- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 60
Brad Sallows said:Wrong. You just disproved your own case. You have your interpretation of scripture and a subset of commentary you rely on; others have equally valid interpretations of scripture and subsets of commentary they rely on. There is no independent frame of reference which exists from which to issue a judgement; if one existed, I doubt you occupy it.
Culture can not be separated from religion; culture drives religion. The existence of the world as it is proves my point: Roman culture drove early Christianity. Medieval European cultures continued to drive Christianity. Modern cultures continue to drive Christianity. There are many different understandings of Christianity; to the extent that Christianity has moved between severe and generous interpretations, it has all been driven by culture. Similar observations can be applied to all religions. New religions are established from cultural foundations.
Brad, I agree.
AbdullahD, you may well declare members of such organizations as ISIL/Daesh, Jabhat al-Nusra/Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, et al., as well as people who support what they stand for as 'outside the fold of Islam'. Trouble is, these same people would say the same about people like yourself, or other moderate Muslim people. So much do they believe in their own principles and convictions, that they have no compunction against killing for it. They would happily kill people like you; for, to them, you would be an apostate; they would kill non-Muslims like myself and (I'm assuming) many of the other posters on this thread because we are non-believers. This is why I said in a previous post that Islam and terrorism are often seen as synonymous - because members of these groups self-identify as Muslim, and to people who do not know any better, that is the same thing. You seem to be quite intelligent, so surely you must understand this. Unfortunately, there are few counter-narratives from the moderates of Islam in the mainstream that are definitive, and therefore strong enough to destroy the credibility of 'extremists'.
As I understand it - as it has been explained to me by many scholars on the topic - the basic issue with the divide between mainstream, moderate Islam and the ultra-conservative, extremist version of Islam (salafist, wahabbi, deobandi, etc.) is the interpretation of the Qu'ran and Hadiths and the proper application of what is written in these texts. From what I've gathered, the prophet Mohammed is essentially a by-product of the culture prevalent in his geographical location and era, this being the 7th century Middle East region. What he writes and taught his followers was 'the word of God/Allah' in accordance with cultural mores that were commonplace, and thus the norm, in HIS TIME. Today, a lot of these teachings are, to say the least, incompatible with most modern societies - acts alluding to essentially rape, paedophilia, murder, theft, etc.; acts specifically outlined in the Qu'ran - as they are at the very least seen as socially unacceptable, being detrimental to the harmony of society (also, ostensibly, because they are illegal). The divide occurs where the the mainstream moderates have decided NOT to follow these particular teachings and decided to live in harmony with everyone else, whereas the extremists believe the aforementioned teachings are still relevant today and acceptable under various cirumstances.
If I'm wrong, please enlighten me. I'm sure there are many here lurking or reading this thread that would like to get the real story.
This is a good conversation, however. Like I said, I usually don't post much here, but I'm all for stuff like this. People should be having constructive discussion on this issue way more often. Unfortunately, political correctness and ideological bias tends to obscure or impede this.
If any of you have a couple hours to spare, and have not seen this yet, I've posted a link below to a recent debate/discussion on this sort of topic. Many good points brought up and articulated by both sides. Whether you agree or disagree with any of the panelists, at the end of the day, it is good that these types of frank discussions can still be had.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh34Xsq7D_A
