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From
the Discovery Channel 2
Mar 06
Mohammed
was born into the poverty end of that
era's social structure. Society,
at that time, was grossly and widely
divided -- a two-class society
-- the super wealthy on one end
and those who lived in abject poverty
on the other.
Common
during era in which the Koran was
created.
Beliefs
in multiple gods
Human
slavery was normal
Girl
children were often killed because
females were considered to have little
value.
There
was a vast discrepancy between the
rich and the poor. Society was
rife with social injustice.
Mohammad
managed to succeed in
business.
Showing
any image of Mohammad is
forbidden.
The
Koran is a book about how to
live. It' considered by
followers as a book on how to live
one's life with words about
moral guidance. It too has
contradictions and comes out of a
culture of
conflict.
Passage
18:29 Reader can take it
as it is or leave it
Islam
has no hierarchy, no central governing
body telling followers how to
live. Each person is
responsible for his/her interpretation
of the Koran.
The
words now in the Koran came to
Mohammad over the course of 22 years
and in many different
contexts. The Korean is
written is the stream-of-consciousness
style. It has no logical order
other than the longest passages are
first and then passage size
progresses to the shortest ones last.
750
A.D. start of the Islamic
?? abostic ?? empire. Art
and culture were
emphasized.
Confirm
Dates in this Paragraph:
In 1095 A.D. leaders of
the Christian Byzantine empire
felt threatened by Islam and so
they launched the
crusades. In 1099,
Christians took Jerusalem and sacked
the city. In response, the
Muslims turned jihad into an external
battle. In
1174 the Muslims (under the
leadership of ?? Saladine ??)
launched a war to take back Jerusalem
. They succeeded.
Prisoners were released in keeping
with Mohammad's teachings
In 1187 Christians launched a new
crusade. It failed and in1192 a
truce was declared without any final
resolution to the
conflict. In fifteenth
century, Islam began to decline when
it shifted focus from ILM
(knowledge) to Jihad
(literal interpretation of Jihad =
violence) Muslims used Jihad as
a social and political power
struggle.
In
about 1948, military Jihad came back
as a response to European and U.S.
colonialism in the middle east.
---- spearheaded the change based upon
how free women were in the U.S. and on
how oppressed blacks
were.
Koran
predicts a Tsunami in the U.S. in 2007
Passage
16:90 Use Koran to find what the
reader is looking for.
There are today some vastly different
interpretations of the
Koran. Any problems
with the Koran are not in the text,
but rather in the interpretation of
the texts. One can use the Koran
to promote violence or
knowledge.
The
struggle today is how to maintain
one's faith in this rapidly changing
world.
Fundamentalism is a reaction to
change.
Passage
9:14
Passage
9:29
Passage
9:5 Justify violence
the next passage says when to stop
fighting
Passage
3:195 Die for God and be
rewarded.
Other
that the word God, the most common
word is ILM which means
knowledge.
The
word Jihad is rarely used.
Jihad implies struggle and the main
struggle to put meaning into the words
of the Koran is a struggle within
one's self. The word was
later interpreted as an external
struggle and applied to social
conflicts.
During
the era of the Crusades, northern
European Christians were considered to
be lumbering
animals.
The
three most sacred cities in Islam
--- Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem
Passage
22.39
In
reading the Koran, consider the
context within in which the controversial
passages were written.
Depictions of heaven and hell are in
middle eastern language.
Heaven is like an oasis in the desert.
Islam
is seen by believers as God's message
to his creations.
Man
and God are distinct and
separate. Muslims
believe that the only way to heaven is
to follow the Koran. It's
the Muslim version of the Christian
one way my way.
There
are about 1.3 billion Muslims
and about 2.1 billion Christians, both
claiming that their religion is the
only path to
God.
Passage
2:62 Much of the Koran is
in harmony with
Christianity
Passages
57:22 refer to Jesus,
Passage
3:7 No one knows but
God. The classic line,
"A little knowledge is
dangerous," is applicable to
those who believe in Islam,
too. Partial knowledge all
to often leads to false conclusions.
