Posted on 08/16/2006 10:02:21 AM PDT by Sabramerican
The carpeted room is full of children in skullcaps crouched on prayer mats, reciting verses from a holy text. Some mumble the words under their breath; others sing them out. They rock back and forth as they chant, their disparate voices blending into an ethereal melody.
The children, ages 7 to 14, are full-time students, in class 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, even in the summer. But they are not studying math, science or English. Instead, they are memorizing all 6,200 verses in the Koran, a task that usually takes two to three years.
It would hardly be an unusual scene in Pakistan, Afghanistan or elsewhere in the Muslim world, where religious schools devoted to memorization of the Koran and Islamic studies are common. But this class meets in the prayer room of a small mosque in Flushing, Queens, that caters mostly to South Asian immigrants and their children.
Schools like this one at the Muslim Center of New York are rare in the United States, but are emerging, especially among South Asians, as the Muslim American population becomes more established.
....By not offering instruction in other subjects,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It wasn't that the two can be compared equally, that is impossible, as you've pointed out.
It was the point that things can and are taken out of context to suit the reader's intentions.
7"And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
He fooled you. It's actually the other way around. Mainstream Christians and Muslims and Jews practice what some people call buffet spirituality. Take a little of this and a little of that, leave that, pass on this, depending upon what suites your tastes.
This is how you can tell a faithful believer who believes the religious text and try to live what it commands.
They will refrain from immorality and decadence, they will not change thier morals or beliefs based on what popular culture is into and usually are standing against the tide. They will be labeled by apathetics or agnostics as fundamentalists and they will place a huge value on family.
They will also be active in spreading thier religion. The difference is in the last, Christians will go on mission trips and knock on doors handing out tracts and talking about Jesus. Jews will be active in the community and Muslims will do the same as well as detonate bombs, saw people's heads off on TV, and hijack airplanes. Convert or die. Other religions don't go this far.
Exactly. Well said. And no, I was not fooled.
I don't think they're memorizing the way to 'heaven'...
I saw some of your other posts and am glad to see that you definitely have not been fooled.
Like others have said, there is no need to read the Koran to understand the religion. Look at the fruits produced. As far as religions go, Islam has produced the least amount of good fruit for going on centuries now.
They don't even do the "convert" part anymore. It's just, die, die, DIE!!!
They don't even do the "convert" part anymore. It's just, die, die, DIE!!! Or, kill, kill, kill!
"Schools like this one at the Muslim Center of New York are rare in the United States, but are emerging, especially among South Asians,"
"South Asians"? What the hell are those? Australians?
Whoops. Sorry about the duplication.
The enemy within.
Deport, deport, deport.
No, it would be interrupted by social services rushing in to save the children from the abusive environment
You are mistaken. Let me offer just one illustration from the Christian Bible. There are others but you can locate them on your own.
Deuteronomy 20: 17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
I believe the reason for these suggestions from the Koran and the Bible is because the spiritual advisors knew that one could not co-exist with negative influences and remain true to God’s teachings.
No, you are.
Ripping a verse from its context proves only the inadequacy of your reading.
First, there are no living Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites or Jebusites - so even if this command applied to Christians, it would be purely academic.
Of course, this was a command issued specifically to the Israelites and the command was specifically to be carried out in the geographic confines of the land of Israel.
It simply doesn't apply to Christians, and to try to replicate it as a doctrine would be to repudiate the New Testament, thereby renouncing Christianity.
The Koran injunction is not confined to any specific time, place or target but it applies to all Muslims always regarding any unbeliever.
The only exception is that a Muslim is not allowed to kill an unbeliever if the Muslim caliph has officially extended that unbeliever his protection in exchange for monetary tribute.
Since there is no caliph anymore, no restrictions apply.
MosesKnows very little it seems, this verse was taken out of context. You are right in one sense about the inability to coexist but GOD was also using the weakest most pathetic people in the world to deliver judgement to nations that had decended to unimaginable depths of perversion and sinfulness (child sacrifice, bestiality, etc). After Israel took the land THE LORD commanded them to take and gave to them, these types of verses fall off.
Where in the NT do you find commands to commit violence?
You don't because GOD in the old testament times used the physical to illustrate the Spiritual in an attempt to get HIS people to start looking forward in faith. Jesus fulfilled that foreshadowing and showed us how to look to the spiritual. Now we defeat our enemies (who are spiritual) with spiritual weapons. The bible must be taken in its full context which means a verse here and a verse there is a poor reflection of the true message contained in the scriptures.
You left out something crucial. The reason.
Not because of who they were but for their abominations.
Their abominations were such that today anyone doing the same- child sacrifice, etc- would merit the death penalty.
Amen bump
I guess that's why when I have been to two different Islamic wedding receptions, the fathers, in their customary little speech (which everyone of 500 people almost completely ignored and talked through - both times) recited some Koranic verses in Arabic, and then complained that there is not enough understanding of the Koran, and that when it is read they don't even know what it is saying.
I got the feeling that these particular Muslims don't take the religious aspect very seriously and that to them, at least, it appears to be more a cultural thing. Can't say for sure, though.
Cordially,
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