Re: Article by Rick on Muslim/Islam encounter

Hi 30275,

I agree with all your attitudes and liked reading about them. I think our attitudes about being non-confrontational (disliking ruffling feathers, conflict) is rare. Being non-confrontational (just like anything that doesn't validate this world), is usually criticized as being contrary to the attitudes necessary for being accepted as a "proper" person. I truly appreciate a person's heartfelt affinity for peace (we were made in the image of God and the Paradise of The Garden of Eden is our natural environment). Our introduction into this world of conflict and corruption is very harsh for those who have peace and harmony in their heart and mind (hence, depression). In short, the bloodiness of history seems to be dominated by the activities of Catholicism and Islam (even though the Catholic church is twice as old as Islam) because the people that CALL themselves "good"...CALL themselves that for a reason,......because they really aren't dedicated to peace and harmony. Look at all the GENOCIDE (ethnic cleansing) in the world, and let's not forget about The Hundred Years war. These were all caused by factions that were miltant in the name of God and because people aren't satisfied simply practicing "goodNESS" (as it says in the bible), but choose to actually think that they can be GOOD (which is an ABSOLUTE, "No one is GOOD but God alone" Mark 10:18, Luke 18:9). I would like to believe that Islam does not have an edict to kill, but the origin of such an edict to kill would probably be from an ancient tribal warrior conflict to protect a royal kingdom. At any rate, I see no evidence that most modern Muslims would be willing to carry it out (if it does exist in The Quran).

I live in New York City and have been exposed to Muslims from Africa and American Muslims from the Black Community. Some Muslims from the black community are MILITANT, but that is not because they are Muslim, it is because they choose to make a RACIAL issue more important to them than their spiritual beliefs. Other than this and the extremists that cause terrorism, I have not known Muslims to be anything but peaceful and gentle.

If such a discussion as this helps us understand and interact with our fellow human beings the way Christ would have, then this is the right forum for this discussion (because it supports the Christian lifestyle).

I'll put a link on the bottom about the genocides that have happened and are still happening. Rwanda happened while the world was grieving about the Nazi holocaust and all the "Good" people were saying "Never again" (big talk).

Evil is illogical, peace and harmony are logical. I think modern Muslims would agree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide#Rwanda

http://www.genocidewatch.org/