Love for Life

WHY IS ISLAM VILLIFIED IN THE MEDIA

Islam has been portrayed in the Media for the past twenty years, specially after the Iranian revolution, as a backward religion whose zealots are trying to march humanity back to the dark ages. Several epithets and attributes, such as militant or fundamentalist Moslem, have emerged in the Media, which interestingly do not have an equivalent definition in the Islamic religion nor are used as a qualification amongst Moslems. However, it really aimed at qualifying Moslems, as a good user friendly Moslem, or bad, not so user friendly Moslem.

The Media outlets, whether it is Radio, Television, Newspapers, books are in business for profit and to remain in business, this is the nature of the industry. The Media caters primarily to those that will keep it in business, and that is big business, and the various types of industries that use the Media to promote their business. It is axiomatic that the Media outlets will cater primarily and foremost to the views and needs of big business to assure funding for advertisement, it is that simple.

The Media is an advertisement media, profitability and standing in the ratings come first, truth of information and objectivity of information communicated are secondary or even come last. The public in general, takes the information from the various Media outlet with a grain of salt, knowing that the information is most likely biased to shape the public opinion one way or the other. In whose favor is the information delivered to the public, skewed? Evidently in the interest of big business and special interest groups whose overwhelming financial and influential might affect the bottom line for any Media organization. Money talks, it is that simple.

Having said that, it only makes sense why are all the Media outlets viciously attacking Islam and Moslems and inciting the public to take stands supporting aggression against Moslems and Moslem states for ostensible reasons that could not be backed by facts.

On the other hand, the irrational actions and statements of the Iranian Shiite clergymen since taking over in Iran in the late seventies, had an adverse impact on the average person's perception of Islam and what it really stands for. The Shiite clergymen are set-up in an ecclesiastical church tradition, which does not relate to the Islamic teachings in the Quran nor the teachings and conduct of the Prophet Mohammed, nor the overwhelming Moslem majority who are referred to as Sunni Moslems. The Shiite clergymen represent a little over fifty million Shiite Moslems, mostly in Iran. They have advocated hard line extremist positions, to gain notoriety and publicity in media circles in the eighties, also hoping to appeal to the Moslems in other Islamic states. All this seems to be a reaction to the oppressive ruling of the Shah of Iran for many years, with his notorious US trained and backed secret police, the SAVAK, which is responsible for torturing, disappearance and execution of many Iranians in this sad era of Iran’s history.

In other Moslem states, the practice of instating so-called revolutionary military officers ruling governments in the Middle East is coming to an end. These military regimes which claimed to be challenging the influence of foreign powers, were in actuality for the most part, collaborating with foreign governments, providing low cost control and oppression of the people while carrying out foreign mandated economic and political objectives. These policies set back the standard of living and civil liberties of their people to such low levels unknown to those people throughout their history. These regimes are no longer acceptable by their people, after years of abuse and torturing never experienced throughout the history of the Middle East. Oppression and deliberate impoverishment prompted the people of most Moslem states to reject these regimes, which are primarily supported by foreign powers exploiting their resources. The people began to yearn to some sort of Islamic ruling, in which rulers are democratically elected as stated in Islam, and do enforce the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed, which set the guidelines for the individual’s freedom from oppression or control by the ruler and prevent rulers from abusing the people .

All the teachings of Islam aim at promoting and maintaining love and harmony between all humans. However, it is deemed mandatory that Moslems defend their homelands, their families, their fellow Moslems, their belief which is God’s rules and guidelines as spelled out in the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed’s actions and quotations. So Moslems are not supposed to start trouble, however, if pushed around they are not supposed to roll over and play dead either.

Encouragement to Gain Knowledge

Moslems, according to the Quran, their holy book which was relayed to the Prophet Mohammed by the Angel Gabriel, are encouraged to think, contemplate and try to understand the universe and the wonders of God's creations. They have to keep an open mind in worldly matters of science and knowledge. The Prophet teachings, encourage Moslems to seek knowledge even if they have to go to China, which at the time was the farthest known civilization.

The Islamic Empire which started in the seventh century, encouraged Moslems to explore and learn from previous civilizations like the Greek and Roman civilizations and build on their heritage. The Quran states that ALLAH created humans as peoples and tribes to know each other. Islam is for Integration of human civilization not clash of civilizations. Human civilization has been a series of addition and build up of one civilization on the foundation of the previous one as we see the Greek civilization drew from the old Egyptian civilization of the Pharaohs, while the Romans built on the Greek and Egyptian civilizations, Islam built on the civilizations of the Greeks and Romans. Islamic civilization which spanned more than thirteen centuries until WW I, served as a launching pad for Europe’s modern civilization, where Europeans used to go to Moslem Spain and other Moslem learning centers for knowledge during the dark ages.

The Quran states that people who gain knowledge about the different worldly sciences, are the most pious because they realize that the knowledge they acquired is very little compared to the vast amount of God’s infinite knowledge that governs the various phenomena which we need to discover and understand. People that gain knowledge realize the greatness of the Creator and the fact that this is a very complex world created by a great super being of tremendous knowledge, intelligence, wisdom, power and benevolence as well. As mankind makes new discoveries, it becomes more and more evident that the religion is very much intertwined with human life and the reasons for some of the prohibitions or rather the “ DOs and DONT’s “, become obvious.

The fact that many Moslems go to the West to seek higher education or engage in research is consistent with the religion encouragement to keep an open mind and seek useful knowledge that benefits the individual by making him/her a contributing member of the human society to benefit all humanity.

The Prophet Mohammed stated that once a human dies, he ceases earning good deeds, which add up to his record for the day of judgment, except from three sources, the first an on-going charity that he left behind, a pious son or daughter that pray for him/her, or useful science and knowledge that he/she gained in life which help people in their daily life to make their life more convenient. So, inventors of new technology or the discoverers of useful science, are accruing good deeds that will add up to their record of deeds, even after their death because they make humans life easier and reduce their suffering. Therefore, the fact that many Moslems are in the West engaged in scientific research or earning degrees, does not constitute any dichotomy with the Islamic teachings. It is certain practices and aspects of other cultures that Moslems oppose and find contradictory to the teachings of the Quran and the Ten Commandements.

