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Muslims and Christians especially are completely different in their cultural and other views especially towards women. Its very hard I think for both religions to find common ground.
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<p>Could you qualify that?</p>
<p>I really, really do like how Islam binds people together from all races, ethnicities, walks of life, etc.</p>
<p>But I am worried about its very intolerant view of other religions, especially excluding Christianity and Judaism. Their view is of these non-Muslims is to convert or die. That worries me, but I could be wrong. I am also worried about fundamentalist/extremeist/militant Islam. I wish that all followers of Islam could be moderates like you guys on these boards and not fanatics like Osama Bin Laden.</p>
<p>99.9999999999999 percent of them are moderates. Only the small amounts are not. Just like the small amounts of christians and jews and other people who murder, rape, attack and do other things in the world. You make it sound like few muslims are the only ones in the world who do bad things.</p>
<p>The focus always seems to be on the Muslim extremists, not Christian or Jewish extremists or those like that.</p>
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And guess what, Jesus was not white. He probably looks like an Palestinian Arab because that is where he is from. Peace be upon him
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<p>I am sick and tired of people making paintings and sculptures of Christ. How in the world does people know how he looks like? If one REALLY belives in Jesus's existance, then how could that person make up a work of art portraying how he looks without seeing for himself? Pretty sick, IMO.</p>
<p>actually we have an idea of what jesus looks like. theres an imprint of his face on the shroud of turin and they used computers to reconstruct his face. I'm sure its not perfect, but it gives us an idea of what he looked like.</p>
<p>heres a link, <a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcfa.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcfa.htm</a></p>
<p>"The focus always seems to be on the Muslim extremists, not Christian or Jewish extremists or those like that."</p>
<p>Right, and there is a reason for that. No, its not a conspiracy or that we are out to "get" the Muslim religion. </p>
<p>If I go out and blow up a bus in the name of Christianity, the event as well as my religion will be reported on by the media. If I blow up a bus or a building or a hotel every month, my religion will be in the paper every month for constantly blowing things up. </p>
<p>Pretty simple? I thought so. Nothing racist about it, just facts.</p>
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But I am worried about its very intolerant view of other religions, especially excluding Christianity and Judaism. Their view is of these non-Muslims is to convert or die.
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No it's not. There's a verse in the quran (i think i might have already posted it here) that says "to kill one person is to kill humankind" ... Of course Muslims want others to convert to Islam, but let me tell you, the only ones who think the non-muslims should convert or die are the extremists, which we have already covered - what the extremists CLAIM (i cannot stress the word claim enough) to do in the name of Islam is not what islam preaches. All of the Muslims I know are "moderate". The ones that are really psycho, you end up seeing on the news, but please, please don't think that what they do is what Islam really is.
Sure, I'll explain islam to people, and hope they get a good idea of it, and maybe even convert, but I don't know ANYONE who thinks someone should DIE for being of a different religion. In fact, I beleive the prophet mohammad had a wife who was a non-muslim.</p>
<p>Thats the problem, Islam is viewed in the media as extremeist, intolerant and very aggressive towards other religions, its still how I view it, too bad I don't have any Muslim friends to dispel any myths I have about it.</p>
<p>Most of the time, the stuff you hear from the media about Islam is entirely wrong.
