• Islam is not Muhammadanism. By contrast, Judaism is the religion of the Jews, and Christianity is the religion reputed to be founded by Christ.

• Islam is a universal religion meant for all nations without distinction. It has no colour or racial prejudice.

• Islam refutes the idea of “chosenness”, and regards all peoples as alike.

• Islam does not regard the Arabs or Muslims as superior or regards the prophet of Islam as a special kind of prophet, favoured by God.

• Islam has no idea of a “covenant” with God and no idea of a “testament”, old or new.

• Islam is not based upon a myth and is not an outgrowth of idolatry.

• Islam is not a man-made religion, in the sense that it has been evolved or developed by rabbis or by ecumenical councils.

• Islam with regard to the conventional idea of revelation is the only revealed religion.

• Islam is the only truly monotheistic religion, considering that true monotheism is belief in one only God and disbelief in any other god.

• Islam did not develop by stages into monotheism, but was monotheistic from the start.

• Islam does not believe in astrology, divination, sorcery, magic, miracles or miracles worked by the agency of saints.

• Islam is simple in its creed. God is one, the holy book is one and the prophet is one. The holy book of Islam is a historical document and the prophet is a historical figure.

• Islam does not consider tradition as a criterion for authenticity. Popular beliefs and traditions handed down from the past are not on par with the revealed word.

• Islam is not an institutionalised religion. It has no papacy, no church and no clergy.

• Islam rejects the idea of original sin, which was conceived by St. Augustine, but denied by Pelagius

• Islam rejects monasticism for men and women and rejects celibacy.

• Islam had no inquisition, no burning on the stake, no index, and no pious fraud. (see 2(a))

• Islam had no quarrel with science or learning. Islam was first in establishing colleges of learning in the world, especially in Cairo, Morocco and Baghdad.

• Islam was a medium for civilization, but civilization grew outside Judaism, Christianity.

• Islam has no racism, apartheid, or discrimination on account of belief, colour or race.

• Islam, as set out in its holy book, is meant for the whole world, for the white and the black alike, for Arab and non-Arab, and for all mankind.

• Islam has no confessional, no agape, agapemone or agapetæ.

• The Holy book of Islam is not the life story of its prophet, in the same way as the Gospels are, nor is it the story of a particular people, as the Old Testament is. It is not the life story of Muhammad, nor, is it the story of the Arabs. Muhammad is mentioned only twice by name, and the Arabs as a people are scarcely mentioned.

• Islam had no witches, no witch hunting, no superstition about cats, no satanism, black magic or black mass. 3(a)

• Islam is the religion of mercy to all, especially to the poor, the needy, the wayfarer, the handicapped, the sick, the orphan, and the underdog.

• Islam is the religion of mercy to animals to women and to old parents. It asserts that animals have souls like man and women also have souls. Women and animals were thought to have no souls.

• Islam condemns slavery, forced labour, exploitation greed and accumulation of wealth.

• There is no divine right of kings, no infallibility and no aristocracy.

• Islam is the founder of the family in its present form.

• Islam is based on social justice.

• Islam is against class in society

• Islam condemns, in the strongest terms, injustice, oppression, aggression and unprovoked aggression.

• Islam prohibits the killing of women, women prisoners and children.

• Islam is a religion of “balance” and moderation, with the idea of retribution which involves just punishment and just reward.

• Islam is the classical religion and not the popular one.

• Islam spread over the whole of Arabia in ten years and spread over a vast area of Asia, Africa and Europe in less than a hundred years.

• Islam established a civilization equal if not superior to Greek, and Roman civilizations in less than two centuries while the Dark Ages in Europe extended over one thousand years.

• Islam has been a religion of learning for men and women, and a supporter of schools, colleges and seats of education. Illiteracy was comparatively rare. No Muslim khalif or ruler is known to be illiterate, and illiteracy for a Muslim ruler was a shame.

• Islam protected religious and racial minorities against persecution, forced conversion, massacres pogroms, expulsion and the like. There has been no genocide like the one practised now by the Serbs in Bosnia and Kossovo and before by the European settlers.

