It is far, far easier to lecture and reassure Western liberals that Islam specifically teaches peace than it is to convince some prominent Islamic scholars and a significant percentage of Muslims that Islam sanctions war.
In fact, Islam like Judaism is a complicated legal system with no central authority. I think Tariq Ramadan is most articulate (and honest) on this subject when he says Islam deals with humans and humans can be violent and peaceful.
You are definitely right about the rush to judgement and its motivations and I would love to think that most Muslims adhere to these and feel they represent the true nature of Islam (which I am happy to believe).
But two questions come up:
1) Who has the right (especially a non-Muslim) to say who is a "real" Muslim, or Jew or Christian.
2) There are Muslims claiming authority who justify acts of terror who could supply other verses and do.
When I was a kid in the late seventies I told my friends that my aunt could type on a keyboard in her laboratory at Princeton and it would appear on her friend's computer at UCLA. None of my friends believed me.
This is still a brilliant extrapolation, and perhaps still new to a general audience at the time he spoke, but it is not a prediction.
It is far, far easier to lecture and reassure Western liberals that Islam specifically teaches peace than it is to convince some prominent Islamic scholars and a significant percentage of Muslims that Islam sanctions war.
In fact, Islam like Judaism is a complicated legal system with no central authority. I think Tariq Ramadan is most articulate (and honest) on this subject when he says Islam deals with humans and humans can be violent and peaceful.
You are definitely right about the rush to judgement and its motivations and I would love to think that most Muslims adhere to these and feel they represent the true nature of Islam (which I am happy to believe).
But two questions come up:
1) Who has the right (especially a non-Muslim) to say who is a "real" Muslim, or Jew or Christian.
2) There are Muslims claiming authority who justify acts of terror who could supply other verses and do.
When I was a kid in the late seventies I told my friends that my aunt could type on a keyboard in her laboratory at Princeton and it would appear on her friend's computer at UCLA. None of my friends believed me.
This is still a brilliant extrapolation, and perhaps still new to a general audience at the time he spoke, but it is not a prediction.
This is denial and it too (after the loss itself) bodes terrifyingly for November.
Political parties that become cultish echo chambers are always on their way to defeat.