I'm going to say this as the muslims believe it...
First of all...islam believes god didn't make mistakes with jews..
Judaism was the true religion.
All religions ..over time..the majority deviates from the true path and god then sends another prophet. Many times god destroyed the deviants (many examples in the bible).
Finally jesus came....the jewish population deviated as a whole..... He preached judaism to them and some followed him realizing their previous ways were wrong. These were "christians". God did not destroy the deviants in this case.
Now jesus was only sent to the jews. His only purpose was to tell the jews they were wrong and they need to get back onto the right course.
* christians and jews may not agree with this.....and i wont' get into it...*
Not islamic.....but paul is the one who brought "christianity" to the non jews.
So muslims say the christians......who are essentially following true judaism eventually started deviating. There may have been prophets sent...(islam says there was over 1000 prophets......."messengers" are differnet'). Finally we get mohammad.
Mohammad was sent ot hte world and there was jews and christians in mecca, but mostly pagans.
The teachings of the Koran are 70% the same as those of the old testament. The 30% difference is from what man has changed...and the little things god made to differentiate the religions.
Lets say christinaity is right....but who is right.....the prodestants..the catholics..the mormons....episcapaleons....lutherans...etc God didn't want this situation happening and so he changed the minor things.
Point is...Islam is judaism ..... draw a striagt line on a peace of paper .......Start with Abraham for sake of argument and end with mohammad. Draw a line that shoots off at jesus and another between jesus and mohammad. We say the first line is judaism and the second is christinaity........
"jews and christians believe in the same god".....but are not following the religion as god prescribed it....islam
Also take into account ...again this is the islamic view...but the amount of people that followed the "true religion" from adam to mohammad....probably 100,000 years of people....take into account how many pagans there were.....and then the ginourmous population boom since mohammad to now.
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...lets get to the contradictions.....you missed the biggest one most people critisize islam on. 1 Place it says drinking is bad.....differnet place it says don't drink before you pray.......Lastly it says don't drink period...its forbidden.
The koran was not sent all at once...it was sent peace by peace during the life of mohammad after he recieved his first message.
The people were pagan and drank heavily......It let them know the religion doens't like drinking......After a bit, it reinforced it by saying don't drink before praying......
If you truely love this religion and you aren't suppose to drink before praying...maybe you shoulnd't drink period.
Then finally it says this...don't drink.
YOu quoted a verse... Kil the infidel.
The problem with that verse is its 1 line. Its completely out of context. I don't personally know where in the koran its located.
But you need to know the chapter....when the chapter was revealed...what was goign on in history when it happened...at the very least....a few lines before and after.
It could be during one of the battles. Where muslims were fighting the pagans...."infidels". This verse may have been direclty referring to one incident.......it was meant as a book for all times...and the current events of the time it was revealed are also meant as history for the future. It narrates stuff about older prophets such as noah and moses....but also narrates the current events of the time of mohammad.
Ok take that verse.."kill the infadels". ...i'm not gonna argue that it doesn't say that.
Take what it says about war. DIPLOMACY FIRST!!!!. Alwayd diplomacy first.....afterwards war is ok....if it meets certain criteria. Basically you can engage in war for defense or if Islam is not allowed to be practiced ( no freedom of religion). There are many rules of war too..... No killing children..woman or elderly.....no killing non combatants.....No killing prisoners of war.....can't cut down the trees or dry up the wells.
Terrorism is also explicitly forbidden. It says in the Koran that people that "terrorism the people" should be killed.
Now..if you are born ina muslim country you are "muslim".....religion and your daily life in islam are not seperate...they are the same thing.....its a little different in western culture. People may not practice islam, but they go with the flow of islam.
You don't consider the murderes in america that are born into christianity as "christian murderers". No criminal in america for whatever they do is tied to their religion. Where as peopel born in muslim countries....grow up socially as "muslims"...saying "islam phrases"....or doing Islamic activites.... Doesnt matter even if they believe in god....they'll still be "muslim" to everyone else in the world.
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The science......yeah islam claims to be a religion of science....and at the same time there are "scientific discrepencies" in the koran.
Thing is therea re metaphors too....Impossible to prove...and this really comes down to faith...you gotta take everything else in first.
One example is the koran says the stars are closer to us than the moon. We all know this is not true.
Now think of it like this. Say your uncle is sitting next to you. Who is closer to you...your uncle or your mother? Distance wise your uncle..biologically your mother.
We are all created from "start dust". We are closer to the stars than the moon in that sense.
Even in the bible....the seas were created one day and light was the next day.
This makes no sense......but if you look at it scientifically .....life started in the oceans and "light" might mean "gods grace.....life" rather than the sun. And we know for a fact the sun was there before there were oceans.
Again...metaphors....when is a verse literal and when is it metaphorical.. Have to trust the scholars and it comes down to faith.
Would like to point out...the most popular scientific view of the big bang is shifting toward "M-Theory"....for that to work...there are an infinite number of parallel universes. There are also 11 dimensions....length, width, height are 3.....time is 4...and then there are 7 more we have no comprehension of......but the math states it and is the only way a "godless" universe could have been created.
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Islam doesn't allow suicide...one of the greatst sins.....Sacrificing your life though is greatly rewarded.
i personally think suicide bombing became popular during the bosnian war. Serbia commited genocide on bosnia for 5 years before the U.S. stepped in.
The only defense the bosnians had against tanks were to blow them selves up.
If you surrenedreed then your wives and daughters would be raped then killed.....men and their sons would be murdered right away.
Do you try to run and have many people killed or do a few people sacrifice their lives to stop the tanks and let the rest flee?
Just about every muslim supported this.
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So suicide bombers.....
Basically you go to heaven automatically if you sacrifice your life for others...(the bosnian situation) or dieing for your religion.
Dieing for your religion has to follow the rules of war mentioned above...coming down to the legitimacy if the conflict is even war.
It also covers if someone says you have to renounce your religion or i'll kill you......if you say no i will not.....its not suicide.
Now its hard to explain this. But can you look at an arab they show on the news and honestly distinguish if they are a "prep" or a "hick"....you probably can't. I cna't myself.
There are some crazies out there. YOu also have to realize what makes good news.....showng the protest.....if you see some arabs cheering after a bombing.....you will probably think all arabs support the bombings.
Remember the picture of all those iraqis cheering when the statue of saddam was torn down in baghdad. Wide angle lense picture shows there were only a few dozen iraqis even there and most of the people there were american soldiers and reporters. The Irawis that were there were already there on a protest. It wasn't a spontaneous reaction to the U.S. troops....this is a fact.
Western media has to portray the "image" not the "facts". As a phtographer for the news.....your don't get your paycheck if the news doesn't buy your pictures....and they always buy the "prettiest" ones.
Suicice bombing is stricly forbidden is Islam, but frustrated(this is by no means an excuse) people are brainwashed into thinking these bombings are ok with islam
The governmetns support these...but when have you foudn a legitimate government.......here is a quote....well its been said many differnet tiems and probalby has some variations but here we go.
A muslim american told an imam...."i think i'm going to move to a muslim country......i rather raise my children there"
The imam respnoded.... "congratulations.....tell me when you find one"
These governments may be "muslim" based...but they are still governmetns......there is corruption and people are all about the power.
This was a long post...but i hope you will read it and take it with an open mind.