what is in a muslims heart? how would you know about that?

Submitted by phonetics (Indonesia), Dec 12, 2006 at 03:20

I am quite shocked at the statements of "playing victim" and "hatred in a muslims heart". But i do agree on the west vs. islam theory. But it's not about Jihad or terrorism. It's basically the fact that we have totally different view points and we are all a little too arrogant about our judgement hence distorting our view of a more tolerant interpretation of other people.

I am a muslim, moderate or radical or even funda-"mental", whatever "brand" you want to categorize me in is for you to judge later on, or not. Whats important is just to read on for a bit without early judgements.

My family does not belong to a muslim "group", we are not Sunni's nor are we muhammadiyan's. We learn Islam on our own (my parents never taught me). When we all want to pray together, then we pray. Nothing is judged, categorized, labeled, stamped, or forcefully administered. I studied judaism, catholicism, hinduism, and buddhism early on. Mostly during my 5th year in elementary school, and later on in college. I was born into Islam and I chose to stay in Islam. The life I have lived is a constant middle medium, meaning i had a taste for both worlds, i guess.

I was educated during my childhood in england and then spent highschool and college in Indonesia (which is often labeled as being another islamic terrorist country). And the only thing i can say is, the west has a totally different view point of what religion is compared to what most Islamics understand as being religion. Most people in the west are agnostics, or atheists, or prominent christians that in someway do not mix religion and life into a melting pot. The west regards religion as a need but ethics and religion go on different tracks, even if side by side. Whereas for Islam, it is impossible to even talk of changing the Qur'an because of "changes in society", because the Quran is life itself. But it isn't something without logic either.

The Quran never had anything specific in it stating such things as was evident during the spanish inquisition that at the time had "just cause" from the bible to implement their own causes. There is no one on this earth that can boldly state that he/she has interpreted the Quran and fully understood it. And it is always understood among muslims that it is not religion that should change but society itself. Again i state this in a positively logical way, for if this was the word of God, wouldn't you trust it enough to understand that God must have known about future occurances to make this Holy Book understandable and manageable for all? No matter what the time span? And the good thing about it is, it states in itself that we can never have a full assessment of what the Quran says or means, since God placed the text upon this earth, and i don't think that humans will be able to understand it to it's full extent. But we may try. Religion can be the absolute basis for how we live our lives, but in a good way.

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