Islam and the world...

Submitted by Mahmoud Hayat (United States), Sep 20, 2006 at 19:21

First and foremost, I would like to thank Daniel Pipes for saying the fact that "Muslims are already making small moves in the same direction" and that "Islam is not stuck", because it is in fact true that the Religion of Islam is moving forward with the progression of time. There are many comments on this article stating that Islam is a Religion where people of faith kill other "non-believers" of other religions, just because these other people are non-Muslims.

I say it to you now that this is very wrong of you, first of all because you know nothing about the Religion of Islam, and second of all because these facts are very wrong, it is in fact quite the opposite of what Islam really is like.

The basis of Islam is in fact very similar to the basics of Christianity, and that is obeying and praying to a one God, and nothing else. God's Prophet Mohammed (P.B.O.H) has taken God's words and given them to the people of the Islam faith, which in time were gathered to create the Holy Quran. It is a fact known around the world, and a fact known since the beginning of Islam, that the Holy Quran was written for any time and any place, therefore, no matter what the year is, the Holy Quran will never be out dated, and will always tell Muslims what to do. As a Muslim, I despise the fact that many people of other faiths could even think of the fact that Islam spreads a "bloody path" and will kill all other non-Muslims.

For many years, Muslims have lived in peace with non-Muslims, and this will not change, because Islam is a Religion of peace, not hatred and war like many people think. There are many Islam "extremists" that have painting a very bad picture for Islam, and they do not represent the whole of the Muslim society. It is also true that in the past there were wars between nations that started because of a difference in Religion, but let's not forget the many crusades and wars fought by many European countries in order to spread Christianity. All Religions will go through many wars in order to spread their beliefs. Now, you may or may not believe in Islam, but one should not blindly accuse a religion believed in for over a thousand years of being bloody and based on killing.

Islam has lead the lives of hundred's of millions of people through more than a millennium's worth of time. Through Islam, many scientists discovered facts that are the bases of most sciences today. Some of these are Khalid Ibn Yazeed who was a brilliant Alchemist, Jaber Ibn Haiyan who was also an Alchemist, Al-Khwarizmi (Mathematician), Thabit Ibn Qurrah (Astronomy), Al-Razi (Medicine), Ibn Sina (Medicine and Mathematics), Omar Al-Khayyam (Mathematics and Poetry), and last buy not least, Ibn Al-Baitar (Pharmacy and Botany). Now everybody knows that there have been a lot of Christian and other non-Muslim scientists, but can anyone tell me how the Catholic Church treated them?

Galileo Galilei, the Italian scientist and who studied physics and astronomy, was condemned of heresy by the Catholic Church because he said that the earth revolves around the sun, and not the other way around. After Galileo's death in 1642, Pope John Paul II said that there had been errors made about Galileo's findings, and that Galileo may have been right – This paragraph paraphrased from facts on the Galileo Biography website (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Galileo.html).

I would just like to get the fact that Islam is not the religion that many Christians think it is. If translated into English, the Arabic word "Islam" literally means "Peace" and that is what is spread throughout the Religion. It is actually because some Muslims have twisted the faith into what they think is right, and that is what is causing all the unrest in the Religion of Islam. When followed properly, Islam is and always will be the greatest and most peaceful Religion ever.

Thank you very much for reading this comment,

Mahmoud Hayat

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