Hi there,
I've been hanging out lately on this forum and ended up reading a lot of threads about Islam. I'm just baffled by the amount of misinformation/grave misunderstandings of critical aspects of Islamic belief, presented - usually with a disgusting tone of self-confidence - by some pretended ex-Muslims and other people. It's impossible of course to give an exhaustive list of all screwed up interpretations of Islamic doctrine. I tried nonetheless to mention the most important ones.
So there you go.
The most stupid misconceptions about Islam
Non-believer/Disbeliever is equivalent to kafir':
This one deservedly tops the list, as I've seen the mistake repeatedly made by lots of Muslims themselves. The most popular english translations of the Qur'an are the real source of misinformation here, breaking down the meaning of the two words will probably make it easier to understand:
Disbelief or nonbelief is simply not believing in something. Another word for agnosticism.
Kufr', an Arabic word originally meaning to cover something, means, on the other hand, to insist on suspending belief while acknoweldging its truth and/or failing to refute evidence presented to support it. Basically, a kafir' is someone who covers the truth.
As you can see, these two words really don't have the same meaning. Despite this, English translations simply translate kufr' into disbelief!
All extremist interpretations of Islam commit this same exact mistake, merely not believing in something becomes strictly equivalent to denying truth knowingly.
Christians and Jews are going to hell according to Islam, by default:
Another laughable assertion one reads frequently, which has a lot to do with the misconception above, when one thinks about it. Someone adhering to christianity or judaism simply doesn't believe in the main tenets of Islam. Usually, christians and jews are simply nonbelievers, not kafir's, as defined above. If a christian is never presented with anything compelling him to believe that Muhammad' PBUH was the final prophet, he falls into the first category, not the second one, which is the one repudiated in the Qur'an.
The Satanic Verses' incident:
Never took place! For God's sake, anyone who isn't well versed in Islamic hadith really should avoid bringing this one up. The authenticity of the narrative recounting this event was refuted by professional Islamic scholars, including al-Albani, a leading figure in Islamic studies during the twentieth century.
Please listen to Islamic scholars and be skeptical when reading some ex-Muslim kid. It's really that simple.
More misconceptions to come very soon.
I've been hanging out lately on this forum and ended up reading a lot of threads about Islam. I'm just baffled by the amount of misinformation/grave misunderstandings of critical aspects of Islamic belief, presented - usually with a disgusting tone of self-confidence - by some pretended ex-Muslims and other people. It's impossible of course to give an exhaustive list of all screwed up interpretations of Islamic doctrine. I tried nonetheless to mention the most important ones.
So there you go.
The most stupid misconceptions about Islam
Non-believer/Disbeliever is equivalent to kafir':
This one deservedly tops the list, as I've seen the mistake repeatedly made by lots of Muslims themselves. The most popular english translations of the Qur'an are the real source of misinformation here, breaking down the meaning of the two words will probably make it easier to understand:
Disbelief or nonbelief is simply not believing in something. Another word for agnosticism.
Kufr', an Arabic word originally meaning to cover something, means, on the other hand, to insist on suspending belief while acknoweldging its truth and/or failing to refute evidence presented to support it. Basically, a kafir' is someone who covers the truth.
As you can see, these two words really don't have the same meaning. Despite this, English translations simply translate kufr' into disbelief!
All extremist interpretations of Islam commit this same exact mistake, merely not believing in something becomes strictly equivalent to denying truth knowingly.
Christians and Jews are going to hell according to Islam, by default:
Another laughable assertion one reads frequently, which has a lot to do with the misconception above, when one thinks about it. Someone adhering to christianity or judaism simply doesn't believe in the main tenets of Islam. Usually, christians and jews are simply nonbelievers, not kafir's, as defined above. If a christian is never presented with anything compelling him to believe that Muhammad' PBUH was the final prophet, he falls into the first category, not the second one, which is the one repudiated in the Qur'an.
The Satanic Verses' incident:
Never took place! For God's sake, anyone who isn't well versed in Islamic hadith really should avoid bringing this one up. The authenticity of the narrative recounting this event was refuted by professional Islamic scholars, including al-Albani, a leading figure in Islamic studies during the twentieth century.
Please listen to Islamic scholars and be skeptical when reading some ex-Muslim kid. It's really that simple.
More misconceptions to come very soon.
