Posted on 03/06/2015 6:18:28 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
President Barack Obama is right that the U.S. and the West, in general, are “not at war with Islam.” As he has said, 99.9% of Muslims want exactly what the rest of us desire, peace, justice and happiness.
But the air is thick with misunderstandings and lies. Recently a Muslim woman was banned from wearing a headscarf called a hijab in a Quebec courtroom. Far from hiding a woman’s face, the hijab is a tasteful symbol of a traditional respect for modesty, not a mask.
Many non-Muslims in the West have no idea how huge a contribution was made by Islam to the great cultural awakening of the Renaissance. Much of the impetus for advances in philosophy, science and the arts came from the Greeks via Islam. Books created by the great minds of Classical Greece and then destroyed by over-zealous Christians determined to rid the world of all traces of “paganism” were preserved in Arabic. When they were “discovered” in the period leading up to the Middle Ages, the flowering of intellect known as the Renaissance or “rebirth” commenced.
Of course, every generation believes it is living in a critical era. This moment in history holds the seeds of a possible conflagration leading to disaster for civilization. Those who lived through the breathtakingly taut moments of the Cuban crisis in 1962-3 will be acutely aware of the similarities to the confrontation between Russian Vladimir Putin and the West over the future of Ukraine.
One aspect of the present crisis that fascinates me, as one who spent much of my career covering religion, is that much of the present tension is coming from relationships among Christians, Muslims and Jews around the world.
Why is religion so much a part of the current crisis over terrorism and of every other major conflict on Earth? Why is it that those responsible for governments everywhere find themselves facing not so much a political dilemma but a frightening clash of ideologies that so often have a religious element?
It’s because religion is about ultimate issues, about life and death, about the meaning of life itself and human destiny. For that reason, I encourage Christians, Muslims and Jews to realize just how closely their histories, traditions and sacred teachings bind them together. These three are spiritually all members of one family of faith in spite of obvious differences. They worship the same God, whatever name is used. Reading the Qur’an you learn that Allah is the God of Abraham and the God of Jesus and his followers.
In fact, Abraham’s story is crucial to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. The Jewish connection is well-known. Abraham was and remains the founding father of Judaism. The Bible makes it clear in the ancient story that he was the father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel and who was the father of the 12 sons who then became heads of the tribes of Israel.
But Ishmael, who was also Abraham’s son, was and remains the father of the Arabs and their succeeding tribes.
Those Christians who know the Bible know that Abraham also is the spiritual father of every Christian. His faith is the supreme example of the faith of the Church. Paul in Galatians, for example, says: Just as Abraham “believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. (Gal.3:6)
Read the Qur’an as well as the Hebrew and Christian Bibles and you will be astonished how much they hold in common. Any scholar of religion will confirm that although like most families they have their differences, these three faiths are inescapably one.
Their true followers are all called “People of the Book.”
Yeah, we share a history. Muslims have tried to eliminate Judaism and Christianity and Jews and Christians have tried to survive.
Eff the muslims and those stupid enough to support them.
Muslims don’t want to share. They have been very upfront about it.
“Why is religion so much a part of the current crisis over terrorism and of every other major conflict on Earth?”
Don’t let people generalize and say, “religion”. It’s Islam.
“Read the Qur’an as well as the Hebrew and Christian Bibles and you will be astonished how much they hold in common. Any scholar of religion will confirm that although like most families they have their differences, these three faiths are inescapably one.”
Specious nonsense as propaganda.
If I believe the Teaching of Jesus then anyone doing with his life as the “prophet” did with his, rots in hell.
Or did I miss something?
Like a rapist and his victims have a shared history.
“President Barack Obama is right that the U.S. and the West, in general, are “not at war with Islam.”
That’s a lie
“the hijab is a tasteful symbol of a traditional respect for modesty, not a mask.”
That’s a lie. More like submission.
“Many non-Muslims in the West have no idea how huge a contribution was made by Islam”
Compared to what they have destroyed, it’s trivial at best.
“Of course, every generation believes it..........
bla bla just another moot point....the confrontation
between Russian Vladimir Putin and the West over the future
of Ukraine.”
Tom Harpur is a quack in this weak attempt to vaguely compare
Jews and Christians with Muslims.
The problems is Islam the problem is muslims.
St. Catherine’s Standard = “Christians for Islam”
Jews for Jesus. What goes around comes around.
Islam is at war with all the civilized world. Only a fool would ignore or dismiss that fact.
What a bunch of clap-trap!! Couldn’t get all the way through it as I didn’t want to lose my breakfast. What a jerk! He can write articles but he can’t think logically?
I have read more than once that the “book” (can’t even bring myself to type the name of it) they all revere so much does not have one thing in it about women being required to be covered - head or otherwise!!!
See my comment at the article.
Islam is not a religion. It is an entire way of life, and one that is incompatible with the freedoms the civilized world enjoys. Therefore, islam should be eradicated.
Yes, Arabs made contributions to the world and were once part of 'the family'.
But once Mohammad came on the scene that ended. Nothing of value has come out of any country conquered by Mohammedanism. Arab and Persian cultures went from makers to destroyers... from builders to killers.
For someone who has written about religion for years, he knows very little about their actual beliefs. Understanding their precepts would actually clear up a lot of his confusion on how the belief is father to the action. But then he could not blame the Christians and Jews for being anti muslim.
It would be through Isaac that Abraham's seed would be named.
Genesis 21:12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Ishmael is called the seed of Hagar but never called the seed of Abraham. It was 13 years after the birth of Ishmael that God changed Abram to Abraham and promised:
Genesis 17:7 "And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your seed after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
Notice that God never said He would be the God of the seed of Hagar. When Abraham said he wanted Ishmael to live before God he was told no that it was going to Isaac.
Genesis 17:18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
God never said He would be a God to Ishmael. He said He would be a God to Isaac.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.