The bloody struggle for Islam's soul

Toronto Sun ^ | January 16, 2004 | Salim Mansur

[alrea]

The troubling question is why so many North Americans remain in denial of the plentiful evidence of this war in progress.

Because Americans generally follow the rule of law, until one more attack in the US.

[alrea]

having crushed Muslim dissent within their respective Middle Eastern societies, these fundamentalists set forth to intimidate and silence Muslims living in the West

might help explain why those in the west were silent after 911.

[TheGeezer]

In the end Islam will be vanquished because it is a system which destroys the soul and binds the mind from even questioning its own validity.

I like to think the same is true of 21st century liberofascism, feminazism, and so forth.

Regards.

[AM2000]

Which Naipaul book is that excerpt from?

[Noumenon]

IIRC, that's from Among the Believers.

[Freebird Forever]

This recent FR thread has a far more realistic take on islam:

The Agenda of Islam - A War Between Civilizations

[Wonder Warthog]

"The difference is that the Koran does annoint the fanatics as the real thing."

The difference is that the fantatics ARE the "real thing". Islam was established by the sword, and the fundamental basis of the religion is still the same.

The rest of the "religious" Muslims are considered apostate by the "fundamentalists", and, according the Koran, they are correct. Ask the Sufis and other "non-fundamentalist" Muslims who have been hounded out of Islamic lands.

Islam is just as poisonous and dangerous to liberty and safety as "global Communism" used to be.

[Cicero]

Well, I disagree with you. But it's much too big a topic to argue. I'd just make three or four points.

1. Christianity claims to be the fulfillment if Judaism. It accepts the entire Old Testament as divine revelation and claims that Jesus is the Messiah promised by the Hebrew prophets.

2. Christianity was not originally a powerdrunk, opportunistic religion like Islam. Jesus did not carry a sword or kill and enslave people. Muhammed did.

3. Christianity nowhere tampers with or changes anything in the Hebrew Bible. Jews are free to disagree that Jesus was the Messiah, but Christianity doesn't try to go back and retroactively change what the Hebrew prophets said. Reinterpret, yes, but not change the original words and facts. Islam does. The Qran frequently differs from the Hebrew Bible on important facts of fact and history.

4. Finally, I believe it can be argued that although Christians have at times resorted to violence like everyone else, they are not following religious commandments when they do so. Muslims are.

[q_an_a]

if a foreign govenrment like Saudi Arabia sends money to an American Church is not that a violation of the separation of church and state? How come our government allows foreign money to be sent to America for the building of any religion?

[dwills]

substitute the nationalism of racial identification for 'nationalized islam' here and see what is tearing our country apart

there's an author named ronald walters running around (on CSPAN today) decrying the 'white nationalism' of conservatives, claiming they feel threatened by the brown upward mobility that a predominantly white society has fostered in my nearly 40 years

we should in fact feel threatened by this emerging phenomenon of 'brown nationalism' and the solidarity expressed by those reacting against all things 'white'

the ideals of america, paradoxically because they provide the best hope for individuals, are the only phenomena worthy of humankind's nationalistic allegiance

[mercy]

I don't disagree with you and you need to reread what I wrote.

[Cicero]

Well, if you read over your first two paragraphs, you seem to be saying that Christianity like Islam has no soul, is a fake religion, and a cult.

It's not entirely true to say that Christianity is not an ancient religion, because it is an unfolding of Judaism. In the opening of his gospel, John says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God, and without him was not anything made that was made." Elsewhere, Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I AM."

In other words, the Son of God was born in the fullness of time, but the Second Person of the Trinity existed from the beginning.

[mercy]

Well perhaps I was not clear or perhaps you took issue with my use of the word cult as applied to Christianity. The word once had a meaning (and still does actualy) outside our modern perjoritive use of it.

I agree with you fully in your assertions of Christianity and Judaism. But we need to understand that from the outside an observer would have a hard time understanding that Christians (knowlegable ones) believe themselves to be 'grafted in' sons of Abraham. Jews certainly have a hard time with it.