Islam is a Religion of Peace

[JamesDouglas]

I'm not quite sure how anyone could think otherwise, critics will say "over 90% of conflicts in the world involve muslims", that may be true, but you have to ask yourself why, the answer can be summed up in one word, "occupation."

Critics may also point to verses in the Qu'ran that promote hatred, violence and intolerance, such as:
•Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them(2:191)
•Make war on the infidels living in your neighborhood (9:123)
•When opportunity arises, kill the infidels wherever you catch them (9:5)
•Kill the Jews and the Christians if they do not convert to Islam or refuse to pay Jizya tax (9:29)
•Any religion other than Islam is not acceptable (3:85)
•The Jews and the Christians are perverts; fight them (9:30)
•Maim and crucify the infidels if they criticize Islam (5:33)
•The infidels are unclean; do not let them into a mosque (9:28)
•Punish the unbelievers with garments of fire, hooked iron rods, boiling water; melt their skin and bellies (22:19)
•Do not hanker for peace with the infidels; behead them when you catch them (47:4)
•The unbelievers are stupid; urge the Muslims to fight them (8:65)
•Muslims must not take the infidels as friends (3:28)
•Terrorize and behead those who believe in scriptures other than the Qur’an (8:12)
•Muslims must muster all weapons to terrorize the infidels

Once again the answer to the critics can be summed up in a few words, "taken out of context." It's puzzling to me why anyone would ever come to the conclusion that Islam is a violent ideology, it is a religion of peace.

 

[bishop]

Go through the bible it has the same sh*t. If Christians and Catholics followed their holy book like many Islamists do, then they would be equally as compelled to kill and murder. Christianity has been declawed, someone considers himself a good christian because 3 hours on a sunday they go to church, the other 164 hours in the week they eat shrimp, wear clothes composed of two of more types of linen, and stomp on the poor masses to get ahead.

 

[BlueLaser]

I'm not quite sure how anyone could think otherwise, critics will say "over 90% of conflicts in the world involve muslims", that may be true, but you have to ask yourself why, the answer can be summed up in one word, "occupation."

Critics may also point to verses in the Qu'ran that promote hatred, violence and intolerance, such as:
•Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them(2:191)
•Make war on the infidels living in your neighborhood (9:123)
•When opportunity arises, kill the infidels wherever you catch them (9:5)
•Kill the Jews and the Christians if they do not convert to Islam or refuse to pay Jizya tax (9:29)
•Any religion other than Islam is not acceptable (3:85)
•The Jews and the Christians are perverts; fight them (9:30)
•Maim and crucify the infidels if they criticize Islam (5:33)
•The infidels are unclean; do not let them into a mosque (9:28)
•Punish the unbelievers with garments of fire, hooked iron rods, boiling water; melt their skin and bellies (22:19)
•Do not hanker for peace with the infidels; behead them when you catch them (47:4)
•The unbelievers are stupid; urge the Muslims to fight them (8:65)
•Muslims must not take the infidels as friends (3:28)
•Terrorize and behead those who believe in scriptures other than the Qur’an (8:12)
•Muslims must muster all weapons to terrorize the infidels

Once again the answer to the critics can be summed up in a few words, "taken out of context." It's puzzling to me why anyone would ever come to the conclusion that Islam is a violent ideology, it is a religion of peace.

Like every religion, it doesn't actually say anything specifically until you interpret it. You say that the violent quotes are the ones taken out of context, some say they peaceful quotes are the ones taken out of context. Radical Islam isn't pulling "the word of Allah" out of thin air, it's interpreting and applying context. Just because some apply it peacefully doesn't make the whole of Islam a religion of peace. Likewise, just because some apply it violently doesn't make the whole of Islam a religion of violence. Christianity is subject to the same shortcomings. Lots of Christians don't act very Christian and yet manage to defend their conduct on the basis of the Bible.

 

[highpark]

As Bill Maher says. . A peace of u here a peace of u there........

