Tolerance (was: THE WORLD OF THE JINN)

On Wednesday, October 15, 2003, at 04:44 , Joe wrote:
[snap]
> I believe Islam sees Jews and Christians as worshipping Allah,
i.e. God - that' right.
> just in the
> wrong way.  As Allah is at least slightly merciful, and he sees them as
> worshipping him, he will give them entrance to heaven, providing they are
> sincere.  From what I've heard.  I could be wrong.
No, you're not wrong.  But - and I'm not intending to be personally
critical
as I don't think Joe means to cause offense -  phrases like "As Allah is at
least slightly merciful" are not IMHO helpful.  Each Sura of the Koran
begins:
"In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate"
There's no qualifier.

I guess about half of my student are muslims and so are some of the
colleagues
I work with (both Sunni & Shiite), so I meet a good few everyday.  I meet
very
few indeed who express the rabid views of the forwarded message or those
portrayed
too often in western media. Islam, like all religions that I've come
across, has
its extremists and, regrettably, extremist minorities, whether in religion
or
politics, seem to shout the loudest and color other's views of the
religion or
political party.
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On Wednesday, October 15, 2003, at 06:49 , Andreas Johansson wrote:

[snip]

> Ah, that's unexpectedly charitable, isn't it?
Sad that someone finds it unexpected.  The prophets of Judaism are honored
in the Koran,
as is Jesus and his mother, Mary (indeed, she is named more than any other
person in
that book), and the desecration of other people's places of worship is
forbidden.

In Moorish Spain, Jews and Christians enjoyed great freedom and respect
under their
Muslim rulers.

> Anyone know what Shiites and Sunnis believe re: one another in this
> respect? At
> least one 17th C Ottoman mufti was of the opinion that the killing of one
> Shiite is as helpful for your soul as that of eighty Christians ...
I think there'd be howls of protest if we suggested that Christians abided
by
the utterance of individual clerics of the 16th century.  IME most Sunni &
Shiites
respect one another.

Do we judge all Protestants as being like Ian Paisley? Do we judge all
Buddhists by
the polemical stance taken by a few Buddhist clerics and their followers
in the
protracted civil war that has blighted Sri Lanka for so many decades? Of
course not.

Yet too often IMHO muslims are lumped together as intolerant 'bin Ladens'.

I find it very sad that we seem to have entered on a vicious spiral. The
negative
attitude towards Islam currently in the west is making young muslims feel
alienated;
and alienated youngsters are what people like Bin Laden prey upon.
Another outrage
is committed by a alienated & brain-washed youngster, and the western
negativity is
re-inforced and so on......

I detest & abominate bigotry. Can't we on Conlang, at least, show a little
tolerance?

A former Republican President of the USA once said:
"Civilization owes to the Islamic world some of its most important tools
and achievements.
 From fundamental discoveries in medicine to the highest planes of
astronomy, the Muslim
genius has been a well-spring of science, commerce and the arts, and has
provided for all
of us many lessons in courage and hospitality."
[Dwight D. Eisenhower. 28th June, 1959]

Ray
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