Islam? who is right?

Question

I hear a lot of Muslims saying that theirs is a peacefull religion and yet everyday there things happening that seem to indicate exactly the opposite.

Reports of people being killed for converting from Islam.

Muslims who commit Terrorist acts for their belief

I have also heard that many Muslim leaders around the world say it is the responcibility of all muslims to convert non believers or kill them.

So much Violence in the world today is perpetrated by people who proclaim that their actions are simply what Allah is commanding them to do.

And it is not just one or two fruitcakes. There seems to be a huge number of muslims who proclaim this violent religion.

Who should I believe? If some of this stuff is true (like converting or killing non-believers) then we all should be worried.

I would really appreciate some inteligent discussion on this with comments backed up with facts not emotional ranting please

FACTS PLEASE PEOPLE

To Valley violet and y_welton. You will notice that I did mention in my original post that I am not talking about the occasional fruitcake. I am talking about a very large portion of the Muslim world

Koyaanisqatsi. I agree with Don_s. Everyone has the right to practise there own religion and I am even happy for Muslims to try and convert me through inteligent discussion. I would do the same. But when people fly planes into buildings and blow themselves up in market places then them practicing their religion suddenly effects the rest of us in a big way

Thank you all for your answers. I will have to do more study into this subject. I have really appreciated everyones input

Kevin

Answer 1

If you are fair, you would not judge Islam for a small minority of people's sayings and actions. CHECK IT OUT. There are now close to one and half billion Muslims in the World. If only one percent were wrong doers, that would make fifteen million terrorists. All incidents of terrorism and all terrorists do not add up to a fraction of one percent of the total number of Muslims.

We have our nuts who always make the news on your TV. Look at what the Quran says (www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran):

2:190 "Fight those that fight with you, but do not be aggressors, God does not love those exceed the limits"

5:32 "If you kill one innocent soul, it is as if you have killed all of humanity. If you save one life, it is as if you have saved all human beings" .. the context is the killing of Abel by Cain, in the process killing all potential generations of Abel and a large chunk of mankind!!

10:99 "IF Allah willed it, all nations would be Muslim. WOULD YOU THEN USE FORCE (to convert)?

See what our Prophet did, not what Muslims do or have done. Muslims do not represent ISLAM. Only the Prophet of ISLAM represents ISLAM. He fought and subdued only the Arabs or their supporters among the Jews. The pagan Arabs, his own nation first abused him intensely for thirteen years, after knowing him for forty years to be a good and peaceful man. Only in the fifty third year of his life did our Prophet reluctantly turned to warfare and returned back the attacks that he and his followers were receiving from the Arabs of Mecca.

He never went outside of Arabia. Those of the Arabs who were forcing their faith on the Muslims alone were subdued and made to obey the higher laws of tolerance that Islam teaches at the core. It is ironic that some of the new converts never absorbed the laws of tolerance taught by the Prophet and took over the reins of power and began to abuse others in the very name of Islam. Ultimately some of these folks abused not only the heir of the Prophet, Ali, but also his daughter Fatima who was killed within six months of the Prophet's death, but also the grandson of the Prophet of Islam, Husain in the battle of Karbala, when the evil Muslims took control of ISLAM totally. But, the Hand of Allah/God is powerful. The evil ones were themselves put down by the good people and Islam survived.

I hope this makes sense to you. Remember that Muslims were locked in a life or death struggle with the pagan Non-Muslim Arabs, who were violent and intolerant. Many of the laws to fight the infidels were directed against these Arabs. Remember that the Prophet of Islam did not go outside of Arabia. Remember also that the Jews of Arabia thought the pagan Arabs would win as they were much larger in numbers and had many resources, whereas the Muslims were ill-equipped and largely were made of poor men and slaves and women and the powerless of their society. So the Jewish folks put their money on the wrong horse and lost. A second irony is that the Prophet of Islam firmly established the love and respect for TRUE ISRAEL among the Arabs, which was a great accomplishment for a single man to attain, when powerful nations to this day can not even turn an average Arabs to accept Israel as a state among states.

I would love to have a dialogue with my Christian brethren or my Jewish brethren or others in peace and kindness and mercy. We all share a common LORD, call him what you will, his name is not indebted to languages which were created after man was created. He is WHO HE IS!! Above all, above all names, above all languages, nations, people, His Creation... LOFTY, HONORED, ALONE!!

May we see each other as HIS ARTWORK and respect each other based on this undetstanding. Amen.

Answer 2

Ultimately, there is no right and wrong, just experience and figuring things out. Allah was the god above them all (of 364 gods) when Mohammed (the prophet) came about in 583 ish, there was a decision to follow Allah. many were fearful about this and were fearful of their other gods being taken away. There were fights/wars between tribes that believed different things. The prophet eventually won and through the years there were many different schools of though about what the "truth" was. there were the followers of the companions of the prophet (sunni-90% of Islam) and then others who followed Ali ( who was the husband of Fatima (only surviving child of the prophet) which are the Shi-a(10%). There are many schools and beliefs that range all over the place but it seems that even though they have some fundamental differences, some groups or parts of groups band together to make Islam the religion of the world. There seems to be little tolerance of other religions within the "fundamentalists". There is anger because trade routes long ago went through the middle east and once the traders (those who founded colonies all over) found oil, they wanted to keep if for themselves. There then started a fight between the "traders" and the "middle east" on who owned what and so forth. The europeans then had control over these areas. The inhabitants there started to become very angry... The Treaty of Versailles (1919) created protectorates and certain groups rights over the holy cities. The Jews were given a homeland and some were very angry with this designation. They felt their property was stolen from them...

I am not saying anyone is right or wrong, but that is what was taught to me. It seems a war over the holy cities, property, and freedom, and money, oil. Of course there are a lot more details and it is a difficult situation for which I have no answer.
If I am incorrect in any of the above, I sincerely apologize.

