A Little Perspective On Religion

In this video Reza Aslan really breaks down some of the widely held assumptions about Islam I see regularly in US media. Not being Muslim myself, I don't really know for sure if all he says is true, but I'm very skeptical of the criticism of Islam as it's painted with such a wide brush in the US:

 

He is being disingenuous and playing with statistics that suit his agenda. I literally can't stand guys like him.

Here's the thing. Islam (and every other religion) should be evaluated, not by current statistics, but by what the originator of the religion actually taught and did, and the writings held sacred by that religion.

For instance, the guy in the video claims that Islam is not violent, but it's only when a violent person brings their personal violence TO Islam that you see it. That's just blatantly ridiculous. A simple reading of the history of Muhammad and his leadership decisions and actions, and teachings reveals a fundamentally violent core perspective. It's only a modern revisionist reworking of his teachings by some more liberal wings of Islam that have redefined Jihad, which is at the core of Islam, to make it an internal personal struggle. It was not for Muhammad and his followers if we allow them to speak for themselves.

 

His argument seems, from the perspective of someone looking in at both religions, similar to how Christians represent the Old Testament. Yes it is a Christian writing that represents God's will and directive for the people of this world, but it doesn't represent the way Christians feel their religions and it's people should act today.

The only difference I can see is that Christians say they have a new directive from god that is written down in a newer text, while Islam seems to just interpret their scripture with more of an emphasis on certain teachings.

 

I won't get into how and why certain teachings change from Old Testament to New Testament because while it's a fascinating topic, it has nothing directly to do with your original post and the video. The point being that the originator of Christianity is Jesus, and it should be evaluated by his leadership decisions, actions and teachings. So should Muhammad and Islam. The two originators could not be more different or more opposite in their personal behavior, leadership decisions, and instructions and commands required of their followers.

Honestly, there is a fair amount a familiarity with Jesus in our culture, but a LOT of ignorance about Muhammad. Anyone who reads Muhammad's life story from the historical record is going to discover that there's lots of "splaining to do".

 

But Jesus was a part of God (for lack of a better description) before he was born on earth. So the old testament still represented the beliefs of the Christian God and Jesus at the time, correct? Christians just believe he changed this teachings correct? Why couldn't Muhammad's life story be similar in that it doesn't represent the beliefs of the Islamic God?

 

There is a LOT of backstory I'm gonna leave out of this response. Here's the short and to the point of it.

Both Christianity and Islam believe that there is ONE single spokesman, representative of God, prophet, et al; who is the FINAL word from God to humanity.

Christianity holds that one to be Jesus. Therefore his teachings and actions are the ultimate barometer of the religion.

Islam holds that one to be Muhammad. Same applies to him and his actions and teachings.

There is no Christianity without Jesus, and no Islam without Muhammad. Christians have no right to a claim to true Christianity if they change or modify what Jesus did or taught. Same applies for modern Muslims and Muhammad.

Both claim that their leader was a perfect representation of their God. In fact both leaders claimed that for themselves.

 

I have seen the video. I think he makes an utterly reasonable point.

 

He was reasonable. He was also agenda driven and wrong.

 

But believing in a religion involves interpreting the teachings of said religions leader/God's word by it's followers and applying it to their life. If interpretation is involved, then what would be more telling in exposing the true root of a religion's teaching... the interpretations of people that don't follow said religion, and don't believe in it, or the actions of those that believe in it wholeheartedly and try to follow it's tenants?

You're saying Islam is a violent religion because you believe Muhammad was a violent leader (I wouldn't know either way on that one), but logically, if it were, most of it's followers would be violent. To that point, what Reza is saying above is that the great majority of the billions of Muslim people aren't violent, and don't believe in oppressing women, or Shiria Law. That is a statement backed by all of the predominately Muslim countries that are, for the most part peaceful, and don't really participate in Islamic Extremist activities much.

Look at this list of all the predominately Muslim countries :