 

[PornAddict]

Go through the bible it has the same sh*t. If Christians and Catholics followed their holy book like many Islamists do, then they would be equally as compelled to kill and murder. Christianity has been declawed, someone considers himself a good christian because 3 hours on a sunday they go to church, the other 164 hours in the week they eat shrimp, wear clothes composed of two of more types of linen, and stomp on the poor masses to get ahead.

The bible is just bunches of stories told by many authors..I think. The only that really matter is the ten commandment given by God christianity that is only really matter. example Thou shall not kill.. Thou shall not lie. Thou shall love thy neighbour/enemy.. Etc. I dont know about islam or koran..but they dont have the ten commandment ..so basically they not a reglion of peace if they promoted hatred and justification of killing the infidal. Please prove me wrong! Do Mohammd / koran have something like the ten commandment ? The only thing really is improtant is the ten commandent that is the golden rule that any christian must follow is it God law. The rest of the bible are stories that can be taken out of context.

 

[bishop]

In my opinion the 10 commandments makes the bible worse because of the hypocrisy.

Thou shalt not kill, but god kills mercilessly
Though shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife/ass, but god is a jealous god and thou shalt have no gods before me
The shalt not bear false witness, but god lies, he lied to eve that eating the apple would kill her, he told moses to go to the pharo and ask for his people to be set free, but witheld the fact that hardened the pharo's heart. why did he harden the pharo's heart? So that god would have a excuse to reign down death.

In anycase comparing one holy book to another is like comparing peter pan to snow white, it is all BS, but what is real is that islamists tend to believe every word of the fair tale, where as christians only remember the good parts. Overall this makes christianity more tolerable in a civil society.

 

[thighspy]

Do yourself a favor,and read the ""Koran---Etc."" Any Document advising the believer to Kill me the non believer, is NOT Peaceful.I do not cherish the idea of several billion madmen gunning for me.I read this piece of
wisdom 3 times--i consider it the biggest piece of B.S. i have ever read,only fit for a Caveman (did i say Man) is really an exaggeration ..

 

[BlueLaser]

The bible is just bunches of stories told by many authors..I think. The only that really matter is the ten commandment given by God christianity that is only really matter. example Thou shall not kill.. Thou shall not lie. Thou shall love thy neighbour/enemy.. Etc. I dont know about islam or koran..but they dont have the ten commandment ..so basically they not a reglion of peace if they promoted hatred and justification of killing the infidal. Please prove me wrong! Do Mohammd / koran have something like the ten commandment ? The only thing really is improtant is the ten commandent that is the golden rule that any christian must follow is it God law. The rest of the bible are stories that can be taken out of context.

I'll prove you wrong.

Muslims believe in the Old Testament too. They have the 10 Commandments. And "Thou shalt not kill" is not a universal truthism of Christianity or Judaism.

Case and point: After Moses was given the Holy Tablets of the Decalogue on Mount Horeb, after he lead his people to the promised land, after he died on Mount Nebo before crossing the Jordan River in penance for his sin of trying to take credit for God's work, after a few massacres and wars, God sent Joshua to battle the Amorites. It was an absolute slaughter, Joshua was pwning and pwning hard. But unfortunately, the sun was setting and there were still unbelievers to slaughter, so Joshua prayed for a longer day, and God, the "Thou shalt not kill" guy, came through for him and stopped the sun and moon and stars so that Joshua could kill every last Amorite around.

The most common explanation is that the English translations suck and the scripture should read "Thou shalt not murder". Therefore, killing your enemy in war, or self defense, or any other way you can rationalize "It wasn't murder!" is ok. But then, if it's ok for Jews and Christians to kill as long they aren't murdering, and "war" with people who don't believe in their God isn't murder, why is it so unacceptable for the Qu'ran to say the same thing?