I will dispel any myths you have about it. Ask away.</p>
<p>The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) described Jesus in one account: </p>
<p>The Prophet (pbuh) said, "I saw Moses, Jesus and Abraham (on the night of my Ascension to the heavens). Jesus was of red complexion, curly hair and a broad chest. Moses was of brown complexion, straight hair and tall stature as if he was from the people of Az-Zutt." -- Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 55, Number 648</p>
<p>Despite having a physical description, Muslims have historically avoided depicting Jesus. We know any depiction of Jesus can be used as a psychological tool to maintain the political or racial status quo. For Christianity the problem is exacerbated by Christ's divine status, as clearly Malcolm X felt strongly about.</p>
<p>" the white man has brainwashed us black people to fasten our gaze upon a blondhaired, blue-eyed Jesus! We're worshiping a Jesus that doesn't even look like us! The blond-haired, blue-eyed white man has taught you and me to worship a white Jesus, and to shout and sing and pray to this God that's his God, the white man's God. The white man has taught us to shout and sing and pray until we die, to wait until death, for some dreamy heaven-in-the-hereafter, when we're dead, while this white man his his milk and honey in the streets paved with golden dollars here on this earth!" </p>
<p>--Malcolm X, Harlem, June 1954</p>
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<h2>Anyway---- Muslims are the Minority in France. So talking about Europe, France is trying its hardest to suppress the Muslims and to prevent Islam from growing.</h2>
<p>Like sydney_bristow87 said, go ahead and ask about Islam before you jump to conclusions because again lets face it, Islam is the fastest, second largest religion in the world. And I hardly doubt that if Jesus was actually God would want a 1.6 Billion of the world's population alone to go astray and to keep going astray.</p>
<p>Just a side note here --- I do not understand how Christians are always befriending the Jews on a religious level when they talk bad about Jesus son of Mary and who instigate his death (according to Christian belief). If anybody killed my father, I would not become their friends or have my proginy befriend them especially with such a high status and a huge role model in civilization who changed the face of the world.</p>
<p>-----Also Allah says in the Quran about the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and all the prophets: "We have sent you forth only as a mercy to mankind." (21:107).<br>
Islam did not come to make anybody's life miserable but to purify it.</p>
<p>I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say "Christians befriending the Jews on a religious level." Judaism is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Without Judaism, it seems nearly impossible that there would be a Christianity, or an Islamic faith. The only relevant "bad talking" Jews would do towards Jesus son of Mary would be to say he isn't the messiah. Originally, those Jews who looked at Jesus as the messiah became, you guessed it, Christians. I'm not quite sure if i understand your latter comments on "If anybody killed my father . . ." but at the very least, I'm pretty sure the Catholic Church, about 30 years ago, apologized to the Jews for claiming for years that the Jews were the ones who killed Jesus. Even if the Jews had some role in it, which they perhaps did, it was primarily the Romans, particularly Pompous Pilot, who killed this man.</p>
<p>I guess in the long run, Charles lost.</p>
<p>People should be able to live wherever they want and co-exist. It's true, there are usually always initial tensions, just like in America there are still racial tensions -- but in the end things will work themselves out as long as people are willing to work towards it.</p>
<p>the racial tensions exist in france due to the fact that things are simply unfair there and racist. the EU recognized this and this issue and seems to have tried to help the situation by giving france more money in order to create more jobs. Hopefully in coming years these people will be able to co-exist relatively peacefully, espcially with a muslim country like Turkey entering the EU.</p>
<p>Christian to a Jew --- "Hey, I love you and I will do anything for you even though you do bash Jesus son of Mary by calling him illegit son and his mom being a fornicator." </p>
<p>Something wrong with that statement? you tell me... </p>
<p>Anyway, we should not be narrow minded or arrogant. The human is disgusting by default. We may look beautiful on the outside but we hold waste on the inside that we constantly have to get rid of. We all eat, but when we start chewing the whole digestive system; it's not a pretty picture. Anyway were all from Adam and Adam is from dust. We are made from clay and when we die, will be stuffed in a hole and the earth will eat us. So lets not think of ourselves superior to one another because truly none of us are.</p>
<p>It's great how your first two paragraphs are juxataposed next to "we should not be narrow minded or arrogant." Do you really stand by what you said in the first two paragraphs? Do you think these are the views of Jews and Christians?</p>
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Hopefully in coming years these people will be able to co-exist relatively peacefully, espcially with a muslim country like Turkey entering the EU.
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<p>If Turkey joins the EU. That will be one hell of a fight.</p>