Question on Islam (primarily for Antiochian/Arab and other Middle Eastern EO)

[dzheremi]

As I've written before: I am Coptic Orthodox. Everything we do takes forever.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[TheLostCoin]

I'm just
This is all hatred of people, somehow? Nah. That's ridiculous. If you really hate people, you don't simultaneously argue for their equal civil rights. But the powers that be never want to make that distinction. I agree with @TheLostCoin that this is symptomatic of modern secular society, but I'm not on "Secularismforums.com", and I'm certainly not on "Islamicforums.com", so what gives?

It's almost like Jonathan Edward's ideas of a Protestant "non-clerical Democratic Church" leads to society and the media dictating the Church what it should morally value.

And it's almost like that the majority of English-speaking Christians are said Protestants.

 

[dzheremi]

Hahaha. Point taken, TheLostCoin.

I understand why it's like this. I just don't personally want to play along. The internet is not supposed to be virtual Protestant America. Upsetting the apple cart is sometimes necessary (not to cast myself as anyone heroic; I'm just a layman who is frustrated by how restrictive and untruthful everything is when it comes to this topic), it's just that in this case the apple cart is so full of baseless assumptions and accusations of bigotry that it's not even worth it. It doesn't do anything. Nobody listens. If I post a video of a terrorist attack on some church in Egypt to show that this is the terrorism of Islam in a place where nobody has to pretend that it is a nice and kind religion, it will only get taken down and then I will get a warning about posting "violent content". I know this because that's exactly what has happened in the past.

The reality of Islam is violent and ugly. That's not an aberration or the "hijacking of a peaceful religion", as Bush II once put it. All Christians used to know this, but they're not taught reality anymore, and they don't want to hear it.

So fine. Wait until it comes to you, then you'll see. What other option are we left with? Everywhere is controlled by this mentality. Everywhere they demand that you deceive yourself as they do, or face punishment.

 

[Phronema]

It's all very draining. I don't know if any of you guys experience that or what you do about it (other than fast and pray, obviously; I know what should be going on, in terms of my own reactions in my actual life, since that's all I can really control), but it's like an uphill battle that never ends against an endless torrent of denial and reproaches from people who are not living with the reality of this topic, as our mother churches do, so they don't even know what is actually the truth. All on a Christian website. Whatever.

I think you have every reason to be discouraged, but don't let it get you down. Keep respectfully telling the truth. You're not personally attacking anyone, and as you've mentioned nothing you're saying is against CF's rules.

I fail to see why the truth upsetting someone is your fault, or issue. If it were me I'd keep on telling the truth regardless of others feelings.

 

[dzheremi]

Thank you. I don't know. I'm sorry for turning this topic into a rant. Sometimes I just need some kind of feedback to make sure I'm not the one who is sticking out relative to the general sense of what reality is, and you guys (the EO) are the closest to my own church in terms of experience with Muslims since the beginning of Islam (e.g., with saints like John of Damascus and others who were raised contemporaneously with the earliest generations of Muslims), so I trust you all for honest answers about your own churches. And it seems like it's not out of bounds in that context to say what my own people already say, which is good to know.

Thread accomplished, I guess.

 

[Davidnic]

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Discussion of staff actions is not allowed. But it is not our intention to defend the errors of Islam or prevent frank discussion of its attrocities and negative impact on the world.

Many Christians have suffered unimaginably at the hands of Islam. Few, if any, more than our Coptic brothers and sisters, the Church of Martyrs. It is not our desire to downplay that in any way.

Please continue to have this conversation with us in support rather than putting it in a thread.

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