Answer 3

"Who should I believe? If some of this stuff is true (like converting or killing non-believers) then we all should be worried."

You want one example, this year a man in Afghanistan converted from Islam to Christianity, and he had to leave the country because the religious leaders ordered that he be killed.

Two links to this one story:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1734776,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2095263,00.html
This is by no means an isolated incident, but it is an example. Look up Salman Rushdie for another example. He didn't even convert, but he's been in hiding since the 1980s because of official Islamic death threats, because he said negative things about Muhammad in a book.

You might also want to consider reading the Koran:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3434

Note that is is not the exclusive sourse of Muslim's religious beliefs. (The Hadiths are important to them also.)

If you want to find out more about the position of people who think that a lot of the violence we coming from people who do it in the name of Islam is actually rooted in Islam, here is a good article on the subject, to start:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/rev2006-06-04td.html
And here is a useful website on the subject:
http://jihadwatch.org/

Note that Jews and Christians have special status in Islam; if they were never Muslim previously, they are to be allowed to live so long as they can afford to pay a special tax, and so long as they submit to Islamic rule (which involves excluding them from various jobs, banning them from attempting to convert people, etc.). However, people of other religions (Hindus, Buddhists, Pagans, etc.) are not so lucky.

Additionally, be careful to keep in mind that this does not mean that all Muslims would act on these policies even if able. Whether or not there is a coherent ideology behind why very many Muslims in the world are behaving violently, is simply not the same issue as, say, if a specific dude in your math class is a basically a good guy.

Answer 4

Islam is the most misunderstood religion...by MUSLIMS themselves. They are taking words like Jihad...and using it to kill innocent people...What they don't realize is that it is a CRIME to kill any innocent person for any reason. They also say that Islam is a very tolerant religion...while they kill people who convert to other religions. Now thats intolerance and goes against the basic principle of not killing innocent people. They are just misusing the name of Allah and Prophet Mohammad. These are some pretty damn confused people.

Answer 5

plz let me first tell u that Islam don't let anyone to kill and to be killed... It is the religion of Man it prohibits on us to kill an innocent but on other side a person is killing you and you r not fighting for you right thsn sgsin near to some scholars it is prohibbited..... Do you know that media is trying to humalizing Islam ...... if a muslim kill only one person in the sake for his and his nation's protection but a muslim killed by non-mulsims for the same purpose then the non-muslims is called as heros doing right thing.... now Almighty has given u the mind to think now think it that they r doing right....
see this link and say what is right and what is wrong

mind not plz see this link and forward it
http://www.halturnershow.com/IsraeliAtrocities.html

Answer 6

They are for peace. It goes like this when the whole world is muslim there will be peace. That is what they mean when they say they are for peace. The fighting going on right now in Iraq between two seperate groups in Islam world would be a proof against that idea.

I hate to say this but that is what Armegedon [the final war] is all about.

Answer 7

Well, it is certainly alright to be confused. Basically you cannot judge a religion based on some mentally ill or self-serving nuts. Christianity has its share of nutjobs...need I remind you of David Koresh. Your best bet is to read the Quran and see for yourself that it is peaceful. These people are taking the Quran literally just as some Christians do. These books originated a long time ago, so they do not relate to life today. So when people take them literally, that is when problems develop.

Answer 8

There is a car and a driver when a speeding driver hits and kills someone whom do you balme ? the driver, cause of his actions not the car. Likewise Islam is of course a peaceful religion (people who do those actions should be blamed) unfortunatley muslim countries and communities are in situations where they have to fight for freedom, their land, their rights or to protect themselfs. (You need to take a balanced view of conflicts in the world now - When the british faught indian freedom fighters they called them terrorists bu the indians called them patriots this is the difference am talking of)

Before islam the bible commands to kill people who leave christianity. Islam also does tell this but in order to carryout this punishement you should be under sharia law.

Islam commands muslims to do what the prophet did it is to give the message of islam to non beleivers IT DOES not command them to kill but has a whole chapter in the quran which explains that non believers can keep their religion and muslims can keep theirs and there is no compulsion in religion of Islam [Sura Al Kafiroon]

As I mentioned before people take actions for reasons well known to them practically speaking I have not been to palestine myself but if someone is bulldozing my house I am sure unless its illegally built I will not keep quite about it .. I am sure if someone rapes your sister you will go kill him. Allah has commanded muslims to protect their faith and their belongings if there is a threat you can fight for it ! (common sense)

Now who do you beleive is a good question to ask ,, Mate you need to read the quran you need to read about the prophet and how he led the muslims then you need to compare it to other religions or beleifs, you will know at this point and will understand which is the truth which is false, the answer to your question is upto you to study do research and find out !!

Answer 9

There is no compulsion in Islam. No one can be forced to accept or reject Islam, and certainly no one should be killed because of it. I have not discovered one Surah in the Holy Quran that dictates Death just because to non-beleivers. I beleive that it was The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) that taught that there is no compulsion in Islam. I agree that the "Fruitcakes" you mention are many, but then again anyone can "twist" any religon into whatever they may desire it to be. My question to you Dear inquisitor is simply this; Have you taken the time to read the Quran for yourself? I beleive that there is a passage in the Bible that says "Study to show thyself approved, a workman to rightly divide the word of truth".

Answer 10

How soon we forget. It seems like only yesterday a lunatic posing as a Christian Minister (remember "reverend" Jim Jones?) committed a mass murder in Guiana. Just because someone PROFESSES to be of a certain religion does not mean they PRACTICE the beliefs of that religion. All extremists use propaganda and fear to get their ideas across. Bottom line...the extremists you discuss are not practicing Islam. They are practicing hatred. So who should be throwing stones here?