The West and Islam

[StealthySkeptic]

[Wyrd of Gawd]

So what's the question?

[genkaus]

Wow - long post. Way too long. Here's the gist as I understood it:

West works on the principles of freedom of religion, individual liberties and a constitutional government. In Islamic countries, political authority is totalitarian and based on their religion.

Q: How can these two almost differing worlds of thought and practice be reconciled along with their societies?

Q2: Something about a monk called Bahira who supposedly taught Muhammad and might've been the real author of Quran.

Other religions - specifically, the "western" religions of Christianity and Judaism were the same way. Due to various events and developments through history, that that was not a very good system and slowly made changes and built a new one based on constitution and individual liberties. The western religions had to be "watered down", i.e. they had to change and adapt to the principles of this new system.

Islam has been slow to catch up because they still work with the old system there. But these ideas are spreading there and many western Muslims have already watered down there beliefs. So, for there to be any reconciliation, Muslims would have to water down their beliefs - which they will do because those ideas of simply better.

That Bahira stuff is nonsense - don't pay any attention to it.

There can be no reconciliation. Each side wants to convert the other to their way of thinking and that's not going to happen.

I think Islam is outdated and obsolete and cannot meet the needs of people today.

I also think the western ideals are man-made and therefore inferior to god's laws.

I follow the the new religion brought about by Bab (either Babism or Bahai) and its rules should be followed all over the world because they meet our needs and are god-given.

What's so odd about the reply? A Christian would say something similar - except, he'd pretend that the western ideals are a part of his religion.