6 Feb 2018 Is Islam A Religion Of Peace

Is Islam A Religion Of Peace?

I used to work with someone who I liked and respected a lot. He is a brilliant software engineer. We have not communicated for a long time. He is a devout Muslim. He held some views on Islam that I thought a highly educated person like him would not. He believes if someone left the Islamic faith and that person spoke falsehoods about Islam, it was just too do harm to that person.

The term speak falsehoods is not defined well. This is where I learned that one’s level of education and their “Rational” beliefs with respect to religion can be vastly different.

I think your religion must be very insecure if you can’t be criticized, even with what you define as falsehoods. Now this was also what the Catholic Church felt 200 years ago. You were either a Catholic or heretic. History abounds with the death and destruction the Catholic Church caused.

It just goes to show that religions that claim tolerance can in fact be very intolerant. Whenever I brought up passages of the Koran that said very intolerant things, my coworker always said it was an issue with the translation. He said the only way to understand Islam is to read the Koran in the original Arabic. Any other way to him would not be accurate. I don’t buy into that. You can’t tell me that every English translation of the Koran is wrong.

Let’s look at what would happen if I went to Mecca. If I was caught there and shown to be a non-Muslim I would be killed. Now any person of the Islamic faith could go to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem or St. Peter’s Square in Rome and no one would harm them. But going to Mecca as non-Islamic means death…. not very peaceful to me.

Do I need greater study of the Koran to fully understand it, yes I do. I want discussion with Islamic people. I want them to explain to me where I am wrong.

For centuries Islam and Christianity did coexist in the Middle East. Tolerance works both ways. I will respect your beliefs if you respect mine. We can have differences, even large ones but it should never get to the point where we will kill each other over religion. I am willing and want to engage in that dialogue