Understanding Islam-Knowing Islam through Fact-Based Doctrine  

I would have to rate that one as the best statement REV! I feel the same, but I doubt that there would be ice cubes concessions in hell. I would however not wanna go to their "idea" of paradise.

nor would I since i would have no use for the 70 virgins nor for what they will realy get! one seventy year old one!

True, however the Qran is the highest authority. Any Hadith that contradicts it, cannot be accepted, nor can anything else. The Qran is word off god. Hadith and Sunnah are the actions of a man.

Sadly what happens these days is that Hadith are used to take Qranic sentences out of context, things such as "keep your modesty to yourself" is taken to mean "put on a veil and look like a ninja" by Arabs.

There´s the secular Muslim movement, which studies the Qran and its sentences, searching for their meaning through language studies of other works of that era. Sadly this movement is conssidered outcasts by the Sunnis and Shiites, who prefer to follow the intepretation of whatever arab ulama´ they follow.

Thankfully secular islam is rising in the West. Not that we secular Muslims are great, remember, we also produced nutcases like saddam from our ranks, but at least we try and understand our book, istead of taking for granted what others tell us
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-JCM-

But secularism is something Islam is in desperate need of, which is why I support people like Irshad Manji.

Brother juliocstryfe please allow me to make this clear: its the wahabi sect amongst the sunnis who is responsible for all the atrocious and extremist acts that have tarnished the reputation of Islam! secondly its shia muslims not shiite which is an Americanized term and quiet degrading!

The Taliban, Al-qaeeda, Bin Laden all adhere to the wahabi school of thought that is prevalent in Saudi Arabia, Qatar etc! its the very same school of thought that misinterprets the peaceful teachings of Quran for their own nefarious designs!

1) Shia is arabic. This is an English forum. In English its Shi´ite, or shiite. If you´d like to make an arabic forum to speak in arabic terms, feel free to do so, i prefer to follow Mylot rules and post everything in English.

2) Only wahabis to blame? See the terrorists in Indonesia? Not wahabis, but syafi´i sect sunni Muslims. See Hezbollah? Orthodox Shiite. Bombers in Pakistan? Hanafi. Afghans also have a strong following of maliki sect Muslims.

All sects of Islam have produced terrorism, sadly, even secular Muslims like myself have Saddam dirtying our sect. Just one of the signs of the end of times, the sun of knowledge rising from the West, and sinking in the East
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-JCM-

"All sects of Islam have produced terrorism,"

Even Sufi's?

all the best urban

An article on SSufism and Iran

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In fact all Iranians are to some extent Sufis. Sufism, thanks to its poets and luminaries has had an indelible impact in the psyche of the average Iranian. So in a sense Iranian Muslims are very much distinct from Wahhabi Muslims. In fact there is a hidden tug-of-war between the extremist Islam represented by the Mullahs who see Sufism as a challenge to their authority and the average Iranian Muslim that is imbued with Sufi mysticism and its romantic views of Dervishes. After all Iranians respect their poets, or should I say, revere them incommensurably. Jalal-e-ddin Rumi for them is a super saint and Hafiz is their confidant with whom they share the secrets of their hearts and in whose poetries they seek guidance in their daily affairs. Many Iranians have never heard of al Ghazali the greatest Islamic Mullah of all times but you won’t find a single Iranian who has not memorized a verse from Hafiz or Saadi, or has not heard of other Sufi poets such as Attar, Jami or Baba Kuhi.

Poetry is the soul of the Iranians and Sufism is the essence of the Persian poetry. It may come as surprise to many that even Ayatollah Khomeini in his early days prior to becoming intoxicated with power and going on a killing spree of anyone who defied his authority was a Sufi. He wrote eight ghazals (poetries) in Persian where he made fun of the mullahs, emphasized the pointlessness of studying the scriptures and longed for the intoxication of (mystical) wine.

As I said in the Traps of Islam, Sufism is just a façade. When push comes to shove, a Muslim is a Muslim and Islam is what Muhammad taught and not what Rumi or Attar fantasized.

In 1979 all the Iranians forgot about their Sufi tradition and reverted to fanatical Islam overnight and the great Sufi lover Khomeini, turned to be a ruthless bloodthirsty tyrant.

So the Islam most of the Iranians grew up with and the one you became attracted to were not very much different. The truth is however, that isn't Islam. And the danger is that once you are brainwashed into accepting Muhammad as a messenger of God, then you can easily become a terrorist. The passage from Sufism to Terrorism is so smooth that you won't even notice it. It is as easy as reading the Quran and believing it.
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-JCM-

However do take the last part with a pinch of salt, its almost imossible to find history of Islam sites without the usual Qran hating
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-JCM-

Brother Julio Afghans, also follow the wahabi school of thought! believe me living in Pakistan i have first hand experience of their ways!

