Comments for Islam and the Definition of Religion at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 13 out of 13 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sun, 19 May 2013 20:55:28 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-16929 Kimo890, arguing from which is successful on Earth at a given momment is frivolous and can easily be countered by asking why Islam hasn't already taken over the world. Or are you saying that Lepanto and Vienna prove that Islam is NOT the way to God? - jason taylor Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:56:15 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-11433 The followers of Judaism and Christianity, now they felt sorry, because their old generations upset/annoyed their God as well as their prophets, so the God replace their religions with the third and the last religion, AL-Islam, and its prophet was Mohammed(Ahmed)and its book was Al-Quran, that is why now became jelous from Al-Islam and its followers and started building false statements against them all. I hope all of you who follow other religions other than Al-Islam, say the truth about it and start follow it so may Allah(God)foregive you all. God bless all of us. - sabir Wed, 16 May 2012 08:19:05 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-6072 Sadly most people speak about Islam based on impressions they have rather than on facts, and fail to research the true context in which certain verses were revealed. Take time to study the true history of the Prophet Mohammed as well as the history of how Christians and Jews travelled to Islamic societies for protection to practice their religion in freedom rather than persecution and you will see how human rights and freedom of religion truly emanated from Islam. Unfortunately the so-called Muslims themselves who misunderstand their own religion and have become cult-like fanatics have given Islam a bad reputation. God clearly states in the Quran: “Let there be no compulsion in religion.  Truth has been made clear from error.  Whoever rejects false worship and believes in God has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that never breaks.  And God hears and knows all things.” (Quran 2:256) - Reem Said Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:40:15 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4858 Circa 1595 the Russian ambassador to Turkey returned to Moscow after seven years in Turkey, and reported to Czar Peter. After seven years observance of a Moslem society, he said, "Islam is most appealing to the uneducated and simple-minded." The definition of religion is probably the most controversial today. Anything goes, but the "most unhuggable" of religions, per Salmon Rushdie, is Islam. Islam is merely an organization designed for world domination, one that disenfranchises half its population,keeps them ignorant, proposes murder for those who disagree, and allows murder of those who would leave. It will be the number one problem of the world for at least the next one hundred years. - Al Nettles Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:59:17 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4849 A group of people who base their beliefs on a desire of world domination by force is not a religion, it is a mob. Freedom of Religion does not mean we give those that believe they have the God given authority to kill those who disagree with them, the rights afforded by the Constitution of the United States and The Bill of Rights. It is not religious tolerance to allow a mob mentality to be considered a religion, it is ignorance to the facts. - end times Sat, 11 Sep 2010 08:32:09 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4523 Islam’s founder or aides in hindsight were very clever mixing both true and false about the Old and New Testament, true and false about God, leaving its adherents to worship and follow most any interpretation suited to the occasion. The best touchstone for me is their story about how God provided falsehood to the people by putting Judas on the cross and making the people only “see” Jesus on the cross, while Jesus made his escape. A story of a god who perpetrates a lie is not a truth from the True God, but perhaps a story from his onetime First in Command . - Wayne Sun, 18 Jul 2010 02:27:12 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4522 believe me that's one point of view everyone should ask himself what really is islam and why is it growing not shrinking may be it is the strait way to god - KIMO890 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:33:02 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4505 I must say that I disagree with Darwish and Sultan. I think that the biggest issue we face in dialogue with Islam is the fact that there are so many different Muslim groups (Benedict himself has said this and I firmly with the pope). For example, as someone who grew up as a Bosnian Muslim, I can truly say I have nothing in common with Arab Muslims. Saying that Islam is not a religion also denies the reality and existence of Sufism. Throughout my childhood, I have seen so many pious, tolerant (in the true sense of the word, not the euphemistic definition of liberals), God-fearing people in my family and outside of the family circle. I could never possibly think of Islam as merely a political ideology. So, where does