Thread: GOD, COUNTRY, DUTY AND HONOR

Originally Posted by gssixgun

What I am asking is can you just bend Islamic teachings to your own whim like you can most other religions????

Like you just stated about Christianity being open to interpretation..
Because I was under the impression that there is no "interpetation" in Islam????

The clear and obvious answer here is 'yes'. What people often forget, ignore, or pretend doesn't exist, is that there are many different views on Islam. There is a Sunni view, a Shi'ite view, and a Sufism view. There are those who use small passages from the Qur'an to justify terrorism, while still others ignore passages from the Qur'an to allow themselves to drink or dress differently (particularly young modern Muslim females) to what is proscribed traditionally. Clearly, these are all interpretations of various Islamic rules, so to assert that there is no interpretation is Islam is ridiculous.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

If it is a true teaching of the Koran that a Muslim cannot war on another Muslim then we have a small problem because they have been killing each other for 1000's of years.

Let's examine some true teachings of the Bible for a second. Do not covet another man's possessions. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not work on the Sabbath. Do not swear. Do not listen to anyone else swear (Leviticus 5 v1, in case anyone thinks I made that one up). Do not touch an unclean animal or the carcass of an unclean animal (these animals include any seafood without fins or scales, mice, ravens, eagles, ostriches, seagulls, hawks, storks, herons, any flying insect that does not also jump, any animal that walks on all fours and has paws).

Christians regularly disregard these rules, and have been doing so the last couple of millennia - imagine any Christian that has a pet cat or dog - an unclean animal. Any Christian that swears or hears someone else swear. A Christian who has committed adultery (a big rule to break, yet it's done often). My point that I'm trying to make is that it is not just Muslims who break the commandments set out by their holy book. Christians do so as well, as do Jews (the unclean animals thing applies to them too).

Therefore, your assertion that we have a problem (I presume because Muslims appear to you to be willfully not following the teachings of their religion) is false, as many other large religions have followers ignoring the rules too. Muslims are just the same as any other religion - they have their nutjobs, their extreme conservatives, their historic atrocities, and their wacko terrorist groups. IMHO, refusing them entrance to the military simply because of their religious beliefs is a step back to the bad old days of repression of one group (women, African-Americans, Native Americans etc). Surely it would also violate the separation of Church and State in some way as well?

Originally Posted by mosley59

The clear and obvious answer here is 'yes'. What people often forget, ignore, or pretend doesn't exist, is that there are many different views on Islam. There is a Sunni view, a Shi'ite view, and a Sufism view. There are those who use small passages from the Qur'an to justify terrorism, while still others ignore passages from the Qur'an to allow themselves to drink or dress differently (particularly young modern Muslim females) to what is proscribed traditionally. Clearly, these are all interpretations of various Islamic rules, so to assert that there is no interpretation is Islam is ridiculous.

Let's examine some true teachings of the Bible for a second. Do not covet another man's possessions. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not work on the Sabbath. Do not swear. Do not listen to anyone else swear (Leviticus 5 v1, in case anyone thinks I made that one up). Do not touch an unclean animal or the carcass of an unclean animal (these animals include any seafood without fins or scales, mice, ravens, eagles, ostriches, seagulls, hawks, storks, herons, any flying insect that does not also jump, any animal that walks on all fours and has paws).

Christians regularly disregard these rules, and have been doing so the last couple of millennia - imagine any Christian that has a pet cat or dog - an unclean animal. Any Christian that swears or hears someone else swear. A Christian who has committed adultery (a big rule to break, yet it's done often). My point that I'm trying to make is that it is not just Muslims who break the commandments set out by their holy book. Christians do so as well, as do Jews (the unclean animals thing applies to them too).

Therefore, your assertion that we have a problem (I presume because Muslims appear to you to be willfully not following the teachings of their religion) is false, as many other large religions have followers ignoring the rules too. Muslims are just the same as any other religion - they have their nutjobs, their extreme conservatives, their historic atrocities, and their wacko terrorist groups. IMHO, refusing them entrance to the military simply because of their religious beliefs is a step back to the bad old days of repression of one group (women, African-Americans, Native Americans etc). Surely it would also violate the separation of Church and State in some way as well?

Actually the problem I was talking about was using ones religion ie: any religion, to not do ones duty in the US military.... That is what this thread was actually about....