Well, week before last, we studies cosmic humanism and the new age movement, but perhaps my limited time would best be used giving you an update on our studies that greatly fascinated me for this week: Islam (which means "submission").
We read the Qur'an over the weekend (it's roughly the size of the new testament), and studied more about the Islamic worldview, current activities in the Muslim world and spoke with a Sheik from the middle east.
Reading the Qur'an answered many of my questions. I learned how they affirm the virgin birth but not the sonship for instance. And in some ways, Allah is very similar to Jehovah but he never, ever takes the role of a father figure (nor the role of a forgiving husband to his idolatrous Israel). I had always wondered for myself what the Qur'an said about living with non-Muslims and the nature of God. It was very fascinating. The Qur'an has some verses that teach to live in harmony with the Jews and Christians, and there are some saying to "slay them" wherever they are found. This confused some of us until we learned more and discovered that the Qur'an was written over a period of over 20 years. The Qur'an itself teaches abrogation, where if there are two contradicting verses, the one that was revealed more recently is the one given priority. For instance, before A.D. 622 Muhammed and his followers were living in Mecca and were a bit of a minority. The Surahs (or chapters) written during that time instruct the Muslims (which means "one in submission") to live peaceably with their non-believing neighbors since they are "people of the book" and that if they desire peace, then you should live in peace with them. Later, Muhammed had to flee to Medina, he gained much more power (both politically and militarily) and it was at that time that the later and more violent Surahs were written.
The meeting with the Sheik was very interesting. He gave us an introduction to the religion of Islam and stressed very much their respect for Jesus. It was somewhat frustrating listening to him and asking questions. Many times he would emphasize our need work together and live in peace, Jews, Muslims and Christians together, like they are doing in "Saudi Arabia and Iraq." That was an eye opener for sure. When we asked him about certain practices being right or wrong, he took a quasi-moral relativist point-of-view. He wouldn't criticize our practices because "Who am I to judge?", and he also wouldn't criticize the situations of honor killings. At one point, he mentioned the situation with the Danish cartoons and how horrible the situation was that the prophet was mocked and people died. What stunned us was that he placed the blame for the deaths on the cartoonists, not on the enraged Muslims and that he was relieved that after learning the lesson that they are shown respect. When asked if it was alright to killings, he said "For the health of the society, we have to sacrifice some, I’m not saying killing, we say eliminate some, for the health."
It was very fascinating. It has given me new insight into the Muslim world and into the feasibility of establishing a free society in Iraq. People often draw parallels between the peace loving Christians and the peace loving Muslims and how there were also war-crusading Christians and war-Jihadist Muslims. I enough history to see that members of Christian and Muslim society have been involved in liberty and unjust war. But here's the rub: The crusaders in the Middle ages were not following through with the Christian message; the radical-Jihadists are following the Islamic teachings and tradition.
We read the Qur'an over the weekend (it's roughly the size of the new testament), and studied more about the Islamic worldview, current activities in the Muslim world and spoke with a Sheik from the middle east.
Reading the Qur'an answered many of my questions. I learned how they affirm the virgin birth but not the sonship for instance. And in some ways, Allah is very similar to Jehovah but he never, ever takes the role of a father figure (nor the role of a forgiving husband to his idolatrous Israel). I had always wondered for myself what the Qur'an said about living with non-Muslims and the nature of God. It was very fascinating. The Qur'an has some verses that teach to live in harmony with the Jews and Christians, and there are some saying to "slay them" wherever they are found. This confused some of us until we learned more and discovered that the Qur'an was written over a period of over 20 years. The Qur'an itself teaches abrogation, where if there are two contradicting verses, the one that was revealed more recently is the one given priority. For instance, before A.D. 622 Muhammed and his followers were living in Mecca and were a bit of a minority. The Surahs (or chapters) written during that time instruct the Muslims (which means "one in submission") to live peaceably with their non-believing neighbors since they are "people of the book" and that if they desire peace, then you should live in peace with them. Later, Muhammed had to flee to Medina, he gained much more power (both politically and militarily) and it was at that time that the later and more violent Surahs were written.
The meeting with the Sheik was very interesting. He gave us an introduction to the religion of Islam and stressed very much their respect for Jesus. It was somewhat frustrating listening to him and asking questions. Many times he would emphasize our need work together and live in peace, Jews, Muslims and Christians together, like they are doing in "Saudi Arabia and Iraq." That was an eye opener for sure. When we asked him about certain practices being right or wrong, he took a quasi-moral relativist point-of-view. He wouldn't criticize our practices because "Who am I to judge?", and he also wouldn't criticize the situations of honor killings. At one point, he mentioned the situation with the Danish cartoons and how horrible the situation was that the prophet was mocked and people died. What stunned us was that he placed the blame for the deaths on the cartoonists, not on the enraged Muslims and that he was relieved that after learning the lesson that they are shown respect. When asked if it was alright to killings, he said "For the health of the society, we have to sacrifice some, I’m not saying killing, we say eliminate some, for the health."
It was very fascinating. It has given me new insight into the Muslim world and into the feasibility of establishing a free society in Iraq. People often draw parallels between the peace loving Christians and the peace loving Muslims and how there were also war-crusading Christians and war-Jihadist Muslims. I enough history to see that members of Christian and Muslim society have been involved in liberty and unjust war. But here's the rub: The crusaders in the Middle ages were not following through with the Christian message; the radical-Jihadists are following the Islamic teachings and tradition.