this leave us? Perhaps when speaking out about the inadequacies or flaws of Islam, we have to make sure to mention what group are we talking about. We need to put thoughtful distance between these good people and the bad "policies" (especially terrorisim) associated with Islam because of various Muslim groups. Then we can have a dialogue--I do agree with that in the essay. - Emina Melonic Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:17:49 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4504 Whether you agree or disagree with what Muslims are alleged to believe and do is only one part of the issue. The issue that is more intellectually and politically tantalizing is whether one can define or redefine 'religion' to suit his or her purposes. Are we embarking into Wonderland where Humpty Dumpty says: "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less."? This question is not so arcane, as we see all sorts of redefinitions in our current culture, e.g., social justice, equality, Progressives, freedom of religion, of speech, terrorists. The list could go on. It is easy to get rid of a problem by redefining it so that it sounds like a solution, and on the contrary by redefining something good and worthwhile as a problem or injustice. - senex Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:12:41 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4503 Which is more like an anti-Christ, a rich and worldly successful warlord prophet, with multiple wives, speaking in the name of a god of pure will, remote and threatening whose moral requirements seem hateful to lowly humans, or a scientific materialist who makes man the highest power in the universe and who bows to blind chance as the creator? Is it a tossup? Thoughts? - Joe Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:04:38 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4501 Catholic apologist Hillaire Belloc beat Darwish to the punch years earlier inveighing not only against Islamic extremism bu the Protestants, who were classified, in his view, as outside the "Universal Church." Belloc famously said, "The faith is Europe. Europe is the faith." As Pat Buchanan notes in his book, "Day of Reckoning," the faith of Europe "has been discarded and displaced by secularism -- and the triumphal return of Islam to the continent from which it was largely expelled centuries ago." Buchanan quotes Belloc as proving to be prophetic by quoting the Frenchman: "It has always seemed to me possible, and even probably, that here would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between Christian culture and what has been fore more than a thousand years its greatest opponent." Buchanan then adds, "That tremendous struggle has been renewed." Although Islam has displaced Catholicism, by the numbers, as being the largest religion on earth -- "religion" to be called into question -- nonetheless, Buchanan questions whether Islam can play a hegemonic or dominant role in the destiny of mankind because, among other things, there is little that unites Muslims, who are separated by ethnicity, nationality, culture and race. "If faith is their strength, diversity is their weakness," Buchanan writes and while Zionism unites them, they have fought more wars with each other than with Israel. Per corollary, my own view is that division, not unity, is what is tearing America apart today, along with the creeping totalitarianism, more subtle but just as pernicious as Orwell's dystopian vision of 1984. Today's "tele-screens" are not as obvious but just as effect in monitoring the so-called free individual who is slowly bowing down to Big Brother as his god. This is the greatest threat: the World Government in formation in which "War is Peace" and "Freedom is Slavery". - Joseph Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:12:07 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4500 Islam is certainly a religion. Although there is indeed no distinction between spiritual and temporal authorities in Islam, it is highly dubious to suggest that their worship of Allah is all a false front for a politcal project. Which is not to say that Islam isn't a false or heretical religion, and even the cause of much evil in the world, based on its specific teachings. But Darwish's criteria for what qualifies as a "religion" seems to me to be a subtle attempt to "tame" religion in general by deligitimizing any religion that does not fit the Procrustean bed of modern "natural rights" ideology. This approach is no boon to Catholics. - Michael F. Hickman Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:50:44 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/islam-and-the-definition-of-religion.html#comment-4499 A great column about two great, courageous women. Reminded me of this from Hilaire Belloc's "The Great Heresies" (1938): Millions of modern people of the . . . civilization of Europe and America . . . have forgotten all about Islam. They have never come in contact with it. They take for granted that it is decaying, and that, anyway, it is just a foreign religion which will not concern them. It is, as a fact, the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had, and may at any moment become as large a menace in the future as it has been in the past. - Brad Miner Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:11:23 +0100