Hatred only brings hatred

Submitted by Joe Christian (Canada), Sep 12, 2007 at 08:46

I am an Orthodox Coptic Christian and i would like to urge you to not hate muslims. Like I was born Coptic, many of them were born Muslim. It is unjust to hate them for the actions of a few terrorists.

Although Islam may not be inciting peace against non-muslims, be that as it may, we should not go to its level and hate those that hate us. What then have we done different if we hate them back? This is not the way. The way to treat muslims is with the same dignity all human life deserves.

A muslim man once tried to convince me, in public, to hate jews. I said "I refuse to hate". There were no jews around, but I still refused to hate them despite his provocation to hate them. My response to him was this: "If i was surrounded by jewish people who wanted me to hate muslims, and there were no muslims around me at the time, would you not also like me to say to them :"I REFUSE to hate muslims?"

For every bad Muslim, i can show you an equally bad Christian or Jew. It is important therefore to not generalise people, but to separate the person from his/her religion.

This is paramount as a Christian, for God allows His sun to shine on the good and the wicked. We too hve to be as just as God and love everyone equally.

I read a comment about a man who has never been attacked or suffered by muslims nor by islam and he has admitted hating them. I have suffered from muslims and Islam and we refuse to hate the individual.

The cause of hatred between muslims against Christians in Egypt is simple: When there is poverty, a minority will be picked on. Christians are the minority. Given that Islamic teaching encourages religious discrimination, it is in no doubt that many christians bear the brunt of such situations. However, the answer is STILL not to hate them.

If you hate them, you are no better than them. What have we done differently? If I am hated because i am a Christian, and my faith tells me to love my enemy, and i find that I cannot love my enemy and i prefer to hate my enemy, then being a Christian has done nothing for me as I'm not a follower of it.

To analyse Islam and say :"Yes.. this religion has many discrepancies and many teachings that are questionable" - this is OK. Everyone has the right to learn about something and make conclusions for themselves. This is fine. But then to start hating someone for their faith is awful. If support Arsenal football club; should I be attacked for this by those who think it is a useless team? Aresenal are just a team. I am NOT the club I support, even though I may wish that they win every match. Then the question arises: should we be hating others over the teams they support? If this is the case, we should then ban football. I can see why those are saying we should "ban" religion. What peace does it bring. If your religion does not encourage you to love your enemies, can we ban such religion?? Would you like that?

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