Religion Sets the Ground Rules

Islam came seven centuries after Christianity, the fact which makes it relatively more recent. However, Islam or any other heavenly religion for this matter, are not limited to worshipping and performing rites. Religions aim in the first place at helping humans know who is their Creator, to refrain from any other type of worship as stated in the first commandment. Secondly, religions establish a code of conduct between humans to regulate their relationships with one another as we see in the ten commandments. We mean here in this discussion the religions recognized by the modern societies, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which are associated with Holy Books such as the Torah, the Bible and the Quran respectively. The message has been consistent from all prophets and messengers who have been encouraging humans to watch and consider God in their actions, to tame and control their desires, greed and how to go about their life until they pass away and what to expect after death, which so far has proven to be inevitable, nobody is immortal.

There is a distinction between a prophet and a messenger. Messengers were sent to specific people, like Lot who was among the people of Sodom, or Noah. While prophets were sent to all of humanity with religions, like Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. Religions were conveyed to human societies periodically to bring them back to the right path that God has chosen for them, to help them deal with new issues resulting from the evolution of the human society, to remind them of God's teachings and encourage them to abide by these teachings and to give up any abhorrent practices which they have indulged in. Religions also come to stop the injustice and abuse inflicted upon one another. So religions are in essence a relief and reprieve from God to humans that help regulate relationships, establish guidelines and boundaries to protect humans from abusing one another.

Heavenly religions basically provide God’s handbook to humans for dealing with the various issues and individuals. Religions prevent one human from taking over and controlling the lives of others and running their lives based on his/her whims and desires, which has been the case throughout history. We have seen that in the time of Moses, when the Egyptians took the Jews into bondage which was considered unfair and unacceptable by God, who sent Moses to free his people from bondage and tell the Egyptians to worship God the Creator, and refrain from worshipping their Pharaoh or any other form of deity. The same happened in the time of Jesus, when the Jews were severely oppressed by the Romans and the Pharisees took over and abused the business of religion to unjustly amass wealth from people and control their lives.

The human societies evolved from being tribal, wandering in the desert seeking pastures and water for their livestock until societies became urbanized and cities and states were formed, which is the final form of human society that presently exists. As new and more complex issues came about, they were addressed in every religion or message sent from God. As human societies evolved to the current social form of cities and states, Islam was sent to mankind, with extensive detailed legislations regulating all aspects of life as far as dealing with worldly matters as well as the hereafter and humans relationship with the Creator. God stated in the Quran that this is his last message to mankind, until the day of judgement, and so far in the past fourteen centuries there has not been any other messages with the sort of miracles which supported all religions, the fact which gives credence to Islam. In the past, messengers and prophets were sent on intervals, every few hundred years from one another.

Islam means submitting and accepting the will and rules of God. Moslems believe that God who created us, loves his creations, is fair and will never hurt his own creations. Just for analogy, God with us is very much like a parent with his children, he knows in his infinite wisdom what’s best for them and sets the rules of the religion accordingly. So far none of his teachings has proven to hurt humans, but as in real life, there are always those who try to tempt us to disobey our parents to deviate from the proper course. It is the strong belief and trust in God that gives Moslems the unwavering sense of devotion to the religion, in spite of worldly temptations, oppression and hardships. This is the essence of submission to God’s will and accepting his plans for managing the world and our life.

God backed up his prophets and messengers with irrefutable evidence that they were God’s emissaries. The evidence is usually a miracle above and beyond the known state of the art at the time. The magic of Moses was above and beyond the magic of the sixty thousand Egyptian magicians gathered to challenge him. The creation of Jesus was a miracle in itself, to complete all the combinations, where God created Adam from clay, no parents, created Eve from his rib, so she has a father but no mother, and created Jesus from a mother and no father and created all of us humans from a father and a mother. Furthermore, the healing miracles of Jesus and raising the dead were above and beyond the known capabilities of medicine at the time, to prove that he is backed by God’s power. All these miracles, from Moses and Jesus happened at their time, and there is no proof left that they occurred. Moslems believe in the miracles of Moses and Jesus. The Quran, which is God’s miracle to back up his Prophet Mohammed, is totally different.

The Quran as a document is a living miracle. It was never altered, and its linguistic miracle is always with us to prove its heavenly origin, not to mention the fact that Prophet Mohammed was a known illiterate amongst his people, with whom he lived for forty years as any average individual, which makes it more challenging. God’s greatness in the Quran is manifested in several examples where several scientific discoveries or facts are found to be mentioned throughout, however for many scholars the meaning was obscured by our limited knowledge. A couple of examples that come to mind is the description of the earth as elliptic fourteen centuries ago, and we found out later that the earth is not spherical but more elliptic, and the description of the mountains as moving but very slowly like the pace of the clouds but we do not feel it, now we learnt that the mountains and the continents are drifting apart on the various tectonic plates. Evidently God meant the Quran to be a living miracle convincing humans of all times to believe in God by reading his miracle book and see how it agrees with their past and present, unlike the miracles of previous messengers which took place and was witnessed and believed by the people who were contemporaries of these prophets. That is an example of God’s mercy and love, to help any objective skeptic individual find out about him at all times through a living miracle document until the day of judgement and the end of life on earth as we know it.

Compatibility with Time

The teachings of Islam, are specific and detailed in several areas of life such as inheritance, marriage, divorce, forbidding consuming pork and some other types of meat, alcoholic beverages or any other substance that impairs judgment, gambling, conditions for compliance with the rulers, relationships with Christians and Jews and many more. However, in other areas the religion brought quite a bit of latitude and left it to the individual to bounce the issues against the " DOs and DON'Ts" of the religion. For example, during the time of the prophet Mohammed, people used to ride camels, horses, mules and donkeys. That does not mean that flying airplanes, or riding trains, buses, automobiles etc... is against the religion, as some in the Media claim that this is what Moslems advocate. The Prophet and his companions used to wear these long gowns and cover their heads, which was very much the dress code throughout the Middle East region, however, that does not mean that Moslems are required to wear that. Moslems can wear anything they like, provided that it covers their bodies as stated in the religion, for men and women respectively. The general rules take into account the evolution of the human society, while keeping in mind the what will happen in the future of humanity.

Campaign Contributions and Freebies Are Forbidden in Islam

Case and point, in the Quran, it was forbidden to pay the rulers to get them to rule specifically in someone’s favor. This practice was not prevalent back then, however, today we call it lobbying money, campaign contributions or PAC money. An individual was sent once by the Prophet Mohammed to collect the alms from a nearby tribe. When he returned, he brought back the alms all right, and said that this other amount was given to him as a gift. The Prophet was extremely angry with that conduct and he gave a speech at the first opportunity when Moslems gathered at the mosque to pray, telling them that if that person would have stayed in his parents home, would anybody have given him anything? This ruling prohibits profiteering from office and using the office and public or non-public responsibility and trust to accept free gifts, gain wealth or any privileges that the individual wouldn’t have got otherwise. Legislators are struggling to determine how much FREEBIE should be accepted, NONE ACCORDING TO ISLAM.