As for HezboAllah they are not terrorists but freedom fighters who are rightly engaged in the struggle against the tyranny of Zionist Regime!

As for Shiite term, even if you say Shia it would be quiet clear who you are referring to! i am quiet sure Mylot or any other user wont have any complaints against it!

Hezbollah are just a group of people being manipulated by Iran. Did any of those workers that were killed have anything to do with Israel? Nope. People killed with their bombs, civilians? Nope. I dont support Israel´s terrorism, especially from their late bombing of Beirut, but sadly Hezbollah might started as freedom fighters, true. Now theyre just puppets of Iran, who are using them as playthings to push for a Shi´ite uprising.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah

Afghans are a mishmash of school of thoughts, each tribes subscribes to different ideologies, and some of them, saints.

Now on Shi´ites, from wikipedia, there are three terms
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Shi‘a Islam, also Shi‘ite Islam or Shi‘ism (Arabic ???? ši?a)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia
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Vini, Veni, Dormivi
-JCM-

Salam Alakum,

Brother Julio, I fail to comprehend how you can rationalize calling a legitimate and righteous freedom fighting movement as terrorist or puppets of Iran? Its common knowledge that Israel is supported by United States and provided weaponry, logistic, financial and military aid by it but I don’t see you calling them puppets of America why brother? Wasn’t the fact that Israel is the America’s pawn in the creation of middle east revealed so blatantly by Condoleezza Rice during the recent Israel / Lebanon war?
Further more isn’t Israel a tyrannical, oppressor who has forcefully occupied Palestine and parts of Lebanon?

You see when Hezbollah bomb Israel and a few Israelis die but fail to see blood of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese who were mercilessly slaughtered by the IDF?
I was especially surprised when you quoted a reference from wikipedia which can be altered by anyone and is notorious for being biased and prejudiced against Muslims!

And your earlier comment about RohAllah Ayatullah Khomeni was tasteless to say the best! I have family living in Iran as well as Lebanon and believe me I know what I am talking about! If you would like to discuss the Islamic revolution of Iran and what were the conditions for a common Iranian before it I am more than willing to do so! But please I request you to refrain from Issuing degrading statements about a Just, learned and wise man like Ayatullah Khomeni!

a) Ignore what Israel does? My apologies, cant you understand English? What part of "Islrael's terrorism" dont you understand?

b) The ayatollah, wise and kind? Tell that to the tortured sunnis, raped women who get stoned to death and loose their rights.

I suggest reading a newspaper, Iran is as bad as US, and Hezbollah is their proxy, like Israel is to the US.
-JCM-

I am fully capable of comprehending English Thank you very much!

I was taken by surprise cause you quiet vehemently called Hezbollah pawn of Iran and for Israel you just said you didnt agree with terrorism. Your tone was much more critical and hate filled for your fellow Muslims than it was for a oppressor, tyrannical and usurper Zionist regime.

Sunni women being rapped? you got that from where? from western dominated websites? or their media? no offense intended brother but you sitting thousands of miles away base on judgment on such biased mediums? I have been there, i have lived in Iran, heck i have family there and let me tell there's no such thing as sunni women being rapped! its all a conspiracy to defame Iran and its righteous government.

she wasn't claiming ownership to your web site.. she was promoting it... anyone who went to the link, knew it wasn't her site, and knew that it was just a favorite site that she was sharing with others who visited her profile.
the trouble is, when you put up a favorite web site it is fixed to say "my web site" in front of the link. she didn't add those words, mylot did... and there was no way of taking those words off.

anyway, she did take your site link down, so you won't have to worry about her promoting it anymore.
too bad you don't know suitsme, she is really a wonderful lady! and she is far from being a liar or a thief.

Lindasog

You are too funny. You really hit the mark when you pretend to be ignorant of the fact that she posted the link to cite her source. That this is the way one is SUPPOSED to treat a text that is not their own.

heh heh yeah

sirenssanssmile:Hmmm... considering that the link on the profile said "MY WEBSITE" next to the link to a site owned by me, maybe I was dumb to think she was claiming my website as her website. Silly me!
I suppose I should have realized that the words "my site" meant "visit this site" or "LindaSoG's site," but not "MY SITE" as in "this site is mine."
I admire your instinct to protect your friend, but seeing how suitsme and I have worked it out, perhaps its okay for you to retract your claws.

and Elp... I agree. suitsme has been very wonderful about the mix-up and I'm pleased to have had the opportunity to meet her.

Linda,
I'm really glad that you got a chance to met the suitsme that everyone knows and loves. she really is a wonderful person!

Linda, thank you for being so wonderful about this. I've known Suitsme for 20 years (in real life) and she would never steal someone's identity or their words. She is a huge supporter of your work and wanted everyone to know how wonderful you are. I know that sounds corny, but it's absolutely true...:)