I'll let you in on a little secret about the 3 Abrahamic religions: they're all the same. Christians reject Muhammad as a Prophet and view Jesus as the Messiah, Jews reject both. Islam fully recognizes Jesus as the Messiah. Not only do they believe he came and perform all the miracles the New Testament said he did, but they also believe he will return as given in the prophecy The Revelation of Jesus Christ According to St John to destroy the anti-Christ and establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. They just also believe they had a prophet after Jesus, but Christianity hotly rejects. In fact, you can take it even further. The Baha'i faith accepts the Jewish faith, the Christian faith and the Muslim faith, but believe in prophets that have come post-Muhammad, in addition to recognizing the prophets of other faiths as Manifestations of God (like Buddha). But at the end of the day, it's the same shit. Believe what I believe or I'm entitled to force it on you. Interpretations may differ, but that's the cold hard summary of Abraham's God.

The only other point of contention is the divinity of Jesus. In both the Jewish and Muslim faiths, the idea of a trinity, of 3 parts to God, of god begetting a human or being begotten as a human, is absolute sin. So while Muslims accept the sacred texts of Christianity, they absolutely reject the interpretation of conventional Christianity. The Qu'ran gives them leeway to maybe wreck face with Christians who believe in the divinity of Jesus, but commands them to be accepting and tolerant of their Abrahamic brothers. So Jews or "Christians" (if you can call them that) that don't believe Jesus was God in the flesh (for example, Jehova's Witnesses and those new age Christians that are allegorical and not literal), are specifically commanded in the Qu'ran to be loved like any Muslim. Of course, if they insult Muhammad or reject Muhammad as a prophet, then they lose that status again.


Too long? Here's the summary:


So, all the major prophets and laws of Judaism are prophets and laws of Christianity and Islam.
Jews view Jesus as a false prophet and not the Messiah prophesied in their sacred texts. Jews view Muhammad as a false prophet. They are waiting for the Messiah which will signal the start of the End of Days.
Christian view Jesus as the Messiah and also God in the flesh, the begotten son of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. They view any prophet after Jesus as false, including Muhammad, because Jesus' arrival signals the beginning of the End of Days.
Muslims view Jesus as the Messiah but reject the idea that he is divine, part God, part of God, or anything of that nature. They view Muhammad as the final prophet before the End of Days.
Some religion keep going with prophets post-Muhammad but naturally they are rejected by the 3 main Abrahamic religions. So far, none of the post-Mohammedan religions have picked up much steam.

To put it another way, Muhammad brought Christianity to the pagan Middle East, but since Christians at the time didn't like him and Christians from then on have rejected his evangelizing, they hate each other and consider each other false and unbelievers. Even though they worship the same God. They just read the book different.

 

[shack]

In my opinion the 10 commandments makes the bible worse because of the hypocrisy.

Thou shalt not kill, but god kills mercilessly
Though shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife/ass, but god is a jealous god and thou shalt have no gods before me
The shalt not bear false witness, but god lies, he lied to eve that eating the apple would kill her, he told moses to go to the pharo and ask for his people to be set free, but witheld the fact that hardened the pharo's heart. why did he harden the pharo's heart? So that god would have a excuse to reign down death.

In anycase comparing one holy book to another is like comparing peter pan to snow white, it is all BS, but what is real is that islamists tend to believe every word of the fair tale, where as christians only remember the good parts. Overall this makes christianity more tolerable in a civil society.

Enlightening post.

 

[bver_hunter]

One important thing to bear in mind. The Muslims ruled the "Holy "Land" for centuries and they were the guardians of all the Holy religious sites in and around what is now known as Israel, Gaza, The West Bank, as well as neighbouring countries such as Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and places afar afield as Mesopotamia and Persia. Remember that these Holy places of worship whether they were Jewish, Christian or Islam were preserved and not torn down. The Jews and Christians were allowed to pray and visit those sites all through the early and middle ages. Although a number of Jews and Christians left the Middle East for richer pastures, be it in Western or Eastern Europe, those who stayed on were free to do so and not discriminated to the extent as the Jews who immigrated to places as far as Russia, Germany, Spain and The United Kingdom. The Moors traded with the Christians in places like Spain, and even embraced Christians and Jews in their palaces in positions such as financial advisers, and scholars. Remember that when the Moors were driven out of Spain, many of their mosques were converted into churches. It is only in recent years that the extremist Islamic clerics declared a Holy Religious Jihad that was unheard of previously except during real battles such as the ones between the Crusaders and The Moors. Coincidentally, this call by the extremist clerics only seem to happen when the Rest of the Western World decided to endorse Israel's rights, and sadly not those of the Palestinians. The rest is History.

