Aisha "Col_Rouge; the IRA were acting in OPPOSITION to Christ’s teachings, what has the Pope got to apologise for "

To paraphrase -

These terrorists were acting in OPPOSITION to Mohammad’s teachings, what has any Muslim got to apologise for?

Before jumping on the points that Philo raises – aspects of the Bible are pretty blood thirsty and have been used to justify many anti-semitic activities over the centuries – again we are not talking about the literal interpretation of text.

My personal opinion –

A "righteous" person – be they Jewish, Christian, Muslims, Buddhist or Atheist is measured by how they “respond” to what they read – not for reading ancient words themselves, often in a much revised and manipulated body of text (be that the Koran or Bible – applies to both).

A "less-than-righteous" person will attempt to justify their own prejudices by making demands for denouncements on those they see as holding views not identical to their own.

May God (by whatever name) preserve us all from the demands, prejudices and bigotry of the less-than-righteous.

Islam is not the fastest growing religion; that is simply propaganda and a lie. New Age religions are the fastest growing religions, seconded by evangelical christianity, mostly in africa, but also in russia and the west. New muslims are due to large birth rate. Also, many people are apostatising from Islam but they have to keep it secret because they risk being killed, imprisoned or simply put under great pressure. I have a friend who admitted her apostasy to her parents. She was put under extreme pressure and eventually had to lie to them that she was a muslim again. Muslims are taught that Islam is their identity, that is why it is so hard to extricate ourselves from it. The ones that do apostise, you don’t hear about them going public because they invariably get murdered. So you will never get accurate statistics about Islam.

As for your defence of Prophet Muhammad, you mention the (abrogated) Mecca period only, how will you justify the later Medina period? There are so many references I don't know where to begin, so I will be lazy and just put this link on; http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles.htm Here is a good article written today that explains what dangers the world is up against; http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/AbulKasem50712.htm I realise this makes you and others uncomfortable, but muslims are not children that need special protection from criticism.

Apologies from muslims will not change the root cause of all this terror; the deeds of the Islamic role model; Muhammad.

Col Rouge, the violence in the bible is superseded and abrogated by the birth, life and teachings of the main character of Christianity; Christ himself. The problem with Islam is that you are stuck with a story of a man who starts off benevolent, but degenerates into a vengeful murderer. You need the whole story; not just a quote here and there

Aisha,

It is not ‘where do you start” but you were caught red handed.

- First I grew up in a Muslim country with a large Christian population: the criticism for change of religion is mainly related to tribalism and tribal culture. Rejection awaits everyone who changes religion in some regions whether they are Muslims or Christians. I knew of Orthodox Christian girls who were killed by their parents for marrying a French catholic. Atheism, communism parties are active in at least 7 of the 22 Muslim countries.
- Please don’t confuse tribalism with religion: I can tell you a lot about growing in a Catholic school were kids were molested every week by priests. No one can talk against the church there. I am sure you followed last year’s news about the N. African priest who blackmailed and had sex with his victims after confessions and when they went to the police, their fellow Christians attacked them for not keeping it ‘inside the church’. This is not Christianity, but tribalism.

- Islam is a fast growing religion among non Arabs and not related to birth. Arabs, despite their higher than normal birth rate, moved from 70%, to 16.6% of total Muslims population today. References are FoxNews centre for statistics and similar western sources not the Saudi government.

- One of the reasons of its growth in western countries (you can refer to an article in the SMH titled “The lure of Allah”) that it is the closest faith to early Christianity before the institution of the Church and the Trinity doctrine took over in the 4th century. Please refer to a local article on how thousands of Aussies found peace in our faith.

As for references, please refer to credible British historians like G. Sale and W. Muir on their writings about Islam or the life of Prophet Mohammed.

On the humour side:

The site is titled “faith freedom” but it all about killing faith freedom! Any psychiatrist here? Maybe you should register: ‘faithfreedombutnotformuslims.com.au’!

Bye Aisha,

AK

Aisha
I just want to give you every encouragement in the world !
If you ever feel down about your predicament, be assured there are many like you, and that while you are not saying you have found Christ or anything like that, if you did decide to embrace Him as Savior, you will also experience His peace and Love,and most of all assurance.

I urge you to consider a listen to the testimony of Madame Bilquis Sheikh, a Noble Pakistani Muslim woman who 'Dared to call God Father'.
(do a google search)

If you decided then to withdraw, or move in a different direction, no one will hunt you down, hate you, or try to kill you. They would just pray affectionately for you. God looks for the lost sheep, picks it up, carries it back to the fold, he doesn't chase it with a big stick :) No one will 'fine' you for not going to church.

Given your name, even as a nick, your are brave speaking here. God bless you richly.

Always remember this "seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened, ask, and you will receive"

Fellow Human,
a lot of what you said is quite true, about tribalism etc. But 'if anyone changes his deen, kill him' is straight from the mouth of your prophet :) and you know it.
blessings

I have never said that only in Islam do people commit atrocities and have sexual perversions. ALL creeds, faiths, cultures and ethnic groups are prone to it. The thing that makes it different for Islam is that the very prophet himself commits sexual and aggressive immorality. Jesus doesn’t do it, neither does Buddha. Only Muhammad both teaches AND commits murder and sex crimes in the ‘holy’ scriptures. The other difference is that in Islamic countries these sex crimes are hidden. In western democracies they are out in the open – and that to me is much healthier.

If, for example, we encouraged the muslim terrorists and molesting imams to go back to holy scriptures and there they found the role-model of a prophet and teacher who did not harm anyone or teach harming others, then there would be hope. They could use those non-violent teachings because there is huge power and influence behind this cultural source material. But unfortunately, unlike Christians and Buddhists, Muslims cannot return to their holy scriptures to preach to people to stop terrorism, because the very texts so easily back them up. The words of Theo Van Gogh’s killer in Holland yesterday were; “I acted purely in the name of Islam.”

THAT is the problem the world is up against.

You can change people’s behaviour, put them in jail or in therapy, but you can’t change what is written in Koran, and reforming such literal, abject and graphic violence in the book, to me, seems impossible.

David; thanks; I have read that book; I’m an admirer of Jesus, like Ghandi was. But I also admire Buddha 

Dear Aishia and Fellow Human

I checked out the www.faithfreedom etc web site.

I found it sickening. The big black motiff of a so called vagina made me sick! And the sentinemts expressed made me feel worse. I wanted to vomit.

I must be extremely naive. I found the site terrorising.

I do not understand how people of previous Muslim faith can use such abhorrent strategies.