a religion of peace... but not peaceful

Submitted by jl (United States), Mar 23, 2016 at 13:24

i dont see the fall of islam. apart from religion a faith can also be seen as cultural. the culture of islam has been strong and pervasive for generations so much so that it is has been imbedded for centuries among the tribal peoples of the middle east. this can also be said of the middle eastern christians and to some degree those of sephardic judaism. islam professes to be a faith of peace. i can live with a statement of belief. there are millions of muslims who are peaceful. i have never heard of an ahmadi, ishmaili, or bahai suicide bomber. and there are some sunni and shiite that are peaceful. hundreds of millions are.

but the problem with islam is that is at war with itself. there will never be peace in islam until the shiites and sunnis accept each other and when both groups accept the bahais, ahmadis, and ismailis as a matter of tolerance. their intolerance for each other and intolerance of minority faiths even within their faith is a foreshadow of how islam is intolerant with those who are of other faiths. unfortunately the koran is not the hallmark for tolerance as those who are considered apostate are subject to scrutiny along with the unbeliever. in fact the word kafir (unbeliever) is a derogatory term. if you are war with yourself then how can you find peace with others? even in non middle eastern islamic countries there is even a struggle to accept the wahabist teachings verses the islamic teachings that have been professed for centuries (indonesia and those muslims of guyana for example) at issue for these communities is giving up their culture for a more arabisized culture. islam is doomed to to be seen as a professed religion of peace at war with itself and those around it... "peace" but not peaceful.

its very odd that islam is growing in europe but what goes unreported is that some from the middle east are secretly turning to atheism and a minority few to christianity. but even with that said culturally i see the middle east as forever islamic due to the cultural aspects of islam. however i do not see the fall of islam... but i do not see the peace either (so long as the wahabist and salafist ideologies slowly entangles world wide islamic thinking). i think the maxim will always apply, those who live by the sword will die by the sword whether you are muslim, christian, or jew. perhaps those of practicing non violence like the the ahmadis, bahais, and ismailis are on to something (as long as they are not wiped out by intolerance).

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