Dear Irfan, criticism of the Koran and prophet Muhammad is not 'hate' - this is the politically correct smokescreen. Christianity has been criticised for 500 years and it has done the world a LOT of good. Noone calls that 'hate'. The PCers like to muddle the issue by making it seem as though Islam is a race, and cry 'racsim'. Islam is an ideology not a race! Criticism is healthy and what Islam needs! I am an ex muslim myself and I do not hate muslims, just the ideology that Prophet Muhammad gave to us that has hurt our people for hundreds of years. Every day nuclear weapons are getting cheaper and more easily available, technology is getting more efficient. It is only a matter of time before those who would like to follow in Muhammad's footsteps will get hold of them and use them. There will be noone left; muslim or non muslim. There is little time; we need to get this ideology out in the open and start debate and dialogue! There is a good website here if anyone is interested; www.faithfreedom.org where you can get ideas of how to help in this 'ideological war'. I, and many other apostates and those who want open debate, have written to newspapers, only to be turned down every time. The media have put a gag on criticism of Islam. Why? What is it ok to criticise CHristianity? Do they want muslims to remain in this bloody quagmire? Don't be afraid to call a spade a spade!

Dear BD / Aisha,

I think it is more confusion from your sides than ‘hate’.
For us, it is really simple: Islam have a spiritual side and a ‘legal/ worldly side’ if you like. I notice this misunderstanding always from good Christians because there is no wordly/ legislative part to Jesus (Peace upon him) message.

A non-muslim reads the Koran and gets confused about the mix of ‘good tolerant teachings’ then all of a sudden the harsh punishment for steeling for example. How can Mohamed be so tolerant/ loving is some scenarios and yet applied the harsh judgement of the Jewish tribe as you said. The answer is simple, there are spiritual laws and there are worldly legislation for war treason. If you want to compare, you can either compare spiritual to spiritual or legislative to legislative.
Islam and Judaism are the only religions I know of that comes with legislative/ worldly system. Islamic sharia is a’fiery law’ for us same as for the jews, its intent to be preventive and not corrective and hence is the harshness of the sentence. In Islamic history, caliph Omar suspended the Islamic Shariah during drought because he believed likely for hungry people to steel a loaf of bread. So it is also for leaders to apply their brain.

Having said all that, let me take you to a recent example WW2: Hitler, who started from a devout Christian (speeches 1922) turned ugly in the following years. Now, Churchill and the rest of the western Christian world at the time couldn’t have applied Jesus’ (PUH) spiritual message at the time. In fact, all the approvers of the Atomic bomb attack and the Dresden destruction of civilians were all good Christians.

Peace my friends,

AK

Beautiful article Irfan.

I wish people the world over could realise 'War is Terror' and condemn the 'War on Terror'.

THE LONDON BOMBINGS WERE AN INSIDE JOB!

Either the CIA, MI5 or mossad committed these atrocities.

The purpose? To deflect attention away from the Downing Street memo story which was incriminating Bush, Blair and Howard for their lies which have led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people in an illegal war. Also to keep Britain mired in that debacle of a war in Iraq.Don't be so naive as to think that they wouldn't bomb their own people, the stakes are very high for these people. You can't trust the mainstream media for the truth, look how well they investigated the WMD issue. Bloggers were denouncing that lie long before we invaded iraq and discovered their complete absense from the country.

"By way of deception, thou shalt do war" Mossad motto.

Fellow_Human - Hitler was a socialist, but even if he was a practising Christian, he cannot say; 'Christ lead me to kill infidels' like a muslim can. While Muhammad murdered and maimed people, Christ healed and forgave them. The two main characters of the two main religions are like chalk and cheese. So, when a christian kills in the name of Jesus he does it in spite of Jesus, and when a muslim kills, he can easily back it up with Muhammad's example and his teachings. The problem is not violence, per se, but because Islam is a religion where violence is sanctified - and this is the problem. I urge you to really read what the prophet did and said, FH, and if you really are human, you will apostise too. It's hard at first, but believe me you will be so free when you do. Try that website I mentioned before www.faithfreedom.org

The assumption made in many posts is that only Westerners/Chritians/Europeans were killed or injured in the barbaric bombings in London. Could it possibly be the case that some Muslims have also been killed or injured through these terrible indiscriminant attacks on ordinary people.