Another general statement by the Prophet Mohammed that anybody who takes anything from anyone because the other individual will be embarrassed to refuse to donate, is committing a sin by taking something unjustly. This can be applied to a lot of things ranging from asking for small favors, donations or taking any materialistic items, believing that the other person will be too embarrassed to refuse to give. Exploitation of others is forbidden in Islam period. There are a lot of examples like that, however, all of the rules in the Quran or quotations of the Prophet Mohammed, are known to each Moslem, who do check any situation they face against these principles to reach a" GO/ NOGO " resolution. The crux of the religion is the individual’s real intention, that nobody knows what it is except for himself and God, who will reward him accordingly.

You Are on Your Own

There is no religious body that tells the Moslems what to do, like the Judeo-Christian system, except for Iran and its Mullahs. There are a lot of religion scholars who give their opinions, however, a Moslem might decide, objectively not subjectively, that this opinion is on the left field and challenges it and not abide by it, with no fear of retribution, provided that he has the proper backing from the Quran and/or the Prophet Mohammed quotations or practices.

The whole religion is available and within easy reach to any Moslem or Non-Moslem. There are no secret scrolls nor dispensations or any such a thing that someone talks to God for a person to get him/her a dispensation. God is benevolent, there for everybody and listens to everybody and caters to the needs of all his creatures that’s what Islam is all about.

Islam basically makes every Moslem responsible and in charge of himself/herself, their families and the whole community, and turn them over to their conscience in abiding objectively with God's teachings, which is God's feedback mechanism.

Every Moslem knows that after they pass away, they will not take with them to the grave neither their wealth nor power, only their actions and deeds in life will be waiting for them for judgment and reward or punishment. Moslems heed the fact that they will be judged by God and they’d better have a good explanation, or risk ending up in hell. This notion of right and wrong, and sin has disappeared in many societies, for the most part. A lot of people generally do what everybody else is doing, and use that as an excuse to justify their actions. The slandering and misrepresentation of Islam in many Media outlets, aim primarily to curb the spread of Islam to maintain the favorable status quo of control, exploitation of others for their own personal gain and serves sin industries such as gambling, drinking, decadent forms of entertainment and many other practices. Generally, the incentive of a Moslem society is to comply with God's teachings and guidelines not seeking unjustified materialistic gains. Moslems are encouraged to judge their actions before they are judged by God.

That's part of the conflict with the Moslem way of thinking, lifestyle and general mentality which refuse to compromise values and principles to achieve materialistic, worldly gains.

WOMEN IN ISLAM

Islam recognizes the important role of women in the society. The Prophet Mohammed, made numerous statements encouraging Moslems to educate their daughters, raise them right and treat them right. This was at a time when men preferred having sons to daughters. Women have equal rights in Islam, but different roles and responsibilities.

Mothers raise nations. By passing and teaching values, principles and manners to their kids they shape their character, thereby shaping the whole character and the future of the society and the nation. That’s why Islam emphasizes the importance of Moslem women having a strong character themselves, good education and a solid understanding of values and principles, otherwise you can not give what you don’t have!

The Prophet Mohammed, ordered men to watch God, meaning fear God, in the way they deal with the two “weaks”. He is referring to women, who are generally speaking, physically weaker than men and that could subject them to men’s physical and/or emotional abuse. The other ”weak” are the employees, who are weak in the sense that they depend on their employer, either their boss or owner of the business, to earn their living. So the order here is not to abuse the power and authority that a person has over his family members, his subordinates or people that work for him. As a general principle in Islam, it is stated that if your power and authority allows you to abuse others, remember the power that God has and what he can do to you for hurting others.

The Prophet Mohammed also stated that any man that has five daughters that he raises them well, treat them well and educate them, will cause him to go to Heaven. His disciples asked him, what if a man had only four daughters, three daughters, two daughters. His response was the same, until the companion who narrated the statement said, I had the feeling that if we would have asked if a man had one daughter, the Prophet would have said that he will still go to Heaven for raising her right and treating her well and educating her.

Islam put the mothers in a more imminent position than the fathers, although it is imperative that Moslems be extremely kind and generous to both parents. Once a companion of the Prophet asked him whom should he choose to join him in Heaven? The Prophet told him your mother. Then the companion asked him, then who else? The Prophet repeated three times, your mother, then your father.

Fear of God in Treating Women

There are numerous statements and quotations from the Prophet and in the Quran about the importance of kindness, decency and fear of God in treating women. A statement from the Quran or a quotation from the Prophet about being kind and conscientious in treating women is more than enough to stop most Moslem men in their tracks. That’s why the frequent practice of women battering, in other societies, is considered repugnant and reprehensible in Moslem societies.

Moslem women have a strong sense of dignity and self respect due to all the attention and love they get from their parents, the respect, generous love and dignified treatment as mandated by the religion, from their husbands and their children as stated by the Quran and the Islamic society as a whole. They are not treated as sex objects and they have a strong sense of honor and morality. You will never see a Moslem swim suit issue! Many Moslem women have embraced reverting to Islamic dress code with passion and devotion, in spite of some husbands objections.

What Are the Real Reasons for Relentless Attacks on Moslem Women?

It is really strange to see the relentless ferocious attacks by the Media on Moslem societies and women dress code, when nobody in the Media makes any bones or objects to women wearing the Kimono, the Sari or any other native dress. A Moslem woman dresses more or less like a nun, covering all her body and hair, however, nobody makes fun of nuns’ dress code but make a big deal about Moslem women’s dress code. Moslem women follow the same dress code of the holy women mentioned in all the religious books, similar to Mary, who is held in a very special imminent status in Islam.

If any woman decides to stay home to raise her children and take care of them, this is considered commendable, however, if a Moslem woman does the same, the world is up in arms lamenting the sacrifice of her freedom. Moslems in general and women in particular, are content, which is key to their happiness, and they go about their lives following the teachings of the religion, which bring internal peace with themselves.

The Media exploits women in many ways and use them as sex objects. The Media promotes accessibility to women to facilitate taking advantage of them claiming that these are modern society values. In contrast, in Islam women are not sex objects. The Media promotes decadence it is that simple. A Moslem woman covers her beauty to show it to her husband which makes her beauty a private matter between herself and her husband and family members. On the other hand, a woman in a bikini showing her body to everyone is basically making herself public property for everybody to look at, lust and think as they like. A covered up Moslem woman does not leave much for a stranger to look at as far as her body is concerned, her body is a private matter.

