Islam. A Religion of peace.

Vert8813B · #1 05-09-2008, 08:24 AM

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...175987,00.html

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There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, and Islam is the world's fastest-growing religion. If the evil carnage we witnessed on Sept. 11 were typical of the faith, and Islam truly inspired and justified such violence, its growth and the increasing presence of Muslims in both Europe and the U.S. would be a terrifying prospect. Fortunately, this is not the case.

The very word Islam, which means "surrender," is related to the Arabic salam, or peace. When the Prophet Muhammad brought the inspired scripture known as the Koran to the Arabs in the early 7th century A.D., a major part of his mission was devoted precisely to bringing an end to the kind of mass slaughter we witnessed in New York City and Washington. Pre-Islamic Arabia was caught up in a vicious cycle of warfare, in which tribe fought tribe in a pattern of vendetta and countervendetta. Muhammad himself survived several assassination attempts, and the early Muslim community narrowly escaped extermination by the powerful city of Mecca. The Prophet had to fight a deadly war in order to survive, but as soon as he felt his people were probably safe, he devoted his attention to building up a peaceful coalition of tribes and achieved victory by an ingenious and inspiring campaign of nonviolence. When he died in 632, he had almost single-handedly brought peace to war-torn Arabia.

Because the Koran was revealed in the context of an all-out war, several passages deal with the conduct of armed struggle. Warfare was a desperate business on the Arabian Peninsula. A chieftain was not expected to spare survivors after a battle, and some of the Koranic injunctions seem to share this spirit. Muslims are ordered by God to "slay [enemies] wherever you find them!" (4: 89). Extremists such as Osama bin Laden like to quote such verses but do so selectively. They do not include the exhortations to peace, which in almost every case follow these more ferocious passages: "Thus, if they let you be, and do not make war on you, and offer you peace, God does not allow you to harm them" (4: 90).

In the Koran, therefore, the only permissible war is one of self-defense. Muslims may not begin hostilities (2: 190). Warfare is always evil, but sometimes you have to fight in order to avoid the kind of persecution that Mecca inflicted on the Muslims (2: 191; 2: 217) or to preserve decent values (4: 75; 22: 40). The Koran quotes the Torah, the Jewish scriptures, which permits people to retaliate eye for eye, tooth for tooth, but like the Gospels, the Koran suggests that it is meritorious to forgo revenge in a spirit of charity (5: 45). Hostilities must be brought to an end as quickly as possible and must cease the minute the enemy sues for peace (2: 192-3).

Islam is not addicted to war, and jihad is not one of its "pillars," or essential practices. The primary meaning of the word jihad is not "holy war" but "struggle." It refers to the difficult effort that is needed to put God's will into practice at every level--personal and social as well as political. A very important and much quoted tradition has Muhammad telling his companions as they go home after a battle, "We are returning from the lesser jihad [the battle] to the greater jihad," the far more urgent and momentous task of extirpating wrongdoing from one's own society and one's own heart.

Islam did not impose itself by the sword. In a statement in which the Arabic is extremely emphatic, the Koran insists, "There must be no coercion in matters of faith!" (2: 256). Constantly Muslims are enjoined to respect Jews and Christians, the "People of the Book," who worship the same God (29: 46). In words quoted by Muhammad in one of his last public sermons, God tells all human beings, "O people! We have formed you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another" (49: 13)--not to conquer, convert, subjugate, revile or slaughter but to reach out toward others with intelligence and understanding.

So why the suicide bombing, the hijacking and the massacre of innocent civilians? Far from being endorsed by the Koran, this killing violates some of its most sacred precepts. But during the 20th century, the militant form of piety often known as fundamentalism erupted in every major religion as a rebellion against modernity. Every fundamentalist movement I have studied in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is convinced that liberal, secular society is determined to wipe out religion. Fighting, as they imagine, a battle for survival, fundamentalists often feel justified in ignoring the more compassionate principles of their faith. But in amplifying the more aggressive passages that exist in all our scriptures, they distort the tradition.

It would be as grave a mistake to see Osama bin Laden as an authentic representative of Islam as to consider James Kopp, the alleged killer of an abortion provider in Buffalo, N.Y., a typical Christian or Baruch Goldstein, who shot 29 worshipers in the Hebron mosque in 1994 and died in the attack, a true martyr of Israel. The vast majority of Muslims, who are horrified by the atrocity of Sept. 11, must reclaim their faith from those who have so violently hijacked it.

Misinterpretation by fundamentalists at it's finest.

Tofuball · #2 05-09-2008, 08:25 AM

The article is junk, but could you explain your comment?

