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To: King Prout
The Koran is a much smaller "scripture" than the Bible, so there is little sense in trying to compare them as you have. The Sunnah are not scriptures at all, but testimonies of supposed witnesses to Mohammed's actions. They have a whole "science" of determining which are more acceptable, and which are not. They have much the same problem with witness reliability as your local police do, too. There are certain sunnah accepted by different sects of Islam, some of which are not accepted by other sects. It's rather like asking a Baptist to accept the Book of Mormon.

The major problem with your arguement, however, is thinking that Wahhabi Muslims are representative of the whole group. There are, at most, a couple of hundred million Wahhabi and like sects in Islam. Yes, that is a large absolute number, compared to the population of the US, but it is only a fifth of the total of all Muslims, at most. Muslims of all sects total only about a sixth of the world's population. Further, not all that are Wahhabi or their like subscribe to the line coming out in the pulpits even of Mecca. There are as many variants of Islam as there are in Christianity, and considerably more than there are of Judaism. The Wahhabi have been trying to take over Islam for the past 300 years or so, and they have not yet succeeded. This isn't to say that they can't, or even won't, because they might.

I have studied the facts. I've lived in Islamic countries, and spoken to a bunch of Muslims. I've also been studying the history of the region for most of the past 20 years. You may have noticed that a lot of Saudis, who are mostly Wahhabi, do not follow the tenets of their variety of Islam while outside their home country? Maybe it is because they think God is stupid and blind, and won't see them, but I tend to think it is because much of what they are supposed to believe is truth is known to them as nonsense. No doubt some of them cut loose a little too much, and go home feeling guilty, too, and try to do "better" by being more fanatic about it. That seems to have been the mode the 9/11 hijackers were operating in; they would be forgiven because they "gave their lives in Jihad."

I personally find your arguments against Islam as a whole as racist as those of Klansmen against Blacks and Jews and Catholics. You paint with a very broad brush. I stand by my argument that there are no-goodniks in any group. I'm afraid I have to lump you in that crowd, too, based on your posts here. I'm not personally very fond of Saudis, myself; I found them quite arrogant and more than a little willing to let someone else bleed for them rather than lift a finger in their own defense. I am willing to admit I didn't get to know many Saudis, either. Most of my friends were Turks, Kurds, Morrocans, Pakis, and Indonesians, with a few Persians thrown in for flavoring. Perhaps your knowledge of Muslims IS more than mine. I still find your arguement less than compelling, and quite repellent.
93 posted on 03/15/2004 7:02:33 PM PST by Old Student (WRM, MSgt, USAF (Ret.))
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To: Old Student
whoopie - you find it repellent.

cry me a river - you did not refute it.

I have stated, in CLEAR TEXT AND SMALL WORDS, that there are moderate MUSLIMS.

That does not mean that ISLAM is moderate, or even can be - thus, the illustration using a related cult: Nazism.

Try again. Try harder.
96 posted on 03/15/2004 7:14:18 PM PST by King Prout (MECCA ET MEDINA DELENDAE SUNT!)
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To: Old Student
moreover, you err:

The Koran is a much smaller "scripture" than the Bible, so there is little sense in trying to compare them as you have. The Sunnah are not scriptures at all, but testimonies of supposed witnesses to Mohammed's actions. They have a whole "science" of determining which are more acceptable, and which are not. They have much the same problem with witness reliability as your local police do, too. There are certain sunnah accepted by different sects of Islam, some of which are not accepted by other sects.

survey says? XXX

The Koran is roughly the equivalent of the four cannonical Gospels of the New Testament, as established under the Council of Nicaea. The Koran is literally held to be the directly recited word of Allah, and cannot be interpreted, reworded, modified, even translated out of Arabic. Inconsistencies in the suriyah are explained by the cute little dodge that Allah can change his mind, replacing older and outmoded commandments with newer more perfect ones. Read the Koran - it's in there. The "later revelations" are SO much fun that way.

The Hadith of the Sunnah are the rough equivalent of the lesser books of the NT (Acts, Epistles, etc...) plus the non-canonnical Apocryphal Gospels and testaments. The Hadith are held to be accurate testimonies of the words of Muhammad and inspired by Allah. There is some wiggle room for interpretation, but not much. Nor is there much motivation for doing so, because "Allah hates those who ask too many questions" and the penalty for unrepentant apostasy is death.

Facts. Deal with them.

99 posted on 03/15/2004 7:35:13 PM PST by King Prout (MECCA ET MEDINA DELENDAE SUNT!)
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To: Old Student
I personally find your arguments against Islam as a whole as racist as those of Klansmen against Blacks and Jews

Racist???? Time to look up the word in the dictionary, islam is not a race. No, not racist but anti-islamic is the word you are looking for. Such and old student should know that.

136 posted on 03/16/2004 7:32:55 PM PST by Lady Heron
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To: Old Student
You paint with a very broad brush.

islam's fundamentals are the same whether sunni or shiite, they are both based upon the koran. The koran calls for jihad whether being studied by either sect. Terrorism has come from both shiite and sunnis (think about the 70's and 80's shiite terrorism).

Islam is evil to its core. Study the religion for yourself, don't let others tell you what it says and demands. There is enough garbage in the koran to let you know of its evil without the sunnahs, it just adds to the evil.

Yes, that makes me anti-islamic which has nothing to do with race.

137 posted on 03/16/2004 7:46:26 PM PST by Lady Heron
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