Convert To Islam By Force
When I heard that the now freed journalist were forced to accept Islam before being released it immediately reminded me of the old conquests of the Christian knights. Is this a return to the past with a reversal in effect?
QUOTE |
FREEDOM FOR KIDNAPPED KIWI Kiwi cameraman Olaf Wiig and his Fox News co-worker were freed in Gaza last night, nearly two weeks after being kidnapped. Ref. https://www.stuff.co.nz/hlc/1,,93498~3778159a10~,00.html |
The interesting thing about this is that Islam requires the conversion of others. But Islam is younger that christianity. Christianity forced conversion in its infancy, but as it grew as a religion, it moved away from that in the last couple hundred years. In that respect, Islam is still a couple hundred years from that point yet. So in its evolution, Islam is still an extreme religion by many standards, depending on its interpretations and the Korans interpretation. Remember the Bible was used to do the same thing, Islam has simply not developed past that point yet.
I can categorically state now that Islam does NOT require forced conversions nor does it advocate as the famous Quranic quote goes:
QUOTE |
2:256 there is no compulsion in religion. |
Message Edited... Persephone: Please learn how to use the Quote Tags. See our Constructive Posting Policy. |
Karbala, I am a bit confused about your posts. Is it that there are "branches" within the Islam? Because it seems to be that you are saying the Quran states one thing but certain Muslims are doing a different story. In the case of these journalists, they were forced to convert to Islam in order to spare their lives. If these people who kidnapped them are not Muslims, what is the Islam as an organization trying to do to change or remove these kind of members from their membership? After all, they do not seem to be an example on what the Islam really preaches.
The muslim nation like every other nation has its problems and its bad eggs. Arrogance, Greed, Lust can drive people to do anything be it in the name of religion or the name of the dollar or anything else. It shouldn't be surprising that some Muslims commit evil we aren't all born angels. Unfortunately many of us feel that we are portrayed unfairly in the media.
It would be absurd to blame the Buddhist religion for the sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway by a Buddhist extremist group Aum Shinrikyo in 1995. It would also be unreasonable to expect all Buddhists in general to take responsibility for those attacks and reform their religion. Similarly Islam cannot be compared to an "organization" just like humanity isn't an "organization" or liberty isn't an "organization". They are concepts which people may abuse.
If any muslim dared to preach violence or hatred in most muslim communities I am sure they will be put in their place. But these people operate like cults normally keeping a low profile. They do not integrate well in mainstream muslim community. Interestingly the biggest victims in terms of deaths to extremist cult groups like AL-Qaeda or Taliban have been muslims themselves.
QUOTE |
But these people operate like cults normally keeping a low profile. |
I don't know how to answer your question. I cannot deny that there is a very very small minority in the middle east which advocates violence against non-muslims. I assume this is what you meant by "islamists". The media attention such people get is normally very disproportionate.
QUOTE |
I have read where many Clerics have stated indirectly that the world needs to submit to Islam or 'their way' of doing things. |
There are many news reports within this Board, some of them state what Clerics have said, maybe you can tackle them one by one in their respective Threads.
Regarding being forced... why do you say "very, very small"? To me there is a large group that seems bent on using violence to have their way, make a statement through blood and then submit or die. The first Post of this Thread seems to be just one of many examples.