What Development ?
Reader comment on item: [The Issue of Compulsion in Religion:] Islam is What Its Followers Make of It
in response to reader comment: you're right about Islam being the biggest threat in the world

Submitted by Shailendra (India), Dec 5, 2007 at 03:27

Hello Sir,

Thats the thing mising in your philosophies. You people tell that you are developed, but what about the philosophical development. In U.S. there is a 60-75% chance of a collage going girl becoming pregnant. What the hell you do with such a development. Since decades, you people are suffering from personal problems in lifes like dippressions, divorces, etc. Actually, ISLAM is better when compared to christainity. According to its rituals, its is HINDUISM in pure form. It came out of anti-idiol worship revolt in hindus. Muslim rulers destroved hindu temples, because in quran it is said

Quran 9:5
"Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolators wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."

Quran 47:4
When you meet the unbelievers in the Jihad strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly. Then grant them their freedom or take ransom from them, until War shall lay down her burdens.

Quran 73:12
We have in store for the unbelievers heavy fetters and a blazing fire, choking food and harrowing torment: on the day when the earth shall quiver with all its mountains, and the mountains crumble into heaps of shifting sand.

Quran 22:19-22:23
Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers. Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. They shall be lashed rods of iron. Whenever, in their anguish, they try to escape from Hell, back they shall be dragged, and will be told: 'Taste the torment of the Conflagration!'

Quran 5:51
O you who believe! Take not the Jews and Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is one of them. Lo allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.

Quran 5:64
"The Jews say: "Allah's hand is tied up". Be their hands tied up and be they Accursed for the blasphemy that they utter. Nay, Both his hands (Allah's) are widely outstretched: He giveth and Spendeth as he Pleaseth. But the revelation that cometh to Thee (Mohammed) from Allah increaseth in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. Amongst them we have placed Enmity and Hatred till the day of Judgement. Every time they kindle the fire of War, Allah doth extinguish it; But they ever strive to do mischief on earth. And Allah loveth not people who do mischief."

Quran 33:26
"And those of the People of the Book (Jews) who Aided Them (Meccans) - Allah did take them from their strongholds and cast terror into their hearts, so that Some Ye Slew and Some Ye made Prisoners. And he made you heirs of their Lands, their Houses, and their Goods. And of a Land, which Ye had not frequented before (Khaybar) and Allah has Power over all things."

Quran 59:2-5
"He it is who hath caused those of the People of the Scripture (Jews) who disbelieved to go forth from their homes unto the first exile. You deemed not that they would go forth, while they deemed that their strongholds would protect them from Allah. But Allah reached them from a place whereof they recked not and cast terror in their hearts so that they ruined their houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers. So learn a lesson, O you who have eyes!

So, for muslims the truth is that "NO IDOL WORSHIP"

Some Muslim thinkers have made a distinction between Islam and Muhammadanism and they have preferred the word Islam to Muhammadanism. The former is a more universal concept than the latter, the truths taught in it being impersonal in origin. This is the meaning of Sruti in the Hindu or the Sanatan Dharma tradition of India; the sages of the Upanishads, or of the Srutis, were only discoverers of eternal spiritual truths, which can be rediscovered by any one else also at any time. But the latter, namely, Muhammadanism, refers to a person as the sanction for the teachings it expounds. Without the personal founder, the teaching cannot stand. Such teachings constitute, as I said earlier, the Smrti dimension of a religion, which is limited by place, time, and history. The Hindus consider even their Bhagavad-Gita as a Smrti in form though a Sruti in content, since it deals with ethical and spiritual truths only and not social rules and regulations.

In the Hindu tradition, unlike in all other religious traditions, there is a clear distinction between its Sruti and its Smrti elements. The Sruti stands for the body of eternal and impersonal truths valid for all times and peoples. And the Smrti stands for the temporal and the local elements; and because they are temporal and local, they cannot be universal. And Hinduism emphasizes that they need to be changed age after age, in response to changing socio-economic conditions. The Sruti is represented by the Vedas generally, and by the Upanishads particularly. They contain truths of the spiritual dimension of life discovered by different sages, among whom were many women also. These truths, like any truth, about the physical world, are eternal and are capable of being re-discovered by any human being equipped with moral purity and mental penetration. Among these truths is the innate divinity of man, the unity of God as infinite and non-dual consciousness, which is the Self of man and nature, man's capacity to realize this truth in life, and the availability of different paths to realize God. The Hindu mind discovered the presence of these truths in every world religion. And the mystics of every religion, including the Sufi mystics of Islam, apart from the Prophet himself, have borne witness to these eternal spiritual truths. This is what India calls the Sanatana Dharma of any religious tradition.

The Smrti is represented by the various law books of the Hindu tradition, like Manu Smrti, Yajnavalkya Smrti, Apasthamba dharma-sutras etc. They deal with rules to regulate the day-to-day life of people individually and collectively; they deal with subjects such as food, dress, marriage, inheritance etc. This is what India calls the yuga dharma dimension of any religious tradition, the dharma relevant for a particular yuga, age or epoch. The Hindu tradition, even in its orthodox form, provides for the giving up of old Smrtis and the creation and adoption of new Smrtis.

That is why, in the long history of the Hindu tradition, there have been many Smrtis, but only one Sruti; and in this modern period, the most arresting fact of Hindu life is the rejection of the authority of the old Smrtis, and the free and fearless adoption of a new Smrti by the people, in response to the onward march of history and the demands of the modern age. The age-old experience of the Hindu tradition demonstrates the truth that the changing of these Smrti elements of any tradition, which become at a later age, what in Greek mythology is called, procrustean beds, not only will not harm that tradition but, on the contrary, will only strengthen that tradition, and make it better fitted to achieve human development.

The Hindu tradition recognizes the fact that, with respect to human development and fulfilment, these Smrti elements of a tradition are like the bark of a tree; as the tree grows, the bark also must grow side by side; if not, the bark will choke the tree and destroy it. But a living tree will cast off its old bark and create for itself a new bark suitable to its growth. With regard to Smrti, in general, this far seeing and orthodox national wisdom finds beautiful expression in the pithy saying of Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886), which presents the essence of Hindu wisdom aptly:

‘The Mughal coins have no currency under the (British East India) Company's rule.'

One of the features that helped to sustain the impressive millennia-long continuity of the Hindu tradition is the general acceptance of this dominance of the Sruti over the Smrti. This produced two great results, namely, the emergence of a galaxy of mystics and saints and reformers, and the high respect they commanded from the people, even though some of them preached openly against several aspects of the teachings of the current Hindu Smrtis. If, on the other hand, the Smrtis, what in Islam is called the Sariyah, had dominated the Hindu tradition, these mystics and saints and reformers would have been silenced or destroyed. In our own time, a Vivekananda (1863-1902) appeared, and he preached strongly against several beliefs and practices advocated by the Hindu Smrtis, showing them to be obsolete and enemies of human development and fulfilment; and yet he was accepted, respected, and honoured even by the orthodox tradition. This stands in sharp contrast to the tragic fate of several lovable saints and innovators in the wide spectrum of the Semitic tradition

This is actually the end of islam. But, Hindus should accept Muslims as their brothers. Saying anyone to get converted to islam is wrong. Actually, even muslims follow the same religion, the religion of humanity thats "HINDUISM"

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.