My favorite phrase: a petrified belief structure
Great description of Islam. Thanks for this.
More like the question of the quarter century - 444 days the bastards held our hostages.
Acutually they are Hindu numerals. The Muslims learned about them while they were ransacking India.
It's a pity, however that for the historically-challenged, it could not be mentioned who saved the "west's" butt at Vienna in 1683.
A name we should all be celebrating on an annual basis.
Check it out.
Suggest even those totally absorbed by the Arnold-McClinton drama tear themselves away long enough to think this one over.
The West had been waiting for the formidable Salman Rushdie... to weigh in...My only beef with this article is that even here, we still see a dogged determination to deny the fundamental difference between the explicit instructions of the New Testament and the explicit instructions of the Koran. The New Testament didn't need any sort of Reformation to create these explicit instructions - they already existed.Islam, he noted, unlike Christianity, is a petrified belief structure that has never undergone any sort of Reformation since its inception in the seventh century; its most modern self-critique consists of 18th-century Wahhabism, a fundamentalist, puritanical, theocratic reaction to the "corruption of the true faith" which has now found its most perfect incarnation in the Taliban.
Jesus explicitly instructed his followers to forgo all violence:
The Gospel according toMohammed, on the other hand, explicitly instructed his followers to practice not only violence, but murder itself:
St. Matthew
Chapter 5
The Holy Bible
King James Version 2000Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Medina Suras
The Chapter of Women
[Chapters from the Koran]
The Harvard Classics 190914But if there befalls you grace from God, he would sayas though there were no friendship between you and himO would that I had been with thee to attain this mighty happiness! Let those then fight in Gods way who sell this life of the world for the next; and whoso fights in Gods way, then, be he killed or be he victorious, we will give him a mighty hire.
What ails you that ye do not fight in Gods way, and for the weak men and women and children, who say, Lord, bring us out of this town 19 of oppressive folk, and make for us from Thee a patron, and make for us from Thee a help?
Those who believe fight in the way of God; and those who disbelieve fight in the way of Tâghût; fight ye then against the friends of Satan, verily, Satans tricks are weak.
Do ye not see those to whom it is said, Restrain your hands, and be steadfast in prayer and give alms; and when it is prescribed for them to fight then a band of them fear men, as though it were the fear of God or a still stronger fear, and they say, O our Lord! why hast thou prescribed for us to fight, couldst thou not let us abide till our near appointed time? Say, The enjoyment of this world is but slight, and the next is better for him who fears;but they shall not be wronged a straw.
... Why are ye two parties about the hypocrites, when God hath overturned them for what they earned? Do ye wish to guide those whom God hath led astray? Whoso God hath led astray ye shall not surely find for him a path. They would fain that ye misbelieve as they misbelieve, that ye might be alike; take ye not patrons from among them until they too flee in Gods way; but if they turn their backs, then seize them and kill them wheresoever ye find them, and take from them neither patron nor help,save those who reach a people betwixt whom and you is an allianceor who come to you while their bosoms prevent them from fighting you or fighting their own people. But had God pleased He would have given you dominion over them, and they would surely have fought you. But if they retire from you and do not fight you, and offer you peace,then God hath given you no way against them.
Ye will find others who seek for quarter from you, and quarter from their own people; whenever they return to sedition they shall be overturned therein: but if they retire not from you, nor offer you peace, nor restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wheresoever ye find them;over these we have made for you manifest power.