For the past decade Islam has been suffering from fear almost everywhere you look. Arab countries are afraid of being invaded by the U.S. in the wake of the invasion of Iraq. Sunni Muslims are nervous about the rise of Iran to a nuclear state dominated by Shiites. But on a far more personal level, everyone is afraid to say anything about Muhammad that would inflame the faithful. I've experienced this recently myself. On tour for a novel about Muhammad -- one that I wrote primarily to tell Westerners that the Prophet led an exciting, inspiring life -- the first word that comes up in every interview is "fatwa." The first question is, "Aren't you afraid to write this book?"
Every religion takes sole possession of its founder. That's what makes it strong. That and claiming that your version of God is the only correct one. But nobody who writes books about Jesus or Buddha does so in fear. The irony is that the stronger the faith, the more open it is to intolerance. Fundamentalist Christians believe that everyone else is an outsider to the true faith, including other Christians. But Islam has become locked down to an extraordinary degree. Those of us who want to write as sympathetically as possible about Muhammad, without giving in to official hagiography, are warned off. We are made to walk on eggshells. Saddest of all, those Muslims who are pleased to see a novel about Muhammad's life scan it nervously to make sure that nothing is out of place.
Isn't it time to make Muhammad a safe topic? The Danish cartoonist who lampooned the Prophet stepped into taboo territory because Islam forbids any physical depiction of him. But Islamic art over the centuries has come to terms with the strictures against painting portraits and taking photos of people's faces. Adaptation means survival, and those forces in Islam that don't want to adapt, far from preserving their faith for eternity, are endangering it.
The irony of the situation is double, actually. Muhammad recognized Jews and Christians as people of the Book, along with Muslims. They are not outsiders but fellow worshipers. Islam was meant to be an umbrella that includes them and tolerates their faith. So the fundamentalist streak in Islam isn't true to the spirit of the Prophet. The very notion that the Quran should never be translated from the Arabic and never commented upon was born (so far as I can ascertain) among his followers after the Prophet's death. As a result, the other people of the Book have passed through reform movements and adaptations that have been denied to the Muslim faithful.
Surrounding the Prophet with veneration is one thing. We can all understand and respect that. But surrounding him with threats, a kind of theological barbed wire, is another thing. It isn't acceptable to the outside world, and moderate Arabs would be well served to speak out against it. I don't mean to dictate to anyone how they should follow their religion. But we've come to an impasse if no one is allowed to speak the truth about Muhammad or comment upon his life. As long as freedom of thought is considered the enemy, the Islamic world will be embroiled in fear forever.
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Nor do you seem to have a functioning understanding of idolatry and its significance.
What's on TV?
And we are not saying depicting the face of the Prophets (peace and blessings be upon them all) nor other than them is because they are "too sacred" to be drawn.
The Testimony of Faith revolves around the following:
The Unity of God
Belief in All Messengers, including Jesus and Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah (God) be upon him)
Belief in All Revealed Books
Belief in the Day of Judgment
Without the Testimony for Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him), the article of faith is incomplete. That is what was taught to the Muslims by the Almighty through His Messenger (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him)
During the life of the Holy Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him), various options to call the Muslims for prayers were considered. Finally simple call to prayers proposed by great Umar , the second Caliph ,was approved by the Holy Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him). The wordings are very simple
God is Great. God is Great
I testify that there is no God. I testify that Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) is the Prophet of God
Make haste to the prayers. Make haste towards success ( reward from God)
(In the call to predawn prayers , a line is added that is prayers are better than sleep )
God is Great. God is Great
There is no God
6- to have back ground teortically and by life experiance on the subject your discussing other wise you i believe its better to listen n get informed by others argumenters who are well back grounded on both levels
to my believe i come to know everywor
1- the subject must be good.
2-particpant should not consider it close case prior to thier discussion (doubt shall never hurt believers contrary they shall seek all knowlade n sources to a firm it )otherwise ...you know
3- they must read relativity theory :P
4 -choose an agreed by all a refrence point to start adiscussion
5- stay as much as they can around that ref point then wider in the same subject.
i come to know part of people failer in many discussions that they don't have even a ref point that all might agreed upon to start even with.
:P
If their law causes harm to their own Muslim people, then, we wouldn't have to bother or say anything about it, would we? I don't think we have to bother at all. But their law mostly makes the harm to people who are not in their religion.
Like Islam it teaches that those other religions are 'evil'.
Theology wise, they have more in common than they do apart, esp on the bad side
In fact, I see the Catholics of the last few centuries bending over backwards to be polite to other religions. I bet that goes for other Christians too.
Welcome knowledge and wisdom from all directions - Rigveda
"If the people of religion are asked about the proof for the soundness of their religion, they flare up, get angry and spill the blood of whoever confronts them with this question. They forbid rational speculation, and strive to kill their adversaries. This is why truth became thoroughly silenced and concealed."
No muslim alive today has met Muhammed or has access to information that a nonmuslim doesnt. He's a historical figure, like Julius Ceaser or King Tut. Should only citizens of the ancient Roman Republic be able to write on the subject The House of the Brutii?
It is no wonder that people who just repeat the religious texts like a parrot without any spiritual understanding are intolerant of anyone interpreting religious texts in a different way. That is why even great Islamic Sufi saints like Mansur Al-Halla and Shams-e Tabrizi were persecuted and executed by fundamentalist Muslims.
May people understand and live by the spirit of religion rather than being narrow minded.
Peace!
