What is Islam?

I went searching for a trusted, balanced account of Islam, and ended up at the Catholic Encyclopedia online. Thoughts?

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New media mantra: "Islam means peace."

It is hardly necessary here to emphasize the fact that the ethics of Islam are far inferior to those of Judaism and even more inferior to those of the New Testament.

Ouch.

The pleasures of Paradise will be so overwhelming that God will give to everyone the potentialities of a hundred individuals. To each individuals a large mansion will be assigned, and the very meanest will have at his disposal at least 80,000 servants and seventy-two wives of the girls of Paradise. While eating they will be waited on by 300 attendants, the food being served in dishes of gold, whereof 300 shall be set before him at once, containing each a different kind of food, and an inexhaustible supply of wine and liquors.

They must put this part in the brochures.

Journal Entry: September 18

From these ashes...
Luis Gonzalez
September 18, 2001

Touch America

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Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

New media mantra: "Islam means peace."

And the theme song is I love you ,you love me,we're a happy family"

Sorry Prod...but the evidence of their intent is written right in the Koran..JR can pull threads and the President can tell us that the American Muslims are not to be feared..but the bottom line is Islam intends to remove the infidels that do not follow"THE BOOK" (Koran)...We need only to look at how the Mainline members of Islam have treated the Jews to see the meaning of love in their theme!

Great religion to base a tyrant, despot, or dictatorship type government on isn't it. The main reason Islam was created was too many Arabs were converting to Christianity, and the leaders needed a puesdo type religion to keep them away from being set free by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth (and real freedom) is a tough thing to deal with when you want to keep people enslaved. Islam is the perfect fraud to keep the masses in-line to despots and tyrants. Just another doctrine like Communisium that sounds great on paper but is a disaster in the reality of people's lives.

tags off

ROTFL!

SOURCES

The sources of the Koran be reduced to six:

The Old Testament (canonical and apocryphal) and the hybrid Judaism of the late rabbinical schools. During Mohammed's time the Jews were numerous in many parts of Arabia, especially around Medina. Familiarity's with them is undoubtly responsible for many Old Testament stories alluded to in Koran. Later Judaism and Rabbinism are equally well represented (Geiger, "Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthum aufgenommen?", Wiesbaden, 1833; tr. Judaism and islam", Madras, 1898).
The New Testament (canonical and apocryphal) and various heretical doctrines. On his journeys between Syria, Hijaz, and Yemen, Mohammed had every opportunity to come in close touch with Yemenite, Abyssinian, Ghassanite, and Syrian Christians, especially heretic. Hence, while the influence of orthodox Christianity upon the Koran has been slight, apocryphal and heretical Christian legends, on the other hand, are one of the original sources of Koranic faith. (See Muir, op. cit. infra, 66-239; Tisdall, "The Original Sources of the Qur'an", London, 1905, 55-211.)
Sabaism, a combination of Judaism, Manicheism, and old disfigured Babylonian heathenism.
Zoroastrianism. On account of Persia's political influence in the north-eastern part of Arabia, it is natural to find Zoroastrian elements in the Koran.
Hanifism, the adherents of which, called Hanifs, must have been considerable in number and influence, as it is known from contemporary Arabian sources that twelve of Mohammed's followers were members of this sect.
Native ancient and contemporary Arabian heathen beliefs and practices. Wellhausen has collected in his "Reste des arabischen Heidentums" (Berlin, 1897) all that is known of pre-Islamic Arabian heathen belief, traditions, customs, and superstitions, many of which are either alluded to or accepted and incorporated in the Koran. From the various sects and creeds, and Abul-Fida, the well-known historian and geographer of the twelfth century, it is clear that religious beliefs and practices of the Arabs of Mohammed's day form one of the many sources of Islam. From this heathen source Islam derived the practices of polygamy and slavery, which Mohammed sanctioned by adopting them.

I went searching for a trusted, balanced account of Islam, and ended up at the Catholic Encyclopedia online. Thoughts?

Yes. Keep searching. You haven't found it.

In matters political Islam is a system of despotism at home and aggression abroad. The Prophet commanded absolute submission to the imâm. In no case was the sword to be raised against him. The rights of non-Moslem subjects are of the vaguest and most limited kind, and a religious war is a sacred duty whenever there is a chance of success against the "Infidel". Medieval and modern Mohammedan, especially Turkish, persecutions of both Jews and Christians are perhaps the best illustration of this fanatical religious and political spirit.

This article suffers from numerous instances of unfair prejudiced statments against Eastern Orthodox Christians (and perhaps the links to "Luther", etc. will reveal the same against Protestants, but I have not verified that.)

However, in our current situation in the US, the above paragraph says it all. And with respect to persecution of Christians by the muslim Turk (and the Turk's henchmen and successors, the Albanian and "Bosnian" muslims), I only have to ask my Serbian, Greek, and Armenian friends to verify that it is true!!!

It has all the marks of classic totalitarianism.

Yes. Keep searching. You haven't found it.

How so, specifically?

I've got a craving for Carvel right now.

Competing faiths cannot be called "trusted" or "balanced" in the evaluation of one another.

Fair enough. I guess in that sense from my point of view it is trusted.

Maybe you could read the Qu'ran and evaluate it yourself.

It won't bite. I retained my atheism despite reading it and the Bible.