Can we Muslims in Mylot like, lighten the hell up?

Interresting. As a Jew, I found your discussion rather...suprising. I used to go to Yahoo! chatrooms and visit the Jewish rooms. I was overwhelmed by the amount of harassment and badgering from the Muslim nation written both in English and Arabic script. They were in the pregnancy rooms as well. But, when I went into the Muslim rooms, there were no Hebrew writing nor Christian phrases. The Jewish and Muslims share the same father: Avraham. Avraham's sons as well as Yitzach's sons went into two different branches. The Muslims came from the line of Ishmiel and Esau and the Jews and Christians from the line of Yitzach, Ya'acov and the 12 tribes. What does that mean to me? We maynot be of the same beliefs, but everyone is doing the best with what they know...so we should all back off. Sometimes, I know being a wife and mother, the only way you can get squabbling children's attention is to shout out a good strong word! ~Jael

oh yeah so totally agree with u on that one. i'm a muslim and i do agree that muslims are generally an emotional and at times irrational group of people.many times have i encountered many angry and irrational comments at non-muslims in debates that are supposed to be healthy and enlightening. why u might ask?probably we have to look at the preachers and imams.i've met many of them and listened to many of their speeches.but a few really say anything about love and compassion.the speeches are mainly how to judge others on what they do.come to think of it,the approaches that they take produce muslims who are defensve,angry, and judgemental.. yes i've also come across some irrational comments from non-muslims about islam and muslims in general.but there's nothing wrong with replying to those comments rationally, and without losing our temper and manners.just my 10 cents.

hi,Thats good narration..there are so many religions on this earth..but all religions told only one word--Love all. But bloody,religious heads spoil the atmosphere for their selfishness.Real god believing human,love all as a human only..

you know I really appreciate what you have written here, actually I was about post on certain discussion about religion, instead of writing a post I decided not cause when I read the previous answers the one who made or started the discussion are arguing with the responses to his. I thank you for sharing your thoughts, honestly I am a christian but I have great respect to our muslim brothers and sisters, its just the way we adore and serve our god is in a diffrent way but still we serve one GOD. I admire you all for the sacrfices you are doing during ramadan as told by some muslim friends. I hope we as part of this mylot group be friends to each other, let us respect each others religion and at the same time lets be civil and courteous enough in posting. again thank you for starting this discussion it will really help us here

Can I have an "amen" just teasing, but seriously - our religions are deeply rooted in history. We fundamentally believe in the same basic tenets of believing in one god, asking forgiveness for our sins, and being good people. I'm no where NEAR as eloquent as you when it comes to discussing religion - but the point of religion is to LOVE everyone - not spout hatred because they don't believe in the same little details you do... we are all on the big ball of dirt together, and don't you think we ALL have a better chance of living a good life while we ARE here, and being greeted at the pearly gates if we can learn to GET ALONG now? Wouldn't we all be better off? "Can't we all just get along?"

man i totally agree with you every religion tells people to generate love, not hate. we all have differences but thats no reason for hating each other, a tree could grow from a soil which a cow pee on it, these are 3 extremely different beings(tree, soil, cow) but they could get along and benefit each other, why cant we? how could we judge who go to hell or heaven, meanwhile we cant even make sure on tomorrows weather. people lets spread the love, even enemies will love you if you love them, should we show differences, then must we show respect

