaits them : those who chose unbelievers rather than Muslims for their friends’ (4:138).
some commentary...
by: dogpen_au (64/M/Australia) 09/13/04 01:01 am
Should be an interesting show. Be warned, if you are not a Muslim it is very easy to fall into the trap of interpreting what is said as an answer in the wrong way. The classic is asking a Muslim if they believe that killing of innocent men women and children is wrong or not. Where you do get an answer, it is usually in the form of "of course it is wrong to kill innocents" - SOUNDS GREAT. The catch is to recognise that our definitions of "INNOCENT" may not be the same. Muslims in such a context are INNOCENT - infidels (all none Muslims) apparently are NOT innocent. I would like to see questions in the form of "what they see as the intention or aims of Islam in western culture / secular acceptance of all religions on an EQUAL basis / their role and aims in western government / etc.More particularly extracting admissions of agendas to have Islam / Koran / Sharia Law introduced into western democracies. A statement attributed to an Islam spokesperson in USA went along the lines of "Islam ? - we are not here to be the equal of other religions - we are here to be the dominant religion". Thats off the top of my head - I'm sure others will expand on this theme. Thank you for the opportunity to make suggestions.
See below, question about love and question about Arabic.
---------
BRIEF REVIEW OF ISLAM TODAY
by: common_sense_777
Rotarians Hear Discussion Of Islam And Arab Culture By DOUGLAS WATSON, Managing Editor, Greeneville Sun Graham Leonard, who has spent almost half his 78 years teaching in the Middle East, on Tuesday offered a brief review of the history of the Islamic religion... “Every single Arab will tell you how great they once were — and they were,” Leonard said, recalling breakthroughs Arabs made in science and mathematics many centuries ago while Europeans were still stuck in the comparably unenlightened Middle Ages. Speaking of the Arabs, who are predominantly Muslims, Leonard continued, “Something is eating out their guts, and it is the question, ‘Why aren’t we great now?’” The primary answer, Leonard offered, is that in recent centuries, the societies in the more than 20 Arab nations — which stretch from Morocco on Africa’s Atlantic coast to Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the east — have reverted to educational systems that rely on lectures, memorization and testing, but do not encourage creative thinking. “They use the same curriculum that we do, but they are not empowered to think,” he said. “As a result, their creativity went down the drain.” Leonard made a number of other points in his talk to the Rotarians. They included: • Arabic is really two languages, the written and the spoken versions. The Arabs have “a terrible handicap” in that they don’t speak the written version and don’t write the spoken version. He said it is as though Italians only wrote in Latin, but only spoke modern Italian; .“There is no theological difference” between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, whose disagreement was and continues to be over who was the rightful successor to Mohammed; The Islamic religion stresses the importance for individuals having a number of good qualities, “but these qualities do not include love. The whole concept of love is missing.” He said Arabs generally do not tend to think of themselves as individuals, as is the self-image favored in this country and other Western societies. Leonard said Arabs more often view themselves as members of groups and tribes and feel bound to remain loyal to those groups. “Because of their psychology,” Leonard said, “there can be no democracy” of a genuine nature in Iraq until educational reforms encourage Iraqis to make individual judgments rather than merely to remain loyal to their groups or tribes. http:/*/www.greene.xtn.net/index.php?table=news&template=news.view.subscriber&newsid=112951
Comment on this article:A Threatening Monolith? by http://www.arabnews.com
Sent in from a friend "Doug".Read the following. Did the Prophet Mohammad really say to kill all the Jews in a Hadith? What is the interpretation and meaning, if so?
-----------------------------------
TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LANDPA clergy call for genocide of JewsUse TV broadcasts to urge killing of 'brothers of the monkeys and pigs'http://www.pmw.org.il/
Posted: September 16, 20041:00 a.m. Easternc 2004 WorldNetDaily.com http://www.worldnetdaily.com/
Twice in three days, Palestinian television has shown religious leaders calling for the mass killing of Jews. Both clerics said such a slaughter is a necessary stage in history and must be carried out quickly, reported Palestinian Media Watch. Each cited the same Hadith, Islamic tradition attributed to Muhammad. Palestinian leaders traditionally have taught that the following Hadith applies today: The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!Says Palestinian Media Watch: "This teaching may well be a dominant motivating factor that drives terror against Israeli civilians, because it presents the killing of Jews as a religious obligation, not related to the conflict over borders, but as something inherent to Allah's world." Sheik Ibrahim Madiras' sermon of last Friday was broadcast the same day on PA TV. Madiras declared, "The Prophet said: The Resurrection will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them. The Muslims will kill the Jews, rejoice [in it], rejoice in Allah's Victory. The Muslims will kill the Jews, and he will hide. "The Prophet said: The Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him! Why is there this malice? Because there are none who love the Jews on the face of the earth: not man, not rock and not tree; everything hates them. They destroy everything - they destroy the trees and destroy the houses. Everything wants vengeance on the Jews, on these pigs on the face of the earth, and the day of our victory, Allah willing, will come." Two days later, on Sept. 12, Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi made the following comment on his weekly television show: "We are waging this cruel war with the brothers of the monkeys and pigs, the Jews and the sons of Zion. The Jews will fight you and you will subjugate them. Until the Jew will stand behind the tree and rock. And the tree and rock will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!" The reference to monkeys and pigs is from a story in the Quran that claims Jews were cursed by Allah and turned into monkeys and pigs.
Moral of the story is after the joke:Warning: Pun AheadSome friars needed to raise more money for books for the school, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good brothers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him.So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that "Only Hugh can prevent florist friars."
---------------
Moral: Some try to control others through violence. The mature don't control each other by violence-- there are ways to influence and persuade, but we should also realize the need to not have to control others.
posted by FreeGoodNews.com | 3:31 PM
|
0 comments
