Is Islam a religion of peace?

World Net Daily ^ | December 2, 2002 | Pat Buchanan

[Sparta]

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© 2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

"I think Muhammad was a terrorist ... a violent man, a man of war," said the Rev. Jerry Falwell on "60 Minutes." He added, "Jesus set the example for love. ... Muhammad set an opposite example." Murderous riots broke out in India, and an Iranian cleric threatened Falwell with assassination.

"The Koran teaches that the end of the world will not come until every Jew is killed by Muslims," says the Rev. Pat Robertson. He compares the Koran's message on Jews to "Mein Kampf." "There is no doubt the religion of Muhammad ... is extreme and violent."

"I don't believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion," adds Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, "When you read ... the verses from the Koran, it instructs the killing of the infidel ... those that are non-Muslim."

What does President Bush think of this bashing of Islam by his Christian friends? He rejects it. "Islam is a religion of peace."

Colin Powell is less charitable: "We will reject the kind of comments ... where people in this country say that Muslims are responsible for the killing of all Jews, and who put out hatred. This kind of hatred must be rejected."

Is Islam a religion of peace? Why, then, was an American Christian woman murdered in south Lebanon by an Islamic fanatic, after Christians were warned to stop proselytizing for the faith?

If Islam is a religion of peace, how do you explain four days of Muslim rioting in Kaduna, Nigeria, against a Miss World pageant, after a journalist wrote that Muhammad might have chosen one of the beauty queens as one of his wives? Those riots left 1,500 hospitalized and 215 dead.

Islam has "bloody borders," says Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington. Is he not right? From Algeria to Afghanistan to the Philippines, Muslim insurgencies rage in a dozen countries.

Yet the president, too, has a point. In America, a huge Islamic community lives at peace with its Christian and Jewish neighbors. Around the world are a billion Muslims, only a tiny fraction of whom are waging jihad against Christian minorities or their own rulers.

How to explain the dichotomy? We are at the beginning of a religious and political revolution in the Islamic world. Like all revolutions, it is marked at its extremes by militancy, intolerance and a sometimes murderous xenophobia. What is being worked out, often violently, are the terms of Islam's engagement with a hedonistic, triumphalist West that both attracts and repels the Muslim faithful.

In northern Nigeria, this revolution is religious and cultural – at war with both Christianity and a neo-pagan MTV culture. In Algeria, Islamic jihadists seek to overthrow a secular-socialist state brought to power by the war of independence. In southern Lebanon, militants want Christians out, now that Hezbollah has driven the Israelis out. In Palestine, Hamas and Islamic Jihad add religious fanaticism to a nationalist cause. Should Arafat become president of Palestine, he will face an Islamic party more rabid than the religious parties Sharon must cope with.

In Chechnya and western China, Islamic guerrillas seem more secessionist than fundamentalist. In Egypt, Islamic extremism is manifest in assassination attempts of pro-Western scholars, the slaughter of tourists and the persecution of the Copts.

Yet, while all this violence is the daily fare of our front pages, how many Islamic terrorists, guerrillas, assassins and rioters are there, when you consider that if they add up to 1,000,000, it would be less than 0.1 percent of the Muslims on earth? And not all the causes for which Muslims fight – independence for Chechnya and Palestine, secession from Russia, Indonesia and China – are inherently unjust or evil.

Islam is in a revivalist phase. In the lands where it is predominant, there is often little tolerance of rival religions seeking the conversion of Muslims. So it is that Falwell, Robertson and Graham, too, have a point. Between militant Islam and Christian fundamentalism, there is an unbridgeable chasm of belief, and in the Islamic world, devout Christians are citizens under suspicion – just as Jews and Muslims were in Isabella's Spain and Catholics were in Elizabethan England.

Yet, in his sense that we must avoid war with militant Islam, lest we find ourselves at war with all Islam, President Bush is surely right.

In the last century, America was threatened by a global communist revolution. Avoiding all-out war, we outlasted it. And we can outlast this Islamist revolution. What we must avoid is a war of faiths, a war of civilizations between Islam and America. And those who propagandize for such a war are the unwitting or willful collaborators of Osama bin Laden.

[Sparta]

For your comment and debate.

[Lando Lincoln]

Ann Coulter recently said something to the effect, "If Islam is a religion of peace, then I wish the Muslims would do their part and stop killng so many people."

[Fiddlstix]

Bookmarked

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Read the book, "Tea with Terrorists."

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Is gangsta rap a music of peace and harmony? Buchanan nails it again but unfortunately the more liberal FReepers will resort to name-calling and tasteless Buchanan jokes rather than read the article.

[BobP]

"Give 'em hell Pat..."

[UbIwerks]

Only a small percentage of Muslims commit atrocities against Christians and Jews?