Gregory Abdur Rahman
I believe in God, so religion is not nonsense for me. There is a clock, so logic says there is a clockmaker. I am not a random accident and I don't think that believing that I am a random accident is a good way to live a healthy life. There are experts in most fields. Priests are experts at Catholicism. I would not pretend to be an expert on the Catholic Church, even though I have studied it. There are expert doctors and lawyers. Only God knows what HE knows, but the religions belong to the scholars and honest intelligent people respect scholars when they speak in their fields of study.
Islam is not the issue. Its America facing its own reality that's the issue.
America is waging a regional war in AfPak NOT to protect America, but to make AfPak a corridor to transport minerals and resources from Central Asia to India so American corporations can build India into a superpower that will rival China and sustain American power in Central Asia counter to the Russian, China alliance.
And America is on the Arabian Pennisular with dozens of military bases to secure America's control of the World Order, rather than allow China or some other people alter it in any way. And America is in Africa to expand its access to resources in resource rich central Africa and other nations to compete with China and other nations.
Choopra's crafty words are within a global political context. While I dont know or care about Choopra's investments (its common for modern religious "shaman" to promote beliefs that personally profit them and their investments), his position is part of an ongoing design to deconstruct Islam to cater to global imperial designs of elites.
I think you have been drinking cool-aid...
Empires have been fantasizing about controlling Central Asia for imperial goals for 1000s of years.
(See the Greek empire under Alexander and the Silk Road or the British empire)
Today, American corporations have been advocating pipelines and transport corridors from the Caspian Sea Basin, through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Gulf and India for years.
(make a google search Enron and the TAPI- Turkmen, Afghan, Pakistani, Indian- pipeline)
The British empire first perceived of this when the Russian empire had occupied part of Persian/Iran and British colonies in the Arabian Gulf became alarmed at the possibilities of Russian czars having access to corridor to the region. The Truman and Eisenhower Doctrines were specifically designed to block Soviet efforts to develop a corridor from the Gulf to Central Asia and north to Russia.
(See the Eisenhower Doctrine)
America has made major investments in India to render it a regional superpower that will rebuff China's incursion into the Gulf (China has a new major naval base at its recently completely Gwadar port in sw Pakistan).
Its ironic James Brown. Your own fellows and news sources don't inform you about what's happening in the world so as to keep you easily controlled. But here I am, a Muslim who you think "drank the Kool Aid" offering you basic knowledge about world events so as to free you from your state of subjugation.
The Prophet Muhammad taught things which are contrary to all empires.
But first, people need to know what empires are: they are founded by a few elite people and families who orchestrate and plot to expand their power. They form a homeland, a motherland, and force all other peoples to subjugate and capitulate in various ways to that homeland. Thus, the homeland dominates while all others are expected to cater to its interests to the detriment of their own ( to various degrees).
Did you know that El Salvador requested to join the United States of America in 1799 but was rejected?
Instead, America manipulated El Salvador for centuries, including using slave labor for American plantations for rubber (to be used for tire companies) and fruit, among other commodities. That's empire.
America has been an expanding empire since its beginning. Now its empire continues to expand into the Muslim world, demanding more power by implanting American forces throughout the region to shape affairs in Central Asia, the Gulf, and Africa. All following the steps of the colonial empires.
The hook is pitting the moderates against the "fundamentalists", the "radicals", the extremists".
And who is "moderate" vs who is "extremist" shall be determined by millionaire writer and PhD Choopra. And "moderation" means accepting any desecration and pilfering lies about the Prophet Muhammad because "others have done so".
You have to go along to get along.
Except the "get along" for the Muslim world has been a prison constructed unjustly built by colonial empires and further "ratified" by America and its international New World Order.
The BIG LIE is that America was built on cheap oil from Muslim countries ruled by dictatorships that America protected from the Muslim people.
And the BIG LIE is that America, like the preceding colonial empires, pit Muslims against each other, and regimes against their people, so America can profit and sustain its world empire.
But the Prophet Muhammad taught that nationalism is contrary to Islam- no divisions between people of the Muslim world (which includes people of the book and others too). And as one nation, the minerals and resources of that one nation should by public property and used in the public's interests. Thus, oil, gas, coal, iron ore, uranium etc. are public property used and sold on the world market for revenue to educate the illiterate and poor, medical care for the ill, infrastructure for the undeveloped, and more.
But America's world empire has other designs for those resources, namely to fuel America's imperial military and more.
We were so busy stealing oil from Saudi Arabia and the other countries in that area that they became rich, per capita richer than America itself. The BIG LIE is that some of the people in places like Iran would rather keep there people poor than join the 21 Century with the rest of the world.
Please don't tell us that the problems between the different devisions of Islam and the silly argument about events that took place 600 years ago is anyones fault but your own.
America has its faults, that is hard to admit but I can admit it. You don't seem to be capable of the introspection necessary to move ahead with your life and will for ever be stuck in the sixth century.
Spend billions on sports arenas while American masses have epidemics of health problems as well as masses of poor. You give billions of public funds to elites while the masses are given austerity measures. You have perpetual wars which were preceded by at least one war every decade to feed the war, security, and empire industries. Meanwhile, your infrastructure is decaying and debt is sky rocketting.
Corruption is endemic in every governing system.
Shall I mention the rise of slavery, the mainstream embrace of cultural decadence, debauchery, and immorality? Not to mention how music and entertainment stars have become idols that are literally worshipped like Greek and Roman (false) gods.