- Muslims who preach hate are to be deported and subject
to new restrictions, Charles Clarke announced in the Commons on Wednesday.
So what would the home secretary have to say about stuff like this: "Blessed
is he who takes your little children and smashes their heads against the
rocks"?
-
- Or this: "O God, break the teeth in their mouths
... Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime; like the untimely
birth that never sees the sun ... The righteous will bathe their feet in
the blood of the wicked." No, this is not Islam, it is the Bible.
And there is a lot more where that came from.
-
- Why, then, are so many commentators persuaded that the
Qur'an is a manual of hate - compared to the Judeo-Christian scriptures,
it is very tame stuff indeed. More disturbing still for Christians and
Jews, the nearest scriptural justification for suicide bombings I can think
of comes from the book of Judges, where Samson pushes apart the structural
supports of a temple packed with people. "Let me die with the Philistines,"
he prays, just before the building collapses.
-
- It will not do to work with a Bible of the nice bits
or allegorise these passages out of existence, leaving them hanging around
for future fanatics to exploit. Religion must openly acknowledge its own
dirty secrets.
-
- All of the above may simply encourage those who think
that religion itself is the problem. After all, it is precisely the non-negotiability
of the divine commandment that makes peaceful religious politics so elusive.
If the choice is between the ballot box and divine will, how can the faithful
remain committed to democratic decision-making?
-
- The campaigning secularist has no shortage of ammunition.
Many of their criticisms are well aimed and need to be taken extremely
seriously. As the great Islamic philosopher Averroes put it: "Truth
never fears honest debate." But the problem with the secular attack
is that it refuses to make any sort of distinction between good religion
and bad religion.
-
- The assumption is that bad religion - the sex-obsessed
religion of violence and superstition - is the real thing, and that good
religion - the religion that encourages peace and respect for human life
- is a modern fake, a religion that disingenuously reinvents itself to
reflect modern values and consequently does not entirely believe what it
says.
-
- The truth, however, is that rigid fundamentalism is the
modern fake. Most belief systems have huge and historic recourses of self-criticism.
The gospels contain some of the most biting attacks on pathological religiosity;
the Hebrew prophets are involved in a constant campaign of subversion against
the misplaced theology of narrow sectarianism. As Isaiah has it: "When
you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you
make many prayers, I will not listen, your hands are full of blood."
-
- These theological recourses are precious and need to
be nurtured. But a wholesale cultural assault upon a religious tradition
does nothing to help more moderate voices. A religion that sees itself
as being under attack is less sympathetic to those who would argue from
within. In such circumstances, self-criticism is easily represented as
disloyalty. Yet now, more than ever, we need to encourage those able to
use theology to speak out against violence done in God's name.
-
- Like many, I do not know Islam well enough. I am sure
that, for many millions, it is a religion of peace; I am sure there is
currently a theological struggle for its very soul. What I have yet to
understand - because it has not been sufficiently well explained to me,
or given sufficient exposure in the media - is how murderous jihad is a
theological heresy.
-
- These are the voices that we desperately need to hear.
The help that can be offered by Christians and others is our own admission
that the complicity of religion with acts of violence is something Islam
does not face alone.
- _____
-
- The Rev Dr Giles Fraser is vicar of Putney and author
of Christianity And Violence
-
-
- Comment
Alton Raines
8-1-5
-
- The author of this article states, "Like many, I
do not know Islam well enough," and this is true for most. But contrasting
the message of the Bible to the Quran can be quite revealing. Of course,
there are violent texts in the Bible, usually aimed at specific people
in specific conflicts. Many, very brutal. Whereas in the Quran, one will
find wholesale violent approval from "Allah" toward anyone and
everyone who is not Muslim. Moderates apparently ignore these scriptures,
while the Fundamentalists thrive on them. (please note I have hyperlinked
the Quran notations to precise quotations so they can be studied in more
depth).
-
- By contrast...
-
- The Quran says ...
- to kill ALL infidels (non-Muslims) -- Christians and
Jews foremost. This is an edict to men, not something supernatural which
Allah will do in some retribution in an afterlife. It is an edict of Jihad
against all unbelievers...
-
- The Quran says...
- Have no unbelieving (non-Muslim) friends. Kill the unbelievers
wherever you find them. (4:89)
-
- Yet, The Bible says...
- - Love thy neighbor as thyself...
- - seek the good of your fellow man, putting him before
your own needs...
- God is love and we must love everyone with the same unconditional love
God shows us...
- - love does no harm... it is not arrogant, rude, unkind,
selfish, etc.
- - treat unbelievers with kindness and show them your
good example...
- - feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the infirm
and imprisoned...