Moslems can only wonder what purpose does the Media serve by presenting distorted images of Islam. It can serve a lot of good to present an accurate objective discussion of Islam and the reasons Moslem families, for the most part, have stronger bonds between spouses and between children and parents, instead of presenting a distorted, out of context image of Moslem societies to try to convince the uninformed that family life is as bad or worse for Moslems, which is not true at all.

Many Western societies ended up finding that the solution of many of their social problems was already in the teachings of Islam fourteen centuries ago, for the simple reason that these teachings were devised by the Creator of humans who understands them and knows how to make them live in harmony with themselves and their surrounding. These teachings are not limited to a particular society. After all Mohammed, Jesus and Moses are all from the Middle East, none of them is more or less Pro-West nor Republican! The fact that over the years the Judeo-Christian religions have been changed and adapted to suit certain desires and economic ambitions, has made those religions totally different from the original messages brought in by Moses and Jesus.

Basically the Media embraces and practices its own version of Judeo-Christian interpretation of the religion to serve limited worldly materialistic objectives. That’s why in this day and age, when individuals freely question the religion and demand reasonable explanations from the church, the Judeo-Christian religions can not find a reasonable answer to several critical life matters, and the controversy goes on over many vital issues such as birth control, celibacy for priests and many more that were man-made edicts to serve personal gains and control the societies. The Western Judeo-Christian experiment is failing as manifested by continuous decrease of religion practice and church attendance. The Western Judeo-Christian religions seem to fail to address human spiritual needs and desires that are conducive to genuine happiness and harmony with each other, since they have become more or less man made religions for the most part in Europe since the fourth Century. Divergence with the original teachings have been occurring since then.

WOMEN IN ISALM AND CHRISTIANITY
The Media in the West makes Moslem Women an object of derision and mockery. Women in Islam are portrayed to be "oppressed" and "inferior to men".

It is amazing the degree of similarity between several verses of the Bible and Islamic rulings regarding women. While other verses show that the Bible puts women in a more inferior and subservient position to men, while Islam consider men and women equal, but with different roles, as shown in the following comparison.

ARE WOMEN OPPRESSED IN ISLAM?

ISLAM: Women must cover their heads as a sign of "modesty." It also
serves as protection for the female.

CHRISTIANITY: 1 CORINTHIANS 11:3-10 in the Christian Bible orders women
to cover their heads in prayers. These verses further state that the male doesn't have to cover his head because "female was made from male, and the male not from the female." It further states that a woman covering her head is a sign of male "authority."

Islam and Christianity both tell women to cover their heads. The main difference, however, is that women in Islam cover their heads for purposes of "modesty." Christian women cover their heads as a sign of "male authority." It is clear that the Bible gives women an inferior status, whereas Islam doesn't.

ISLAM: Adam and Eve (peace be upon them) were EQUALLY responsible for
eating from the "forbidden tree." They both repented and were forgiven by the Most-Forgiving and Most-Merciful ALLAH, God.

CHRISTIANITY: Eve ate from the "forbidden tree" BEFORE Adam did. Adam ate from the tree AFTER Eve did. The woman was deceived FIRST. Because of EVE causing Adam to sin by eating from the forbidden tree, the ground is "cursed." God doesn't forgive them, but damns them and humanity thanks to Eve (the woman). ALL females go through "pains of child bearing" as a punishment from God -- because of EVE'S sin. All males have to go through pains of eating from the ground, thanks to EVE. ALL babies are born in SIN, thanks to EVE. (GENESIS 2:4-3:24)

"Adam was not deceived but the woman was" (1 TIMOTHY 2:11-14)
"Woman will be ruled over by the male" (GENESIS 3:16). In other words, thanks to a WOMAN, we are damned. It is clear that in Christianity, the very first woman is blamed for wrongdoing, but not the very first male.

ISLAM: Quran orders us that we should not "bury daughters alive."

CHRISTIANITY: -"The birth of a daughter is a loss" (ECCLESIASTICUS 22:3,
Catholic Bible)

Ritual impurity of a mother is TWICE as long if a female
is born and not a male. (LEVITICUS 12:2-5)

It is obvious that Islam emphasizes dignified, decent and respectful treatment to women. Islam, God’s final message to humanity, aims at eradication of discrimination and abuse towards women which still continues in today's Protestant and Catholic scriptures.

ISLAM: Women can talk in the mosque.

CHRISTIANITY: -"It is a shame for women to talk in the church."
(1 CORINTHIANS 14:34-35)

If females cannot talk, then how are they supposed to learn and ask for information and learn about religion? Again, it is obvious that Islam gives women equal rights and a higher status than the Bible does.

ISLAM: If the husband dies, then the wife may re- marry any male that she agrees to marry to.

CHRISTIANITY: If the husband dies without impregnating the wife, then
the "brother" of the dead husband MUST marry his wife. The female CANNOT marry anyone else, but ONLY her dead husband's brother (DEUTERONOMY 25:5).

Islam gives the woman a choice to marry or not, and to whom she wants to
marry, if her husband dies. In Christianity (and Judaism), the woman has
NO CHOICE, but to marry her dead husband's brother. It is obvious that Islam, unlike other religions, gives women the respect and dignity they deserve. Women in Islam are not objects to be used and by males without any say in their own destiny. Women raise nations and the societies.

OTHER INTERESTING SIMILARITIES:

ISLAM: Cut off the hand if it steals - of course specific conditions apply.

CHRISTIANITY: "If your hand sins, it is better to cut it off instead
of going to hell with both hands" (MARK 9:43)

The above refutes the false claims in the Media that Moslems are CRUEL in punishing thieves. In fact, the Bible also tells one to "PLUCK YOUR EYE OUT" if it sins, no such a thing in Islam.

ISLAM: Flogging for the one who is drunk.

CHRISTIANITY: The judge may order the unjust man to be STRIPED
40 TIMES (DEUTERONOMY 25:1-3)

ISLAM: Moslems pray by prostrating and putting the forehead on the ground.

CHRISTIANITY: "Jesus fell on his face and prayed...(MATTHEW 26:39)

Evidently somebody changed the way early Christians were praying the way Jesus prayed!

ISLAM: Allows a male to marry more than one wife, up to four, under certain
conditions.

CHRISTIANITY: -Abraham had 3 wives in the Bible: Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah.
(In book of GENESIS)

King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. (1 KINGS 11:3)

David had many wives (2 SAMUELS 5:13)

No where in the Bible does it forbid polygamy, or says that the male must
marry one woman. Monogamy is a Greco-Roman tradition, one of the
many changes to the true teachings of Jesus.

