, makes some interesting observations about the Koran, the irreconcilability of Islam and the West, and the “ecumenic” Catholic response to same:
PH to LA:
I have been reading more of your past posts such as “Islam: the problem and the solution” and “The new dhimmitude” and feel so much happier and relieved that there are other people out there who actually “get it”.
As Joel, one of your commenters, says, “Judaism and Christianity are both based on Isaac, and then Jacob, and then all of Jacob’s descendents, being the chosen, through whom would come the Messiah. The difference between this theology and that of Mohammedanism cannot be reconciled.”
Around the time of 9/11 I was given the Qur’an by a Muslim classmate in a professional computer course I was taking. Reading it was the most clarifying experience I could have had on the subject of Islam. Whenever someone attempts to equate Islam with Christianity I make sure that they understand the difference and don’t accept any of the “We all pray to the same god” nonsense.
In a way, the very real evil that is Islam and the way it deviously subverts Christianity and Judaism compounds and confirms my belief in Christ’s message of salvation.
I think most “liberals” view Christianity as a joke and therefore weak and assume that Islam will be the same once the muslims experience the “delights” of the West. Therefore, they do not see the oncoming Islamic train that is coming no matter how much carnage is done as it careens headlong at us. They need to believe there is such a thing as Moderate Islam, that way they don’t have to really deal with the obvious problem—Islam itself.
LA to PH:
> I think most “liberals” view Christianity as a joke and therefore weak and assume that Islam will be the same once the muslims experience the “delights” of the West.
That is an excellent point and one worth making over and over.
As for the supposed commonality of Islam with Judaism and Christianity because of the common Abrahamanic root, that is just your standard liberal thought process at work. Hey, if you go back far enough in time, or if you go down far enough in our biological or chemical structure, you find we’re the same. Muslims and we both have the same molecular chemisty. Does that mean we share a commonality that will enable us to get along? Same with the common Abrahamanic background. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just words intended to lull people.
In the ’80s, Gore met with an Asian American group and said, “On the electronic level we’re all the same.” Oh how profound. Yes, and on the electronic level humans are the same as trees and rocks, too.
Congratulations for actually having read the Koran. I have trouble getting into it, myself.
PH to LA
When I say I have read the Qur’an I didn’t mean mean word by word, page by page—only a masochist could achieve such a feat:-) I have the King Fahd English translation version which I believe is the Wahhabi version. It is well footnoted with precise doctrinal instruction and supporting references to the Hadiths. It also comes with a glossary and “marvelous” short essays on such topics as “Biblical evidence of Jesus being a servant of God and having no share in divinity”, “Finality of proofs on the fabrication of the story of the cross”, “Biblical prophecy on the advent of Muhammad” (any biblical reference to the Holy Spirit is actually to Mohammad!), “Jesus a servant of Allah” etc etc.
To think that we can have some sort of ecumenical dialogue with these people!
… I have found that the Catholic Church as I experience it here in Oz seems to be caught in a thrall between the Churchs’ ‘Magisterium’ and simultaneously its ‘meekness’ and as a result it is self content and blase.
As an example, when Yasser Arafat died our new assistant priest dedicated his homily to some barely coherant homage to Yasser as a man of his people, working for his people, who some might call a terrorist but others a man of peace. I sat through it dumbfounded and angered. I confronted the priest at the end of mass (not harshly) and asked him what was his point. He waffled on about not being judgmental, see things through the eyes of others etc. I pointed to my kids who were playing and said that Yasser would kill them in an instant if it would serve his cause, the priest muttered “ecumenism,” to which I said how can we have ecumenism with people who are diametrically oppossed to everything we hold true about our religion?
At this point he got stroppy and said the Bishop wants us to be ecumenical. I said we should be converting the Muslims not condoning their lies at which he smiled in a superior manner and asked me what I believe in—I said the Trinity and the resurrection what else is there? He made no answer, just looked angry so I said I don’t mean to upset him but want him to know that I don’t appreciate what he had to say about Yasser and left it at that.