Is Islam a religion of peace?

[Psychearth]

The Muslim community promotes peace within their mosques and throughout the world with the writings of Muhammad. Extremists have placed the stereotype of "terrorists" on the Muslim world, when in fact, it's the exact opposite. Muhammad strived for spiritual enlightenment and complete peace within the collective human consciousness, he did not set out to blow up the America of 2001. There's no doubt that they have played a major role in shaping the history of the world, and will continue to do so until the next religious/spiritual/humanistic movement spreads over Earth.

[Rombomb]

The Muslim community promotes peace within their mosques and throughout the world with the writings of Muhammad. Extremists have placed the stereotype of "terrorists" on the Muslim world, when in fact, it's the exact opposite. Muhammad strived for spiritual enlightenment and complete peace within the collective human consciousness, he did not set out to blow up the America of 2001. There's no doubt that they have played a major role in shaping the history of the world, and will continue to do so until the next religious/spiritual/humanistic movement spreads over Earth.

you didn't read the OP. Mohamed himself was a terrorist. He spread Islam by the sword, not by persuasion. read some history.

[Schaps]

The Quran is replete with clear messages to the believers to kill those who do not believe. There is no room for apologetics. While the Judeo-Christian bibles also contain messages of killing those texts are not applied in practice anywhere in modern times. Contemporary Islam in contrast DOES continue to closely adhere to the original precepts. Islam is a savage cult of muder

[Ruskin]

It absolutely is a religion of peace in it's purest form. The idea is you submit yourself fully to the authority of the one God and Mohammed as his prophet (or submit to Islamic laws and pay the a poll tax) and feel yourself subdued. I think the Quran itself is very clear on this and not ambiguous at all. You have a religion and you have an authoritarian political system to go along with it.

That's only the pure form it though and that form of Islam is in it's death throws and most Muslims seem to completely ignore the political element of it and reinterpret it such a degree it may as well just be any religion.

[Schaps]

If (as Ruskin implies) the peace is achieved by submission and subjugation to an authoritarian regime then certainly that would be one version of peace. It is not a version of peace that I view as acceptable. It is abhorrent and grotesque. Anyone who enforces that version of peace is a fascist criminal who ( like their Nazi brothers) should be condemned for crimes against humanity. The Nazis collaborated with the Musims in their bid to enforce "peace" http://www.tellthechildrenthetruth.com/gallery/

[Ruskin]

To be fair most Muslims don't really understand/agree that Islam is a supposed to impose an authoritarian theocratic system of law over the entire world but that is the idea of it. Any form of government that is not based on the Quran and the Sharia is not from God it's a corrupt man made system. The Quran does certainly does not endorse a pluralistic society of equal status for all religions you're supposed to either either convert, become a dhimmī or die there wasn't a forth option.

[Psychearth]

Muslims. Through their original teachings, they definitely promoted peace, as most religions do. It is with the recent uprising of Muslim EXTREMISTS in the Middle East that we see the creation of the stereotypical "muslim terrorist."

[Spectrum]

Muslims. Through their original teachings, they definitely promoted peace, as most religions do. It is with the recent uprising of Muslim EXTREMISTS in the Middle East that we see the creation of the stereotypical "muslim terrorist."

What ISIS is representing is the original ethos of what Muhammad was doing during his time and that is the inherent essence of Islam. This ethos is unfortunately canonized in the Quran, Hadiths and Sira. What is worst for humanity is, the original inherent evils (~10%) is embedded and made IMMUTABLE till eternity.
This is why there is always evils wherever there are Muslims. This was mentioned by the UK PM Cameron when they raised their Terrorist Alert Level to the highest notch.

Someone stated appropriately, partially [not fully], 'Islam is a religion of piece, i.e. piece(s) of body parts."

The essence of Islam is inherent evil (~10%) and what make Islam looks good on the surface is because some Muslims window dress it up with normal generic human values. But these props are very weak and the original inherent evil in Islam will always prevails as we can see all over the World in not only political violence but in every aspects of humanity.

