Which are inherently radical religions?

Submitted by LK (Lithuania), Jan 10, 2005 at 04:22

Mark sharp wrote:
[Even the moderates HAVE to believe in some ideas that the West would consider extreme (rights of women, supremecy of Islam over all religions, etc). It is an inherently radical religion.]

And if you are a catholic you also have to believe the supremacy of catholicism over all religions, and even more so, if you are an Evangelical, you must believe that Christ(or rather his evangelical vision) is the only Way to God, and everyone other is going to hell. So are Catholicism or Evangelicalism inherently radical religions?

If you are Muslim, you have at least theoretical possibility to acknowledge the universal validity of all religions, eg. following the interpretation of sheykh Ibn Arabi. It is true that it was and is very minoritarian vision, and had a relatively very small number of adherents, but it existed and had excellent theoretical grounding(by Qur'an, Ahadith etc.). Certainly even the Sheykh Ibn Arabi believed in the supremacy of Islam over all religions, but only because the Islam(or more exactly his own vision of Islam) was in his eyes the most tolerant and the most embracing religion including in itself the substance of all other religions.

However, Christians have no possibility to admit the universal validity of all religions, even theoretically. A Christian can be very loving and tolerant and moderate to his unchristian fellowmen, but in the depth of his heart he will always think - this my unchristian fellow will certainly go to hell unless he converts to Christ.

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