hi fruity. it's kinda hard to fault your logic there, i agree. what's more, as i've mentioned before, the koran is supposed to be Allah's very own words. now, how the hell can you, a mere human being, dispute Allah's very own words when he's telling you in plain arabic that you have a duty to kill the infidels? well, i guess the confusing part is that Allah in other parts also recommends peace.. so it's not quite as clear cut as it might seem.. still, my view is that peace is would be the status quo that humans assume, all other things being equal... ie, you don't need to tell them not to go around killing other humans for no good reason, that's what they'd do anyway... so, i think the order to actually go around kiling other humans -- for no other reason except that have different religious beliefs -- would need to take precedence over the order to be peaceful. you can also say the following: 1. allah is supremely intelligent (i don't think many muslims would disagree with that) 2. a supremely intelligent being would not contradict himself 3. allah contradicts himself (you can't be both peaceful AND kill your neighbor for having a different religion) 4. therefore allah doesn't exist. and atheism isn't really a belief system, in the way christianity and islam are, it's really just a lack of certain beliefs (lack of belief in god, for example). that said, there are some imlications of atheism that have rather unfortunate consequances. for example, atheism basicaly implies that there is no cosmic justice in the universe. so, if you had reason to believe you'd get away with something, and doing that thing served your pursposes, you would have no reason not to do it. eg, stalin's purges, the pol pot regime and others..... religion isn't ALL bad...
i simply cannot believe this guy's serious... still, there's no doubt that people actually do think that way. that's something i just can't understand. even if we admit that the creation of modern israel wasn't the fairest deal in the world, apart from that i can't understand just why jews have been so universally hated throughout the ages? sure, everyone creates scapegoats, but it seems to me the jews just can't escape being cast into that role. amazing. the funniest one has to be the early christian hatred, because of what the jews allegedly done to (the alleged) jesus. LOL. if they DIDN'T do it, there'd be no crucification, and thus no salvation and thus no christianity... what idiots!
15 out of the 37 who voted think that Islam is bad. I presume those are the 15 American votes, with most probably that vega asshole fellow being the only American who voted differently (if his pin brain did put him in a position to actually vote). Even those well-meaning yet condescending fellows here ("I know some muslims but they are decent people...") do just not get it: that born-againer in the White House is just bad news for all of us here, and all those who really think that because they are non-muslims makes them the best thing since sliced bread, are just about as stupid as those Nazi idiots who thought and still think that the Jews are the cause of all evil. Just sit back and take a look around you: is there any religion in this world which has not yet been used for some political purpose?
I had to erase an inappropriate post to return this thread to its topic. I apologize to those whose posts I had to erase because they quoted or referred to that post.
I can understand vegasoul's frustration - he is currently in Baghdad serving as a human panty shield for Saddam's mother-in-law.
Well it seems that the US soldier who killed and injured his peers was Muslim and was making anti-US remarks: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/24/MN17824.DTL I don't know why they aren't making this more public. Maybe because there are many Muslim soldiers who don't feel as he does.
Let me start by posting two questions, so we know who we're talking to. 1) Rearden Metal, what's your religion ? I'd like to know some background so I know where you're coming from. 2) Where did you get the 'Abu Afak' story ? And please don't refer me to a Christian or Jewish source. I would like to read a 100% Muslim input on this story. Answer those, and we'll take it from there.
First of all, the poll was clearly tampered with today. I posted the poll almost 2 weeks ago. Until the tampering, the results were: 8 Koran-huggers and 14 and 17 respondants choosing the later two options. Suddenly the results are 16/14/17. I guess lying is just part of your Islamic culture. Secondly, I'm not of any religion- I'm an objectivist. I'm pretty sure that all holy books of all religions were written by man. However, I am of Jewish ethnicity. Lastly, the abu-afak story is an undebatable part of the Koran. Muslims don't even try to deny this.
Let's forget about the poll results now, and focus on the questions. Would you please point me to the verses of The Quran which dicuss the Abu Afak story ?