• Islam has no prejudice against employing Jews and Christians in the state to help in administration, professions and universities. The Jews in Spain under the rule of the Muslims developed a civilization of their own in security from any molestation. The Norman rule in Sicily was a shining example of peaceful civilized cooperation between Muslims and Christians.

• Islam enjoined Muslims in their conquest not to kill women and children, not to cut down a tree, not to disturb worshippers in their places of worship, not to destroy synagogues or churches.

• Islam is the only religion that lays down rules for the protection of religious minorities and for ensuring freedom of worship for them.

• Islam has no history of massacres on the grounds of religion. When the first Crusaders conquered Jerusalem they massacred the Muslim inhabitants in a blood bath. In contrast when the Muslims reconquered it later they spared the Christian inhabitants and did not massacre them in return.

• Islam had no such bloody crusades as the crusades against the Albigneses and the Waldensians, and no authorised massacres such as that of Bartholomew’s Day, and no religious wars as the wars between Protestants and Catholics, and no extermination of natives as in America and Australia, and no expulsion of inhabitants as in Spain, Ireland, Palestine and elsewhere. It is true that the Abbasids massacred the heads of the Umayyad dynasty, but not on religious ground.



وهذه ردودهم علي الموضوع

Quote:
• Islam rejects the idea of original sin, which was conceived by St. Augustine, but denied by Pelagius
a lie.
Original Sin is Biblical.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned
Romans 5:12

also check this:

"He stood in need of baptism, or of the descent of the Spirit like a dove; even as He submitted to be born and to be crucified, not because He needed such things, but because of the human race, which from Adam had fallen under the power of death and the guile of the serpent, and each one of which had committed personal transgression. For God, wishing both angels and men, who were endowed with freewill, and at their own disposal, to do whatever He had strengthened each to do, made them so, that if they chose the things acceptable to Himself, He would keep them free from death and from punishment; but that if they did evil, He would punish each as He sees fit. For it was not His entrance into Jerusalem sitting on an ass, which we have showed was prophesied, that empowered Him to be Christ, but it furnished men with a proof that He is the Christ; just as it was necessary in the time of John that men have proof, that they might know who is Christ."
Justin Martyr,Dialogue with Trypho,88:4(A.D. 155),in ANF,I:243-244


This was written in 155 AD. St. Augustine was in 400 AD.


Quote:
• The Jews in Spain under the rule of the Muslims developed a civilization of their own in security from any molestation. The Norman rule in Sicily was a shining example of peaceful civilized cooperation between Muslims and Christians.
more lies...

As chronicler of Muslim expansion Paul Fregosi notes, "‘From the fury of the Mohammedan, spare us, O Lord’ was a prayer heard for centuries in all the churches of central and southern Europe. Fear of the jihad has not entirely vanished even now, particularly among peoples who have known Muslim domination." Muslims conducted raids to capture slaves as far west as England and Ireland. They attacked Iceland. And they plunged deep into Europe.

They captured Sicily and invaded the Italian mainland. "Naples, Genoa, Ravenna, Ostia, and even Rome itself were all for a time pillaged or occupied by the Saracens. Human beings became a cheap and abundant commodity. In Rome, in 846 . . . the Muslims even looted the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the pope had to buy off the invaders with the promised tribute of 25,000 silver coins a year. Pope Leo IV then ordered the construction of the Leonine Wall around the city to protect St. Peter’s from further assault."

The threat continued for centuries, with Muslim forces laying siege in 1529 and 1683 to Vienna, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the heart of Europe.
http://www.catholic.com/library/endless_jihad.asp



Quote:
When the first Crusaders conquered Jerusalem they massacred the Muslim inhabitants in a blood bath. In contrast when the Muslims reconquered it later they spared the Christian inhabitants and did not massacre them in return.
The Crusades were in response to the violence by Muslims on Christians.


