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Jarek:
Q09: Many say that Islam, as it
is now about 1400 years old, is in the same phase as Christianity used to
be during the Middle Ages. In that time, Christians also persecuted
criticism of Christianity, or spread their religion by violence. Don’t
you thing that Islam can develop similarly?
Sina:
The fundamental difference between these two cases is
that what happened in Christendom of the middle Ages was the abuse of
power. It was a clear case of corruption of the Church. You can’t find
any justification in the teachings of Christ for the crimes
perpetrated by the Church. On the other hand the rise of the Islamic
terrorism is the result of the return to the pure Islam. While the teachings of Jesus are
of love and forgiveness, the teachings of Muhammad are of hate, war and
bloodshed. There is a fundamental difference between Jesus and Muhammad
and their teachings. When the Jews brought a prostitute to Christ and
asked him what to do with her because the law says stone her, Jesus said,
let the one who has not committed any sin throw the first stone. This is a
great teaching. To be happy as human beings, we don't need lots of laws.
All we need are few good teachings and this is one of them. See your own
flaws first. Remove the beam in your own eye before attempting to remove
the speck in the eye of your brother. Forgive other people's sins so yours
can be forgiven and be truthful because only truth will save you. These
are good teachings. Whoever said them have spoken the truth. A truth that
is eternal and unchanging.
Now compare this to Muhammad's teachings. A woman
accused of adultery was brought to him and while the Jews had abandoned
the law of stoning, he insisted that the poor woman should be stoned
because the Bible say so. [3] Yet at the same time
he himself raped women captured in war and allowed his followers to do the
same, even though these women were married before being captured, 4:24
Usually those who make such an erroneous comparison
between Islam and other religions are not
familiar with the shameful life of Muhammad, with his hateful teachings
and the gory history of the expansion of Islam. Islam was violent from the start. Muhammad himself was the most
ruthless terrorist. He bragged that he owed his victories to instilling
terror.
Power corrupts. If the Church is given too much
power, it will become corrupted. So to keep the Church in line with the
teachings of Christ, we must make sure that it can never have temporal
power. Religion has its place and politics has its own. These two should
not be mixed together or the result would be catastrophic.
With Islam it is a different story. In Islam religion
and politics cannot be separated. Unlike other religions, Islam is
political by its very nature. Also with the exception of Iran, in no
Islamic country the Mullahs have temporal power. In all other Islamic countries
violence is caused by the individual believers and not by the state.
During the Middle Ages in Europe the problem was the Church or better said
the ruling elite acting in the name of God. This problem exists in Iran,
but in all other Islamic countries is the Umma, i.e. the community at
large that is the problem.
The solution to the problem of the abuse of power in
Christianity was to take away the power from the Church. The solution to
the problem of Islamic violence and terrorism is to destroy the faith of
the Muslims.
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