- The overall message is one of love, kindness, charity
and self-sacrifice for the good of "the other" before the self
-- here and now, in THIS life. Many will claim these sayings are strictly
New Testament, but in actuality, most are quotes in the New Testament FROM
Old Testament sources.
-
- The Quran says...
- It's ok to mistreat, abuse, swindle and harm non-Muslims
because they are going to hell
- anyway (9:73)
-
- Yet, The Bible says...
- - That which you do to the least of these, you have done
it unto me...
- - do unto others as you would have them do unto you...
- - live in peace with all men insomuch as you are able...
- never return evil for evil...
- - that justice by which you meet out shall be the justice
you yourself shall receive...
- - blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy...
- - do no harm to the foreigner or sojourner in your midst.
Do not oppress the poor
- or the outsider
- - Paul wrote: "What have I to do with judging those
outside the faith?... God is their judge."
-
- The Quran says...
- Allah 'causes' some to sin, in order that he may judge,
condemn and torture them in hell.
- (5:41)
-
- Yet, The Bible says...
- - God is not the author of sin
- - God tempts no man to sin
- - For every temptation to sin, God makes a path of escape
The contrast is overwhelming. Moderate Muslims have managed to relegate
such passages to a moot condition, or 'for another age,' or dismissed them
altogether and have embraced peace with a non-Muslim world. They are the
great hope of modern Islam and our future co-existence with Islam. But
no one should be fooled that radical, fundamentalist, terrorist Islam doesn't
exist -- it most certainly does. And despite what forces are antagonizing
or inflaming them, such have always conducted themselves according to strict
interpretations of Shariah law and have imposed the brutality and madness
of that fundamentalist interpretation of the Quran and Hagith upon countless
millions of men, women and children throughout the world in bloody excesses
that are truly barbaric.
The Bible teaches that God and God alone will recompense, judge and meet
out punishment for sins. He will be merciful toward the ignorant (Acts
17:30) and seeks the salvation of all men. It is a message of love, peace
and reconciliation.
-
- The Quran enlists the activity of human beings with swords
to carry out the ultimate "Jihad" against all non-Muslims in
a bloodbath considered to be 'holy,' to bring about an all-Muslim world.
It prescribes a merciless slaughter, it encourages terrorism (3:51),
it rewards evil behavior against non-Muslims, encourages lying, deception
and cheating of non-Muslims (since they're all going to hell anyway) and
does not promote peace, but rather the forced implementation of strict,
exacting laws, the violation of which is recompensed in violence, both
now and in an afterlife. There is no emphasis on forgiveness redemption
or reformation of evildoers.
We must respect and encourage the moderate Muslims in the world. What else
can we do with the radical Islamics who seek to kill the innocent, even
among their own kind, but oppose them, fight them, stop them? They refuse
to be enlightened. What has happened to people where defending the innocent
against murderous hordes is somehow wrong? I'm not talking about a Bush-brained
NeoCon invasion of another country and killing innocents along with the
presumed guilty in a half-baked retaliation for 911 --- that was and remains
a crime against humanity, make no bones about it!! But we MUST defend ourselves
against those who would see us all dead. We MUST be on guard against those
who would kill us, no matter who is pulling the screen. And pretending
radical Islam is not the/a problem is simply stupid, foolish and ignorant.
Has the Biblical prophecy come to pass, that in the last days they will
call good 'bad,' and bad 'good'? Dark 'light,' and light 'dark'?
-
-
-
-
- Comment
Abd Rahman
8-2-5
-
- I refer to the comments by Alton Raines made regarding
the article titled Muslims Deported For 'Hate' - But What About The Bible?
By Giles Fraser - The Guardian - UK .
-
- The translations he/she quoted are misleading, to say
the least.
-
- I have quoted his "translations" followed by
the genertally-accepted translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali.
-
- Judge for yourself .... as they say "Truth never
fears honest debate".
-
-
- The Quran says... Have no unbelieving (non-Muslim) friends.
Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them. (4:89)
-
- They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do,
and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their
ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But
if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them;
and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks;
-
-
- The Quran says... It's ok to mistreat, abuse, swindle
and harm non-Muslims because they are going to hell anyway (9:73)
-
- O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the
Hypocrites, and be firm against them. Their abode is Hell,- an evil refuge
indeed.
-
-
- The Quran says... Allah 'causes' some to sin, in order
that he may judge, condemn and torture them in hell. (5:41)
-
- It was We who revealed the law (to Moses): therein was
guidance and light. By its standard have been judged the Jews, by the prophets
who bowed (as in Islam) to Allah.s will, by the rabbis and the doctors
of law: for to them was entrusted the protection of Allah.s book, and they
were witnesses thereto: therefore fear not men, but fear me, and sell not
my signs for a miserable price. If any do fail to judge by (the light of)
what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) Unbelievers.
-
- Regards Abd Rahman
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