Vert8813B · #3 05-09-2008, 08:40 AM

It's quite simple. It's basically selective reading that Islamic Extremists like those in Al-Qaeda use. Preach hatred based upon the text that claims infidels must be slaughtered, but don't bother reading the other parts that preach peace unless attacked.

Vert8813B · #4 05-09-2008, 09:59 AM

Little bit of a biased source there huh? I mean considering it was written by a Reverend.

Vert8813B · #5 05-09-2008, 10:19 AM

Straight from the Qu'ran interpreted by a Reverend. Any and all religion is based upon interpretation. Obviously, you and I have differing opinions on the matter; whereas you believe every single Muslim is filled with hate and I believe that like ALL monolithic religions, Islam has bad apples. Timothy McVeigh claimed to be a loyal Christian, a servant of god. Osama Bin Laden claims to be a loyal subject of god (Allah). And as the article clearly points out, Goldstein thought he was a martyr for killing innocent Muslims.

So now I ask you again, where do you get that ALL Muslims are filled with "hatred, forced conversion, and murder"?

Do you also believe that ALL Christians are pure? Are all Jews anti-violence?

Vert8813B · #6 05-09-2008, 10:27 AM

You speak out against an entire religion that you have incorrect, libelous, preconceived notions about in a religious section that clearly states that all religions will be respected.

You are very ill-informed about the Islamic faith.

Vert8813B · #7 05-09-2008, 10:32 AM

Doubtful in comparison to you, considering my background. Good try on the assumption though.

Vert8813B · #8 05-09-2008, 10:56 AM

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Originally Posted by YZF-R1

and what exactly is your illustrious background? you're what, 23? a mixed persian from NY who has some Muslim buds, and you're an authority on the Quran?

21, 22 in June. My father is Iranian and was raised Muslim. He became an atheist years ago though. My mother is an American of Georgian descent. She was raised Episcopalian. I went to both a Mosque and Church due to my parents wanting me to decide on a religion for myself. I frankly decided upon neither, but I studied BOTH for several years. Does this clarify?

Vert8813B · #9 05-09-2008, 11:30 AM

What exactly does it explain? That because I am young I don't know anything? That because my father became atheist I don't know anything? Can you actually debate, or do you solely rely on personal attacks to make a feeble attempt to get your point across?

Vert8813B · #10 05-09-2008, 11:39 AM

Man you and those assumptions. Getting you in trouble. If you do not agree with something, that's fine. But to come out with these attacks on my family and upbringing is incomprehensible.

Vert8813B · #11 05-09-2008, 02:26 PM

I guess the definition of assumption changed recently imo.

Yet you 'claim' (Please note: For this instance, the word claim is NOT a synonym of assume) that because I am young and because of MY FATHER'S raising that I was "raised in ignorance"? I think based upon everything you say here, it's more or less a pot-kettle-off white (Politically correct) argument from you. Also, I would respectfully ask that if you have nothing nice to say about a religion that you very apparently know nothing about, that you refrain from leaving ignorant comments. Thanks.

Vert8813B · #12 05-09-2008, 02:43 PM

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Originally Posted by YZF-R1

I know more about what the Quran says than you ever will, I took a six week class on it, and I've read the best authors in the world on the subject

This is just laughable. It doesn't deserve a response.

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the FACT is, it's a satanic rip off of the scriptures, written 500 years later by a child molester who had demonic visions....everything else is banal rherotic by blinded minds...you lose (eternally?)

Everyone knows everything Mark says is fact right? OK, just checking.

Vert8813B · #13 05-09-2008, 02:45 PM

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Originally Posted by YZF-R1

what truly ASTOUNDS me are the number of bleeding heart liberal morons in this country, who, after all we have witnessed in the world over the last 10 years (let alone the last 100)...all the mass killings, suicide bombings, mistreatment of women, on and on and on, they still defend a relgiion that is clearly straight out of hell!

amazing lack of discernment...truly beyond words...when all along Genesis has recorded the sons of Ishmael would be a violent people, a wild ass of a man

Once again, this doesn't even dignify a response. The entire Muslim world attacked the United States on September 11th. This is fact right?

Vert8813B · #14 05-09-2008, 02:45 PM

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Originally Posted by YZF-R1

it's true though

I absolutely TOWER over you in knowledge

Of course you do Mark. Of course you do.

Vert8813B · #15 05-09-2008, 03:20 PM

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Originally Posted by YZF-R1

much of it danced in the streets after the attack

Sure. Because the media showed you video of some in the West bank dancing, it now means "most" of them did.

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yep....and if I had my way, supporters of the religion would be deported on the spot

I guess that's why you work in Sanitation or whatever you do.