RankCountryPopulationMuslim %Main sectReligion and (state= sharia)Type of governmentMilitary power (active troops)GDP (PPP) per capita(US$)
123123123123
1 Indonesia228,582,00086.1%[3]SunniNonePresidential republic316,000[4]3,725
2 Pakistan172,800,000[5]97%[6]Sunni/Shi’aIslamic state[7]Parliamentary democracy528,000[8]2,592
3 Bangladesh162,221,000[9]89%[10]SunniSecular [11]Parliamentary democracy120,000[12]1,378
4 Nigeria154,279,000[13]50%[14]SunniNonePresidential Federal Republic78,500[15]2,035
5 Egypt77,100,000[16]90%[17]SunniState religion[18]Semi-presidential republic450,000[19]5,491
6 Turkey71,517,100[20]99.8%[21]SunniSecular[22]Parliamentary democracy514,850[23]12,888
7 Iran70,495,782[24]98%[25]Shi’aIslamic state[26]Presidential republic andTheocracy545,000[27]10,624
8 Sudan39,379,35870%[28]SunniNoneAuthoritarian republic104,500[29]2,172
9 Algeria33,769,669[30]99%[31]SunniState religion[32]Presidential republic127,500[33]6,538
10 Afghanistan32,738,376[34]99%[35]SunniIslamic state[36]Presidential republic70,000[37]724
11 Morocco33,723,41899%[38]SunniState religion[39]Constitutional monarchy196,300[40]4,076
12 Iraq31,234,000[41]97%[42]Shi’a/SunniState religionParliamentary democracy254,418[43]3,600
13 Malaysia27,730,000[44]60.4%[45]SunniState religion[46]Parliamentary democracy and EM110,000[47]13,315
14 Saudi Arabia27,601,038[48]100%[6][49]SunniWahhabiIslamic state[50]Absolute monarchy199,500[51]23,243
15 Uzbekistan27,372,00088%[52]SunniSecularPresidential republic53,000[53]2,344
16 Yemen23,013,37699%[54]Sunni/Shi’aIslamic state[55]Presidential republic65,000[56]2,335
17 Syria19,405,00090%[57]SunniNone[58]Authoritarian republic296,000[59]4,448
18 Kazakhstan15,217,711[60]57%[61]SunniSecular[62]Presidential republic65,800[63]11,086
19 Niger13,272,67990%[64]SunniSecular[65]Parliamentary democracy5,300[66]666
20 Burkina Faso13,228,00050%[67]SunniSecularSemi-presidential republic6,000[68]1,253
21 Mali11,995,40290%[69]SunniSecularSemi-presidential republic7,350[70]1,031
22 Senegal11,658,00094%[71]SunniSecularSemi-presidential republic9,400[72]1,685
23 Tunisia10,383,57798%[73]SunniState religion[74]Presidential republic35,000[75]7,473
24 Guinea10,211,43785%[76]SunniSecularMilitary junta9,700[77]1,074
25 Somalia9,558,66699.9%[78]SunniState religionCoalition government10,000600
26 Azerbaijan8,676,000[79]93.4%[80]Shi’aSecular[81]Presidential republic95,0007,656
27 Tajikistan7,215,70097%[82]SunniSecular[83]Presidential republic6,000[84]1,841
28 Sierra Leone6,294,774[85]60%[86]SunniNonePresidential republic13,000[87]692
29 Libya6,173,579[88]97%[89]SunniState religion[90]JamahiriyaRevolution76,000[91]12,277
30 Jordan5,568,56595%[92]Sunnistate religionConstitutional monarchy100,700[93]4,886
31 United Arab Emirates5,432,746[94]76%[95]SunniState religion[96]Federal constitutional monarchy50,500[97]37,293
32 Kyrgyzstan5,356,86975%[98]SunniSecular[99]Semi-presidential republic12,500[100]-
33 Turkmenistan5,110,02389%[101]SunniSecular[102]Parliamentary republic26,000[103]5,154
34 Chad5,041,69054%[104]SunniSecularPresidential republic30,350[105]1,675
35 Lebanon4,196,45360%[106]Shi’a/SunniNoneParliamentary democracy72,100[107]11,270
36 Kuwait3,399,637[108]85%[109]Sunni/Shi’aState religion[110]Constitutional monarchy15,500[111]39,305
37 Albania3,170,048[112]70%[113]SunniNoneParliamentary republic9,500[114]6,897[115]
38 Mauritania3,124,000[116]99.99%[117]SunniIslamic state[118]Military junta15,750[119]2,008
39 Oman2,577,000[120]93%[121]IbadiState religion[122]Absolute monarchy41,700[123]23,967
40 Kosovo[a]2,100,000[124]90%[125]SunniSecular[126]Parliamentary republic-1,800[127]
41 The Gambia1,700,00090%[128]SunniSecularPresidential republic800[129]1,326
42 Bahrain1,046,81481%[130]Shi’aState religion[131]Constitutional monarchy11,200[132]32,604
43 Comoros798,00098%[133]SunniState religionFederal republic-1,125
44 Qatar744,029[134]77.5%[135]SunniState religion[136]Absolute monarchy12,400[137]80,870
45 Djibouti496,37494%[138]SunniSecularSemi-presidential republic9,850[139]2,271
46 Brunei381,371[140]67%[141]SunniState religionAbsolute monarchy7,000[142]51,005
47 Maldives350,000[143]100% [144]SunniState relig


I count maybe 9 out of the 47 countries that I wouldn't want to visit because they are too extremist or hostile, but I would remind people that it is a very recent turn of events that a country like Egypt and even Saudi Arabia became hostile towards the US and extremist's took power.

I would argue that every religion has it's own personal journey towards peace and that journey doesn't have to look exactly the same as other religions in order for it to arrive at a peaceful existence. Christianity turned the corner in some ways from it's violent past, why can't Islam?

 

In countries where Muslims are a minority, they fight hard for minority rights.
In Muslim countries, minorities have no rights.

Do I believe the majority of Muslims are violent or extremist? Nope. I do believe the number falls somewhere in the 10 to 25% range though. And I'll say this: America is a big reason for this large number. Every time we drop a bomb, more extremist are born. The US needs to close it's borders and fix from within instead of playing world police. Let the Muslims fix the Muslim world. The counter-argument to this is: "America caused the problem." While I agree to a large extent, our answer to "fixing the Muslim world" isn't what the Muslim world wants, so we need to mind our own business. We have enough problems in the US to deal with.

/rant

 

I don't mind if people have agendas. In fact, I don't know anyone who doesn't have an agenda. So if you're happy to call him reasonable and wrong, that's fine by me. I feel the same way about my best Christian friends.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with the majority of this, but I'm not sure minorities have as few rights in Muslim countries as you believe. I think that's true in the extremist countries, but not most of the others as far as I can tell.

 

Very "Zen" like response.

 

If people spent half the time trying to understand other human beings and get along with them as they did vehemently defending "isms" imagine what an awesome world this would be.