Posted on 08/23/2005 2:23:30 PM PDT by robowombat
Islam is not a threat
On the concept of Jihad in Islam
Shamsa Ishfaq
The New York Times dated 12 April 2005 has published an article ‘In picking a new pope, a key issue is Islam’ by Ian Fisher. In this article Islam has been discussed as an issue to be dealt by the Roman Catholic Church and whether the church’s relation with Muslims should be conciliatory or a notch more confrontational.
The writer seems advocating the strategy to ‘talk with Muslims at all costs’ of late pope John Paul-II. At the same time he has also expressed the views of some critics who see Islam as a threat and too much talk with Muslims unproductive. Some argues that Islam was essentially a warlike and evangelizing religion, which no amount of dialogue would change.
In recent decades, no term has perhaps been more misunderstood around the globe than the word ‘Jihad. It has come to be associated with military conflict, the use of force and compulsion and intolerance generally. All conceptions of jihad that place primary emphasis on violence are radically anti-Quranic and now constitute major impediments to any new beginning in Muslim-Western relations. In the West, far too many commentators expostulate about Islam who have no knowledge of Arabic. The Arabic root of the word jihad means variously to try, to endeavor, to strive, to exert effort and to put oneself out. Among these meanings only ‘to strive, to endeavor’ incorporates any notion whatsoever of military activity. Even here, warfare is only a tertiary meaning.
Jihad has been historically understood by Muslims as of two different sorts, one far more important than the other. The greater jihad is the eternal struggle of each individual human soul against temptation and the wiles of Satan. The lesser jihad, now much emphasized but downplayed in Islamic history, is the conduct of defensive war to protect the Islamic community. On the permissibility of defensive war only, the Quran is explicit: "And fight in the way of God against those who fight against you, and be not aggressive; for surely God loves not the aggressors”.
Fighting, the Quran explains, is permitted by Muslims only against people "who broke their oaths and aimed at the expulsion of the Prophet and attacked you first. Above all, the Quran emphasizes that peace is much to be preferred to military conflict: "If [one's enemies] incline to peace, incline thou also to it and trust in God.... And if they intend to deceive thee-then surely God is sufficient for thee". In fact, the Quranic understanding of jihad has much in common with the Christian notion of "just war.
Not just this but Christianity and Islam share a vast reservoir of faith. Muslims believe in the Christian Gospel, the Christian Prophet [Jesus Christ], his twelve Apostles, his mother's purity, and his miraculous birth and above all belief in one common God. Jesus, the Quran states, is "worthy of regard in this world and the hereafter, and is one of those drawn nigh to God". It is also believed that the Christ depicted in the Quran was the last and greatest in the long line of prophets who preceded Muhammad and whose work Muhammad completed as the final "seal" of all the prophets that God has sent to mankind.
Islam does not only mean confrontation but peace. Islam is a religion of peace and tranquility and emphasizes more on peaceful solutions rather than fighting. Today, if some thing has to be evaluated it should be the memories of the medieval Crusaders, the inquisition in Spain in the 14th century, and the yoke of colonial rule during the 19th and 20th centuries. And if some thing has to be discussed it should be Muslim’s feelings of insecurity, powerlessness and paranoia regarding the aggressive intentions of the West today. So is Islam a threat to west or it is being threatened by west?
In short, fear that Islam poses any threat to Christianity or any other religion is merely media hype. The demonization of stereotypes in the media, about Islam and in the Muslim world, upset Muslims and the west as well. This media hysteria and sensationalism fuels anti-Muslim feelings, manifesting attacks against Muslims globally.
Welcome to the club. :)
and Christ who demanded and presented only truth.
Perhaps you should use the spellcheck.
I believe the spelling was deliberate.
I want them GONE from this country. Foreign and native born alike. A NO Muslim America, and I don't care how it sounds. What will we lose? A 12th century cult?
Gone- from the 99 year olds on their death beds to the babies right after delivery- gone. I've had it- Islam has poisoned the planet long enough- not a ONE of them is worth all the pain and misery done in obeying their 'holy' book.
Send them to the deserts that bred their sick cult- they can roast there for all I care. Let them eat oil. And don't let a one of them back into this country. Let them kill each other off.
If they export their barbarism- send a couple of bombers. A neutron solution. I'd push the buttons myself.
Sick ,sick ,sick ,cult- and like cancer, every trace has to be eradicated.
And UBL, as he wished to provoke the U.S. into Afghanistan (where the Taliban is trying to take control again), because he thought he could beat us, is actually hoping for a Crusade against Islam. He thinks Islam can subjugate Christians and Jews. He will find out he is wrong.
The author is shoveling a hot, steaming load of shi'ite..
OH, I'm sick of that circuitous argument too. They WANT us to fight them- that makes them happy! They want us to lose to them, be overcome, that will make them happy. Basically they should be the happiest &*#&#*!&! pieces of excrement on the planet then-right?
They don't want us to fight- they want us to 'fair' ourselves into Islamic slaves. They want to WIN. They're scared as hell of another Crusade because they know if they spark one off THIS time, Islam is dead.
Well how about this? We fight them- OBL just wets himself in joy, then we eradicate them AND him.
No more OBL, no more Islam. They can die happy- the world will be happier-party time all around!
Kinda hard to be happy if your rag-headed,woman hating, 12century death cult behinds are DEAD tho, isn't it?
God never contradicts God. True prophets of God speak His words as recieved, and in harmony with those who came before.
If these people studied the Bible, then tried to reconcile the Koran to the Bible, it wouldn't take long to see the conflicts.
I know; they claim...but have NO proof...that the Bible has been "altered"...as if God can not guard His own Word.
Naturally, if necessary, the claim can be easily disproven by internal evidence and structure, too; but they won't look at that, any more than they will look at conflicting teachings of Mad Mo's Early & Late Periods.
And we can't put an end to it sunni enough to suit me.
He should take a hike, walk a mile, and mount a camel..
But now that I've been around for a while, I understand that some small percentage of Moslems are vicious and ignorant animals who can only experience joy when they inflict misery and pain upon other people who are not exactly the way they believe everyone on earth should be. The rest of the Moslems are equally backward, but are not particularly vicious. They are, however, so cowed and in fear of the wrath of the animal minority that are their brothers, that they will not even criticize terrorists. Even when such behavior tars all Moslems with the same brush.
A self-explanatory list.
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