Yes, but is it a religion?

Submitted by Barbara (United States), Jan 25, 2006 at 16:55

Segments of the Scandinavian public are seeking to ban "Islam" in Norway and Sweden etc.. Islam, they say, is so diametrically opposed to their culture and historic beliefs that Islam should not be allowed to impose itself in any way on Scandinavian society no matter how fervently Muslims purport that Islam is a "a religion" .

The truth is that the Scandinarians have serious logical reasons for advocating that Islam should be banned from Western societies because Islam does not qualify as a geniuine "religion". Regardless of how vociferously it may be professed, Islam conveys too many barbaric and inhuman preachings. Islamic borrowings from the Old or New Testament do not suffice to give the Koran and even less the Hadiths validity as "a religion".

The more one learns about Islamic laws, the more one wonders what sort of people create and cherish that sort of "religion" full of so much ferocity against other human beings. "you may kill your neighbor and seize all his possessions, including his wife and children". ...

The action of the Scandinavians should be a "wake-up call" to the rest of the Western World. Just because strangers come in our midst purporting to be bearing messages from outer space, superhumans, angels or magi or whatever, is no reason for otherwise logical and sensible adults to "suspend our disbelief' and allow so much monstrous inhumanity into our very hearth and home as if it were not only equal but more valuable - advanced - than the teachings and examples of all we have inherited from the priceless legacy of the Classical Humanities and the hallowed examples of Christendom which have fostered Western
Civilization.

Ours after all is the "civilization" all the world comes to enjoy.. why else are so many millions of Muslims crowding to Western shores. Surely they are not so duplicitous and evil as to come among us as friends while they are secretly planning to bring utter ruin upon us.

What lesson is more civilizing than the scene between Achilles and Priam at the end of the ILIAD when Achilles suddenly is no longer a killing machine but becomes a human being, when Achilles realizes that the old enemy who is kissing the hand stained with the blood of his son could but for a twist of fate be his own father, seeking his body from a victorious Hector. We must not seek endless revenge but learn to look into our innermost hearts and realize that there is a cosmic need to love our enemy and to forgive the trespasses of others, even as we want our flaws to be forgiven. Wherever we look in nature, we must learn to read its lesson: to identify with and feel for the principle of Life, especially for our fellow human beings...

No, the more one studies the Koran and the Hadiths, etc.., the more we must acknowledge the shortcomings of Islamic texts. Islam has spread because it promises so much sexual privilege and pleasure to the man (and total subjugation of the woman) , and because its holy texts are so incoherent and unreadable by Western standards. If we of The West are really truthful with ourselves - what goes by the name " Islam" the chaotic flow of the Koran (however millifluous its recitation may be) has a long, long way to develop before it can be considered a "religion" to guide us for the rest of our days and beyond.

Yes, the Scandinavians are a very sensible people. . All the other Western democracies should learn from the Scandinavian example.

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