Evolution of Islam, and the pursuit of human rights

Submitted by CanadianChris (Canada), Feb 27, 2007 at 11:20

"Submitted by Moderate Muslim, Feb 25, 2007 at 12:27

If syed muhammed ali is still reading this forum, I would request that he post, talking about how peaceful Islam is, and condemn the 9/11 attacks as being un Islamic and wrong.

People on this forum are skeptical of Muslims and I understand why.

I also understand why a Muslim would be moved to say angry things as a result of some of the stuff in this forum.

More muslims need to post here and show the world that Islam is peaceful.

WE KNOW IT IS

WE JUST NEED TO SHOW THEM"

Islam will only be able to show the world that it is peaceful, by a lengthy process of internal ideological correction. I believe that many Moslems that I meet are being backed against a wall, that wall being progressive attitudes about human rights. Even if an individual Moslem is moderate in his philosophy, the religion has shown itself to be intolerant of other religions and philosophies, and even intolerant of its own believers choosing to live a moderate approach to the religion. Simply explaining the moderate-ness of the religion is not going to change people's perception of what is happening on the international stage. We are watching Al-Jazeera now in the west and seeing an executioner being interviewed and his satisfaction that he is fulfilling the will of Allah by punishing people who don't match up with Sharia law, is the message we are getting. I WANT to believe that Islam can correct itself, and that Islam CAN become a religion of peace, because I meet many Moslems that I LIKE, and that are good people, but I believe that Canada and North America are not experiencing the rampant extremism that is evident in countries less able to defend against dogmatic expansionism.

Islam may show itself to be a religion of peace, but it will not be through dialogue, it will be through an evolution of the religion to catch up with the modern world, and by showing the world that the Declaration of Human Rights is the core of the approach to Islam. I personally believe that in order for a religion to be recognized on the world stage and to avoid international persecution, that they must agree to abide by the UDOHR. Respect for the individual and individual freedom to explore religious options must be at the heart of each an every legitimate religion of the world, and sects that disagree will be labelled as illegitimate, which would remove the legitimacy of several governments from the world stage. This process will need careful oversight to avoid being used for economic and political gain.

Then again, I may simply be Naive

Chris

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