Interesting thread! When I joined Mylot I found lot of discussions here about Islam and Muslims. I found hate among non-muslims towards us Muslims. I realized it is because of the acts of some of us which have been magnified to the world by the media that is mainly in control of the anti islamic element. All this has help project Islam as a negative religion. julio, I have come across many of your posts and I think you are doing a remarkable job, I admit I find my thaughts differ from yours at certain stages, I still think you should be supported in your effort to present Islam by presenting Islam as a moderate and peaceful religion. Coming to the points you have raised in your discussions. 1) You said "the Bible is to be respected-" Being Muslim our faith can not be complete without believing in the Bible ,old and new testament that was revealed on Moses, David and Jesus (pbut). Then comes the question, WHICH BIBLE? Regretfully the present day Bible tells us things that if we start believing we are going to deny/reject our own scripture, the Qura'n. For instance, it says the calf was made by aaron. Quran says it was made by one of the Bani Israel (the Jews). The Bible says the earth is flat, Quran and even science deny that. The Bible speaks bad about almost all prophets of Allah, even accuses them to be adulters and incest, these prophets have been given much respect by the Qura'n and are considered holy by Muslims. I am not trying to say the whole of the Bible today is wrong, but unfortunately part of it is, and we just can not take whatever it says forgranted. But yes we still respect it as part of it is believed to be the word of God. 2)You said "YOU MUST talk nicely with our brothers from fellow Abrahamic religions-" I dont see any reason why we should not. People of the book are much closer to us than anybody else. I can expect similar behavior from my Christian and Jew brothers. 3) You said "Christians are 100% equal to Muslims in the eye of god-". In fact all of the mankind is, not just Christians and Muslims. The only criteria God has is 'the Faith on Him', whoever has stronger faith on Him (The only God, the Omnipotent) is believed to be closer to Him. 4)You said "Christians will be judged the same way as Muslims will be judged, so to the%$%%# that said Christians are going to hell, wake up-" I can only agree to a certain extant. Only those christians who BELIEVED in ONENESS of God, NO SON, NO SPIRIT. Just ONE GOD. The true followers of Jesus. This is true before the arrival of Muhammad(pbuh). Since his arrival all the previos religions are void. This may sound bad to some I know. But Christians also have similar beliefs. They also see their religion to be the only true path and the only way to heaven. I do not think we Muslims are the only one to believe this way.

Thanks for putting this out there. I'm not a religious person but I'm not, like, anti-theism either so I tend to enjoy reading what others have to say about their religion. I think you're the first one on here who has tried to calm all of the haters and not only Muslims, because anyone who reads this regardless of religious preference can gain a lesson of tolerance out of it. :)

Brother this is a very good and an enlightning discussion. Indeed I am very pleased to know that you have brought it up and I hope many of our brothers and sisters follow this. We are all from different religions here and as far as I can gather all religions preach peace and humanity. So why take shots at each other? I am a muslim and I respect everyone and every religion.

I agree. The Quran is a book that should be taken as a whole. We just can't get a verse out of its context to serve some of our opinions. Also the verses in the Quran are not arranged according to their date which means that no new verse can cancel an old one (because obviously we can't be sure which one is newer). All verses in the Quran are equally important. In the Quran, God mentions that he will be just to every person no matter what is his beliefs. This is enough for me. Since God will judge everyone fairly, why sould I bother judging people? God knows the life of everyone, what he says and what he think; obviously we don't know these things, that's why we should not judge people. I really appreciate your thoughts, but I just wanted to point out that, although we respect Christian and The Bible, that doesn't mean we don't have differences with them. Islam is clearly against the concept of the trinity. Again here, I'm not judging anybody. As God said in the Quran, we can say what we believe in and then God will judge everyone fairly.

It's really refreshing to finally hear a religious person behaving rationally here and not like a diehard. You're right, tolerance and respect are due, no matter what your creed is. Only thing i'd add up to your post is: that respect must be extended not only to christianism but to any other religion, and also to atheists and agnostics...because our beliefs don't make us different from each other...we're all human after all.

