My God is better than your God.
That’s the dispute at the heart of recent hearings in a lawsuit aimed at derailing the new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. What started as a zoning issue has turned into a fight over theology and the role of government in recognizing religion.
Mosque opponents say that Islam is not a real religion. They argued in a Rutherford County courthouse last week that the world’s second-largest faith, with its 1.6 billion followers, is actually a political movement….
Islam is a religion as well as a politcal movement, much as Vatican City is a political entity as well as the home for the seat of St. Peter. The state cannot either promote nor suppress the religious beliefs of its citizens.
That being said, the quote from the college student Muslim that states he has never heard of sharia law either is a. lying, or b. must never have attended a mosque. It’s my understanding Muslims are required to submit to sharia law whether it is the law of the state they are in or not.
So actually the alternatives are:
a. the student is lying
b. the student has never attended mosque
c. your understanding is wrong
But Moslem societies are theocracies, by and large, and this means that the religion is at the same time a political organization. That is it intention. This is incontrovertible. The evidence is everywhere, including in the Koran and in Mohammed’s own actions. This is not inherently a crime, but it leaves those for whom the Constitution is a religion in something of a quandary. I am not sure how we will negotiate this misery. Larry
#2 Well, Scott, I generally have to yield to your superior understanding of Islam as you have expressed repeatedly on these boards. However, I am not incorrect in my statement of sharia law as a personal code of ethics to be observed by all Muslims.
According to Religioustolerance.org “The term “Sharia” (a.k.a. Shari’a) literally means “the path to a watering hole.” The Guardian newspaper in the UK describes Sharia as: ‘… a religious code for living, in the same way that the Bible offers a moral system for Christians.’ It is used to refer both to the Islamic system of law and the totality of the Islamic way of life.”
I’m not sure why you chose to attack my post. I was merely stating that for a practicing Muslim to have claimed never to have heard of sharia law would be the equivalent of a practicing Christian or Jew claiming never to have heard about the Ten Commandments.
There is another possible “c.” which is that the reporter got the quote wrong, but I was going by what was in the story.
billqs, I apologize for the tone of my reply. I was trying to point out that I find it unlikely that the interviewee was lying. It’s more likely that they are not particularly well-educated about Islam or, as you suggest, the reporter got the quote wrong or out of context. Wouldn’t be the first time for the Tennessean, heaven knows.
A number of religions have codes of morals, conduct and ethics that are not co-terminous with the secular laws of the jurisdictions in which they live. In many cases, it is possible to observe these codes without violating secular law and to observe secular law without violating these religious requirements. But most religions in the United States have encountered points of conflict where people of conscience have accepted negative consequences, either through societal disapprobation or through actual penal sanctions from the State, rather than violate their conception of what their religion allows. This is different than seeking to overthrow the secular government in favor of a theocratic religion. My guess is that for virtually all major religions that are represented among the citizens of this country, the points of full-blown conflict are relatively rare.
5- I apologize for the tone of my reply as well. I think a misquote or a misunderstanding by the reporter or editor is probably to blame.
Islamists have made no secret of the fact that their aim is to overthrow all secular governments in the West and replace them with Islamic governments, and we forget this at our peril. They will try to do it by insidious means, and if that fails, they’ll encourage violence.