Boaz,

Thanks for appreciating the humour! No you didn't offend me at all.

Coach,

In previous interactions with you (including many you didn't respond to), your understanding of theology proved to be shallow.

If you 'wanna be Boaz', you have to do the effort of learning and studying. Please take 10 seconds to think before you hit 'post comment'.

Peace my brother in humanity :)

Fellow Human,

" in fact, I don't recall a Holy book pausing every few verse encouraging believers to think and reflect except for the Quran."

Is a statement like that necessary? What possible benefit could be gained by stating that?

No other religions required?

Paris/Sydney/Russia/Holland. Common thread?

Hi everyone

We'll never solve this dilemma. But errors in thinking ought to be corrected. Love is important - the greatest of the Fruits of the Spirit. So are holiness, righteousness & truth. Often we forget those three.

Kristos (posted 9:34:43 PM 16/1/06) said "I do not think that young people need more discipline, they need to be loved ..". Yes, they need love. But, we try to be their friend rather than their parent. There's the 'problem'. Parents have responsibilities as disciplinarians & mentors. Unset boundaries cause waywardness. Society has become self-centredness - Eastern philosophy. We've ignored our parental responsibilities. Love is only part of caring. Respect for authority is another. Need I continue?

Further you said: "People whom are immigrating to Australia have every right to be here ..". Well, I might say 'Do they?'. Surely they should abide by the laws & the conventions of Australia. Possibly a non-criminal history? Would you want a repetitive rapist living next to yourself? Sadly, checks aren't always possible. Non-conformity? I'm sorry, I don't really want them here - regardless of their poverty or trauma-ridden background. Nor should you if you value the safety of your loved ones.

I am not racially biassed - 50-plus% of my friends are non-Anglo-Saxon (many Middle Eastern). But I am culturally biassed when that culture diametrically opposes mine.

Lebanese ethnicity isn't 'the problem' in Austalia. Worldwide historical facts prove that religio-cultural beliefs are the root cause.

As a Christian I am told to "Test all things. Conform to that which is good. Reject all evil." 1 Thess 5:21. Thus I research - even the Qur'an & the Sunna. Muslims are told that they should obey their scriptures. They are told that unless it is in Arabic, it isn't Allah's word. Approximately 85% of Muslims don't speak or understand Arabic - they rely on their imam for interpretation. That is a dangerous precept!

All: until we can acknowledge that there are differences we can never hope to settle those differences via peaceful dialogue. Risks? Sure! Ignoring their exists though places us in peril.

Cheers all

Bin Laden and Khomeini are good Muslims.

Christianity however,has no political goals:

Jesus answered, "My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn't be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here."
John 18:36

(Christian principles are obligatory of course in a supra political manner. What does that mean? It matters not what form of life pertains as long as moral evil within the individual is recognised and destroyed. This is Christ's teaching. Moral evil in the Christian definition does not exist in social relations but in individuals. Islam is horrifyingly different. Qur'an and Hadith are explicit about the necessity of Islam to dominate the world. For wherever Muslims are not in charge dar-al-harb (territory of war) pertains. And this is againsts God's will. For every peaceful saying in Islamic scripture there are five horrific ones.)

Medieval Europe didn't resist Islam because they were ignorant, they knew what Islam stood for.

"Its all about interpretation" some will reply. For an expert on the interpretation of Revelation and whether Islam can cope with contextualising, read what the Pope believes

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HA10Ak01.html

Moderate Muslims what must they do?

What must we all do? Well a start is to read the geo-political journalist 'Spengler' who reports for The Asiatimes

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/others/spengler.html

Fellow Human,

The reason why I didn’t continue our interactions is that I find you very selective in your answers, you only reply to the points you want (or can) leaving many unanswered or distort the issue to suit you, make fun of me and others and disappear.

I have nothing to fear or to gain from you.

I was naïvely trying to make you reason about your religion. But I know that nothing short of a miracle will make you see the truth and break from that bondage. So I am praying for you and all my fellow humans whom I love dearly.

The Qur’anic materials I read are self explanatory; it does not take much study to comprehend its message. It even says:

“And We have made (this Scripture) easy in thy language (Arabic) only that they may heed”. Q44: 58 (Pickthal)

I find the Qur’an repetitious, historically, geographically and theologically inaccurate, contextually and subjectively contradictory, inconsistent with revealed truth, un-chronological, abrogated, incomplete, etc…

But still it is a miracle from Allah to those who believe it is.

FRIEDRICH,

My statement means that one of the things that stands out when reading the Quran, in comparison with other scriptures, is the encouragement for believers to think & reflect.

No offence intended in my comment (apologies if you were).
I only quoted this comment in response to uninformed comments or obvious misleading comments.

Little A Buddy,

Your comment is correct except in a couple of areas:

1. “Quran and Sunnah are compulsory scriptures”.

Only Quran is divine (Its our belief that its is the word of God). Hadith is ‘sayings of prophet Mohamed’ PBUh who is a mortal. Hadith was left out of collection until the 3rd century of Islamic history and, even though not a corner of Islam, is relied upon for the Islamic legislation knowen as Shariaa law (which also came in effect 3rd century).

2. 85% of Muslims don’t read Arabic therefore rely on Imams:

This is not correct. First there are supported meaning translations of the Quran in English and other languages (ie Pickthall, Dawood). Meaning translation takes you close enough to the intended meaning of the original language.

Second, many Muslims contributing to this forum whom I met recently are of Anglo origin and contribute educational material in their own respective languages. Only one of them is interested in learning the Arabic language.

Coach,

Go through my last comments and responses to you, I never ridiculed your comments. All I did was explained to you how we see our own faith and correct a lot of your uninformed statements (My last 5 posts).
I interact a lot with Boaz and Kaktuz who seem to have a) studied their subject and b) can engage in a dialogue.

I don’t understand how do you claim to have found ‘love and peace’ in your religion and you are still out there bashing another faith