On Tue, Mar 27, 2007 at 05:04:08PM +0200, Michelle Konzack wrote: > Am 2007-02-28 14:28:41, schrieb Roberto C. Sanchez: > > On Wed, Feb 28, 2007 at 02:05:02PM -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > > > Actually, Muslims teach that Jesus was a true prophet, in fact one > > > of the four (I think) major prophets of Islam. And the Shia believe > > > that he will return (along with another prophet) at the end times to > > > set thing right. > > > > > Of course, as I have pointed out, Jesus said (on more than one occasion) > > that he, in fact, was one with God the Father. According to Islam, that > > is the worst kind of blasphemy. How they can revere him so highly just > > dumbfounds me. > > God in three is blasphemy. > > But the Islam accept all three Prohetes from > the Jews, the Christions and Muhammad. > > The is a big difference! > > Thanks, Greetings and nice Day > Michelle Konzack > Systemadministrator > Tamay Dogan Network > Debian GNU/Linux Consultant
I'm not a believer in Islam or Christianity, I have grown up in USA with much social contact with Christianity, some with Judaism, and none with Islam. But I think that I have read enough to be able to contribute some insight into the nature of this difference. As I understand the Islamic position it is that the diety is without attributes. (Here 'attributes' is the opposite of 'essence', both taken in the senses of Catholic philosophers.) People have eyes, minds, voices, thoughts, etc. These are attributes. But the deity simply IS. In Islam, the diety never speaks, He sends angels who speak, for example. According to this view, the deity cannot exist as three persons. The deity is not even one person, since that implies having a personality, and personality is an attribute. Why this 'error' is considered so serious as to justify killing the person who adhers to it is something I don't understand. It seems to me perfectly possible to hold that Christians are simply stupid and unworthy of respect. But that is not the tradidional Islamic view. As to the respect for all Prophets, 'the Prophet' always means Mohammed. Mohammed is the last in a sequence of prophets, not merely the most recent. There will be no more prophets, according to their belief. The job of revealing stuff to mankind is done. Any differences in the several revelations are always resolved in favor of the last prophet. He is surely the greatest prophet. There is not much room for compromise in this position that I can see. When muslims speak of tolerance, it is not in the same sense as that of Catholics tolerating Jews in the modern world. Unbelievers are tolerated only if they have been given a special protected status by the Sultan (no democracy here). This tolerance is out of respect for the Sultan, not out of respect of some idea of human rights. It is a very different world view from that of modern Europe, or America. In nature (red in tooth and claw) it may have greater survival value than my own beliefs, or that of Christians or Jews. -- Paul E Condon [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
