Discussion » Questions » Religion and Spirituality » Why does Islam claim to be a religion of peace when it has caused so much trouble in the world?
Frankie the Fly

Why does Islam claim to be a religion of peace when it has caused so much trouble in the world?

Posted - April 20, 2017
Tag : Islam

Responses


  • 6477
    Ahh my friend.. speak for yourselves :P  I mean that seriously... and it's a genuine observation.... over there there do seem still, (and yes it's hard to believe) a fair few who still use the bible for an excuse to mistreat women and others...  I cannot say from here how many there are like that... I find it hard to believe there are any.. but I know there are as I had the misfortune to converse with them online... but I still hope they are in the very very vast minority... and increasingly fewer...

    So I think we aren't in disagreement here.. I know such things exist... but the sticking point is that the majority have hopefully moved away from that very, very outdated thinking...It's sad it still exists at all... but I really think and hope that the majority there and elsewhere are not of that thinking
      April 21, 2017 12:41 PM MDT
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  • 6023
    Many of them THINK they have moved beyond treating people as 2nd class citizens (or chattel) ... but their actions speak otherwise.  And the problem is ... most of them don't even give it any thought.  They believe they are "doing the right thing" when they are oppressing people, because they don't see it as oppression.  They see it as following their moral beliefs - forgetting that not everyone has those same beliefs.
      April 21, 2017 3:19 PM MDT
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  • 6477
    I do apologise but that doesn't happen here... or so rare it's unheard of... I have observed many times that the US is very different in a number of respects...  You have to remember that the UK is not a religious country... those who are and who go to church tend to be actually very lovely people.. the kind who I like to think of as TRUE Christians in the proper sense of the word as in love to all mankind and shows it in their actions..  

    I cannot speak for the US>. I have my own thoughts on things there but there is much I don't understand.. like how the heck they voted that idiot joke called Trump in... there's a lot of factors that make the US very different to the UK.. ones that perhaps people aren't aware of... but that come out if you hang around Americans for any decent length of time...  All I can say is that here our Christians don't act in that way... I understand that the UK is less racist, less sexist and more into equality than the US.. but as I say it gets hard to prove such things.. I can only HOPE that the picture you paint is the minority rather than the majority of CHristians there... but I DO know enough to know that yes, I've seen/heard what you observe too :(
      April 21, 2017 3:26 PM MDT
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  • 6023
    Overall, I think the US is far less bigoted than we look on TV.  And most Americans are willing to change if they are presented with a good reason.  But the TV image is what is seen.  {shrug}

    Unfortunately, one of the reasons Trump won is because he appeals to our "Religious Right".

    Political parties are another big difference between the UK and US.  You people have more than 2 parties, and they actually get voted into your Parliament.  Which sort of necessitates having to compromise and work together in order to get a majority.  > We have more than 2 parties - but are constantly told that a vote for anyone other than a Republican or Democrat is a wasted vote.  And you know the old saying:  "If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth".  So people "vote for the lesser of two evils", rather than a 3rd party candidate they would agree with.  Which results in a power struggle between those 2 parties when they are in power, and a lack of willingness to compromise.
      April 21, 2017 4:01 PM MDT
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  • 6477
    I'm very glad to hear the US is less bigoted than we see on TV... Funny enough I didn't get my impression from tv and it wasnt me who said you guys are *bad* when it comes to CHristian dogma :)  

    Have to say tho.. your impression that we have more than two parties - in reality that's not the case.. we just have the two.. I don't think anyone else has ever been voted in other than labour or conservative... so we are in a similar situation to you in that respect... its just that ours tend to be more reasoning, reasonable and less corrupt :P  Notice I didn't say they weren't corrupt at all :P Just a lot less and they pretty much DO try to do good for the country... just their idea of good doesn't always match everyone else's... but we do seem to have more people power here to control them :)
      April 23, 2017 3:30 PM MDT
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  • 1326
    A religion can make any claim, that doesn't mean they'll stand by it. nor prove their claim.  (Matthew 7:17-20) This post was edited by Autumnleaves at April 23, 2017 11:15 PM MDT
      April 23, 2017 11:13 PM MDT
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  • 1393

    Why does Islam claim to be a religion of peace when it has caused so much trouble in the world?

