[MississippiMan]

I say that Islam is a reversion to the God of the Patriarchs, which Mohammed appropriated because he recognized in that part of Genesis his own world. The irony is that liberals should honor a religion that teaches the vengeful God of the Old Testament, which they claim to loathe.

I cannot see it in such a benign fashion. Did God unleash wrath in the Old Testament? You bet He did. But can you reconcile any correlation between God and orgies in heaven with black-eyed virgins? (God uses a virgin birth to establish the salvation of the world. An Islamic heaven paints virginity as a special treat to exploit for sexual gratification.) Does the Allah of the Koran look like a pre-Jesus version of God, or a perverted caricature of Him?

MM (in TX)

[RobbyS]

Mohammed obviously saw the “kingdom of heaven” pretty much in terms of his culture. But if one looks at the Pentateuch, absent any knowledge of the revelvation of the Prophets and the books of Wisdom, one sees a world that would be familar to Mohammed. The story of Dina reveals that moral universe, of an Israel untutored by adversity to obedience to God. It is Israel before Joseph, whom God used to show Israel the way it should go, by giving example of that love that God feels toward his people.