This is the religion of peace! 1163As long as the meaning comes through, it doesn't matter. Crap expressed in iambic pentameter is still crap. I tend to feel that simplicity is a virtue when it comes to writing. Because when you...
G'day Artie - it's pretty basic. 5 pillars and you're halfway there...
I wasn't suggesting that you should change your beliefs.
No, I don't see Islam as the threat; I see fanatics as the threat, and people who use religion for political ends, and they aren't restricted to Islam. In his own way, George Bush is a fanatic. At least, he shares many of their methods and ideas.
Nor, I see, are their opponents, as the most recently released pictures from Abu Graib show us.
For a change let's look at the other side of the coinTR the miserable Troll wrote this unfriendly message in soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.french,soc.culture.german, soc.culture.british,soc.culture.nordic,soc.culture.canada,soc.culture.australian, soc.culture.arabic,soc.culture.russian,soc.culture.spain: Blah, blah, blah...
Very wise. But it really does help to try to understand the mentality of the extremist within the context of their own religion.
I don't think you can dismiss it in such a cavalier fashion. The Qur'an isn't a neat philosophical treatise. It's the written down version of hundreds of long and short messages from God, according to Islamic tradition, through Muhammad over a period of some 20 years. As such it is not meant to be read as a coherent, nicely edited volume. In fact, a lot of Muslims rarely read the Qur'an and can't speak Arabic for that matter. It's much more about practice within a particular Muslim community rather a rigorous adherence to the Qur'anic injunctions themselves - they are interpreted quite differently in the various schools of Islamic law. So you will learn a lot more about Islam as a religion from knowing a variety of Muslims than you will from the Qur'an itself.
I also as a non-Muslim have issues with the Qur'an, but it is not reasonable in my opinion to treat it with contempt, given the extensive treatment of every sphere of human activity it covers and the way it deals with those complexities. I would say it's quite a remarkable document, giving credit where credit's due.
Fair enough. I think anyone has the right to believe whatever they like, within the limits of the law - but if anyone tries to force their religion on me or restrict my freedom of religion, then I will and do oppose their actions. One of my chief complaints against many Islamic states is that they want freedoms for Islam everywhere in the world that they are not willing to grant to other religions in their own states.
I would not dream of suggesting otherwise, and I'm surprised that you would think I was implying that. If I put it so badly, I apologise. I was pointing out that if you want to understand something, then you don't ignore a very important dimension of it.
Cheers,
Rifty
-- Academic and Computing Help
