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Originally Posted by Amber03
When shows come on about Muslims, I watch them so that I will realize that they are people too and are not all terrorists. Most Muslims are actually peace lovers. The terrorists that claim to be Muslim are not in my opinion.
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You have a common misconception about Islam being a religion of peace. Islam is NOT a religion of peace. The basic beliefs which underpin Islam are nothing like Christianity. My husband was a Bible college professor for several years, but is currently pastoring a church.
The word Islam itself means "submission". Anyone who does not submit to the will of Allah is the infidel. The infidel is to be killed if they won't submit. "Submit or die" would just about sum it up. The terrorists are fundamentalists. Just as our Christian "fundamentalists" are the ones who take the Bible seriously and let its teachings guide every area of their lives, this is also the case with Islamic fundamentalists. The terrorists (suicide bombers) are usually from upper middle class homes with higher(college) education and more formal instruction in Islam.
In Islam, the only way to get to Paradise (heaven) for sure is to die in jihad. (Jihad is holy war against those who reject Islam). Being a suicide bomber is to die in jihad, therefore, they go straight to Paradise. Getting to Paradise otherwise is works oriented with no guarantees of getting in after death. There is no grace or forgiveness of God in Islam as Christianity teaches.
We were missionaries in South Africa for almost a decade (1995-2004). We were in Cape Town, South Africa. The metropolitan area of approximately 3 million people is about 15%-20% Muslim. For three years, an Islamic fundamentalist group was operating in Cape Town which had ties to Al Queda. According to an article I read in the Cape Times (one of two major English newspapers in Cape Town.) There were approximately 250 bombings the first year (small brick and pipe type bombs.) The second year there were approximately 400 bombings. The third year, there were approximately 200 bombings. At this point, the South African police was finally getting the leadership of the group jailed. The fourth year, the South African police had gotten enough of the ringleaders jailed that the bombings basically stopped. In August of 1998, you may have heard reported the Planet Hollywood was bombed in Cape Town.
We lived for three years very careful about where we spoke aloud in public with our ugly American accents. When my daughter was a baby (1998), we had to go to the US Embassy in Cape Town. At that time, it was in the 5th floor of a building in downtown Cape Town. As we got 50 ft. from the entrance to the building (in which you go through metal detectors and are scanned with a body scanner), a Muslim fundamentalist group was marching on the US Embassy and were about 100 ft away from us. There we are with our blue US passports in hand with a baby in a stroller. There were US Marines on the 5th floor of that building, but we had to get there first.
I have never known such fear before or after in my life. Even when we were broken into while we were in the house in Cape Town, I wasn't as afraid as at that very moment. A man had been torched in the streets with gasoline not long before that by a related group. This was in 1998, way before 9/11. We did get into the building the Embassy was in without harm. Shortly after the Planet Hollywood bombing, the US put plans in to build an Embassy outside the city on its own compound with tight security around the compound. They were building it when we left in 2004.
I have lived in a city with an ugly American accent with an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group operating for three years. Islam is NOT a religion of peace. My husband has taught World Religions at the college level and one of his masters degrees is an MA in Cross-Cultural Communication. He can go on at length quoting the Koran as to why Islam is not a religion of peace.
Islam has several branches just as we have several denominations within Christianity. Within the branches there are groups that are more fundamental than others. For example, under the Baptists within Christianity, we have the Southern Baptists (very fundamentalist) and the American Baptists (the most liberal of the major Baptist groups in the US).
Those that are suicide bombers are serious about Islam. That is how they are getting to Paradise; it is the only sure way they get to go to Paradise. The infidel is to be stamped out at any and all costs. Those that practice "folk Islam" are more likely to be peaceful. They are also often poor with little education. They are the powerless within Muslim societies to begin with.
Muslims are people too. It is very easy to depersonalize them as a group; the other/different from me. I try to value each and every individual as having intrinsic worth. However, in the case of Islam, some very pivotal beliefs are diametrically opposed to my own world view as a Christian. It does not make them have less value as individuals. It does mean that I will be cautious in dealing with them (as I did for almost a decade in South Africa) on a regular basis. I had Muslim friends whom I saw socially (small parties, BBQ's, etc.) My Muslim friends were not, of course, fundamentalist Muslims. Otherwise, they would not have socialized with me.
However, me as a Pentecostal (I am not a fundamentalist) had no problem socializing with Muslims. Christianity is different than Islam in that respect. We are to socialize and have relationships with people who are not Christians. How else will people come to see the Christ within us?
It was not my intention to be harsh. I know that my experiences in Africa have made me stand on a bit of a soapbox when it comes to Islam. Please take this the way I have intended it: to teach a bit about how Islam is radically different than Christianity.
I believe in God Thread
When shows come on about Muslims, I watch them so that I will realize that they are people too and are not all terrorists. Most Muslims are actually peace lovers. The terrorists that claim to be Muslim are not in my opinion.
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