Polite but firm. Invitation accepted.

Submitted by Jeff (United States), May 5, 2021 at 21:53

Hi Prashant,

Like AVCR, I also appreciate your messages here.

"They want democracy all over the world but create theocracies wherever they can."

Well that's an excellent observation and yes it's OK for us to expect some consistency, and point it out when it's lacking. And to point out utter hypocrisy.

To compare Christianity and Islam: believing your holy book was written by authors who were inspired by God is a far cry from believing your holy book is an unchanging and unchangeable document that has existed exactly in its current form since the beginning of time. One belief allows for actual thinking, discussion, interpretation and disagreement, things we take for granted in the West. The other allows for none of those things.

Slavery is an illustrative example. Jesus didn't free a single slave. But He left us with a philosophy and belief system that is simply incompatible with slavery. It's not an accident that slavery, where it has ended in the world, was ended by an effort that began in and was driven by Christian churches. I have mentioned on this forum before, there are old homes and churches near where I live that contain clever hiding places. Why? They were part of the underground railroad that hid and spirited runaway slaves to safety in the 1700's and 1800's in America. I have asked Muslims on this forum to describe similar stories of an anti-slavery movement in the Islamic world during the same time period, or any time period. No response.

How many slaves did Jesus own? How many slaves did the Buddha own? Compare those two numbers to the number of slaves that Mohammed owned. And which one is held up as the perfect human being, who left us a beautiful example of conduct, none of whose actions may be questioned?

"We cannot run this world with one set of rules for everyone else and another for Muslims."

Right, thank you. Notice how, anytime you try to apply the same rules that Islam demands for itself to any other religion, it suddenly makes no sense. There's a war on Islam but I never hear about a war on Buddhism. There are moderate Muslims but I never hear about moderate Christians. I can say none of the Hindu gods even exist and no one says I'm racist, no one wants to kill me. I can criticize any religion. Well, all except one. The brave, edgy comedians who ridicule and insult Christianity almost nightly on network television never dare breath a joke about Islam. And let's count up all the religions that anyone suffers from a phobia of.

Dar al Harb: the world of thought (at least where thought is allowed)
Dar al Islam: the world of no thought (at least where you better keep your thoughts to yourself)

"I invite people to critique Islam politely but firmly."

Maybe we can't save the Islamic world but we can defend our world. Starting with the polite but firm criticism of Islam that you have championed here.

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