From: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
Subject: Re: Islam Revealed #1
Organization: Johns Hopkins University CS Dept.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 18:58:32 GMT

In article <1993Jan11.175101.21251@kth.se> d89-gsk@nada.kth.se (Gani Skepi) writes:
>This is what both I and Br. Zeyd is trying to tell you:
>*When* you read a special ayat (verse) in the Holy Quran, to understand it 
>*correctly* you have to see *when* and *why* it was revealed. 
>In Islam we don't only have the holy Quran. We have 23 years of the Prophet
>(pbuh) concerning what he did and what he said in different situations recorded.
>In this litterature (called Hadiths) you can see the situation when and why the
>different verses were revealed. The holy Quran is like the top of a pyramid. 
>Below the top comes the Hadiths and below that comes history records and below 
>that comes..... It is *not* only the Quran...... 

What concerns non-Muslims about Islam is often what people actually believe and
do, even if you're supposed to believe and do something different.  It
really doesn't matter much to me if you have teachings somewhere that say that
Muslims are only prohibited from allying with so-and-so specific groups of
Christians and Jews at so-and-so time, if the leaders (and the voters, if
a democracy) of countries with many Muslims in them think otherwise.  If
people believe Islam to be such-and-such, and act on it, I worry about it even
if they are not really following the true Islam.

>|> >Secondly *true* friendship is based on mutual respect and not on mockery. 
>|> >If a person mockers your religion when you are present and you have told 
>|> >this individual that you don't like it when he does it. But he continues,
>|> >then is this a good friend???? You don't have to agree with another persons
>|> >religion but don't mocker it if you want that person to continue to be your 
>|> >friend.
>|> Fine.  You don't like it when I criticize Islam in front of you.  I won't
>|> criticize Islam in front of you.  But do I also have to stop criticizing
>|> Islam in front of everyone else, even if you are not present?  
>As long as your criticism (sp?) is based on true knowledge of Islam and not 
>on Betty Mahmoody stuff I have nothing against it. You can criticize it in
>front of me as long as it is based on facts related to the religion and not
>the western media....... 
>Regarding criticiseing it when I'm not present, what a person doesn't know
>(and wont know) has never hurt him/her.....

I was thinking in terms of Salman Rushdie.  Nobody's required to read his
book, so this falls under the category of criticism when you are not present.
His life is in danger nevertheless.

>|>Such as writing books?)
>It depends on what you write.
>If you offend my mother calling her a bitch I'd propably blow your head off... 

And, of course, if I offend your prophet you get lots of people to blow my head
off.
--
"On the first day after Christmas my truelove served to me...  Leftover Turkey!
On the second day after Christmas my truelove served to me...  Turkey Casserole
    that she made from Leftover Turkey.
[days 3-4 deleted] ...  Flaming Turkey Wings! ...
   -- Pizza Hut commercial (and M*tlu/A*gic bait)

Ken Arromdee (arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu, arromdee@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc