Islam

[jared1236]

What are your views on Islam?

 

[Oafman]

I think it's irrational nonsense.

 

[mindlight]

What are your views on Islam?

Better than atheism, Buddhism, Hinduism but worse than Judaism or Christianity. Is there a political purpose to this question?

 

[KitKatMatt]

I don't really have one. I don't know much about the religion at all.

I don't know much about many other religions as well, so it's pretty much on the same level as those in terms of what I think.

 

[LoveBeingAMuslimah]

It's the love of my life (as well as the best way of life) and the ultimate truth to me.

 

[SuperCloud]

Arabic (Islamic) calligraphy is the most beautiful form of calligraphy on earth. Many of the mosques, with the geometrical art, are moving and awe inspiring as well.

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar in terms of civility, prosperity, peace, and security are second-to-none on earth.

It strikes me as a manly religion, and for reasons I don't yet understand, it produces the most religiously faithful women on earth--in terms of fidelity to the umma. The umma being in concept the equivalent of the "invisible Church."

 

[HonestTruth]

Islam ruled in much of Spain for 800 largely peaceful years. But that peace was disrupted by Christian hate, sad to say.

Today, it is being attacked on different levels by the West - here is one example:



http://www.alternet.org/plot-level-village-isnt-news-when-targets-are-muslim-and-plotter-christian




"Attempted mass-murder by terrorist obviously not newsworthy because he's christian"


Double standard in how such items are reported.

 

[KWCrazy]

Mohammed was one of the false prophets that Christ said would come and deceive many. Islam is by definition a false religion because it denies the death and resurrection of Christ. While there are many peaceful and loving Muslims, Islam is a violent, misogynist religion that calls for the death or enslavement of those who do not submit to it. This is not intended to insult those who practice it, but rather to point out the truth as our Lord and Savior warned and the violence as dictated in the Koran. Like any false religion it leads its followers to destruction. As Christians, we should steadfastly tell our brothers that there is only one way to heaven; through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It is out of love that we share our message. Those who would attack another's religion out of hate do not know God. Jesus did not hate the Romans. Rather, He sent Paul to share the Gospel with them. Today Christians are doing the same in the Middle East; though many of them are murdered for the attempt. As they didn't spare the life of Christ, neither will they spare the lives of His followers.

 

[SuperCloud]

Islam ruled in much of Spain for 800 largely peaceful years. But that peace was disrupted by Christian hate, sad to say.

Today, it is being attacked on different levels by the West - here is one example:



http://www.alternet.org/plot-level-village-isnt-news-when-targets-are-muslim-and-plotter-christian




"Attempted mass-murder by terrorist obviously not newsworthy because he's christian"


Double standard in how such items are reported.

That was colonization. The only reason North African colonization of Spain is glorified is due to anti-Catholic sentiments.

Okay, I'm half black, look at black Africa today under self rule. One could glorify the white colonial rule of Africa especially sense they built pretty buildings.

If everyone--or the majority--of white Spaniards loved Muslim rule so much then I doubt Muslim rule would ever have been overthrown. Look at all the pretty buildings and high culture France had. That still did not stop the French Revolution. I'm thinking plenty of white Spaniards were as satisfied with the rule of their Muslim masters as the Black Panthers and Nation of Islam were satisfied with the rule of their white masters: in the wealthiest most advanced nation on earth in the 1950s and 1970s. Plenty of pretty buildings in the USA and a lot more real science in the USA than ever was in Moorish Spain. Ah! but the pretty fountains and female harems of the elite 1% of the Moorish aristocrats therefore says anti-Catholic propaganda must paradise on earth have existed. Not.

 

[JustOneWay]

Better than atheism, Buddhism, Hinduism but worse than Judaism or Christianity. Is there a political purpose to this question?

There doesn't need to be a political purpose.

Do you need a political purpose?

 

[Michael]

Islam ruled in much of Spain for 800 largely peaceful years. But that peace was disrupted by Christian hate, sad to say.

Today, it is being attacked on different levels by the West - here is one example:



http://www.alternet.org/plot-level-village-isnt-news-when-targets-are-muslim-and-plotter-christian




"Attempted mass-murder by terrorist obviously not newsworthy because he's christian"


Double standard in how such items are reported.

Apparently these days they can't even live in peace with one another, let alone anyone else.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/w...-arabia-shiites-sunnis-yemen-mosque.html?_r=0

They seem intent on killing one another all over the entire Middle East, and even their Mosque's aren't safe from their own self loathing.

