Originally posted by Dowding
And there are organisations that want to make overturn all scientific knowledge about the curvature of the Earth and declare the planet a flat surface. What's your point?
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No, what is your point with that reference? You wanted examples on Moslems who wanted Sharia law, I said I could provice such examples, and you turn around with some lame flat earth-organizations?
There are plenty of organisations out there with bizarre agendas, some based on crackpot secular ideas and some based on crackpot religious doctrines/interpretations. By simply pointing out the extremists as ambassadors for a faith is ludicrous. I don't hold Christians accountable for the killings of abortionists doctors or for the sectarian brutality witnessed in Bosnia or Northern Ireland.
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The problem, and the point that you are trying to avoid, is that the fundamental moslems arent extremists in that sense of the word.
Example. Suppose there is a passage in the Bible that says "a woman cheating on her husband should be stoned to death". Over time, the church has realized that this part of the Bible probably should not be interpreted to the letter. No, instead this part of the Bible should be held up as an example of how the laws were "back then" but in our modern society, these passages are "obsolete". Fine, this is an example of how the Christian faith goes through reformation, or on how the Jewish faith is modified by the Tora.
Now, no such movement/school exists within Islam. In Islam the Koran
to the letter is the law.
Now, in the western world there are some that argue that the Bible too should be interpreted to the letter. But these are considered as fundamentalists or extremists.
In the Moslem world, there might be some that dare to argue that the Koran should not be interpreted to the letter. These guys are the extremists, and they are liable to get a death warrent on their heads.
Do you understand the difference?
It boils down to interpretation.
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No it doesnt. Reformation, and Tora are two examples on how the Christian and Jewish faith have evolved over the ages. No such thing exists in the Moslem world. That is a fact that is not open to interpretation. It just is.
You might claim the New Testament ameliorates the fire and brimstone of the Old, but that is irrelevant - the extremists use any interpretation they like and don't say "hold on, we can't use that Old Testament passage because Hortlund says it is superceded by the New Testament."
The same goes for Judaism.
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And that is what makes extremists extremists... The fact that they are not recognized by the "official" Church, the fact that they are held up as extremists. You have to ask yourself why this is Dowding. Why doesnt the Catholic Church for example, demand that the old laws in the Old testament be upheld in the Catholic nations of the world? The answer lays in the evolution of the Christian faith over the ages.
The point here is that the moslem "extemists" arent extremists at all. Get it now Dowding? They are supported by their holy scripts, there is no "reformation of the Koran"-process going on in the moslem countries. You have nations that are more sharia, and nations that are less sharia. But you dont have any "lets see if we should change what exactly Sharia is"-discussion going on. Simply because to the Moslems, teh Koran is untouchable, and anyone suggesting anything like that would quickly get a death warrent on him.
Essentially, you reveal your own particular bias.
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So do you.
I like to think that the moderates of all religions are pretty much alike - decent people for the most part and probably easy to get on with even though I might not share their beliefs. I don't associate them with the actions of their militant 'brothers'. Why should I? Why should you?
You can think/hope whatever you want. That is one of the benefits of living in the western world. Try living in Iran and express opinions like these in public.
