Thanks very much for this, Peace Resource. One could argue that Muslims don’t obey the admonitions in the Qur’an about waging war on apostates and oppressors (like the Quraish, who were the reason for many of the admonitions to take up arms) any more than Christians follow the pacifist teachings of Jesus Christ to turn the other cheek, or Jews follow the Mosaic commandments about “Thou shalt not steal” (e.g. Palestinian lands), “Thou shalt not covet,” and “Thou shalt not kill” (Palestinian children).
Muslims often say that if Christians and Jews followed the admonitions of THEIR respective prophets, we would have peace.
One could certainly argue that all the “scholarly” criticisms of Islam by Westerners, such as the article discussed here, simply fall under the category of the mote in one’s eye, which Prophet Jesus talked about.
I think it is worth repeating Jesus’ words for the benefit of people who have forgotten what it SHOULD mean to be a Christian.
Matthew 7:3-5 (KJV)
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
P.S. It should also be mentioned that the main reason that Prophet Muhammad was urged in the Qur’an to take up arms against the vicious, arrogant rulers of Mecca (the Quraish) was that they were so brutal towards him and his followers. He was, in fact, a very gentle, peaceful man, who had to be urged to fight and stand up against the Quraish, who tortured and killed his followers, as well as their slaves and the poor. The admonition to “slay them where you find them” referred to people who were arrogant, hardened pagans, people unwilling to treat their fellow Meccans with any humanity, who had brutalized Muhammad and his followers for years.
If anyone wants to understand more about this, they could do worse than to watch THE MESSAGE, a movie about Prophet Muhammad and early Islam. It is available from amazon.com, and was approved by scholars at al-Azhar University in Cairo, generally considered to be the leading center of orthodox Islamic thought.
The Abrahamic Traditions are more similar than different.
https://thepeaceresource.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/abrahamic-resolutions/
Thanks very much for this, Peace Resource. One could argue that Muslims don’t obey the admonitions in the Qur’an about waging war on apostates and oppressors (like the Quraish, who were the reason for many of the admonitions to take up arms) any more than Christians follow the pacifist teachings of Jesus Christ to turn the other cheek, or Jews follow the Mosaic commandments about “Thou shalt not steal” (e.g. Palestinian lands), “Thou shalt not covet,” and “Thou shalt not kill” (Palestinian children).
Muslims often say that if Christians and Jews followed the admonitions of THEIR respective prophets, we would have peace.
One could certainly argue that all the “scholarly” criticisms of Islam by Westerners, such as the article discussed here, simply fall under the category of the mote in one’s eye, which Prophet Jesus talked about.
I think it is worth repeating Jesus’ words for the benefit of people who have forgotten what it SHOULD mean to be a Christian.
Matthew 7:3-5 (KJV)
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
P.S. It should also be mentioned that the main reason that Prophet Muhammad was urged in the Qur’an to take up arms against the vicious, arrogant rulers of Mecca (the Quraish) was that they were so brutal towards him and his followers. He was, in fact, a very gentle, peaceful man, who had to be urged to fight and stand up against the Quraish, who tortured and killed his followers, as well as their slaves and the poor. The admonition to “slay them where you find them” referred to people who were arrogant, hardened pagans, people unwilling to treat their fellow Meccans with any humanity, who had brutalized Muhammad and his followers for years.
If anyone wants to understand more about this, they could do worse than to watch THE MESSAGE, a movie about Prophet Muhammad and early Islam. It is available from amazon.com, and was approved by scholars at al-Azhar University in Cairo, generally considered to be the leading center of orthodox Islamic thought.