"I do want to offer my country's assistance to the people affected by the recent earthquakes in Iran," Bush told a news conference in Cancun, Mexico, where he was meeting with Canadian and Mexican leaders.
"We, obviously, have our differences with the Iranian government, but we do care about the suffering of the Iranian people."
"There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal, as human beings, to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death." Russell-Einstein Appeal pub.1955
The World Trade Centre atrocity has, more than anything else, concentrated thought and debate world-wide about Islam. I cannot remember any other event in my lifetime that has so 'thrust to public attention' the issues faced by modern Islam. Unfortunately the unbelievable horror of Beslan did not get the media coverage and was further confused by 'internal political overtones'. However, in both these cases Muslim terrorists killed...and killed innocent Muslims in outright contradiction to the teachings of The Prophet Mohammed and the Koran.
The latter half of the 20th century saw a Richter-scale shift in the dynamics of the Muslim faith. "Not all Muslims are terrorists,but unfortunately it seems all terrorists are Muslims" wrote one leading article in a Middle Eastern newspaper.The seperation of Church and State, the target not only of Sayyid Qutb's influential 'In the Shadow of the Koran' work + other works and it's subsequent inspiring effect upon the Jihad movement, is clearly delineated in the pressures for the institution and maintainance of Sharia Law in nation states.
For a non-Muslim (like myself) however, it is extremely difficult to comprehend the repeated contradictions inherent in many of the major religions, Islam included. I mean, is God all-powerful or not? If all powerful, what's all this talk about devils waging wars and devlish armies that could overturn the 'will of God'. Such talk is not a statement of belief, it is a statement of a lack of belief! What's all this talk about an individual who should be executed because they have chosen to worship the ONE God with a different dialect or through a different tradition? Is God so 'power-less' that we imagine we can take over the role of deciding upon life or death? How can terrorists, who betray the principles of their belief system, come to be regarded as 'martyrs?'
How is it possible, even allowing for intellectual gymnastics, to equate the threats and promises of punishment inherent in Sharia Law with this:
"Let there be no compulsion in religion; truth stands out clearly from error".
This is not from the Old Testament, nor the New Testament, nor the Sayings of the Bhudda, nor the
words of Christ.
"Compulsion" = force, threat, blackmail, constraint.
"Let there be no compulsion in religion; truth stands out clearly from error".
The Koran at sura (chapter) 2.256
Hey, and just be careful about being too judgemental if you belong to another religion,Christianity or Judaism for example. I am sure we can find unending reams of blog material by applying our insights and investigations to these areas also. The reason this blog is not currently doing so is that the confusion and contradiction of beliefs in Islam is 'stealing life'.
Life! Now is that God-given or what?
