Islam re-orientating?
Since this blog started 7 years ago,I have on many occasions
protested the distortion of spiritual insights by so called 'religious
leaders/scholars/preachers/Immams'. I have particulary and specifically
tried to show that 'fatwas' and 'jihads' are,generally, socio-political
tools derived from highly questionable 'interpretations' of ancient
texts/quotations. This campaign for 'religious accuracy' has nothing
to do with a specific religion (see also my blogs on,for example,
The Vatican's distortions). It has to do with TRUTH. Spiritual TRUTH.

Today, here, appears an interesting report documenting efforts within
Islam by moderates to reclaim the beauty of Islam and transform it
from the religion of terror and oppression which Jihadists and power
hungry Immams have created into it's original concepts of lovingness.

Here are some excerpts from the well-worth-reading article:

"Back in the mid-1990s, Osama bin Laden had a problem, and it was Islam. He
wanted to say the Qur'an gave his followers license to kill innocents—and
themselves—in the cause of "jihad." That was how he could justify his global
campaign of terror. But that's not what the Muslim holy book says,
and that's not the way it was interpreted by any of the great
scholars and preachers of the faith.(see this blog as recently
as 22 April on this subject)
Once sympathetic publics in the Middle East and South Asia are growing
disillusioned
Momentum is building within the Muslim world to re-examine what had
seemed immutable tenets of the faith, to challenge what had been taken
as literal truths and to open wide the doors of interpretation (ijtihad)
that some schools of Islam tried to close centuries ago".

Differing cultures,differing traditions,differing languages are all used by
the One God to disseminate spiritual truths that speak to the individual's heart
in a comprehensible manner. Conformity is not an option if you truly believe
in the awesome power of lovingness.Nor is any proclamation that does
not speak of love.

I wish all, who seek to speak with loving and compassionate hearts about a
perception of LOVE and healing as an active force in society,every success in
their endeavours to celebrate the differences that are the expressions of
uniqueness.

The Reign of Confusion causes death

Last week, British teacher Daud Hassan Ali, 64, was shot dead in Somalia. His widow, Margaret Ali, said her husband was targeted by Islamists who "believe it is ok to kill any man who was born into Islam and left the faith".

" I was staggered to learn that the Quran does not say anything about punishing apostates and that its proponents use two hadiths instead to support their view. Hadiths are the recorded traditions and sayings of the Prophet which, in addition to the Quran, provide an additional source of Islamic law.
The hadiths which relate to apostasy are linguistically ambiguous and open to interpretation. Distinguished scholars told me that the hadiths actually speak about a death penalty for treason, not apostasy. And even then, they stressed the punishment is discretionary. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7355515.stm

Oh with what ease we take words and twist,distort or disorientate them to suit our own purposes.In case you misread, I show again:
The Quran does NOT SAY ANYTHING about punishing apostates
??????????????