islam religon of peace?

[Rayaan]

To a true believer it is a peaceful religion.

To others, it is not peaceful simply because they don't know what is Islam. In the Quran, there is a verse which says, "Invite (all) to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for your Lord knows best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance" (Surah 16:125).

[Welsh cake]

do any of you think it is.

Define their subjective interpretation of "peace" first.

Way too many of them seem to think "peaceful" is getting to beat your wife whenever you want and killing non-believers wherever you find them, and I hazard those fundamentalists would argue that's still not "peaceful" enough for them.

[Thor]

To a true believer it is a peaceful religion.

To others, it is not peaceful simply because they don't know what is Islam. In the Quran, there is a verse which says, "Invite (all) to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for your Lord knows best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance" (Surah 16:125).

And doesn't the Koran also say this:

"Slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out ... If they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers."

Doesn't sound very "peaceful" to me.

[HeyItsZeus]

Islam is as peaceful as Christianity. It's Muslims (not the majority may I add) that are violent and use the Qur'an as a weapon. Just like Christians use the bible as a weapon (Yes it happens and has happened in the past)

Both are equally insane, violent and they are both myths conjured up by sand people. Get over it!

[Rayaan]

And doesn't the Koran also say this:

"Slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out ... If they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers."

Doesn't sound very "peaceful" to me.

The Quran is definitely not telling us to kill disbelievers wherever you see them. That is one of the commonly misunderstood things that atheists like to cite from the Quran (without having proper knowledge of the Quran in the first place). Actually, it was a permission only given to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) when he was being attacked by the pagans and the non-Muslims of Makkah. Is he just going to stand there and do nothing while his followers are being attacked? No. The point is that fighting in the name of Islam is allowed only for the purpose of self-defense, which is, when the enemy attacks first (because of our religious beliefs).

There is a historical context to this verse and that's why many layman people, and even Muslims, are misinterpreting the verse because they don't understand it.

Here's a more thorough answer:
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satel...9503544502

[Anomalocaris]

To a true believer it is a peaceful religion.

To others, it is not peaceful simply because they don't know what is Islam. In the Quran, there is a verse which says, "Invite (all) to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for your Lord knows best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance" (Surah 16:125).

It does Islam not a bit of credit if certain self-style "true" believers view it in a way that is less offensive to outsiders than certain others who calls their offensive interpretations also as "true". In that all interpretations of a faith has material consequences to the outsider, all interpretations are true enough where it matters to reflect on Islam. So for a thing which strives to compell people to act on it's behalf, Islam must answer for all acts committed in it's name, whether there is disagreement within about it or not. So don't whine to me about the acceptability of your true belief unless it has empowered you to forestall damage done to outsiders by all the unacceptable interpretations of your faith.

[annatar]

To a true believer it is a peaceful religion.

To others, it is not peaceful simply because they don't know what is Islam. In the Quran, there is a verse which says, "Invite (all) to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for your Lord knows best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance" (Surah 16:125).

In the Quran there is another verse which says, "And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."(At-Tawbah 9:5)
peaceful my ass!

Do you know what does murted means ?
Could you dare to tell me what is the punishment for apostacy?

[Autumnlicious]

"And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

Hey, it is merciful - most of the time the Qu'ran says "Kill them" not "Kill them or extort them".

Interesting site:
http://www.questionsonislam.com/index.ph...na&id=1329

[Rayaan]

So don't whine to me about the acceptability of your true belief unless it has empowered you to forestall damage done to outsiders by all the unacceptable interpretations of your faith.

Well, I don't think you can prove to me that Islam is not the true religion of God, Chuck Norris.

In the Quran there is another verse which says, "And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."(At-Tawbah 9:5)
peaceful my ass!

If you read from the beginning of the chapter (Surah At-Tauba), from the first verse to the fifth verse, you will know that there is a historical background to the verse that you quoted. It is speaking about an event that happened at a specific time and a specific place. Therefore, it is not a command which is to be applied for all times and all places. In the first verse of chapter 9, it says that there is a treaty between the Muslims and the Mushriks (or polytheists) of Mecca who used to persecute the Muslims. And the precondition for the Muslims to engage in a war against them is only if they break the treaty. This is the reason why the verse was revealed to the Prophet (pbuh) - i.e. to kill them wherever you find them - because it enabled the Muslims to defend themselves against the constant persecution from the hostile, pagan tribes of Mecca.

Do you know what does murted means ?
Could you dare to tell me what is the punishment for apostacy?

The punishment for apostasy in Islam is death (if they say it publicly).
But at least the punishment might save them from burning in Hell for eternity, which is infinity times worse than getting killed.

[Justtristo]

Not in it's orthodox form anyway, that is because of what is written in the Quran, Hadiths and glorious example of Muhammad set to his followers . Muhammad was a military leader as well as a prophet and his successors conqueror-ed huge areas of the world in the century after this death.

As a result orthodox Islam sees two world's the House of Islam and the House of War which is the non-Islamic realm, the duty of every Muslim in this world view is to spread Islam to this realm and if it takes waging war on them so be it. It is not a surprise a lot of the current conflicts in the world involve Muslims vs their non-Muslim neighbors. Although bible believing Christians are just as intolerant as their Quran believing Muslim counterparts, it is just modern Christians just say non-believers will be punished for 30 trillion years in hell after they die, than advocating killing them in this life.