Muslims
are now fighting among themselves over
differing interpretations of
Islam. They claim to be opposing
those who have lost their way in
Islam. The extremists have
expanded their claims and now declare
it's OK to kill non
Muslims. If a few Muslims
die in the process, that's OK
too.
Passage
58:5 About
Violence
Passage
5:2 About Cooperation
God
is great. Humans are next to
nothing.
Mohammad
was a successful business man, who
originated our of the poor end
of society.
He
was also a seeker. He
regularly sat quietly alone
contemplating and seeking inspiration.
Time
frame About 612 Ad
Mohammad started to
preach. Mohammad sat in a
cave and was inspired by voices,
END
OF THE WORLD:
Passage
73:8-9
Koran,
like Christianity, is
filled with references to the end of
the world and judgment
day. Muslims believe that
they must get straight with God before
judgment day. Koran
repeatedly says humans will be held
accountable to God.
Passage
81: 1-14 End of the
world Judgment
day. Koran repeatedly says
that people will be accountable to God
on judgment day.
VERBALLY
TRANSMITTED: First
words of Islam were memorized and
passed on to the next
generation. At Mohammad's
death (age 65 632 a.d.)
none of his work was in written
form. in 651
A.D., Mohammad words were
gathered together in written
form. An official version
was created, declared to be authentic,
and all variations that differed from
the official form were
destroyed.
NO
CENTRAL AUTHORITY:
Muslim have no intermediary between
themselves and God, however, like Judaism
and Christianity, the Muslins also
believe that they are separate from
God. Muslims declared
that the teachings of Moses and Jesus
had been distorted by those who wrote
them down or edited them.
They said that Jesus was not
crucified, that someone who looked
like him was crucified in his place,
and that Jesus did not die for anybody
because one person cannot make amends
for another.
Every
person is his/her own interpreter of
the Koran. Controversy has
arisen in that the Koran can be seen
to have several levels of meaning
- several ways to
interpreting
passages. The
violence-related passages are among
the most controversial.
(??? Chapter 114
1:14 ???)
Passage
4: 157-158
Muslims
declared that the Koran rectified
those errors and that Mohammad was the
final profit and that the Koran was
the final word of God.
Passage
3:78
The
word Muslim means those who submit to
God. Muslims claim
that the Koran is the word of
God because of the content of the
Koran.
The
first conflicts that Muslims had was
with the leaders of Mecca who were
making big bucks because people came
to Mecca to worship of dozens of
idols to multiple gods and the
political leaders were wealthy because
of the pilgrims. Islam
challenged the need for an
intermediary which threatened the
economics of the then controllers of
Mecca. Mohammad and his
followers fled to Medina.
The words from Mohammad shifted to be
about practical rules for living in a
society.
Passage
3:4 Does Islam allow
multiple wives? Medina was
literally overwhelmed by Mohammad's
followers, In 622
AD Mecca leaders declared
war on Medina. War lasted
8 years and ended when Islam forces
conquered Mecca. All idols
were destroyed.
Passage
2:190-191 Kill aggressors.
Violence is OK in the sense of
defending one's self.
2:
192 Stop killing when the aggressors
are defeated
Talk
the Koran to Muslims Ask
these Questions:
What
is God?
What
is God like?
What
happens after death How do you
know?
Koran
say all will be
accountable to God on judgment
day. Who is the all?
Is it those living at the time?
Is it everyone who ever lived
only those who follow
Islam.
The
most peaceful way to resolve the
Islamic extremists terrorism is for
the Muslims, themselves, to form
a conglomerate of Muslims leaders and
for t the Muslims themselves stop the
terrorists and stop those who propose
violence. Hold the Koran up to
the world and say this is how to live
in peace. Unless this is
done, violence will continue to escalate,
and the next evolution of this war
will be mass murder on a grand scale
-- a scale that will make 9-11-01 look
like someone who stubbed their
toe.
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