There is nothing like a "Moderate" or a "Radical" Islam, there is only one Islam.

Submitted by Imran (United States), Aug 25, 2003 at 15:10

I have read many of your comments and I am not surprised. I hear all of you talking about "radical" Islam as if it is some other religion. Let me inform all of you that there is only one Islam and any modifications in it is a "Sin".

Some of you say that Islam is derived from other religions. Allah (God) sent many messengers before Prophet Muhammad, to guide the human race in the right direction. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is Allah's last messenger and the leader of all messengers prior to his time. The message he brought for mankind is final and there will be no changes in this message till the end of mankind. Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) is a messenger of god too, but I do not remember him proclaiming himself as the "Son of God". The Koran-the message from god brought to us by Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is no doubt a later version, an improved version and the final version of all previous holy books sent by god.

Islam shows us the right way to live our lives, to manage our business, our behavior and duties towards our family and friends. Islam has its own law-Shariah. Islam has never isolated itself from mainstream politics. But at the same time we will not compel others to convert but it is our duty as Muslims to share our knowledge with the rest of the human race.

I see a lot of people condemning the suicide bombings by the Palestinians and see them as acts of terrors. Let's forget for a minute what your beliefs are. Israel is a state founded by occupation of land, land that belongs to the Palestinians. I don’t know of anyone who will tolerate this. Being an Indian, I will never tolerate any other country occupying my country and telling me what to do. I will do everything in my power to push them out of my country. We had fighters like Subhash Chandra Bose who used violent means to drive out the British, was he a terrorist too? I don’t think so. In my opinion he was a freedom fighter just like any other great leaders. Then I do not understand why are the Palestinians termed as "Terrorists" when they are fighting for something that rightfully belongs to them. So I believe that the root cause of all this turmoil is the occupation. And I believe that once the occupied land is handed over to the Palestinians, the violence will stop. This in my opinion is the only solution to the Israel-Palestine issue.

People normally complain about Islam suppressing women. I would advice them to read carefully and observe our surrounding. Islam has clearly defined roles for both men and woman. It does not forbid woman to work and nor does it forbid woman to learn. Look at the world today or let us see the "Best" example of freedom, "America". It’s a system that offers "Freedom"- but where is the social structure heading towards…A rape in every four minutes, 50% of adult population divorced…is this what we mean by "Freedom". Think about the implications, we will have a generation where more than 50% of the population is deprived of parental guidance. Is this what we want. We need to give it a thought. Freedom sounds great…then why do we still have rules?
Islam has rules for every aspect of life, but this is not to take away our freedom, but to protect us from the evil inside us. Why does the train run on the rails, why do we drive on the road…there are rules and we follow them…for our own safety.

Nice to read your comments and hope we can continue this discussion.
May God bless all of us.

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