The True Islamic Morals-

Some people who say they are acting in the name of religion may misunderstand their religion or practice it wrongly. For this reason, it is a mistake to form any idea of that religion from the activities of these people. The best way to understand Islam is through its holy source.

The holy source of Islam is the Qur'an; and the model of morality in the Qur'an is completely different from the image of it formed in the minds of some westerners. The Qur'an is based on the concepts of morality, love, compassion, mercy, modesty, self-sacrifice, tolerance and peace, and a Muslim who truly lives according to these moral precepts is highly refined, thoughtful, tolerant, trustworthy and accommodating. To those around him he gives love, respect, peace of mind and a sense of the joy of life.

The word Islam has the same meaning as "peace" in Arabic. Islam is a religion that came down to offer humanity a life filled with the peace and well-being in which God's eternal mercy and compassion is manifested in the world. God invites all people to accept the moral teachings of the Qur'an as a model whereby mercy, compassion, tolerance and peace may be experienced in the world. In Surat al-Baqara verse 208, this command is given:

You who believe! Enter absolutely into peace (Islam). Do not follow in the footsteps of Satan. He is an outright enemy to you.

As we see in this verse, people will experience well-being and happiness by living according to the moral teaching of the Qur'an.

God has commanded humanity to avoid evil; he has forbidden immorality, rebellion, cruelty, aggressiveness, murder and bloodshed. Those who do not obey this command of God are walking in the steps of Satan, as it says in the verse above, and have adopted an attitude that God has clearly declared unlawful. Of the many verses that bear on this subject, here are only two:

But as for those who break God's contract after it has been agreed and sever what God has commanded to be joined, and cause corruption in the earth, the curse will be upon them. They will have the Evil Abode. (Surat ar-Ra'd: 25)

Seek the abode of the hereafter with what God has given you, without forgetting your portion of the world. And do good as God has been good to you. And do not seek to cause mischief on earth. God does not love mischief makers.' (Surat al-Qasas: 77)

As we can see, God has forbidden every kind of mischievous acts in the religion of Islam including terrorism and violence, and condemned those who commit such deeds. A Muslim lends beauty to the world and improves it.

Islam is a religion which fosters freedom of life, ideas and thought. It has forbidden tension and conflict among people, calumny, suspicion and even having negative thoughts about another individual.

Islam has not only forbidden terror and violence, but also even the slightest imposition of any idea on another human being.

There is no compulsion in religion. Right guidance has become clearly distinct from error. Anyone who rejects false gods and believes in God has grasped the Firmest Handhold, which will never give way. God is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. (Surat al-Baqara: 256)

So remind, you need only to remind. You cannot compel them to believe. (Surat al-Ghashiyah: 22)

To force anyone to believe in a religion or to practice it, is against the spirit and essence of Islam. Because it is necessary that faith be accepted with free will and conscience. Of course, Muslims may urge one another to keep the moral precepts taught in the Qur'an, but they never use compulsion. In any case, an individual cannot be induced to the practice of religion by either threat or offering him a worldly privilege.

Let us imagine a completely opposite model of society. For example, a world in which people are forced by law to practice religion. Such a model of society is completely contrary to Islam because faith and worship have value only when they are directed toward God. If there were a system that forced people to believe and worship, people would be religious only out of fear of the system. What is acceptable from the point of view of religion is that religion be practiced in an environment where freedom of conscience is permitted, and that it be practiced only for the approval of God.

According to the Qur'an, one of the greatest sins is to kill a human being who has committed no fault: ...If someone kills another person - unless it is in retaliation for someone else or for causing corruption in the earth - it is as if he had murdered all mankind. And if anyone gives life to another person, it is as if he had given life to all mankind. Our Messengers came to them with Clear Signs but even after that many of them committed outrages in the earth. (Surat al-Ma'ida: 32) Those who do not call on any other deity together with God and do not kill anyone God has made inviolate, except with the right to do so, and do not fornicate; anyone who does that will receive an evil punishment. (Surat al-Furqan: 68)

As we can see in the verses above, those who kill innocent human beings without a cause are threatened with evil punishment. God has revealed that killing one person is as great a sin as killing all mankind. Anyone who respected the prerogatives of God would not do harm to even one individual, let alone murdering thousands of innocent people. Those who think that they will escape justice and punishment in this world will never escape the account they must give in the Presence of God on the Last Day. So, those believers who know they will give an account to God after their death, will be very careful about respecting the limits God has established.

