Islam and the West

At some time in our past, when is hard to determine…we have made enemies between the west and our friends who follow a completely different religion to ourselves. In retrospect we in the western world are not entirely blameless either…there has been and still is violence towards each other…it is time we here realised that if we carry on in this vein something bad will happen. It is my fervent belief this started a long time ago in the days of Richard the Lion Heart on his crusades…it carried on of course take all these honour killings coupled with Abu Ghraib…suicide attacks, the head covering that women of the Moslem faith wear…Sharia law…I am not advocating here that it is the west’s fault it is BOTH our faults. By the same token as a child my father taught me a man’s religion is his own business; he was right come on we all know this. I did not forget the Taliban I felt sorry for those woman, here again they are a strict Islamic sect…peoples it has nothing to do with us…my folk rave on about the Saudi’s they say the punishments they dish out are inhumane…to our western minds they are; strange how it keeps breakers of the law in that country underfoot though. It is said we insulted the prophet; we probably did we do not think the same; I don’t think we will as yet…however for peace and harmony WE HAVE TO. Mistakes have been made on both sides and this has to be rectified not in a while or I’ll get around to it…it has to be done now. The atmosphere of distrust between Muslims and the West has been around for centuries. Lately, it hasn't been getting any better. For centuries Christians regarded Mohammed as a false prophet; even today few Christians would probably consider him a true prophet…well wake up as he was a prophet…in fact he is known as the seal of the prophet much the same as our own prophet Jesus of Nazareth…who by the way is treated with respect in the Islamic world Conversely, the West has left its mark on the Islamic world; not only through its politicians and generals, but also through its materialism, technologies, communication tools and organizational paradigms, things with which only hermits can completely avoid contact…sadly there are very many of those Millions of Muslim men and women live in the West and many are citizens of Western nations. They are therefore now inextricably part of the West…however this antagonism HAS TO CEASE…we all have to live on this lovely planet of ours…we must do this as a joint effort. There will always be minor altercations we would not be human otherwise…I have read of youths rioting in France…I have seen them here do much the same thing. I also read of the Grand Mufti of Australia who made insulting remarks to our women…he was fired after an investigation by an Islamic council. The business with the Israelis and Islam I admit I find hard to understand…I suspect a land rights issue but do not really know; I have read though that the Western nations possess an astonishing ignorance of the ages old Arab-Israeli conflict, and even more astounding is the absurdly naive thinking that the church has towards the religion of Islam, and its relationship to the nation of Israel…in fact Islam is the third great monotheistic religion to arise out of the common stock of Hebrew scripture. Islam though is the exact antithesis of Biblical Christianity. Each of the three great monotheistic religions views itself as the great redemptive epicentre of universal history. The following is the Jewish belief or take on this I quote "Christianity advocates love and compassion toward one's neighbour, even if he is an enemy, while Islam dictates that its pagan neighbour is an infidel who must submit to Allah, or be killed" unquote. So you see one could argue for centuries and never come to anywhere close to solving this terrible rift Most Christians probably think that Allah is merely an Arabic term for the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph…this not the case. Allah was the name of an ancient Chaldean God which was known as the Moon God. Allah was in fact the male counterpart to the female Goddess worshipped in Babylon. She was represented by the Sun. Her name was Ishtar, from which, we get our English word "Easter". As the Moon God, Allah was symbolized by the crescent shaped moon. Today, the Arabic-Islamic nations portray this very symbol on their national flags, usually in conjunction with a sword. The intent of the flag symbolism is that all nations should submit to Allah or face the sword of Allah. It may surprise Christians to know that the Koran is the most studied, most memorised, and the most respected religious book in the world today, far surpassing the public interest in the Holy Bible. This is not meant to be a lesson in religion I was just trying to point out the why’s and wherefores of this…if we do not cease to carry on like we are doing both the west and the Islamic world will in the end turn out to be quite nasty. I’m a pretty liberal thinker but we have all erred, we have to stop I’m only glad the younger Moslem's are not so disposed to this as we in the west are. WE MUST MEND THESE FENCES before it is too late