Islam vs. Christianity
February 2nd, 2006 . by CaryFirst, their side of the story:
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Armed militants angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad published in European newspapers surrounded EU offices in Gaza on Thursday and threatened to kidnap foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world.
More than 300 students demonstrated in Pakistan, chanting “Death to France!” and “Death to Denmark!” _ two of the countries where newspapers published the drawings. Other protests were held in Syria and Lebanon, while officials in Afghanistan, Iran and Indonesia condemned the publication. In Paris, the daily France Soir fired its managing editor after it ran the caricatures Wednesday.
A Jordanian newspaper took the bold step of running some of the drawings, saying it wanted to show its readers how offensive the cartoons were, although its editor also said he did not want “to promote such blasphemy.” In an editorial, it also urged the world’s Muslims to “be reasonable.”
In other words, when you publish something less than flattering to the Islamic faith, they will take violent steps to rectify the issue.
In other news, NBC is attempting to upset Conservative Christians by casting Britney Spears *snort* as a featured chef on “Will and Grace” – apparently, Jack has a talk show on the show, and the network that his show is on, “OUT”, is bought by a Conservative Christian network. The name of Britney’s character’s segment is titled “Crucifixin’s” – NBC’s attempt to rile the Christians.
Two things here:
First, if this is the best shot that NBC can take to try to take a shot at Christianity, I gotta say it’s not much of a shot. Sure, they’re playing with blasphemy here, but it’s their stint in Hell, not mine. They know the truth, and refuse to hear it. Most of the Christians I have talked to about this have laughed at the premise and the players.
Second, if this is the best shot that ANYONE can take to try to take a shot at Christianity, then we don’t have to worry for a while. My gosh, can you imagine the uproar if this happened in a country ruled by Islam? Oh, that’s right – they don’t allow independent thinking in those countries. And the only time you see a homosexual portrayed on television is when they are being “judged” according to their “Religion of Peace.” And you certainly wouldn’t see a female on TV – after all, can’t be letting those wimmin getting all uppity and thinking they can have a life of their own, now, can we?
By the way, any representatives of Islam want to issue a point by point apology for the 4000 plus terror attacks carried out in the name of Islam since 9/11 alone?
Didn’t think so.
Dear Cary,
obviously you do not buy into the idea that Islam is the religion of Peace. You seem to find support for your theory in the many terror attacks conducted “in the name of Islam” (as you put it) since 9/11. However, you do seem to believe that Christianity is rather peaceful and tolerant which, please don’t take this personal, brings about a certain air of hypocracy to your position. I wouldn’t call Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq exactly peaceful (both interventions, NOT defensive wars). Neither would I say that Christians (protestants and catholics) in Irland behave all too peaceful when they crucify 16-year old catholic boys onto frontyard fences for publicly being in love with a protestant girl. And last time I checked, the Vatican (and the Catholic world it governs) did not approve of either gay marriage, sexual intercourse before marriage, and many other controversial issues… Furthermore, how many female popes were there in history? female priests in your community? I can tell you however, that Iraq has had women in congress since 1967 (at that time US Congress was a Gentlemens’ Club) and has ever since consistently held a higher % of female politicians in Congress when compared to the US (currently it is 25% in Iraq, while the US Congress sports a rather slim 13.2%)
What I am trying to communicate here is not a point-to-point comparision of Islam and Christianity, but to rather open your eyes to the fact that you are being very selective on your perception. You condemn the Muslim world because extremists conduct terror attacks, motivated by POLITICAL views rather than religious believes. You say that Muslims overreact in the matter of the caricatures of the prophet Mohammad and of God when, in the old Testament, one of the 10 most important messages reads “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath”…
I would advise you to inform yourself more thoroughly and perhaps even read into the Quran to find out what Muslims are all about. Saudi Arabia and Iran (to name two) are NOT examples of states based on the teachings of Islam, but are based on the “Sharia”, a document compiled by religious scholars in the 6th century and later “reformed” by traditionalists and neo-conservatives into its present state. Consider this a peaceful challenge and invitation to learn more about what you so quickly condemn.
You should then quickly find out that the Quran not only respects, but reinforces the “Teachings of the Script” (Bible), and that the Quran speaks not of muslims exclusively when speaking of “believers”, but of people who believe in God and his prophets (which range from Abraham over Moses and Jesus, up to Mohammad (peace be upon all)).
I invite you to step into a dialogue with me (not an argument) over above said and your point of view. Kind regards, Habib.
Habib, thank you for your comment. I think you hold a very high regard for the religion of Islam, and I respect that. Not the religion, but your regard.
I won’t get into an argument with you – we both obviously hold very strong beliefs about our respective religions, and butting heads does not lead anywhere.
I would like to discuss these issues with you, in a civilized manner. A couple of ground rules, since it is my blog – if you find any of them to be too restricting, then by all means let me know:
1) Provide me with your e-mail address – mine is posted on this page; send an e-mail to that address from your address.
2) No personal attacks. If an idea or statement clashes with a worldview, do not attack the person issuing that statement.
3) Outside comments will be welcomed, but if they escalate into an attack on either of us, they will be removed.
I do want to take issue with the “graven image” portion of your first comment – the drawings that have caused so much consternation in the Islamic community are not meant to be idolatized; they are meant to poke fun and/or open the eyes of many.
My belief is that the Bible is the infallible word of God. The Bible, by itself, without the aid or interpretation of any other works – be it the Quran, the Book of Morman, or any other book that claims to “support” and “reveal” the “true meaning” of the Bible. Any claim, from any religion, that cannot be supported directly from the Bible, ALONE, must be considered false and dismissed.
I look forward to the discussion.