Quote:
• Islam had no such bloody crusades as the crusades against the Albigneses and the Waldensians, and no authorised massacres such as that of Bartholomew’s Day, and no religious wars as the wars between Protestants and Catholics, and no extermination of natives as in America and Australia, and no expulsion of inhabitants as in Spain, Ireland, Palestine and elsewhere. It is true that the Abbasids massacred the heads of the Umayyad dynasty, but not on religious ground.
The whole expansion of Islam in Europe was done by violence. Muslims destroy Buddha statues. Read up on Darfur and how African Muslims are fighting amongst themselves.
You need to check your sources next time.


الرد الثاني

Quote:
Originally Posted by gogo1234

• Islam condemns slavery, forced labour, exploitation greed and accumulation of wealth.

This is also where Christianity and Islam
diverge; Christianity sanctions slavery.
The Bible contains the following passages:

Leviticus 25:

"Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property."

Exodus 21:7-11

"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not satisfy her owner, he must allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her."


Kind of gives a different meaning to the phrase: "Act Christianly towards your neighbor."


الرد الثالث

Slavery and the first Christians

But did the early Church endorse slavery? Certainly, the early Christians more or less tolerated the slavery of their day, as seen from the New Testament itself and the fact that after Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, slavery was not immediately outlawed. Even so, this doesn’t mean Christianity was compatible with Roman slavery or that the early Church did not contribute to its demise. In that regard, there are a number of important points to be kept in mind.

First, while Paul told slaves to obey their masters, he made no general defense of slavery, anymore than he made a general defense of the pagan government of Rome, which Christians were also instructed to obey despite its injustices (cf. Rom. 13:1-7). He seems simply to have regarded slavery as an intractable part of the social order, an order that he may well have thought would pass away shortly (1 Cor. 7:29-31).

Second, Paul told masters to treat their slaves justly and kindly (Eph 6:9; Col 4:1), implying that slaves are not mere property for masters to do with as they please.

Third, Paul implied that the brotherhood shared by Christians is ultimately incompatible with chattel slavery. In the case of the runaway slave Onesimus, Paul wrote to Philemon, the slave’s master, instructing him to receive Onesimus back “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother” (Philem. 6). With respect to salvation in Christ, Paul insisted that “there is neither slave nor free . . . you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:27-2.

Fourth, the Christian principles of charity (“love your neighbor as yourself) and the Golden Rule (“Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you”) espoused by the New Testament writers are ultimately incompatible with chattel slavery, even if, because of its deeply established role as a social institution, this point was not clearly understood by all at the time.

Fifth, while the Christian Empire didn’t immediately outlaw slavery, some Church fathers (such as Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom) strongly denounced it. But then, the state has often failed to enact a just social order in accordance with Church teachings.

Sixth, some early Christians liberated their slaves, while some churches redeemed slaves using the congregation’s common means. Other Christians even sacrificially sold themselves into slavery to emancipate others.

Seventh, even where slavery was not altogether repudiated, slaves and free men had equal access to the sacraments, and many clerics were from slave backgrounds, including two popes (Pius I and Callistus). This implies a fundamental equality incompatible with slavery.

Eighth, the Church ameliorated the harsher aspects of slavery in the Empire, even trying to protect slaves by law, until slavery all but disappeared in the West. It was, of course, to re-emerge during the Renaissance, as Europeans encountered Muslim slave traders and the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
http://www.catholiceducation.org/art...ts/fm0006.html

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jedi Master
Slavery and the first Christians

But did the early Church endorse slavery? Certainly

yeah, and what'd I say?


الرد الخامس

Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
yeah, and what'd I say?

FAIL


الرد السادس

gogo1234, one of my biggest problems with the "word of god," is
it's so goddamned murky. For example, we clearly know god wants
people who work on Sunday to be put to death [Exodus 35:2].*
What's unclear is are civilians morally responsible to do it or are
the police supposed to do it? See what I mean? It's all so damn
confusing.

So, what I was wondering, are there any such ambiguities in the Quran?


* For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a
Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death.


الرد الثامن

And the battle begins.....One person talks about his religion, then next thing you know its an all out war for who is right and who is wrong.....and might I add I am pretty impressed with the info some of you guys know.


وبارك الله في مجهوداتكم وأكثر من أمثالكم