God Commands Believers To Be Compassionate And Merciful< In this verse, Muslim morality is explained: ...To be one of those who believe and urge each other to steadfastness and urge each other to compassion. Those are the Companions of the Right. (Surat al-Balad: 17-18) As we see in this verse, one of the most important moral precepts that God has sent down to His servants so that they may receive salvation and mercy and attain Paradise, is to "urge each other to compassion".

Islam as described in the Qur'an is a modern, enlightened, progressive religion. A Muslim is above all a person of peace; he is tolerant with a democratic spirit, cultured, enlightened, honest, knowledgable about art and science and civilized. A Muslim educated in the fine moral teaching of the Qur'an, approaches everyone with the love that Islam expects. He shows respect for every idea and he values art and aesthetics. He is conciliatory in the face of every event, diminishing tension and restoring amity. In societies composed of individuals such as this, there will be a higher civilization, a higher social morality, more joy, happiness, justice, security, abundance and blessings than in the most modern nations of the world today.

God Has Commanded Tolerance And Forgiveness Surat al-A'raf, verse 199, which says "practice forgiveness", expresses the concept of forgiveness and tolerance which is one of the basic principles of the religion of Islam.

When we look at Islamic history, we can see clearly how Muslims established this important precept of the moral teaching of the Qur'an in their social life. At every point in their advance, Muslims destroyed unlawful practices and created a free and tolerant environment. In the areas of religion, language and culture, they made it possible for people totally opposite to each other to live under the same roof in freedom and peace, thereby giving to those subject to them the advantages of knowledge, wealth and position. Likewise, one of the most important reasons that the large and widespread Ottoman Empire was able to sustain its existence for so many centuries was that its way of life was directed by the tolerance and understanding brought by Islam. For centuries Muslims have been characterized by their tolerance and compassion. In every period of time they have been the most just and merciful of people. All ethnic groups within this multi-national community freely practiced the religions they have followed for years and enjoyed every opportunity to live in their own cultures and worship in their own way.

Indeed, the particular tolerance of Muslims, when practiced as commanded in the Qur'an, can alone bring peace and well-being to the whole world. The Qur'an refers to this particular kind of tolerance:

A good action and a bad action are not the same. Repel the bad with something better and, if there is enmity between you and someone else, he will be like a bosom friend. (Surat al-Fussilat: 34)

All this shows that the moral teaching offered to humanity by Islam is one that will bring peace, happiness and justice to the world. The barbarism that is happening in the world today under the name of "Islamic Terrorism" is completely removed from the moral teachings of the Qur'an; it is the work of ignorant, bigoted people, criminals who have nothing to do with religion. The solution which will applied against these individuals and groups who are trying to commit their deeds of savagery under the guise of Islam, will be the instruction of people in the true moral teaching of Islam.

In other words, the religion of Islam and the moral teaching of the Qur'an are not the supporters of terrorism and the terrorists, but the remedy by which the world can be saved from the scourge of terrorism.

You were on the money with your historical precis of the Wahabi, who are the bad boys of the Sunni tradition in Islam. However, your author ignores the fact that the Shiites also have a long history of martyrdom, suicide, and reveling in death and gore. They and the Wahabi have a mutual antipathy which goes back to the grandsons of Mohammed. Although like all Muslims, they never met a Jihad they didn't like, so for that, they'll get together.

The Saudis are a very recent historical phenomenon, only finally unifying the country in the 1930's after a series of wars and slick diplomacy that lasted from 1915 onward. Mecca, Medina and the Asir(last to be conquered) were the Kingdoms of the Hashemites. After losing Mecca and Medina to the Saudis, they received Jordan and Iraq from Britain. Jordan of course, is still a Hashemite Kingdom, Iraq's king having been overthrown by Saddam Hussein's predecessors in a Baathist military coup supported bt Syria.

