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More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

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ORIGINAL: SonInMe1

Are you trying to stir up hatred against a certain group of people?

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More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

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ORIGINAL: SonInMe1

By posting this thread you associate yourself with the idea...

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More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

Is this from the article or a comment by you? Its a little unclear and the focus of my previous comment. I am not well versed in Islamic theology but it seems to me only the radical part is engaging in open terrorism.

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ORIGINAL: SonInMe1

By posting this thread you associate yourself with the idea...

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ORIGINAL: rnershigh

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ORIGINAL: SonInMe1

Are you trying to stir up hatred against a certain group of people?

Because so many in the Muslim community refuse to challenge centuries-old theological arguments, the tensions between Islamic theology and the modern world grow larger every day.

I don't think brooklynblessed is trying to stir up hatred against a certain group of people. This is a sentence from the article and the author of this article goes on to talk about Islamic theology and how it's used by the radicals/extremists against the rest of the world.

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More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

When you read the article this statement makes sense. The engine behind the radical Muslim violence around the world today is Islamic theology and their fundamentalist and extreme interpretation of it. It is the root of their hatred and drives them to do what they do...kill and hate and cause destruction. One cannot have a reasoned debate with these people about reforming Islam from within because it is looked upon as a blasphemy and somehow being unfair and discriminating against Islam itself. This blame of radical Muslim violence in the world on western countries' foreign policies and insulting of Muslim sensibilities (you know, the whole knighthood of that author in Britain, the cartoons, the rumors of the Koran being descreated at G. Bay in Cuba, etc) is only deflecting the issue from the real problem of needed reform of certain aspects of Islam. It's a smokescreen and until everyone realizes it, they will only continue to use such tactics to make the rest of us bow down to their demands of apologizing and being weak in their eyes.

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There is no such thing as moderate Islam. There is no such thing as secular Islam or a secular Muslim. It's the nature of the faith to deny any separation of religion and the state or religion and society. There are numerous sects within Islam. One and all are extremes and not in the least amenable to change. Keep in mind that Islam claims that it is the perfect eternal faith for mankind. Splits have occurred and will continue to occur in Islam. Yet, reformation has not happened in nearly 1400 years and is not going to happen. Islam is carved in granite, just the way it is. No change. Allah's book is sealed.


There are indeed some Muslims who are moderate in the way they practice their religion. These people, for the most part, are culturally Muslims. They don't practice Islam the way it is mandated. They pick and choose. Therefore, "moderate Islam," is no Islam at all. It is not possible.


The Islamists have created fear not only in a non-Islamic world, but in the hearts and minds of those who consider themselves to be Muslims. The Islamists wage their war under the name of Islam. They receive immense direct and indirect support from the rank-and-file of ordinary Muslims. It is this passive support of so-called moderate Muslims that keeps the Islamists alive. And it is the Islamists who are intent on showing no mercy to any and all who do not share their ideology, be they Muslims or not. Millions of Iranians who were born into a faith they did not choose, a faith that was inflicted upon them by invaders of a foreign culture, a faith that forbids them to leave or revert to their pre-Islamic heritage and other Iraian religions, they remain Muslims in name only.

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Based upon its earliest inception by Muhammad -- an unabashed 7th century military and political leader, the antithesis of the pacifist proselytizer Jesus -- through the present, jihad has been central to the thought and writings of prominent Muslim theologians and jurists. The precepts and regulations elucidated in the 7th through 9th centuries are immutable in the Muslim theological-juridical system, and they have remained essentially unchallenged by the majority of contemporary Muslims. The jihad is intrinsic to the sacred Muslim texts, including the divine Koranic revelation -- "the uncreated word of Allah". The Old Testament sanctions the Israelites conquest of Canaan -- a limited domain -- it does not sanction a permanent war to submit all the nations of humanity to a uniform code of religious law. Similarly, the tactics of warfare are described in the Old Testament, unlike the Koran, in very circumscribed and specific contexts. Moreover, while the Old Testament clearly condemns certain inhumane practices of paganism, it never invoked an eternal war against all of the world's pagan peoples, as, for example enjoined by Koran 9:5.

In opposition to the Judeo-Christian conception of God as a God of reason, the Koran (5:64) makes clear that Allah's hand is unfettered -- he was not bound to govern the universe according to consistent and observable laws -- which has had profound implications for the (arrested) development of the natural sciences in Islamic societies, and Islamic ethics.

Spencer cites Professor Rodney Stark's observation that Islam lacks "a conception of God appropriate to underwrite the rise of science...Allah is not presented as a lawful creator, but is conceived of as an extremely active God who intrudes in the world as he deems it appropriate. This prompted the formation of a major theological bloc within Islam that condemns all efforts to formulate natural laws as blasphemy in that they deny Allah's freedom to act." Not surprisingly leading historians and sociologists of science have concluded "...it is indisputable" that modern science -- an organized, empirically directed effort to explain natural phenomena through theory construction and testing -- that modern science "emerged in the seventeenth century in Western Europe and nowhere else".