 

[bver_hunter]

The bible is just bunches of stories told by many authors..I think. The only that really matter is the ten commandment given by God christianity that is only really matter. example Thou shall not kill.. Thou shall not lie. Thou shall love thy neighbour/enemy.. Etc. I dont know about islam or koran..but they dont have the ten commandment ..so basically they not a reglion of peace if they promoted hatred and justification of killing the infidal. Please prove me wrong! Do Mohammd / koran have something like the ten commandment ? The only thing really is improtant is the ten commandent that is the golden rule that any christian must follow is it God law. The rest of the bible are stories that can be taken out of context.

The Catholics and the other types of Christians such as the Baptists and Methodists still to this day have a totally different interpretation of the Bible especially with regards to The Virgin Mary. Remember that these Sects were at loggerheads and went to war among themselves even to this day and age in places such as Northern Ireland.

 

[bishop]

I'll prove you wrong.

Muslims believe in the Old Testament too. They have the 10 Commandments. And "Thou shalt not kill" is not a universal truthism of Christianity or Judaism.

Case and point: After Moses was given the Holy Tablets of the Decalogue on Mount Horeb, after he lead his people to the promised land, after he died on Mount Nebo before crossing the Jordan River in penance for his sin of trying to take credit for God's work, after a few massacres and wars, God sent Joshua to battle the Amorites. It was an absolute slaughter, Joshua was pwning and pwning hard. But unfortunately, the sun was setting and there were still unbelievers to slaughter, so Joshua prayed for a longer day, and God, the "Thou shalt not kill" guy, came through for him and stopped the sun and moon and stars so that Joshua could kill every last Amorite around.

The most common explanation is that the English translations suck and the scripture should read "Thou shalt not murder". Therefore, killing your enemy in war, or self defense, or any other way you can rationalize "It wasn't murder!" is ok. But then, if it's ok for Jews and Christians to kill as long they aren't murdering, and "war" with people who don't believe in their God isn't murder, why is it so unacceptable for the Qu'ran to say the same thing?

I'll let you in on a little secret about the 3 Abrahamic religions: they're all the same. Christians reject Muhammad as a Prophet and view Jesus as the Messiah, Jews reject both. Islam fully recognizes Jesus as the Messiah. Not only do they believe he came and perform all the miracles the New Testament said he did, but they also believe he will return as given in the prophecy The Revelation of Jesus Christ According to St John to destroy the anti-Christ and establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. They just also believe they had a prophet after Jesus, but Christianity hotly rejects. In fact, you can take it even further. The Baha'i faith accepts the Jewish faith, the Christian faith and the Muslim faith, but believe in prophets that have come post-Muhammad, in addition to recognizing the prophets of other faiths as Manifestations of God (like Buddha). But at the end of the day, it's the same shit. Believe what I believe or I'm entitled to force it on you. Interpretations may differ, but that's the cold hard summary of Abraham's God.

The only other point of contention is the divinity of Jesus. In both the Jewish and Muslim faiths, the idea of a trinity, of 3 parts to God, of god begetting a human or being begotten as a human, is absolute sin. So while Muslims accept the sacred texts of Christianity, they absolutely reject the interpretation of conventional Christianity. The Qu'ran gives them leeway to maybe wreck face with Christians who believe in the divinity of Jesus, but commands them to be accepting and tolerant of their Abrahamic brothers. So Jews or "Christians" (if you can call them that) that don't believe Jesus was God in the flesh (for example, Jehova's Witnesses and those new age Christians that are allegorical and not literal), are specifically commanded in the Qu'ran to be loved like any Muslim. Of course, if they insult Muhammad or reject Muhammad as a prophet, then they lose that status again.