Saudi Arabia is the personal property of the Saud dynasty.Not wildly popular in many regions of the country, they are sitting on a volcano. They have a wildly exploding population that will not work, and which can no longer be supported on the lavish dole to which Saudi nationals had become accustomed. The overwhelming majority of the country's enterprises, large and small, are run by a huge corps of expatriate workers from around the globe (and of which I was one.)So the Saudis have to pay the ex-pats to get any (and I do mean any) work done and at the same time, still keep up a very expensive fast-fading welfare state for their nationals. I know this sounds silly, but the Saudi government is often strapped for cash!

The Saudi royals are deathly afraid ObL is going to oust them, and it ain't gonna be pretty. Many wealthy Saudis are hedging their bets by supporting ObL and his causes.

One solution the Saudis are considering: a grandstand play to reclaim Arab leadership by defusing the Israeli situation, and getting rid of Saddam Hussein at the same time. They want to give the Palestinians part of Iraq ... a part with oil. It's not a real country anyway, having been invented by the British Foreign Office in 1916. Give the Kurds the Northeast Corner and some oil. Split the rest between Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan(Jordan is desperate for an oil well or two.) Restore Mesopotamia as the land between the rivers and forget about it until the next time. (Well, at least it's a plan.)

Saudis figure it would give them something to do with their restless youth besides watching them follow ObL around: get them out of Dodge and homesteading, i.e. working.

You tell us why Turkey continues to evade the truth about the slaughter and genocide against the Christian Armenians. Is this a governmental policy, this ongoing lie, rather than one of Islam and which was the genocide itself? After all Armenia existed for hundreds of years alongside Turkey but suddenly, in the century just passed, there was the genocide and now the false representation that it did not happen. Was this a product of Attaturk's secular state or of Islam? Americans, who know many Armenians ans well as many Turks, both of whom are now American, would like to know.

It's really all a very tricky balancing act.

It is, Jim, but I'm not so cynical that I think this is "all about oil." I admit to being a political moderate, and cynical myself sometimes, but I don't think that the lives of seven thousand people can be discounted, and I don't think that our ideals of freedom and values of humanity all around the globe can be discounted either. Just think of how many people from so many different countries were present here and killed during this massacre! Our belief in that kind of freedom has been challenged, to say the least. We are such a large country, made up of this idealistic belief that people of the world can live here and work here and play here together.

Just tonight my daughter, whom we're nickel-and-diming through college (she's working, too) said that she wanted to major in American Studies. That's not a major I've heard of too often, and when I asked her why she might choose that, ONE of the things she said was: "And besides, I want to learn about what the immigrants did for fun! I read that they went to Coney Island." ?? She went on: "The rich people didn't have to work as much, and the immigrants at one point in the east could only get to Coney Island."

Sorry to babble. Your post makes sense, but I'm not quite that cynical yet!

Horse hockey! If they are NOT true muslims, then why do the "true muslims" tolerate them? The truth is, when a "true muslim" is wetting his pants, that's when he screams that the terrorists have no connection with his religion. Time for the "true muslims" to realize that the terrorists are the real muslims, and that the "true muslims" are being lead down the garden path.

Well it's not the "true muslim's" fault that these people are using Islam to manipulate ignorant people to kill other people, is it? As far as tolerance goes, I think we're about to see a sea-change about that--Turan is evidence of that.

I'm just asking you who excommunicated bin Laden and the terrorists from Islam, you are claiming they are not "true" Muslims because true Muslims don't believe in violence. If a Southern Baptist minister starts claiming all Catholics will go to hell, maybe he stays in that religion, but if he steps further and tells his congregation to kill all Catholics, the Southern Baptists would throw him out. The Lutherans have a way to disown Lutherans who overstep, the Catholics have excommunication. I don't think anyone has excommunicated a single terrorist from Islam.

That's not what your post conveyed to me, Fitz. And I never said that muslims don't believe in violence. I don't think there's any culture or religion on this good earth that hasn't participated in violence, unfortunately. I don't know that Islam has any notion of "excommunication" as we know it, of a tossing out. Maybe that's a question for Turan. I think that he was attempting to do something like that with his post, but all he got was criticism. In any case, these fundamentalist, phony followers of Islam are about to be castigated in a way they never dreamed of, I am thinking, because people like Turan who are good and faithful muslims with a knowledge of that scripture are about it. Wait and see.