The solution has to be dealt at the very proximate cause (Islam itself not Muslims) and not merely fire fighting methods.

[Artimas]

No religion is peace. All religions are man made fear and control/steer tactics. All. Not one, not two, not a select few. ALL! Natural spirituality is not Religion. Do not mistake it as such.

[Grotto19]

Oh this nonsense about the core of the Quran and the Muslim faith being evil. It will never end I think. Take a fracking class about Islam and actually learn the history from an authentic educational source (i.e. not Fox News, a Christian academy, or your friend Joe). You will find that its teachings can be harsh but no more so than the Old Testament.

The actions taken by Muhammad were not evil (given the current society). In fact for the time and place the vast majority of what he did was extremely egalitarian, more so than any other regime which rose in power that I can think of. It is true that some Muslims have refused to acknowledge that times change, and are trying to turn back the clock to those days, which is terrible by our standards today. But the religion itself is no more insidious than the Old Testament nor are their actions worse than those taken by Christians in the not so long ago past.

I am certainly not trying to defend the application of 1500 year old dogma. But one must understand that it is the culture of the extremists and not the book it is based on that is the problem. Christians in the past 300 years abandoned the absurdity of trying to continue literal enforcement of their religious text (for the most part). We don’t burn people at the stake anymore, and we don’t invade nations forcing them to convert or die, but we used to, and we did it in the name of God. Worse we did it in the name of Jesus and the New Testament (which completely forbids it). So our “not evil” book still sponsored the same type of religious actions as the Islamic extremists today.

[Spectrum]

Oh this nonsense about the core of the Quran and the Muslim faith being evil. It will never end I think. Take a fracking class about Islam and actually learn the history from an authentic educational source (i.e. not Fox News, a Christian academy, or your friend Joe). You will find that its teachings can be harsh but no more so than the Old Testament.

Don't assume I have not studied sufficiently about Islam, its founder, origins and its history.
I wonder how much you have learned about Islam?
One thing for sure is, believers with a heavily psychological existential interests (under threat of heaven or hell) will often present a very bias view of their religion, holy texts, founder and history.
While there are many researchers who are anti-Islam to the extreme, they often put a lot of research to get to the truths of the matter. Whilst these extremist critique will put in their personal spin, such biasness can be ironed out by other balanced rational critiques.
Point is I have studied Islam from many sources.
In addition I 'triangulate' (or rather 'polyconverge') Islam with many other fields of knowledge, e.g. anthropology, psychology, neuro-psychology, mental illness, sociology, Science, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, philosophy, existential psychology and many others to arrive at various hypotheses on Islam and its founder.

That 'the core of the Quran and the Muslim faith being evil' is thus definitely not from 'FoxNews' but based on a convergence and judgment from a wide range of knowledge.

The actions taken by Muhammad were not evil (given the current society). In fact for the time and place the vast majority of what he did was extremely egalitarian, more so than any other regime which rose in power that I can think of. It is true that some Muslims have refused to acknowledge that times change, and are trying to turn back the clock to those days, which is terrible by our standards today. But the religion itself is no more insidious than the Old Testament nor are their actions worse than those taken by Christians in the not so long ago past.

I am certainly not trying to defend the application of 1500 year old dogma. But one must understand that it is the culture of the extremists and not the book it is based on that is the problem. Christians in the past 300 years abandoned the absurdity of trying to continue literal enforcement of their religious text (for the most part). We don’t burn people at the stake anymore, and we don’t invade nations forcing them to convert or die, but we used to, and we did it in the name of God. Worse we did it in the name of Jesus and the New Testament (which completely forbids it). So our “not evil” book still sponsored the same type of religious actions as the Islamic extremists today.

There is a big difference between the Quran & Hadith and the Bible (OT and NT).

The evils in the Bible has been mitigated by the NT while the small % (but very significant and critical) of evils therein the Quran and Hadith is a free for all (no holds barred) for the 1% or more of evil prone believers. Note 1% of 1.5 billion Muslim is 15 million.