Gee.... I guess only a small percentage of Russians were NKVD (cheka) and a small number of Germans were S.S. -- Oops! Sorry Pat! You defend every S.S. Man that comes down the line./sarcasm

[Diogenesis]

Except for the President who may say anything as part of his strategy,
anyone else who purports Islam is a religion of Peace
is either 1) and member of Islamic terror, or
2) in dire need of a CAT scan of the head. Run, dont walk.

[Leisler]

Islam is peaceful. All you have to do is convert. After that, everything is fine.

[Rain-maker]

You mispelled it.

The title should read Is Islam a religion of piece?

A piece goes here, a piece goes there...

[PhilipFreneau]

The Law of the Lord is this: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" (Matthew 7:12). I am unconvinced the Law of Allah according to Mohammed is anything but the opposite.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Muslims!!"
(To be sung to the Rolling Stones' "Angie")

Muslims...my FRiends...
When will yer Jihad disappear?!
Arabs...my bro's...
Help tell Dem zealots, "NEVER HERE!!"
With good Allah in their souls...
Saudi money...EVIL goals!!
Please explain why yer Hate thrives!!
But Muslims...my FRiends...
'Twas fer FReedom them Sheeple died!!

Allah...is innocent...yeah...
Koran's Right...put HATE aside!!
Muslims...we'll still love ya...
Lord Allah ain't fer gen-o-cide!!
All Left's dreams they were so close...
But they all went up in smoke!!
Let me whisper in yer ear,
"Osama...bin Laden...YOU SHALL JOIN ALLAH THIS YEAR!!!"

(Haunting keyboard solo)

So...Lib'rals, gently sleep...
Fer yer future Right does FReep!!
Avenge bin Laden's shameless crimes!!
And our sons...our boys, ain't no way we'll say "Goodbye!"

'Cuz there's lovin' in our souls...
And there's Honor in our goals!!
Fer yer FReedom we shall fight!!
'Cuz Muslims...FReepers love ya, baby...
Everywhere Left looks, they'll fear our Might!!
We won't let Lib'rals git their claws in you...
C'mon FReepers, join OUR fight!!
Allah...Allah...ain't it good to be alive?!
Muslims...my FRiends...you can't say MUD never tried...

FReegards...MUD

BTW...MUD has often been described as having many desirable Jedi traits...LOL!!

3 posted on 09/18/2001 11:44 AM EDT by Mudboy Slim

Still applicable...MUD

[xJones]

Islam is in a revivalist phase.

Well bless their hearts, I'm so thrilled. Except that their phase does make life difficult for the rest of us - just try going through an airport inspection line since their little revival on 9/ll. Just ask tourist agents in Bali or Kenya.

It wouldn't occur to the Islamics that the rest of the world won't put up with their 7th century nonsense while they have their little "revival". The Wahabbis have to be house-broken.

[UbIwerks]

Islam is peaceful. All you have to do is convert. After that, everything is fine.

Everything is fine? You want to do without beer?

[SCalGal]

Islam is peaceful. All you have to do is convert. After that, everything is fine.

Unless, of course, you are a woman.

[EternalHope]

Also posted with 75 comments here:

(Buchanan on Islam)

[srweaver]

Following is a quote from John Locke's letter on toleration, written in the 17th century. While he addresses the power struggle between different Christian sects, I find it instructive that he notes the human tendency, particularly noted in the short and long term history of followers of Islam, to obtain their religious ends through the use of violence whenever they can use the civil government to their advantage. Until then they are "sleepers."

"Nevertheless, it is worthy to be observed and lamented that the most violent of these defenders of the truth, the opposers of errors, the exclaimers against schism do hardly ever let loose this their zeal for God, with which they are so warmed and inflamed, unless where they have the civil magistrate on their side. But so soon as ever court favour has given them the better end of the staff, and they begin to feel themselves the stronger, then presently peace and charity are to be laid aside. Otherwise they are religiously to be observed. Where they have not the power to carry on persecution and to become masters, there they desire to live upon fair terms and preach up toleration. When they are not strengthened with the civil power, then they can bear most patiently and unmovedly the contagion of idolatry, superstition, and heresy in their neighbourhood; of which on other occasions the interest of religion makes them to be extremely apprehensive. They do not forwardly attack those errors which are in fashion at court or are countenanced by the government. Here they can be content to spare their arguments; which yet (with their leave) is the only right method of propagating truth, which has no such way of prevailing as when strong arguments and good reason are joined with the softness of civility and good usage."

[Sparta]

"It seems the author is suggesting a new cold war against
Islam."

It's Pat Buchanan, do you really need to know more?

[KLT]

Woo Hoo MUD...Now..you did it...You know what your songs do to me....Great Song and Lyrics...

And Again Don't Tell Mrs. MUD...

Guess Who?