ISLAM: Kill the apostate if he doesn't repent and return to Islam.

CHRISTIANITY: Do not PITY the apostate, KILL HIM (DEUTERONOMY 13:8,9)

ISLAM: Allows slavery but set to abolish it gradually by encouraging Moslems to free their slaves, and if they keep them, they should feed them from the same food they eat and dress them the same quality of clothing that they were, not rags and not to abuse them and exercise empathy by sparing them hard work and think of them as their own brothers that the Creator put them at their service.

CHRISTIANITY: Allows slavery without any guidelines for treatment (LEVITICUS 25:46).

ISLAM: Cannot SELL your daughter.

CHRISTIANITY: You can sell your daughter (EXODUS 21:7)

ISLAM: Muslims cannot eat pig.

CHRISTIANITY: "Do not eat pig meat or touch their dead flesh"
(LEVITICUS 1l:8)

Evidently some aspects of Christianity have changed over the years.

There is really nothing in Islam which does not have an equivalent in either the New Testament or the first 5 books of the Old Testament. When someone criticizes Islam, they might as well criticize the Bible and the Torah as well. So what motivates the Media to deliberately ignoring these facts and lead the masses to believe that only Islam imposes strict rigid rulings against women, when the facts are that Islam assures more dignity and respect to women and prevents exploiting them.
All the above verses are taken from the KING JAMES version of the Bible. Various Bibles confirm the above verses though verbalized differently . For example the verse, "The birth of a daughter is a loss"(ECCLESIASTICUS 22:3) is from the CATHOLIC Bible.
Evidently other religions were changed by the powers to be that ran the religion, while in Islam, the Moslems believe that the Quran was inspired by ALLAH to Prophet Mohammed, and that ALLAH, our Creator, provided all the answers and guidelines that humanity should follow to ensure happiness in life and in Heaven after death. ALLAH is perfect and does not need humans to modify the religion. Religion comes down to humans from their Maker, to assure fairness and equality between humans. Any human who changes a religion is only doing so for their own personal gain, and do not have the foresight to predict the adverse side effects for their ruling, while ALLAH knows best and none of his “DO’s AND DON’Ts” have any deleterious effects on humans.

It is amazing that Moslem societies have the least use for psychiatric help. The religion provides the answers to all the problems that people face in their daily life. Moslems believe that God created us humans and gave us all the means to survive in his universe along with the principles and values to keep us functioning in harmony with each other and to allow us to deal with the situations that we shall encounter in life. The failure of other societies in the past fifty years, as reflected in the high rates of divorce, increasing illegitimacy at alarming rates unheard of in any previous civilized society, and the general personal dissatisfaction reflected in seeking this elusive happiness and pleasure by acquiring materialistic objects, indulging irresponsibly in sex, drugs or drinking, and the out of control increase in crime, confirm to Moslems their belief in God and the fact that the religion spells out the proper code of conduct in life.

ISLAM AND ITS THREAT TO THE ORGANIZED RELIGION ENTERPRISE

The Moslem reign, started from the seventh century AD up until the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WW1. Moslems started their campaigns to spread the message of Islam Eastward all the way to China and Westward to Egypt, North Africa and finally into Spain. The message was simple, people have to recognize God through Judaism, Christianity or Islam and give up worshipping idols or anything else. Islam tolerated and respected other religions, Judaism and Christianity, whose followers were called " PEOPLE OF BOOK " referring to the Torah and the Bible. Islam is a continuation of God’s message in the original previous religions.

Europe at the time was controlled by the Church, headquartered in the Vatican, and no monarch would dare challenge the absolute authority of the church’s religious hierarchy. No citizen of any European nation either, could dare question the edicts of the church. This situation as it was described by many historians of the middle ages, brought to the Vatican and local churches an immense amount of power, wealth along with corruption which led eventually to the Protestant movement of Martin Luther.

Islam on the other hand, never gave the rulers or any one that chooses to become a religion scholar this kind of absolute power or authority over individuals’ lives.

The fact that Islam gives the individual full control over himself/herself and allows the individual to deal with God directly with no need to any intermediary, all that eliminates the need for the organized religion industry as we know it. God is not for sale and profit.

Early Moslem rulers were extremely pious and many of them left on their own, their well to do ways of life as soon as they were selected to manage the affairs of Moslems, out of fear of accidentally using public money or mixing public money with their own. Moslem rulers considered the office a responsibility towards every citizen and living creature in the Moslem State. This stems from the numerous statements in the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed, that rulers must be fair and that they will be judged on the Day of Judgment by stricter rules due to the greater impact they have on their subjects' lives. They feared upsetting God and they led a low key lifestyle totally different from the opulence of the Roman or Persian monarchies that were conquered by the Moslems, in the seventh century.

The fairness and justice of early Moslem rulers had the effect of encouraging a lot of people in the liberated territories to convert to Islam in droves, for all the good things they heard about the Moslems. Back in those days when any empire invaded another state, the atrocities committed by the invaders were outrageous, as documented by historians. However, with the Moslems it was forbidden to kill women, children and the elderly and to fight only those who fight the Moslems, until they surrender. This reputation spread and helped the Moslems invade many countries with the help of its own citizens to get rid of an oppressive occupying nation or get rid of a despotic, cruel, ruling monarch. Egypt is a good example where all the citizens were Eastern Orthodox Coptic Christians and were occupied by the Romans, who were Christians. The Coptic Christian Egyptians, who over the years have experienced the atrocities perpetrated by the Christian Romans, heard of the Moslems decency and justice and helped them conquer and evict the Romans from Egypt. Egyptians willingly converted to Islam in droves and currently they are ninety percent Moslems. They even established the oldest university in the world in Cairo, AL AZHAR University, which is one thousand years old, which started for teaching religion and later on got into worldly branches of science such as medicine, engineering and others.

The fact that a Moslem has to answer to God who forbid exploitation or following any practice contradictory to his teachings, does not lend Islam to the exploitation and abuses of organized religion. Nobody is supposed to use the words of God to amass wealth. Preaching the religion should be done for the sole purpose of helping fellow humans find God and follow his principles, without exerting any pressure on them to convert. Any one who is sincerely trying to find God, God will help him/her find the right way.

Tolerance

Islam flourished and spread even to other countries as far away as Indonesia and Singapore, and Media African States that adopted Islam as a way of life after dealing with Moslem merchants and traders. Indonesia is the largest Moslem nation, and has never been invaded by any Moslem force, which shows that Islam was not spread by the sword as claimed by Anti-Islamists.

