Its no secret that I am sympathetic to your point of view. But what Sage says needs to be heard and understood because unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the US, Canada and Europe who share his views. The facts are that there is a lot of violence being perpetuated by people who claim to be muslims. They are committing that violence on both muslims and non muslim.
Equally, there are so called Christians (the US and British armies and air forces) who are raining death and destruction on muslims, most of whom are entirely innocent women and children. These countries are also happy to sell nasty inhumane weapons to pretty much anyone who wants to buy them. They can then use this as a convenient excuse to invade countries whose rulers they can no longer control under the guise of national security.
I think that Muslims should answer criticisms with confidence and authority and not be defensive about it. I don't mean by quoting vast tracts of the Qu'uran (anyone can do that) but by putting forward argument that explains what Islam really means in practical terms. I think they should also distance themselves from those so called muslims who use Islam as a justification for violence. Just in the same way that Christians have to acknowledge that some so called Christians use their religion to justify a war on Islam and muslim people.
Its no secret that I am sympathetic to your point of view. But what Sage says needs to be heard and understood because unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the US, Canada and Europe who share his views. The facts are that there is a lot of violence being perpetuated by people who claim to be muslims. They are committing that violence on both muslims and non muslim.
Equally, there are so called Christians (the US and British armies and air forces) who are raining death and destruction on muslims, most of whom are entirely innocent women and children. These countries are also happy to sell nasty inhumane weapons to pretty much anyone who wants to buy them. They can then use this as a convenient excuse to invade countries whose rulers they can no longer control under the guise of national security.
I think that Muslims should answer criticisms with confidence and authority and not be defensive about it. I don't mean by quoting vast tracts of the Qu'uran (anyone can do that) but by putting forward argument that explains what Islam really means in practical terms. I think they should also distance themselves from those so called muslims who use Islam as a justification for violence. Just in the same way that Christians have to acknowledge that some so called Christians use their religion to justify a war on Islam and muslim people.