     

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    1- We can be lazy and blindly follow the tide of popular beliefs or we can put effort into finding out facts and being guided by them.

     

    2- Can anyone deny that Muslims have in recent years destroyed property and killed civilians in several parts of the world? Can anyone deny that these attacks have been carried out by individuals and groups of Muslims and not Muslim majority countries?

     

    3- Anyone who knows otherwise will surely let me know but I am not aware of any Muslim majority country that has bombed another country or people thousands of miles away in pursuit of its objectives. Also most of the mega wars which I am aware of and which have caused so much trouble in the world, in the last half a century, killing people by the tens of millions have not been waged by Muslim majority countries. So, how can these facts cast doubt on the claim that Islam is a religion of peace?

     

    4- Islam IS a religion of peace. The word peace, salam, is in its very name, Islam. If it wasn’t a religion of peace it wouldn’t have banned compulsion in religion and still grown from one person to have about 1.8 Billion followers all around the world, and counting.

     

    5- If it wasn’t a religion of peace it wouldn’t have united warring tribes in its formative years and wouldn’t have as its central teaching the brother and sisterhood of all mankind.

     

    6- If it wasn’t a religion of peace it wouldn’t have required its followers to recognise and believe in all prophets who came before Mohammed including Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

     

    7- If it wasn’t a religion of peace it wouldn’t be continuing to attract converts in Europe, America and other parts of the world; converts who are educated and have critical and questioning minds.

     

    8- If it wasn’t a religion of peace it wouldn’t have given refuge to Jews when all over Europe they were being persecuted. Such were the hospitality and facilities granted to Jews in Muslim countries that one Jewish author has recorded, "MOST EMPHATICALLY that the legal and ACTUAL POSITION of the Jews during the middle ages was much better in Muslim-Arab countries than in Christian Europe; and the 'Golden Age' of Judaism in Muslim Spain has become a phrase which has found its way even to the most popular accounts of Jewish history".

     

    9- If it wasn’t a religion of peace it wouldn’t have turned Spain into a much envied jewel of Europe. Something that Spain never was before nor has ever been since.

     

    10- If it wasn’t a religion of peace it wouldn’t have pushed forward the frontiers of human knowledge for nearly eight centuries, that’s more than half its age of 14 centuries. In doing so it introduced methods of investigation and verification which we today call science, gave the world the zero and the Arabic numerals which replaced the cumbersome Roman numerals and completely revolutionised mathematics and by all these means helped to pull Europe out of the Dark Ages.

      April 29, 2017 12:39 PM MDT
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  • 2657
    Quote: "1- We can be lazy and blindly follow the tide of popular beliefs or we can put effort into finding out facts and being guided by them."

    Oh please. Muslim majority Countries have been involved in bloody conflicts within themselves. Pretty sure that Iran and Iraq have committed horrific destruction on each other in my life time. If it was a religion of peace it wouldn't be so easy to find photos and videos of Muslims killing each other and others. There wouldn't be so many Islamic terrorist groups. Can you tell me the name of any division of Islam that hasn't participated in whole scale slaughter against each other or others at one time or another?

    (Matthew 7:17-20) Likewise, every good tree produces fine fruit, but every rotten tree produces worthless fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce fine fruit. 19 Every tree not producing fine fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Really, then, by their fruits you will recognize those men.
      April 29, 2017 5:13 PM MDT
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  • 1393
    If that's your response to my statement that "I am not aware of any Muslim majority country that has bombed another country or people thousands of miles away in pursuit of its objectives" then please read my statement again.
      April 30, 2017 1:44 PM MDT
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  • 2657
    Primarily replied to your off putting remark of: 

    "Why does Islam claim to be a religion of peace when it has caused so much trouble in the world?

     

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    1- We can be lazy and blindly follow the tide of popular beliefs or we can put effort into finding out facts and being guided by them."



    That was a lazy response to AL's:
    "A religion can make any claim, that doesn't mean they'll stand by it. nor prove their claim.  (Matthew 7:17-20)"


      
    You sure seem to allow a lot of Islamic murder in your narrow remark

      April 30, 2017 4:00 PM MDT
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