There are some people who are going to hate any group of people regardless of what they say or do as you say.

The reality is, though, that the reason a far greater number people in the West dislike Islam (versus, say, Buddhism or Hinduism or Judaism) is because of those actions that Muslim terrorists and demagogues commit in the name of Islam.

If Islam, terrorism, and repression didn’t appear to go hand-in-hand so often, most people who have developed negative opinions of Islam in the West would not possess any strong views on the religion or its followers. Most of these people would simply ignore Islam altogether as they ignore most other things they are not very familiar with. What opinions they might possess would be shaped by their own, probably few, encounters with Muslims and by nothing else.

I’m not claiming that all of this is the fault of the religion itself, but the fact remains that there are people who say they are Muslims and who, in fact, usually claim they are the most authentic Muslims, who commit so many disturbing acts around the globe and who, themselves, chalk those acts up to living a life as a proper Muslim.

That is a far larger problem than the unchangeable Islam-haters you are referring to.

i’m not gonna bother with another email …it was only this link …and it reminded me of you http://ckjcwf.ytmnd.com/
it must’ve been something you once said
feel free to delete this off topic comment

Muslims, Christians, and Jews — it’s supposed to be the same God, isn’t it? I’m no Bibilical scholar, but I seem to remember reading in the Old Testament that God promised to care for both of Abraham’s sons.
(Of course, God never promised Christians land or progeny, but what the heck! We get to go to heaven if we believe in Jesus is the Son of God, accept that He died for our sins, and don’t screw up too badly during our lives.)

Humans twist God’s words, though.

Have you gotten the email yet?

no i didnt get it! lol you’re the second person i’m not recieving emails from!

speaking of emails did u get the “what is love” link i sent you ?

http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/

The blogger is a female rabbinical student. She enjoys learning about Islam and often posts on Islamic topics and the Qu’ran. She has been recommended by Muslim bloggers in the past and she has plenty of links to other blogs. With such animosity between Muslims and Jews at times, some of you just might find a friend here.

One point of difficulty in discussing religion is that the term ‘religion’ can mean two separate things to people. It can represent an ‘ideal’, that is, the way people are supposed to behave and believe and it can represent an ‘instutition’, religion as it is actually (and fallibly) practiced by people.

If you are an adherent of a religion, you tend to see your religion in terms of its ideal and you may interpret criticism of your religion as an attack on the ideal itself. If you are a critic of a religion you tend to see the religion you are criticizing in terms of its status as an institution and may lose sight of the fact that this institution may not represent the ideal of an adherent. I think we, in the West, are more comfortable switching between discussing religion as practised and as it should be practiced without having to clarify that point.

We can speak of Catholicsm, for instance, in terms of its ideals - like humility, mercy, charity, forgiveness, etc. and we can speak of Catholicism in terms of its sometimes flawed practice: the Inqusition, child molestation scandals, etc. We don’t need to carefully distinguish the two things because we understand implicitly the difference. I think Muslims, for one, may be more sensitive about this distinction . . .

Speaking of religion: Nas, I sent you an email a few days ago asking about those books that would explain Islam as you tend to see it, from our discussion on the apostasy thread.
I haven’t gotten a response yet. Did you ever get it? Would you like me to send it again? Are you still making up your mind as to which books to recommend? Let me know.

“Although my post was about religion, racism is alive and well in every country in the world.”

Maybe, Nas. Unfortunately, in America, scurrilous accusations of racism are doing even better than racism itself, I fear.

“Interpretations of divine words should always lean towards maximizing good” I do believe this to be true of religion, or at least let me say Islam because it is what I know best.

suffice to say many of these people you are talking about are who I am refering to, and they belong to both sides.

My problem with discussing religion with Muslims is that many of them take the position of “my religion is the truth, we are right and everyone else is wrong”. Now Iâ??m Christian so technically Iâ??m the one who is supposed to take that position against Islam because my “Book” doesn’t recognize what came after it. But it is Muslims who take that position even though their “Book” recognizes mine, to them my religion is divine but Christians have it wrong and the Islamic version of my own bible is the right one.
A defense usually used by Muslims regardless of what is being discussed is youâ??re a â??kaferâ? and your religion is wrong and you are too blind to see the light of Islam and some nice people would throw in a prayer so â??Allah yehdeenyâ? even though Allah had already picked my religion for me when he sent me to a Christian couple. Why did he give me a wrong religion, will I realize after I go to hell that I got punked?? Or is it more like a multiplayer game of â??Deal or no Dealâ? you are handed a suitcase at birth and you can either take that Deal or convert, get another Deal and so on then see which suitcase you die with and see how good the religion youâ??re holding on to really is!!

Another problem with I have with religious people in general is that they have this unquestionable indubitable faith in religion and less faith in God himself, people have no faith in God’s wisdom.
People hate me when I say this but here it goes, God sent us his words and then people made up the religions and interpretations and rituals. It has been 2000 years and Christians have yet to agree on how Trinity really works!! Isnâ??t it laughable how many sects there are in each religion?
The more institutionalized religions got the more people got involved and started making up stuff like how u should kneel at a 90 degree angel or a nun will give you the death stare as she does her rounds. God gave my digestive system the ability to produce gas, why am I too dirty to pray to him if I donâ??t wash up after I fart??

Interpretations of divine words should always lean towards maximizing good, if you interpret a verse into hate, discrimination and death then you got it wrong or out of context or “maybe it7arafat by the time it got to you :rolleyes:”. Is God really about hate, discrimination, punishment and death?? i don’t think so but we do have enough religious examples to answer yes, and if the answer is YES then we shouldn’t worship God or follow any of his religions.

An interesting idea that I remember from the movie “Thirteen” is :”If every person married another from a different race, then prejudice would end in one generation”.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Actually, South Park has already figured out what is the One True Religion:

http://youtube.com/watch?search=south+park+mormons&v=VyBNPUUBXL0

I believe that what people should emhpasize upon is to respect others’ beliefs and accpet them as they are. When I talk about religion I’m not trying to convince people that Jesus was crucified for our sins but I tell them not to think I’m lunatic if I have this faith. Same applies to other beliefs.

Many people avoid talking about religion to avoid trouble but in our world avoiding talking about religion can cause trouble.