Absolutely brilliant! David, that put a smile on my face. Thanks for closing off what was a wonderful day for me with a stroke of genius. Bravo!

we’re all part of the same cult.

Sister Esther looks after the children and is an expert in Islamic studies and Monkeys.

Peter is in charge of the Bibles and Bullets cupboard, he’s always having to fix the door as it falls off its runners for some reason.

I look after the Bean section as I have a great knack for tasty food. It’s amazing what a pinch of smoked paprika will do!

Andras is in charge of membership, he has a mean pitch convincing the ‘fallen ones’ to join. I think he mentioned the other day that we were up to 143 998.

We were optimistic that you and Flendolyn might join us.

Sorry Damian, there really wouldn’t be enough room for one more, but if you’re lucky, you may be reincarnated as Dawkins.

Someones coming! I better go as we are only allocated five minutes per day on the computer. There’s only one computer and someone has slopped beans on the screen.

Out of interest, do any of you – Peter, Esther, Andras and David, know each other? I find it awefully coincidental that you all only comment on the posts that I write connected to Israel. If there is a connection, I’d be curious to know what it is

Peace.

It sounds to me like you’re trying to avoid affirming any decent steps towards peace and are more interested in some Christian end times game where the people of Israel are simply pawns in that scenario, rather than actually being interested in peace being found in the area and actually being interested in the good of the people of Israel at this very point in time rather than some future time.

If the Arab nations have offered peace, isn’t it more constructive to find ways to affirm it than simply find every excuse to not bother listening? If your theology encourages you to follow that path then it’s destructive and we don’t share it.

“Hate that theology, but love you”

The point is that there is a valid majority position within Islam that affirms that needless violence is not representative of their religion. This article represents that position well:
http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/writings/islamic/muhammad.htm

Christians do justify killing in the name of God by the Bible. It’s ignorant to believe otherwise. It’s not too hard to do an internet search and find some with some fairly developed and intricate exegesis’ to justify racism, violence and various other things that the likes of you and I would condemn. It was done in the past by Christians and there are groups who would do it now and it would not be against their faith or their understanding of the Bible.

Both books are about interpretation. I’m not Muslim, so clearly I do not agree with the Qu’ran, but I’m also not silly enough to deny the validity of the moderate side who also take the Qu’ran very seriously and deny the actions of the extremists.

The problem here is that many Christians want to demonize Islam, so we listen to the extremists who we revile and we find ways to validate their expression of Islam. In so doing, we choose to sideline the moderates as less than devout. It annoys me when people do that with Christians when the expression of the Christian faith is so diverse, so I’m afraid I cannot do it with Muslims when their expression is so obviously diverse as well.

We cannot judge Islam by what the Muslims do, and we cannot judge Christianity by what the Christians do. You have to look at the source of their beliefs: What do their books say? Whose example are they following?

Christians cannot justify fighting and killing in the name of God by their Bible or by the example of Jesus. Any time Christians do these sorts of things, they are going against their faith. On the other hand, Muslims can justify fighting and killing in the name of Allah by the Quran and by the example of Muhammad. When Muslims do these sorts of things they are being good followers of their faith.

Hate Islam, but love Muslims.

Esther,
I am writing a reply for ‘Israel and Israel’, it is just taking me a long time.

The Qu’ran was originally written in Arabic. The writings done in English are not seen as translations as it is not believed that the words of Allah can be translated literally, so at best, English renditions are said to be an offering of the “an explanation of the meanings” of the Qu’ran.

I’ve got two editions if you would like to borrow one for an extended period of time to have a look through, but as with the Bible, trying to read and understand it without being able to bounce it around with other people can be very difficult.

For a good introduction, good ole Wikipedia is a worthy source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qur%27an

Our own lives have been built on the backs of romping over the resources of other nations, wars and military might. The west didn’t get where it is via peaceful means… the rest of the world was pretty much raped and pillaged to create the empire we’re a part of and that empire is protected by the biggest war machines this world has ever seen.

The west doesn’t live in true peace, it lives by being able to make the biggest threats with the biggest weapons and the biggest economies… so if we are to question the ability of others to live in “true” peace, we must also look at ourselves.

I think I’ve finished ranting… for now