what's the story?
I thought Islam meant "peace"? Why are death threats(see my recent post here) so common for those who criticise Islam or the prophet? If Islam really means peace then why, the rest of us wonder, is there so much that is horrible done in the name of Islam?
Let's start with the name Islam. It comes from the root slm - there are similarities with Hebrew, another Semitic language, that will make it easier for Bible scholars to grasp some elements of Arabic. The term Salaam means peace but the word Islam means "Submission," it connotes the idea of peace because a person is supposedly living a life now in line with the will of Allah, but the word literally means submission. Having said that even the great mujahid mass murderer Osama bin Laden believed that Islam meant peace, as, once the whole world came under the rule of Islam there would finally be peace. It's a little like Communism, once Communists slaughter or subjugate all the working people who don't share in their beatific vision of the future joys of all working people there will be "peace" and "equality".
The most senior mainstream authorities in Islam teach nothing but the Sharia standard for treatment of apostates: that Islam requires those who leave the faith to be put to death. See my previous post on recent statements by the current President of Egypt's Al-Azhar University and previous Grand Mufti of Egypt Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb. Are we really to believe that such a man misunderstands Islam?
Below is a 3 minute video from our ex-Muslim friend Ismael Abu Adam (previous video here) on his latest crop of death threats and the advice of a highly placed, British based, Muslim scholar on why he should not be killed. The advice is very revealing and revolves around, not the fact that a man is entitled to his opinion and beliefs, but the facts that a) the offender is not in an Islamic country where under Sharia he could justifiably be killed and b) that killing an apostate in the West would hurt Islam's reputation among unbelievers and so retard the advance of Islam.
This kind of pragmatism guides an awful lot of public Muslim statements in the West. We need to be aware of this and guard against taking any statement made by Muslim spokesmen that makes "true" Islam sound just like early 21st C. liberal Westernism at face value. Sad but true. True Islam is Sharia.
Three minutes of education follow.
Let's start with the name Islam. It comes from the root slm - there are similarities with Hebrew, another Semitic language, that will make it easier for Bible scholars to grasp some elements of Arabic. The term Salaam means peace but the word Islam means "Submission," it connotes the idea of peace because a person is supposedly living a life now in line with the will of Allah, but the word literally means submission. Having said that even the great mujahid mass murderer Osama bin Laden believed that Islam meant peace, as, once the whole world came under the rule of Islam there would finally be peace. It's a little like Communism, once Communists slaughter or subjugate all the working people who don't share in their beatific vision of the future joys of all working people there will be "peace" and "equality".
The most senior mainstream authorities in Islam teach nothing but the Sharia standard for treatment of apostates: that Islam requires those who leave the faith to be put to death. See my previous post on recent statements by the current President of Egypt's Al-Azhar University and previous Grand Mufti of Egypt Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb. Are we really to believe that such a man misunderstands Islam?
Below is a 3 minute video from our ex-Muslim friend Ismael Abu Adam (previous video here) on his latest crop of death threats and the advice of a highly placed, British based, Muslim scholar on why he should not be killed. The advice is very revealing and revolves around, not the fact that a man is entitled to his opinion and beliefs, but the facts that a) the offender is not in an Islamic country where under Sharia he could justifiably be killed and b) that killing an apostate in the West would hurt Islam's reputation among unbelievers and so retard the advance of Islam.
This kind of pragmatism guides an awful lot of public Muslim statements in the West. We need to be aware of this and guard against taking any statement made by Muslim spokesmen that makes "true" Islam sound just like early 21st C. liberal Westernism at face value. Sad but true. True Islam is Sharia.
Three minutes of education follow.
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