Question for Ashraf

Submitted by Rajeev (United States), Dec 23, 2010 at 01:34

Dear Dr Pipes: Your reader Ashraf very earnestly suggests that all people of different religions should respect eachother. That sounds good in principle but how are us to believe that the Islamic doctrine as followed by many is indeed consistent with that suggestion. I have heard that under Islamic doctrine Jews are infidels because they have deviated from the true path revealed by the God, Christians are infidels because they have allowed elements of idoatroy creep into their beliefs, everyone else is infidel because they did not follow the book to begin with, and those Muslims who as much as just question the original doctrine become blasphemous. If everyone is inferior, Dear Ashraf, how can he expect respect from superiors.

Having asked you this tough question, Ashraf, let me make a suggestion. You see, whatever God is, He is too big for our little minds to understand. And even if we are very sure of ourselves, for anyone of us to claim that we know God's will any better than anyone else, is what is the real blasphemy toward God. So the true basis for mutual respect is not in claiming that any path toward God is the only path but in understanding that any path that brings humility in us and does not hurt anyone is the right path.

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