well muslims have different views than most religions, and because they're different, many cultures feel offended by them, but being different is not a bad thing, but in reality everything different always endures some sort of prejudice. I am hindu and i have no prejudice against them, but not every person thinks like us india forum members. 😃
and i could also say the same about christianity, they have a problem with jews, muslims, and in the 80's-90's there were many problems in south india between christians and hindu.
Edited by usachick821 - 18 years ago[quote=shriman]So, why is this happening and why can't the muslims teach their kids not to promote terrorism and not to blow themselves up for their religion... when that is not what Islam promotes.[/quote]
See, its not that Muslims dont teach their children that terrorism is wrong. Even within the community, there exists a minority of religious fanatics.
And as Bas already mentioned, this is not restricted to Islam alone. Every religion has its own set of fanatics, be it Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism, Judaism, etc..
The Nazis were brainwashed by Hitler to create terrorism amongst Jews - they were white Christians.
On the other hand, Jews evicted Thousands of Arabs from their homes in Palestine/Israel. I wonder if that war-ravaged area will ever see peace in my lifetime...
The American Government waged war in Iraq with the lame excuse that Saddam had Nuclear weapons and killed hundreds of civilians in the process. Later on, everyone knew that the so-called "Intelligence Report" was a fake...
So on that account, one cannot entirely blame Islam for "creating animosity" all over the world, as you have mentioned. There is no smoke without fire, IMO.
Unfortunately for Islam, the word "jihad" is misinterpreted by religious fanatics who take it to an extraordinary level and resort to violence.
The 9/11 attacks, London Bombings, are atrocious acts which have earned condemnation from Muslims and Non-Muslims alike.
On an end note, every house has a dustbin. But that does not mean that every item in the house is trash. The same principle can be applied to religious communities.
sriman....you have opened a can of worms.
here are few points to note....
1)the people who destroyed the temples were medival conquerers and politicians...they were not muslims. there were spanish conquerors who commited sacrilege in mayan temples and there were baptist christians who thought hinduism was a ignorant backward pagan religion(so should we blame christianity for it?). there are multiple wars fought in the name of religion, most significantly the dark crusades(when the real reason was gaining control over the costantinople , an important place in the historic spice/silk routes). let us not blame a religion for something that was politically motivated/done by a fanatic but blamed on the religion.
2) now for terrorism, terrorism is not encouraged by any religion but by individual using it for thier individual motives/power hunger/some fanatical idea about how world should be .once again let us not point a finger towards a certain religion or faith. have you forgotten srilankan terrorists, naxalites and sikhs fighting from the golden temple(all of them hindus).
personally i think that muslims have earned a bad name bcoz they started as a warrior race in the one of the most harsh living conditions . apart from it they are great sticklers for thier faith. somehow a prejudice was devloped against them and has been passed down over generations. the fact that most muslim dominant countries have had a very turbulent political history and at times the power lay with fanatics has not helped either . however a clear understanding of thier lifestyle and customs (why and how they came into being) is very important before we pass a judgement on them.
Wow!! A very heated topic!! Ok here are my $0.02:
I am Hindu but I have muslim friends! And I respect them very much! Osama bin Laden and his group of terrorists are responsible for 9/11 attacks and possibly London attacks too! It wasn't all muslims! Al-Qaeda is a group of Muslims that are violent, but it doesn't mean all Muslims are terrorists! It seems that all muslims are responsible becasue these terrorists make it look like it is written in the Quran that it is ok to do all of this and they misuse the term Jihad!! Jihad and Quran have nothing to do with terrorism! Islam is a very peaceful and simple religion! Terrorists can be from every religion and race, so let's not point fingers at one group, even though Al-Qaeda is mostly muslims! We are looking at a minority that exists within the world's 2nd largest religion! We have to punish the people who did this, regardless of religions! People in the US must know the Timothy McVeigh case, the man who was responsible for the Oklahoma city bombing in I believe 1993-96 ! Was he muslim? No! He was a white Christian man and he was executed some years ago! Osama we have to remember is not a true muslim and neither are his little terrorist dummies! They don't have a religion. but they misuse and abuse Islam becasue they think they are right, which they are not! We shouldn't be blaming muslims but the people who claim they are devout muslims and yet do all these horrible acts, and every other terrorist and racial grops like the Klu Klux Klan as well!! I hope I am understood! Sorry for the long post!!!!
Bye all!
Monica!😃
