Replies

.>"Muslims believe that what he said while being spoken to by the angel/Allah is a revelation from Allah. That's not everything he said. The quote you cite is from a Hadith, not the Koran. While Osama bin Laden would like all Muslims to treat all of those works as having equal authority, only the Koran really has the authority, according to Muslims,..."<,

-Please consider Sina's following statement about Islam, and the Koran, and tell me where he is off base:

Why I left Islam", by Dr. Sina
"My rejection of Islam is not based on the bad deeds of the Muslims but on the bad teachings of its holy book and on the bad deeds of its founder. Many cruelties and heinous acts of violence, perpetrated by Muslims throughout the centuries were inspired by the Quran and the Sunnah (the examples of the prophet). That is why I condemn ISLAM for the bad things that Muslims do. Any effort to humanize Islam is a waste of time. The obstacle to any reform is the Quran." -Dr Sina

I understand the various critiques of Islam (I've read some of those sites) and even agree with the points raised by at least some of them. There are certainly elements of Muhammed's life, as recorded, that should give a good person pause and threatening apostate Muslims with death is certainly very cult-like. But my problem is not really with specific critiques of Islam, specific variants of Islam, critiques of Muslim or Arab culture as a generalization, or critiques of the behavior of specific Muslims. That's all valid areas for criticism. And I'm also in support of the publishers of those cartoons as a free speech issue. My problem is with the idea that all Muslims think and act the same and that all Muslims are bad. That's not so, any more than all Christians are good or bad. Religion and human nature just doesn't work that way. Plenty of Muslims that I've met and other people in this thread have met don't fit the stereotypes being tossed around in this thread. Yes, 40% of polled Muslims in the UK wanted Sharia in the UK. But 60% didn't. Claiming that they are all the same fails to make critical distinctions and isn't fair to the people who are not lunatics.

I should also point out that several of the "Why I'm not a Muslim" sites adapt and use arguments also used by people who reject Christianity and at least one site that I saw had links to arguments by atheists against the Bible, as well, that extend well beyond just Islam. Plenty of people make the exact same arguments about Christianity based on how it is practiced and what the Bible says.