RE: Italian author slams Islam's 'hate' for West

[Jon Gabriel]

From: "Joe Hale" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: Italian author slams Islam's 'hate' for West Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 18:48:44 -0400

I would like to believe "it's just a few fanatics who give Islam a bad
reputation". However the roaring silence of the so called majority
speaks volumes about where their sympathy lies.

Also the Moslem Fundamentalists are not "misinterpreting the Koran".
They are not stupid. They know how to read. Their interpretation is
just as valid as the moderate's interpretation. (There is no "Pope" in
Islam to settle these issues.)

Read the Koran. Read about Islam in depth. Then make judgements. Fanatics are twisting a religion with many positive points and admirable qualities to suit their purposes. This much is clear.

Unfortunately, the issue is not as black and white as one might believe. As with Hebrew and the Torah, the Koran is written in an ancient language whose words often have several meanings and translations. Many translations of the Koran will give you exactly that: many translations. It is therefore possible to manipulate the translation of passages to fit desired meanings

I'm not 100% sure of my knowledge in the following example. Perhaps Ilana or Tom could back me up?? (I'm way too busy to research it.) :) An example of this in Hebrew and the Torah: As I understand it, certain teachings of the Baal Shem Tov translate the bible in such a way that interprets the word "angry" as it used in the Torah as "passionate", "loving" or "emotional". Therefore, the phrase: "I am an angry God" can be translated as "I am a passionate (or loving) God". As you might expect, this completely changes the nature of the translation and the feeling of the religion. Similar translations and possibly mistranslations are possible when language can be vague. I believe this is what is being done, deliberately, with the Koran.

And I never claimed that other religions don't have their militant
streaks.  I merely said that in today's world it is the Moslems who seem
to be fighting everyone else.

What you said was: �If Islam was a religion of
peace there would never have been a Battle of Tours. The Moslems are
currently fighting the Christians, Jews, and Hindus, and they are
responsible for blowing up the Buddhist statutes in Afghanistan. They
can't get along with anybody. This is not a religion of peace.�

But the Muslims didn't start it recently in Bosnia or Sarajevo, did they? The Battle of Tours was a single incident in history. I think, as Jean-Louis pointed out, the eight Crusades from 1097 � 1270 and the Inquisition in the 15th & 16th centuries are probably a better example of how Christian / Muslim confrontations have gone historically. I�m not saying that Muslim hands are clean, mind you, it�s just that Christians have, generally, spilled more blood in the name of Christ than Muslims have in the name of Allah if you�re going by their track record over the last 1000 years.

Unfortunately, American Islamic organizations like CAIR haven't been particularly vocal or outspoken on these topics. They certainly took their sweet time in offering reluctant condemnation about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Witness the opposite reaction from their Australian counterpart this week: the Islamic/Muslim organization there condemned the recent terrorist bombing immediately and demanded justice for the victims.

Are the Australians an exception to the rule or the global norm?

Jon
GSV IAAMOAC

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:brin-l-bounces@;mccmedia.com]
On Behalf Of J. van Baardwijk
Sent: Friday, October 25, 2002 10:10 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Italian author slams Islam's 'hate' for West

At 21:30 23-10-2002 -0400, Joe Hale wrote:

>This author makes a good point.  People who claim Islam is a religion
of
>peace are turning a blind eye to history.  If Islam was a religion of
>peace there would never have been a Battle of Tours.  The Moslems are
>currently fighting the Christians, Jews, and Hindus, and they are
>responsible for blowing up the Buddhist statutes in Afghanistan.  They
>can't get along with anybody.  This is not a religion of peace.

Are you really that intolerant, or just extremely ignorant?

Islam's history is not one of peace and only peace, but the same can be
said about that other major religion: Christianity. The aggressive
actions
of Muslems in current times are not typical for Islam; they are the
actions
of a relatively small number of Muslim-fundamentalists who misinterpret
the
Koran -- in pretty much the same way the Christian fundamentalists
misinterpret the Bible.

Islam itself is a religion of peace and tolerance; it is the words and
actions of a few fanatics who give Islam a bad reputation. Look beyond
that.


Jeroen "Intolerance towards intolerance" van Baardwijk

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