On how many types of grounds and perspectives did you arrive at your conclusions that it is merely the culture of extremists and not the holy books. Or is it merely based on a hunch?
Every group of believers has a small % of evil prone people.
Why is it that at present the MAJORITY of religious related evil are from Islam and not Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Jainism, and others?
This initial inference is sufficient to give one the clue that it has something to do with the religion itself (i.e. Islam) and its teachings rather than purely the believers (Muslims).

My contention is the majority of religious based evil is due to the combination of the following significant variables;

1. ~10% of evil laden verses in the Quran, and higher in the Hadiths.
2. The evil examples within the life of Muhammad -the Islam ethos
3. The malignant use of the "us versus them" impulse
4. ~1% of evil prone Muslims (given that 90% of Muslims are good people).
5. The primal Existential dilemma of a religious believer.

I suggest you read the Quran, Hadiths and the life history of Muhammad extensively, thoroughly and apply knowledge from other fields of knowledge to understand the causes of religious based evils at present.

[Makis2]

I tried to read the quran some time ago. I found it repulsive and offensive from the very first lines. It describes a world and a humanity devoid of many things. I mean the new testament is a masterpiece compared to quran.

P.S. I'm a hardcore atheist

[Spectrum]

I tried to read the quran some time ago. I found it repulsive and offensive from the very first lines. It describes a world and a humanity devoid of many things. I mean the new testament is a masterpiece compared to quran.

P.S. I'm a hardcore atheist

That is a fact.
After reading a few pages of the Quran, a normal person would naturally be able to smell the stench of evils emanating from the Quran.

Here are the first 17 verses from the Quran;

1: The Opening
1:1 In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
1:2 Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds,
1:3 The Beneficent, the Merciful.
1:4 Master of the Day of Judgment, (1:6-7)
1:5 Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help.
1:6 Show us the straight path,
1:7 The path of those whom Thou hast favoured; Not the (path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray.

2: The Cow
2:1 Alif. Lam. Mim.
2:2 This is the Scripture whereof there is no doubt, a guidance unto those who ward off (evil).
2:3 Who believe in the Unseen, and establish worship, and spend of that We have bestowed upon them;
2:4 And who believe in that which is revealed unto thee (Muhammad) and that which was revealed before thee, and are certain of the Hereafter.
2:5 These depend on guidance from their Lord. These are the successful.
2:6 As for the Disbelievers, Whether thou warn them or thou warn them not it is all one for them; they believe not.
2:7 Allah hath sealed their hearing and their hearts, and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom.
2:8 And of mankind are some who say: We believe in Allah and the Last Day, when they believe not.
2:9 They think to beguile Allah and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves; but they perceive not.
2:10 In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increaseth their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie.

From the above one can sense straightaway the use of the "us versus them" impulse in the first few verses.
Therefrom Allah started pounding and condemning non-believers as if like a piece of sh;t.
As one read further there the degree of evilness increases where non-believers are merely a piece of sh;t in the eyes of Allah and Muslims are expected to think the same if they want to go to heaven and avoid hell.

Now, what is extraordinary is Muslims and their apologists will somehow missed all these evil-laden verses. This is the natural effect of cognitive biasness and blindness of not seeing the 500 pound gorilla.

This why I think Islam* is a religion of pieces, i.e. pieces of body parts.
*in this case partially say 10%.
Note 90% of Muslims are good ordinary humans.

[popeye1945]

Lets all go down to the stadium their having a multiple beheading of any one who disagrees with us, and there are free refreshments.

[Sculptor1]

I'm looking for honest feedback (i.e. criticism), so that I can improve this essay (by fixing the flaws).

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Peaceful religion is an oxymoron.
A religion is a system of belief beyind reason and evidence. It seeks to "bind", others to its cause, and by definition those that rejects it are heretical, and excluded.
To become included means to reject your sense of independence and selfness.
This applies to all religions. We think of Christianity as a peaceful religion as do Muslims think of Islam. It should be pretty obvious that part of the reason that Western troops found it so easy to kill "rag-heads" was in part because of their Christian background. This is no different from Muslims.


“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”

― Jiddu Krishnamurti