 

[stamperben]

What are your views on Islam?

I respect it as I respect all other religions. I find the participants of them all are only human. It's what should bond us all together.

 

[Oafman]

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar in terms of civility, prosperity, peace, and security are second-to-none on earth.

You have to be kidding. Those are both repressive and exploitative theocracies, and they're both vile. I've never been to Qatar, but I have to go to Dubai for work from time to time, and I never look forward to it.

FWIW I agree with you on the art and architecture, but that wasn't really the question.

 

[LoveBeingAMuslimah]

That was colonization. The only reason North African colonization of Spain is glorified is due to anti-Catholic sentiments.

Okay, I'm half black, look at black Africa today under self rule. One could glorify the white colonial rule of Africa especially sense they built pretty buildings.

If everyone--or the majority--of white Spaniards loved Muslim rule so much then I doubt Muslim rule would ever have been overthrown.

Many ethnic Spaniards converted to Islaam and they were persecuted along with the Muslims with mainly North African ancestry after Ferdinand and Isabella happened. Muslim children were stolen and raised as Christians. At one point, 80% of Spain's population was comprised of Muslims (Berbers + converts from the indigenous population). And it's probably glorified because it was part of a golden age while much of the rest of the world was still in the dark ages.

"Zion Zohar, an American Jewish historian, confirms the Jewish appreciation of the Muslim arrival in Spain (711 CE) in this way,

“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 CE and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution…Born during this era of Islamic rule, the famous Golden Age of Spanish Jewry (circa 900-1200) produced such luminaries as: statesman and diplomat Hasdai ibn Shaprut, vizier and army commander Shmuel ha-Nagid, poet-philosophers Solomon Ibn Gabriol and Judah Halevi, and at the apex of them all, Moses Ben Maimon, also known among the Spaniards as Maimonides.” [20]"

http://www.islam21c.com/islamic-thought/197-one-state-solution-a-historical-perspective/

There are other places where I can point out that Muslim leadership was preferred to others by the original inhabitants of whatever conquered lands.

 

[SuperCloud]

You have to be kidding. Those are both repressive and exploitative theocracies, and they're both vile. I've never been to Qatar, but I have to go to Dubai for work from time to time, and I never look forward to it.

FWIW I agree with you on the art and architecture, but that wasn't really the question.

I was reared Catholic. Art and architecture is apart of "catholicity" or that is to say Catholic spirituality and "religion." Likewise, I'm pretty sure art--as in the geometric art that comprises Islamic artistic expression--is a part of *Islam.*

I've been to Dubai and Abu Dhabi during the Gulf War. I felt safer over there than in the middle-class neighborhood I was raised in on the North Side of Milwaukee (where rapes, armed robberies, assaults, and eventually even shootings became typical). Both those cities were as prosperous as the wealthy city of San Diego I visited while in the Marine Corps.

The UAE was a lot more quiet than the loud Brooklyn-like Milwaukee neighborhood I came up in with all its heavy car and pedestrian traffic. The UAE is more conservative and certainly has nothing like the drinking and tavern culture of Milwaukee. But in terms of sheer civility, peace, and safety nothing in the USA I've ever experienced come close to matching it.

I liked Abu Dhabi the most.

 

[mindlight]

There doesn't need to be a political purpose.

Do you need a political purpose?

No a response to God does not need to be political. Gods Kingdom is not of this world even if it will displace all the principalities and powers of this world.

Of course Islam is intensely political in practice and indeed probably would not have survived as long as it has without the tyranny of a scary minority over the rest.


I like that they acknowledge the One God , Creator, Sovereign Lord and Judge. I admire their zeal for God but because of their views on Jesus and the apparent lack of assurance and intimacy in their faith i wonder if they truly know God.

 

[HonestTruth]

Apparently these days they can't even live in peace with one another, let alone anyone else.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/w...-arabia-shiites-sunnis-yemen-mosque.html?_r=0

They seem intent on killing one another all over the entire Middle East, and even their Mosque's aren't safe from their own self loathing.

Sectarian violence is a sad but true reality. However, Christians of various denominations killed each other over the centuries as well. We saw some of that as Yugoslavia broke up, for example.

 

[SuperCloud]

Many ethnic Spaniards converted to Islaam and they were persecuted along with the Muslims with mainly North African ancestry after Ferdinand and Isabella happened. Muslim children were stolen and raised as Christians. At one point, 80% of Spain's population was comprised of Muslims (Berbers + converts from the indigenous population). And it's probably glorified because it was part of a golden age while much of the rest of the world was still in the dark ages.