Too long? Here's the summary:


So, all the major prophets and laws of Judaism are prophets and laws of Christianity and Islam.
Jews view Jesus as a false prophet and not the Messiah prophesied in their sacred texts. Jews view Muhammad as a false prophet. They are waiting for the Messiah which will signal the start of the End of Days.
Christian view Jesus as the Messiah and also God in the flesh, the begotten son of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. They view any prophet after Jesus as false, including Muhammad, because Jesus' arrival signals the beginning of the End of Days.
Muslims view Jesus as the Messiah but reject the idea that he is divine, part God, part of God, or anything of that nature. They view Muhammad as the final prophet before the End of Days.
Some religion keep going with prophets post-Muhammad but naturally they are rejected by the 3 main Abrahamic religions. So far, none of the post-Mohammedan religions have picked up much steam.

To put it another way, Muhammad brought Christianity to the pagan Middle East, but since Christians at the time didn't like him and Christians from then on have rejected his evangelizing, they hate each other and consider each other false and unbelievers. Even though they worship the same God. They just read the book different.

Yes, as much as the faithful want to avoid it, the god of Islam, juadasim, and christianity is the same god.

What I do not understand is this, Christians believe jesus is their savior, the jews killed jesus, the islamists regard jesus as a great prophet and not the savior. You would think that the christians would most hate the jews, and would mostly get along with the Islamists, but the reality is that most hate is between the jews and islamists, the christians are mostly cool with the jews and mostly hostile to the islamists.

Generally, idle hands is the devil's playground. You find religious extremism in places where people are so rich that they have nothing to do, or so poor that there is no jobs to be had.

 

[wilbur]

Yes, as much as the faithful want to avoid it, the god of Islam, juadasim, and christianity is the same god.

What I do not understand is this, Christians believe jesus is their savior, the jews killed jesus, the islamists regard jesus as a great prophet and not the savior. You would think that the christians would most hate the jews, and would mostly get along with the Islamists, but the reality is that most hate is between the jews and islamists, the christians are mostly cool with the jews and mostly hostile to the islamists.

Generally, idle hands is the devil's playground. You find religious extremism in places where people are so rich that they have nothing to do, or so poor that there is no jobs to be had.

Up until the decade after WW2, Christians were told to at least beware of the Jews, especially because they were responsible for killing Jesus. It's one of the reasons why Pope Pius XII allegedly did nothing to stop the Holocaust (40% of Germans are Catholics). During the rise of the Nazis in Germany, boat loads of Jews from Germany were turned back from the shores of Canada and the US.

I don't know where you've been, but the reason there are (were) Jews in North Africa is because when the Spaniards kicked the Muslims out of Spain, they told them to take the Jews with them. That's the Sephardic Jews, as opposed to the present European Ashkenazi Jews. There were hundreds of thousands of Jews in North Africa, and hundreds of thousands in other Arab lands, especially the Levant (Syria and Lebanon) and Iraq, until the mass emigration of Jews to Israel began. When the Germans were deporting Jews to concentration camps from occupied France and its colonies during WW2, the King of Morocco told the Germans to leave his Jews alone.

The Ottoman Empire kept a lid on inter confessional rivalries and violence. Indeed, there were Jews in the Ottoman army.

By the way, Muslims believe in the Virgin Mary and the Immaculate Conception. The believe that the Archangel Gabriel impregnated Mary and not Joseph.

Shiite Muslims and Christians never fought a war against each other. To this day, Christians and Shiites, including Hezbollah, govern Lebanon in a coalition.

Once on a visit to Jerusalem in the Old Quarter, our Palestinian guide commented that, after Salah El-Din (Saladin for the rest of us) kicked out the Crusaders out of Jerusalem, he refused to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. When asked why, he answered that if he did, it would have to become a mosque.

Before that, when the Crusaders conquered and entered Jerusalem, they killed most Arabs inside, including all the Christians.

