Samira: Islam is used in a dangerous manner.

Submitted by non-biased (United Kingdom), Dec 1, 2005 at 17:53

Samira,

You said that some information was incorrect?

1) The President of Iran did call for the destruction of Israel last month ( www.cnn.com or www.euronews.net).

2) The Parsee people were given the choice of converting to Islam or leaving Persia. (Read Religions: A Guide: Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities by Christopher Partridge (Paperback - 1 Mar 2004). Zoroastrianism is the major ancient, pre-Islamic religion of Iran.

3)French shop keepers have been driven out of their towns for selling alcohol and pork (see article at www.timesonline.co.uk).

4)Mia has been threatened by the Islamic community (see any website with her bio).

5) The Mughals in India forced people to convert in what is now Bangladesh and Pakistan. Many of these people have Christian and Hindu ancestors. (Read any book on Indo-Pak relations).

- Islam is dangerous in some respects. If you read the Koran cover to cover you will find that it dictates the way in which a person should live and calls for the spreading of Islam. Hence, why the Mughals forced people to convert, believing that they were doing Gods work. However, if you read any other religious book you will not find the same kind of content. The Koran is almost trying to SCARE people into following its teachings. It does imply that all other religions are wrong and that those people should be converted.

The main problem appears to be that Islam is not a modern day religion. The constaints set by the religion make it hard for muslim people to be fully committed to Islam and live in the modern world. For example, the muslim people in the French towns chose to come to France, but were offended by the shop keepers selling alcohol and pork. In the western world it is perfectly acceptable to drink alcohol and eat meat but the muslim community could not accept another cultures beliefs, so they decided to terrorise the shop keepers. This is a perfect example of Islam not being modern enough for the present time.

The Koran was not written by Mohammed so i believe that its original message became lost. Having had conversations with muslim people who have studied the Koran without prejudice, i find the same answer. Salman Rushdie also still refers to himself as a muslim but he did write the santanic verses and i am sure that many intellectuals will agree that he did constructively criticise the teachings of the Koran without being biased. He treated the Koran as any piece of literature and like an excellent critical thinker he high-lighted the contradictions within the teachings.

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