"Zion Zohar, an American Jewish historian, confirms the Jewish appreciation of the Muslim arrival in Spain (711 CE) in this way,

“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 CE and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution…Born during this era of Islamic rule, the famous Golden Age of Spanish Jewry (circa 900-1200) produced such luminaries as: statesman and diplomat Hasdai ibn Shaprut, vizier and army commander Shmuel ha-Nagid, poet-philosophers Solomon Ibn Gabriol and Judah Halevi, and at the apex of them all, Moses Ben Maimon, also known among the Spaniards as Maimonides.” [20]"

http://www.islam21c.com/islamic-thought/197-one-state-solution-a-historical-perspective/

There are other places where I can point out that Muslim leadership was preferred to others by the original inhabitants of whatever conquered lands.

Yeah, many Spaniards converted to Islam. True. That is true about the Amerindians in Mexico and all the mestizos produced too. Eh... Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton like many black Democratic leaders are bible preaching Protestants and not priests of Voodoo.

I don't think it should be a surprise that Spaniards would convert to the leading and wealthiest power group. Pretty typical human trait.

Islam offered some benefits in other ways as well. Islam brought a solution to the violence and social problems throughout the Iberian region of that time. That Catholicism was inadequate to handle or address. Kind of like the Nation of Islam today offers a solution to the violence and social pathologies within Black-America in a time in which the Black Church (Protestant) has been incompetent and incapable of adequately addressing and solving.

Islam will offer solutions to America's and Europe's problems as whole as secular people provide utterly incompetent leadership, social pathologies explode, and secular leadership is up for the highest bidder with the best story to tell the masses.

But in terms of the "Dark Ages," for one, Western Europe in no way constituted most of planet earth. Secondly, the term itself is propaganda. The ancient Romans viewed most of the white world as barbarians for a reason (not that the Roman's with their gladiatorial events, infanticide, crucifixions, massive slaughtering of animals for human entertainment... weren't barbaric as well). My Germanic ancestors were still living as "Indians" when the Christian Gospel was brought to them. So, no, the ancient pagan Roman's had not turned the Germanic tribes into learned, cultured men sipping tea.

But yeah... it is true that after the pagan Germans crushed Rome and invaded, that what "light" Rome did bring Europe began to flicker out.

The Muslims acquired a lot of their "knowledge" from the Eastern and Oriental Christians. Particularly the Oriental Christians. And a lot of their "knowledge" from the Hindu Indians. That learning they translated into Arabic and then brought to the Christian West.

By the way... the "Golden Age" of the USA was arguably right after WWII during the 1950s to the late 1960s. Why would Black-Americans rebel during a "Golden Age" and one of material prosperity and scientific advancements that greatly surpassed the Golden Age of Moorish Spain?

 

[NightHawkeye]

By the way... the "Golden Age" of the USA was arguably right after WWII during the 1950s to the late 1960s. Why would Black-Americans rebel during a "Golden Age" and one of material prosperity and scientific advancements that greatly surpassed the Golden Age of Moorish Spain?

Free time and a television driven political agenda.

 

[dgiharris]

I really don't like this question as it is nothing more than a sock puppet platform to bash Islam and proclaim Christianity as superior when in reality, I believe both religions are more or less equivalent in terms of positives and negatives.

The big difference between Western nations and Islamic nations is that most Western nations are SECULAR whereas most Islamic nations are not. Truth be told, if Western nations were non-secular, we'd have the same horrifically bad civil and human rights violations as most Islamic nations. The bible is not conducive to women's or minority rights and allows for slavery as well as tons of other things. If we lived by strict interpretation of the Bible western nations would be every bit as repressive as Islamic nations if not more so.

The last comment I'll make is in terms of perception and labels and association. When someone of Islamic faith commits an act of violence it is viewed as representative of the religion as a whole. When someone of Christian faith commits an act of violence, said act is used as "proof" that he wasn't really Christian and thus is not representative of Christianity as a whole. It is a ridiculous double standard applied unfairly to Muslims. A radical muslim blows up a building, it is a terrorist act. A radical Christian blows up an abortion clinic and said person automatically becomes non-christian and that act doesn't get associated with Christianity...

I don't know why it is human nature for the need to denigrate in order to feel good about yourself. I believe both religions have their pros and cons and from a Utilitarian viewpoint can be seen as equal.