 

[oil&gas]

Bishop, I guess Christians generally do not take their religion as
seriously as you think. Christianity has been so much watered
down over centuries that even the more sincere christians today
are nothing like John Calvin or Martin Luther in the conviction
of their faith. There are Christians today who are moderately
influenced by Martin Luther's hatred of Jews on account of their
rejection of the reformed Christian faith. But seldom if ever
would such sentiment in the Christian world shift people's view
to favour Muslims over Jews. In fact even fundamentalist
Christians known for their anti-semitic view are supportive of
US's unflinching support of Israel.

 

[LickRus]

Go through the bible it has the same sh*t. .

The bible has some shit in it but nothing like the Koran and the problem is millions of Muslims take the Koran literally and act literally such as: Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them(2:191) I don't know how this can be taken out of context. It means what it means.

Three year old : non believers will be butchered. http://www.channel4.com/news/islamic-state-iraq-syria-children-guns-video

 

[one.of.a.kind]

The bible has some shit in it but nothing like the Koran and the problem is millions of Muslims take the book literally and act literally such as: Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them(2:191) I don't know how this can be taken out of context. It means what it means.

Three year old : non believers will be butchered. http://www.channel4.com/news/islamic-state-iraq-syria-children-guns-video

If anyone has trouble believing this I can post some pics of children having their heads cut off because they aren't Muslims.

 

[MattRoxx]

Who cares what the Bible says, it's the 21st century now.

Iraq says Islamists killed 500 Yazidis, buried some victims alive


Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq’s Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north, Iraq’s human rights minister told Reuters on Sunday.

Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the Sunni militants had also buried alive some of their victims, including women and children. Some 300 women were kidnapped as slaves, he added.
“We have striking evidence obtained from Yazidis fleeing Sinjar and some who escaped death, and also crime scene images that show indisputably that the gangs of the Islamic States have executed at least 500 Yazidis after seizing Sinjar,” Sudani said in a telephone interview, in his first remarks to the media on the issue.

Sinjar is the ancient home of the Yazidis, one of the towns captured by the Sunni militants who view the community as “devil worshipers” and tell them to convert to Islam or face death.

A deadline passed at midday on Sunday for 300 Yazidi families to convert to Islam or face death at the hands of the militants. It was not immediately clear whether the Iraqi minister was talking about the fate of those families or others in the conflict.

“Some of the victims, including women and children were buried alive in scattered mass graves in and around Sinjar,” Sudani said.

 

[Skinflute]

Not thanks to Islam Religion, infidels like myself are killed.

 

[BlueLaser]

The bible has some shit in it but nothing like the Koran and the problem is millions of Muslims take the Koran literally and act literally such as: Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them(2:191) I don't know how this can be taken out of context. It means what it means.

Three year old : non believers will be butchered. http://www.channel4.com/news/islamic-state-iraq-syria-children-guns-video

Your ignorance is showing.

God told Abraham to kill his only son. Does that mean God has commanded every father to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering, or was that a command to one person at one specific time and the context makes it a story being told and not a commandment we are all supposed to follow?

"Millions" aren't taking the extremist interpretation. The verse you quote has context that you aren't providing. Also bear in mind that the Qu'ran is in Arabic, so you're reading a translation. In other words, you're interpreting an interpretation without context.

What's the context? That particular verse is in regards to a specific timeframe in history regarding a specific group. Just like not every line in the Bible attributed to God is a command for us today but may be a specific command to a specific person in a specific circumstance as part of a specific story.

http://www.examiner.com/article/isl...l-the-unbelievers-wherever-you-find-them-mean

At the tail end of the article a good point is made: if this truly is a universally believed command to kill any nun-Muslim anywhere at any time, how do non-Muslims survive in Muslim states? Easy: the Qu'ran isn't isn't saying what you think it is, even if some fringe crazies happen to believe it.

 

[BlueLaser]

Not thanks to Islam Religion, infidels like myself are killed.

Christians kill people too. So do Jews and atheists, and every other religion. What's your point?