All citizens, including Christians and Jews, that lived under Islamic ruling, such as in Spain, Egypt, Iraq, Persia and other places flourished under that regime and had equal rights as mandated by the religion. Spain became the center of learning in Europe from the eighth century until the inquisition in the fourteenth century.

After the Roman Catholic Spaniards took control of Spain and went about persecuting citizens of Spain who were not Roman Catholic in an era known as the Inquisition, many Jews fled Spain to Morocco to live under Moslem ruling, knowing that their lives and wealth will be safe under Moslem ruling from persecution as it has always been. This explains the relatively large Jewish community in Morocco, which has flourished there for the past six centuries, which is a testimony of Islam’s tolerance of other religions and peaceful co-existence of all the citizens regardless of their beliefs throughout history.

Islam kept an open mind in terms of gaining scientific knowledge in all the different branches of physics, medicine, architecture and other branches of knowledge which are very well manifested in Spain and Portugal and other Islamic countries. On the other hand, the Church stifled any free thinking or questioning of the church position on any scientific matter, which brought the death penalty to several scientists who dared stick to their scientific viewpoints. The torch of human civilization was picked up and developed by the Moslems after the demise of the Roman empire. The Europeans had to go to Moslem states to get an education the same way as Moslems do nowadays by going to Western learning centers. It boiled down simply to the fact that nations living under Moslem ruling flourished and prospered, because the Moslems, unlike previous invaders or modern days imperialist nations, were not exploiting the wealth of any nation and its resources as European states did when they occupied Africa, Asia and South America. Exploitation of humans, Moslems or Non-Moslems alike, as said previously is a sin in Islam.

The Church viewed Islam as a threat to its power and authority over the people and the business of profiteering from the religion. They encouraged the crusades to the Middle East and forgave all atrocities that will be committed in advance, in an effort to destroy Islam and maintain their grip over the people and the Monarchs. This campaign of hatred is still raging till now, as we saw in Bosnia, Cashmere, Eretria, the Philippines, Chechnyia and other areas, with the blessing of the church. However under Moslem ruling, there has never been such a thing as "Ethnic Cleansing" or Inquisition, although the Moslems were a majority. Jews and Christians have always been treated equally in Moslem states as documented by many historians, the fact which shows the fairness of God’s teachings and the adherence of Moslems to God’s rules.

Different From Western Culture

The Moslems realized that some of the practices in the Western Culture are diametrically opposite to the values and principles of the religion. The Media portrays life in Western societies as totally immersed in pursuing materialistic gains ignoring the spiritual aspects of life. The Media seems to have lost its sense of right and wrong, empathy and compassion towards other humans of different ethnic background or skin color. In Islam all humans are equal. It seems that Judeo-Christian version of religion, recognizes only white skinned people, other skin colors, though they might be Christians are not considered equal. This is manifested at work, places of residence, and worse yet in places of worship where there are white and black churches. God is not racist, we are all God’s children and we are all equal before him, specially during worship when it shouldn’t matter whom we are sitting next to, all that matters that we are in the presence of the Almighty.

The atrocities committed by the colonizing European nations in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made the Moslems realize that although Western technology and science are nice and useful to acquire, however many social practices are totally contradictory to the values and principles of the Quran and Prophet Mohammed not to mention the messages of tolerance and brotherhood of Jesus. The fact that some Western states appear to speak with a forked tongue made the Moslems skeptical about the West’s real intentions. On one hand Western states preach democracy and human rights for some nations but deny the same rights to other nations suffering the oppression of pro-West dictators.

Many of the sayings that we hear in our day to day life such as " TO GET ALONG YOU GO ALONG ", " WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT ", " DIVIDE AND CONQUER", “ THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS “ and others, describe more or less the general mentality and attitude in running life. Basically the values and principals are disappearing in the Media. Decadence, manifested in pervasive adultery, promiscuity, illegitimacy reaching very high proportions, crime and starting wars all over the world under any pretext to achieve economical gains, regardless of the pain and suffering brought on a lot of nations, all of that and more made many Imperialist Governments synonymous to evil for a lot of Moslems or Non-Moslems alike in many nations.

Who is behind the Media? The Media caters very much to the various big businesses, governments which serve big business and institutions that plan among themselves how to run the world and split among themselves the economic spoils achieved by subduing other people. The average citizen, though is given a phony sense of pride for being associated with a conquering nation or a super power, is also subjected to different levels of atrocities ranging from economic insecurity due to the ever present risk of losing their jobs to maximize corporate profit, to being committed to a war in a God forsaken part of the world for questionable reasons, losing his/her life or losing a son or a daughter, paying higher taxes to support the pursuit of these economic ambitions which end up benefiting a minority associated with the ruling establishment. The examples in South America, Asia and Africa are numerous, however there has never been any voice in the Media calling to stop the killing, as called recently “collateral damage”, as if people of other nations don't count as humans.

Moslems are mostly being ruled by puppet regimes believed to have been brought and backed by foreign powers to commit their nations to exploitation and submission to Western economies. Moslems began to realize the extent of the scheme and the fact that many of these regimes that are vocal in criticizing the West and some are ostensibly vilified in Western media circles, are in actuality closely collaborating with the same foreign powers they decry, and help them exploit their own nations and people. Along with that, these rulers suppress any opposition with unprecedented cruelty and subject the people to various forms of contortion ranging from killing and imprisonment to artificial shortages of food and necessities to keep them busy searching for necessities to try to stay alive, with the tacit approval of many Western governments, which keep these issues out of the media.

This explains the background of the Moslems up-rise against oppressing governments which replaced foreign occupations but is carrying out the same policies. For fourteen centuries of Islam until the turn of the twentieth century, which has seen more killing than any previous century, Moslems lived in peace with all other religions and minorities. The teachings of Islam forbid imperialist practices of exploitation of other nations, or waging wars for no reason other than self defense. Moslems throughout history never engaged in genocide as we have seen in modern times in Nazi Germany, Bosnia and in the past during the Catholic Inquisition in Spain. Moslems welcome technological advancement, but opposes lack of civility in treatment of all humans equally and fairly, total obsession with materialistic gains ignoring God's teachings and the basic rudiments of decency with all humans regardless of their skin color or ethnicity.

