Yes, there are good and bad people in every group

Submitted by Angela Class (United States), Jun 11, 2007 at 17:30

This should be kindergarten knowledge.

And presently there is a large political movement abusing the Muslim religion to gain political control of oppressed and down trodden people all over the world..

Religion is a powerful political tool. This phenomenon is frequently taken advantage of by people who have no genuine religious motivation.

The same thing has happened to Christians.

Clearly Jesus taught peace, but many of the strongest advocates for war will say that they base their feeling that taking up arms is right on their Christian beliefs, or to protect them. That's not what Jesus advocated. It's simply not. Even the most perfunctory reading of the Gospels will tell a person that. He did mention "coming to bring a sword". But he meant a division, not an actual sword. It's symbolic language. A religious metaphor, if you will. I wouldn't say that their claims mean that Christianity is not a religion of peace. It's just being misinterpreted, and used to support unrelated political goals.Clearly some people are misguided about what it means to be a Muslim, and some people are misguided about what it means to be a Christian. That doesn't change the teachings of the Master.I would say that both are intended to be religions of peace in their mystical traditions.People simply have a flawed way of living out the meaning of those creeds.

I just don't like to see "disinformation" created. It's not constructive. It serves only to demonize people. That's not necessary. We know who the enemies of peace and freedom are, and they are not only Muslims.You can tell who the dangerous people in the world are because they pick up guns, throw bombs, and kill innocent people..Woops! That's right, America is doing that right now, too. I guess that's why some people in the world see Americans as dangerous right now. I think it bears a more in-depth approach to answer some of these questions. People want things to be clear, simple, and easy. They want to make them that way. Unfortunately, Life is not that simple. Religion is not that simple. War is not that simple. Peace is a mystery in our world. We don't know how to achieve it.

That's why these prophets, Jesus and Mohammed came: to teach peace.

No-one needs to be sent to teach us war and violence. We've got that down.

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