In any case, these fundamentalist, phony followers of Islam are about to be castigated in a way they never dreamed of, I am thinking, because people like Turan who are good and faithful muslims with a knowledge of that scripture are about it. Wait and see.

I hope you're right. Maybe the religion needs to make a couple of reforms so they have a way to excommunicate certain types like other religions have. I know there are good people who call themselves Muslims but if they don't have a way right now to cut off the other kind, they need to find a way.

It is possible to search the Qur'an online for certain words. Since a search for the word "gospel" brings up many references to the Gospel and it is obvious that the Qur'an is referring to the Gospel as being from Allah, why is the Gospel contradicted in so many points by the Qur'an? Would God contradict Himself so much? If Muslims believe the Gospel has somehow been corrupted and changed over time, how would they think that Allah, who surely they consider to be all powerful, would allow his words to be corrupted and changed? And if Muslims believe Allah allowed corruption or change in one communication from him, would they similarly believe Allah had allowed corruption and change to occur in the Qur'an since they also believe it to be from him? Can it be logical to think corruption and changes could occur in one and not the other? And if there were not corruption, how then can the contradictions [between the Gospel and the Qur'an] be explained?

Hindus are so peaceful, they won't even kill animals, and I believe Hindus get along with people of all religions except Muslims.

You clearly have not been following what has been going on in India lately, and the efforts of the BJP against Christian missionaries.

Poor Turan, he doesn't mean any harm, doesn't have anything against any of us. He just wants to let people know that in his own view, his religion is one of peace. Really, any one of us could have quotes from the Bible, or various theologians, fathers, rabbis thrown at us that we'd find it hard to justify. I did on an earlier occasion post some Bible quotes that Christians and Jews would find it hard to defend, and others have done the same. I'm not going to do it again. With a minimal amount of digging people could find them. They could also compare the behavior of the first Christian crusaders to take Jerusalem, with that of Saladin, the Muslim who reconquered the city. Some people get a lot of mileage out of the Christianity and Judaism versus Islam schema. In history, you would have found very deep enmity at various points between Christians and Jews. It would have been surprising to some of our ancestors how effortlessly the phrase Judeao-Christian tradition trips off our tongues. My point isn't that Islam is better, just that virtually all religions -- certainly all monotheistic religions, and many others besides -- have had their persecutions and episodes of violence. I don't know about Buddhism. It may escape this curse by turning its back on this world entirely. If one wants to argue that today's Islam is more violent than Christianity one may have a good case for it, but the next step wouldn't be cursing the religion, but trying to overcome its negative side, either within the religion or outside of it. Even if people want to proselytize, there are better ways of doing it than tearing down everything the man believes in, as some have done.

Ahh, so in your effort to convert we confused Christians who put our faith in Jesus (you've implied He is a fraud, that's clear enough in your condescending effluence), you point out the 'more correct' actions claimed for Mohammed ... incidentally, it isn't nice to ADD to the scriptures such things as 'full' when debating scriptural things.

You are the weakest link. Buh bye.

PS - keep that right hand clean now, won't you when you abuse yourself ... See how easy it is to be insulting? Try to avoid such juvenile tendencies in the future. It's not safe to play fraudulently with a Seal, honey.

A Muslim is above all a person of peace; he is tolerant with a democratic spirit, cultured, enlightened, honest, knowledgable about art and science and civilized

If this is an ideal of Islam in general Turan, then why are you living in the only Muslim country out of dozens that could be considered nominally Democratic? Are all the other Muslim nations on the incorrect religious path?

BTW, I am quite fond of the Turks. They have proven themselves to be dependable allies of the West and are formidable warriors in their own right.

God bless you and your country. I hope we can continue to count on your nation as our only true friend in the Muslim world.

Who says they don't, YOU??

You don't need to tell US about the peaceful nature of Islam, you need to tell OSAMA and his millions of true believers.

From the Philippines to Nigeria to New York, thousands are being butchered in the name of Allah. These killers certainly believe they are practicing "true Islam".

Who are you to tell us they are not?

Where are the internationally respected Islamic mullahs and groups who should be excommunicating Osama and all of his followers, and condemning them with death Fatwahs for blaspheming the name of Allah?

Where are they?

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