Islamic Taxation and Economy

Under Islamic ruling, Moslems pay the treasury two and a half percent of their net worth once a year, which is the alms giving, before the end of the month of Ramadan, flat tax no loopholes. Moslem states were extremely wealthy for over thirteen centuries. The Prophet Mohammed condemned taxation as well as the people that engage in collecting taxes. Mediaern Monarchs, following the tradition of the Roman Empire, have committed numerous atrocities in collecting taxes levied on the average citizen throughout history. The same practice of taxation abuse still persists, with of course more sophisticated methods, not necessarily like the ones of the past where they cut a finger to take a golden ring to pay for tax. Mediaern practices of taxing the average citizen and providing loopholes and exemptions for the wealthy and big corporations, are considered illegal and unjust in Islamic teachings. Currently, some Moslem countries which abide by Islamic rules, such as Saudi Arabia, do not tax citizens as we know it in the Media.

In Islam it is forbidden to control the market to help raise price and profits, basically play the Supply and Demand rule. It is a major sin to deny humans their needs. It is also a major sin that a Moslem who has food, knows of someone that needs food and does not provide some to his fellow humans. Hence, any nation that has a surplus of food, should share it with those who need it, not destroy the crops to maintain market prices and play the Supply and Demand game.

In Islam, profit margin after adding up all expenses and cost should not exceed thirty percent. That definitely contradicts the exorbitant prices which are based on whatever the market can bear. Islam forbids and tries to eradicate greed, and we see the destruction that greed has done to many industries and societies in general.

Islam encourages helping people earn an honest living. Laying people off and destroying their lives to maximize profits is a sin in Islam. In Islam, social responsibility is more important than making excessive profits, after all none of those CEOs will take these financial rewards with them, to their graves. As the second ruler after the Prophet Mohammed said, I hate to burn in Hell for something that I earned unfairly in life which I leave after my death for someone else to enjoy. So accumulating wealth by destroying the social and economic fabric of the society is a major sin in Islam, but unfortunately it’s OK in other societies !

WESTERN SOCIETIES HELPED STRENGTHEN THE MOSLEMS BELIEF IN ISLAM

The Media provides the best human dynamics laboratory. In mediaern societies people are free to practice and do anything that they take a liking to, under the pretext of modernization, liberalism or any other justifications. The adverse results of all this experimentation with sex, drugs abuse, disrespect to parents, individuality, economic greed, usury, lack of inner sense of right and wrong are evident.

To many Moslems who moved to Western societies and who were initially dazzled by its technological advancement and processes, realized that Islamic teachings of the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed are right on the money and do provide the solution to the social and economic problems in all societies, Moslem or otherwise. The Creator knows best!

The Moslems believe that God is the one and only Creator of the universe. The Creator, like an engineer who designs a car for example, specifies oil changes and other maintenance actions to assure the smooth running of the car. Many of the "DOs and DON'Ts" of the religion have proved all along and particularly in recent years to serve good purposes, in terms of health and general human well being. We saw recently that many Western societies concluded and reverted to these practices on their own, out of necessity, after they tried to defy the boundary conditions of the Creator. Case and point, alcohol has been forbidden in Islam for fourteen centuries, however, in the past twenty five years or more there have been extensive publications on the deleterious effects of alcohol on the liver and the brain, not to mention the tragedies brought in by tragic accidents caused by alcohol consumption. Recently it was discovered that wine has a favorable effect on the cardiovascular system due to the existence of a newly discovered substance under the grape skin that has favorable health effects. However, the research also indicated that the benefits of this substance could be achieved by consuming grapes, not necessarily fermented to wine. Basically, there is no advantage for fermenting any food material over consuming it in its natural form, that’s how the Creator designed the world and meant it to be, for our own good. Another example is divorce, which was totally banned in several Western societies and gradually most Western societies had to revert to legalizing divorce. You can artificially force two people to live together, this is human nature and all laws banning divorce were man made and proved to lack practicality.

Marriage is the Way to Go

Islam calls for marriage as the only form of relationship between a man and a woman. No extra marital affairs of any kind, nor deviant sexual behavior as we see nowadays are allowed. Currently, with the spread of venereal diseases, there is a strong call for abstinence, that’s what the Creator told us to do throughout the Quran and warned, using the strongest terms, from engaging in adultery. Homosexuality which has been practiced and even legalized in some societies, proved to be extremely harmful to the human body, that’s why the Creator has forbidden it and destroyed the people of Sodom and Gomorrah as mentioned in several holy books. In the Media, such an abhorrent practice that can destroy humanity is called “ alternate lifestyle” out of fear of offending a segment of the society that has voting and buying power. That is very much the crux of the problem, compromising on principles, regardless of God’s teachings, to achieve materialistic or worldly gains.

Moslem marriages are held in public so that everybody knows that these two individuals are married, not having a good time. It is a contract type marriage in which everything is spelled out. Many people nowadays prefer to follow the pre-nuptial agreement practice, which is a form of contract defining each party's rights in advance, to avoid falling under the whims of the courts and risk financial ruin. That's an example of reverting to an Islamic practice in the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed and in the Quran as well.

Marriage is A Serious Matter

In Islam marriage is a serious matter. The relationship and the obligations of each spouse towards the other is meticulously defined by God, the infallible, not by humans. Men and women are equal and have rights and obligations towards one another that they must honor. The religion encourages the man to work to provide to the family, to observe God in dealing with his wife and to treat her well, no abuse of any kind, always seeking kindness and harboring the best of intentions towards his wife.

On the other hand, the wife must obey her husband, be conscientious in spending his money, raise the children and be his confidante, never let the secrets of their life out to anybody and always harbor the best of intentions towards her husband. As the Quran stated, each spouse must find peace and serenity in the other spouse. In many societies, many marriages are in different stages of turmoil, because there are no governing rules for everybody to abide by to manage the relationship between husband and wife. Each household has its own ideas of what is right, fair, just and equitable. Moslems believe that the maker of this world knows human nature, since he created humans, and he justly and fairly set the rules of engagement. He knew what will work to assure the continuity of life and achieve a happy marriage. A Moslem man can divorce a woman with one word, however, Moslems know from the Quran that God stated that the most repugnant thing that God allowed Moslems to do, is divorce. God provided in the Quran a process to arbitrate and help reconcile the differences between a Moslem couple before their relationship reaches the point of no return. Interestingly, though it is easy for a man to get divorced in Moslem societies, and coming out smelling like a rose if he wants to, according to statistics, Moslems have the least rates of divorce in the world.

POLYGAMY

Throughout the known history of humanity, having more than one wife was common. Abraham, the father of all the prophets had Sarah and Hajer as wives. His son Jacob, who is also known as Israel, had several wives. King Solomon had over a hundred wives and numerous concubines. Even some of the Roman emperors had several wives. So the practice of polygamy is as ancient as humanity itself and was never forbidden by any of the prophets in the Old Testament. However, after Christianity was taken to Europe and blended with European customs and traditions, the practice of polygamy was banned by the church, along with divorce. The banning is man-made, not a Heavenly directive through any prophet or messenger.

