According to your garden variety conservative christian, Islam is a barbaric hate-fueled religion with nothing to offer the world but violence. Some would say this reputation is earned, but a number of people here seemingly beg to differ- implying that Islam and Christianity are much the same in this regard- so let’s hear them state their case.
NB: I’m not looking for an argument here, just a more balanced view than that which I’m currently inclined to hold. – Greg
It seems to me that it would perhaps be fair to say that today’s Islam is roughly comparable to the Christianity of the middle ages. This would make a certain amount of sense, given that Islam is (I think) around 500 years younger than Christianity. The question then becomes, will we hold together enough for Islam to grow out of this phase? â mattw
Interesting point… Is anyone here familiar with the Quran? I’m curious as to whether there’s anything in there to compare with Jesus’ various parables encouraging his followers to help the poor, act selflessly, love others etc. The only verse of the Quran I know is Surah 9:5, which is ‘Kill the infidels wherever you may find them,’ or words to that effect.
I’m not aware of any Muslims who you might say ‘changed the world’ (for the better that is) ala Mother Teresa, MLK etc. I’m not naive enough to think Christians have a monopoly on such figures- are there any Muslims in a similar category?
(Oh and before anyone starts bleating about barbarism in the old testament- it’s irrelevant, and I’m not going there)
— Greg
Well i’ll point out that most of the more exciting positions taken by fundies originate in the old testament — leviticus is the primary reason it’s okay to lynch gays for instance.
Anyhoo you can find three translations of the Quran at http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/ — translation is never exact, hence there being three translations, i found a similar site once for the bible (remember the bible was originally in Hebrew).
As for comparing the contributions of Islam, Islam made many of the early contributions to science and mathematics — they brought 0 into the west (though the vatican attempted to suppress it — for many strange and wonderous reasons, most of which conflicted with the Bible). Cryptanalysis (breaking encryption) was developed by muslims, as were many of the fundamentals of modern mathematics (algebra is derived from “al-jabr” in the title of the book “Kitab al-jabr” by alâKhwarizmi, from whose name we get the word algorithm), significant work in chemistry (alchemy, alkaline, etc all have muslim origins), in distiliation (alcohol), muslim physicians wrote some of the earliest books on anatomy and surgery, and the like.
I would consider these to be significant contributions, but certainly not in the same sense as mother teresa.
— Ollie