I enjoyed reading this discussion. I find that many people don't really know much about other religions - and even their own. I don't claim to know all either. But I try to read and learn. I made an effort to read about each religion and philosophy, and to have a better idea of what they are and why. So far, except for some cults, I haven't found any religion that tells us not to be our best at all times, to hurt others or to disrespect human life. whats hurts others in terms of religion is ignorance, arrogance ( mine is the only religion that is right, and no other one is right), and fanaticism, which are human qualities ( if we can call then qualities ). Thanks for your post

great work i think ur words r right ur a good example for ur religion

i dont know much about arabs but atleast i learnt something today and im glad that i did intresting thing so far

In my circle of friends, when the idea of muslims come up and they start speaking ill ..I tell them that there is a bad image given of the muslim faith..I don't know much of it..as I am a Christian.but from the few muslim friends I have ..I know they respect Jesus and the acknowledge the virgin birth. Regretfully we have had our country attacked by those who follow the Kuran..at least they killed so many in one day..in the name of "Allah" which is the same God we honor and adore. I always tell people..the group that did this do not follow the principles of the Kuran or are they true repesentations of Islam Equally when Christians or people from our country manifest other then kindly deeds and say this is in the name of America ..they too are misrepresenting the mind of this nation.. We too respect freedom of religion here..Grouping peopl into generalities causes divisions and puts up barriers. I believe there are good muslims and bad ..and that there are good christians and bad..Good Iranians, Iraqis etc and bad iranian, iraqis etc. There ae alos bad americans..and good americans.. We need to stop generalizing and start looking for common ground. Thank you for your post.

Kudos to you! I must say this is the first discussion I have come across where a Muslim, instead of defending his religion in a scared way, is spreading the true beliefs of Islam as we all know it. I am a Hindu from India and though Muslims detest Hindus as infidels because of our polytheist religious beliefs, India as a country has been greatly enriched by 1000 years of Islamic rule. For centuries, we have lived and loved together (inspite of the many wars) and though this great nation was divided on religious grounds, we still have many many Muslims living here. But one thing I must say is that Muslims are gradually becoming more and more insular, scared, doubtful of others and withdrawing into a narrow shell. History proves that Islamic civilization was one of the most advanced in all respects of culture, trade, industry, arithmetic, architecture, cuisine, music, art, embroidery, hospitality everything I can think of. This could not have been possible if the religion itself was not liberal and did not give stress to all round human development. But somewhere somehow you people lost your way and are now majority of Muslims are looked down upon as conservative illiterates who study nothing beyond the Holy Quran and recognize nobody beyond their own religious boundary and wallow in poverty and degradation. And ispite of being a Hindu, this makes me very very sad coz as I have said, all around me in India are proofs of how great this religion once was and I truly believe that it’s the ordinary muslims (not the conservative clergy) who can restore their religion to its former glory. All world religions have had their dark phases and it’s the people who have liberated their religion from the clutches of bigots and selfish clergies. I think its time now for Islam to be restored to its rightful place and we need more people like you.

Very good post!;) We always have a good respect about our muslim brothers, but others here seem to be very arrogant in discussing about others religions. I guess this just sums up to who has the more understanding about religions and other's beliefs. You did a good explanation about this issue, I hope that we all appreciate more of each other and not to divide just because of wrong informations.

Nice way to say it..I am not a Muslim. I am a Wiccan. I have seen this back and forth discussion about Muslim, Islams and Christians. For me it doesn't matter what religion you are in..we have each others belief and we will all be judged in the end...

This is one of the best and most thought provoking posts I have seen. Unfortunately the bible, Qur'an and other holy books are subject to interpretation on a cultural basis. The really sad thing is there are a lot more similarities between Islam and Christianity than there are differences and maybe one day we'll all get ourselves sorted out and respect others beliefs instead of being bigoted and ignorant.

Thank you for that very in depth narration. I appreciate the fact that you took the time to say it, and explain yourself, and back yourself up. Everyone's faith is open to interpretation. I also know that there are many who claim to be christian who haven't read or paid attention to the Bible. I've got to assume (I have doing that) the same about Judism (I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong) as well. Being Pagan myself, I know that there is quite a bit of misunderstanding. Especially as there are so many different kinds of Pagans. I think that judging others simply by religion is idiocy. It's right there with judging by the color of skin or speach accent. Doesn't make any sense to me. Unfortunately there are a lot of people in the world that feel that it's perfectly o.k. Thank you for trying to fix that.