Islamic Reformation

Submitted by T. Norge (Egypt), Jan 18, 2003 at 09:04

A Shocked Muslim on November 17, 2002 at 12:05 noted a mixture of truth and half truth in his heart-felt statement. Perhaps such mixtures are the most dangerous to real Truth. The Koran is a document of history, with a historical context which most moslems never want to admit. The Koran may have some nice things in it, but it also has a lot of nasty mean spirited ideas. Its strength and its weakness is that it is ultimately an extremely practical religion that asks neither too much nor too little of its adherents and tries to incorporate an entire way of life into its teachings to answer people's questions, solve their problems and put to rest the issues that are so troubling to an open mind.

All Arab speaking Moslems know the truth that, in fact, almost nobody understands the Koran; why? because it makes no sense when taken as a whole; Arabs' veneration for this flawed collection has thwarted their dreams to have the success one would expect of a people who have God's ultimate blessing!

It will likely be agreed by open-minded people from a Christian background that the Bible also is flawed, and despite some beautiful passages is ultimately a historical document with a lot of old wives tales and fairy tales. Of course the Koran is based on large part on the myths of Jews and Christians, which in turn are sometimes coming from even older sources.

Across many Moslem countries, giving up one's (Islamic) religion, converting, questioning the absolute veracity of the Koran, or the qualities of Mohamed (the alleged Prophet), will win not only general execration but the widespread belief that one deserves to be murdered! As 'shocked moslem' made so clear: never expect a moslem to turn the other cheek!

Christianity, just like the Jewish and Moslem religions is generally full of myths that its adherents take as god-given facts, but at least, in theory, it is a religion that focuses on love, and not bloody justice.

Mohamed claims that God commands that (unrepentant) thieves have their hands cut off, that adultresses be stoned to death, etc. (so lovely). Jesus (allegedly) states: Let him who is without sin amongst you cast the first stone. When asked how many times to forgive one's neighbor for an offense, Jesus replies something to the effect that one should forgive them 100 times or 1000. The idea is clear. Christianity is a religion (based on so many lies as well) that ultimately aims for the perfect Love of God, while Islam is simply a religiously enforced social system based on the habits and mores of ancient tribal Arabs. In fairness we can also say that many Christian sects do not come even close, including many mainline groups, to fulfilling the promise and the intent of their religion. But at least most don't believe in killing those who say they are fools and that their favorite Biblical stories are rubbish based on the historical situation and prejucices of the people who set the words to ink over the ages.

Also, don't think the Koran hasn't been changed. It is remarkably unchanged for many centuries that is true, but if you try to honestly trace the development of the Koran during its first two centuries you find out that it came from somewhere and not from God.
By the way... biblical stories I don't like: Cain & Able... yes Cain shouldn't have killed his brother Able, but the story was definitely written by people who tended animals (sheep & goat herders perhaps) and were prejudiced against growers of crops. St Paul, who has so much that is beautiful attributed to him also wrote some nastier things that must be repudiated.

Anyway... Moslems must at least begin to allow freedom of thought and make a commitment to allow anyone to think and be what they want.. their enforced social conformity in places like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, etc. amounts to a horrible tyrany. Freedom of thought and belief are the first step and these must come from Moslems in the USA, Europe and Australia, although if the Christian countries launched another crusade, I think we could overrun the current Moslem world in a number of hours.... and replace their tyrany with freedom and a kindler gentle islam..

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