On Tue, Sep 18, 2001 at 07:23:12AM -0500, Greg Burch wrote:
> Like the rest of the U.S. press corps, Mr. Moon has passed on without
> question the statements by moderate Muslims that "Islam does not endorse
> violence." We will not as a nation come to understand how and why the
> events of September 11 occurred until we take the time to study Islam and
> develop an understanding of how a large number of people in the world use
> religion to justify violence. The simple and undisputable fact is that
> there is clear and explicit language in the Koran that:
>
> <> endorses the use of violence against "unbelievers"
>
> <> requires that Islamic countries institute legal discrimination against
> non-Muslims
>
> <> demands unequal treatment of women
In order to understand Islam, you must also understand the role of the
Koran and its interpretation. It is very different from the relationship
of the Bible to western society, and just finding quotes doesn't even
approach the complexity of muslim theology/law - in many ways they are
the same thing, while at the same time having clearly delineated domains
of applicability, a long epistemological tradition and methods of
resolving issues. See
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/law/shariahintroduction.html for just a hint
of the complexity. Just as most Christians would say that their religion
has a basic prohibition against killing even when confronted with the
stories about ethnic cleansing in the Bible (explaining that the Old
Testament was superceeded by the new), Islam has similar layers of
re-interpretation and ethical praxis which makes just reading the Koran
somewhat misleading.
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