God, in Islam, set to regulate the matter of having more than one wife. Islam allowed the man to have up to four wives at the same time, provided that the man and the women meet certain conditions, which are beyond the subject of this discussion. However, the Quran stated that a man must treat his wives justly, fairly and equally, then stated that you will never be just and fair to the women no matter how hard you try, therefore limit yourselves to one wife.

So Islam did not bring in the practice of polygamy, it was already there. However, it set to regulate the matter, but also encouraged men to be monogamous. The overwhelming majority of Moslems are Monogamous.

There are several examples for why a man might need to have a second wife. Case and point, our father Abraham did not have children with our mother Sarah who encouraged him to try to have a child with Hajer, the Egyptian princess that was given to Abraham and Sarah.

It can also happen that a man might be unhappy with his wife, for whatever reasons of discord. The religion gives the man the right to seek comfort with another woman, but within the framework of marriage, not an extra-marital affair. If a woman is unhappy with her husband, and all else fails to correct the situation, she can ask or sue for divorce.

Extra-marital affairs mean adultery, which is conducive to illegitimacy and decadence in the society, which denies the illegitimate child from having equal rights of having an honorable social status and a family life like everybody else. It also results in the society bearing the consequences of the illegitimate and irresponsible deeds of others, in terms of financial support of the illegitimate children. Not to mention the demeaning effect of leading a degenerate life, for both the men and the women. We are faced with these problems in this day and age with our troubled welfare system with all these babies being born out of wedlock. God knows in advance what adultery will lead to and how it will end up and that’s why he warned from even approaching adultery, because of its dire consequences.

Adultery has always been sex between a man and woman not married to each other. Only recently that is, after the sixties sex revolution, adultery became OK if the man and/or the woman are not married. What holy book says that? This is another example of the compromise in the values and morals that is prevalent in the so called “modern” societies and the total disregard of God’s rules, in search of pleasure.

Emphasis on Social Responsibility

Islam’s regulation of relationships between men and women and emphasis on social responsibility for the aforementioned reasons demonstrate that the Creator knows that things will go out of control and hence he established fair and objective guidelines, to which Moslem and all mankind should adhere to. The media shows a society without free sex, or dating as backward. In all forms of life, either animal, bird or whatever, the female plays hard to get and only selects the stronger male to mate with, and this male has to go through a lot of effort to demonstrate to the female that he is the one worthy of her, to maintain the strength of the specie. We are no different, a woman generally marries the man that can provide for her and their children, which leads in most cases to a normal functional family. A woman that gives herself to every Tom, Dick and Harry risks exposing her children to the dire consequences of illegitimacy and the ordeals of life with a young mother struggling to meet their day to day needs, not to mention the possibility of additional illegitimate pregnancies perpetuating the cycle of illegitimacy. While the men are out there spreading their apple seeds and not caring for the off springs they leave behind. The result of that as we see it today, is broken homes, dysfunctional families and perpetuation of the illegitimacy cycle with the following generations. Islam solved all of that by advocating social responsibility through family life.

The family is the unit building block of the social body. If the family is founded on love, strong values and principals, the whole body will be healthy, what starts well ends well. Other social forms outside the framework of family values are like abnormal body cells, like cancerous forms that will eventually destroy the whole body, which is the society. That’s how societies and civilizations have risen and declined throughout history. Moslems adhere to the Creator’s commands to avoid any form of adultery or abhorent behavior, to assure the purity of their off springs and a wholesome society.

Unconditional Love and Respect to Parents

In dealing with parents, God and the prophet used the strongest terms to encourage goodness and kindness towards the parents until they pass away and after they pass away by praying for them, and warned from disobeying this commandment. Moslems are appalled at the way in some societies older parents are considered a burden for their immediate families who try to get rid of them by committing them to retirement homes, not to mention the cases of abuse that occasionally surface in the media.

Moslems are encouraged to learn the best of things that are useful to their life, and reject the practices that contradict the teachings of the Quran and the practices of the Prophet. Islamic teachings should not pose any problem to the middle of the road individual in any society, whether it is the Eastern or Western cultures and societies. Many Moslems who spent time in Western societies realized that the religion is right all along and that Western lifestyles did not make the people there any happier. A good example is Sweden, where people enjoy one of the highest standards of living and services provided by the state, however, they have one of the highest rates of suicide in the world. While in Moslem countries, despite oppression and continuous harassment by the authorities, people are hanging in there and seek solace in the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed to help them endure these hard times.

The fact of the matter is that over the years, some societies have compromised religion, values and moralities and succumbed to the pursuit of materialistic gains to the point that it has become a normal way of life. Getting a dispensation, for a handsome donation of course, took care of everything. Islam does not lend itself to these practices, because the religion does not allow the individual to be under another person's influence or exploit others for personal gains, everybody is equal before God. God warns in the Quran from giving in to these temptations and selling off values and religion for near term worldly gains.

Furthermore, the religion calls on Moslems not to engage in any business that might bring harm to others. This happened when the Prophet Mohammed was inspired the verses of the Quran forbidding alcoholic beverages. Up until that time Moslems could drink and many of them kept a good stock of booze in their homes, like any other household item. The Moslems asked the Prophet if they can sell the booze to other Non-Moslems, which he forbid. The reason is simple, if booze does harm to a Moslem, Non-Moslems are humans too and they should not be harmed, regardless of financial rewards. That definitely flies against many business practices, where profit plays a key role in decision making regardless of consequences to humans.

No Cults No Welfare

A few years ago, an Indian guy started a cult religion in Oregon. He collected eighty six ROLLS ROYCE, a fleet of private airplanes and other assets. Many followers flocked from all over to join his cult. The system did not consider his religion or him a threat, except for those whose relatives moved into his compound. It is ironic that Moslems who call for reverting to God’s principles and values are considered a threat or fanatics, trying to march human society back to the seventh century.

Moslems are encouraged to work to support themselves and their dependents and be contributing members of the society and community. In a Moslem society there is no welfare system as we know it in our modern societies. If a person is able to work and someone would like to help him financially, they can pay him to dig a ditch then fill it up again, if they can not find something for him to do, but never give a handout, to prevent people from depending on handouts and a free ride for living. This is the same as the latest idea for work programs being proposed nowadays to reform the messed up welfare system. There is no such a thing as living off of the society or someone else, or engage in the business of religion telling people about God, hell and heaven and living off of their contributions to a religious organization. And that's why Islam poses a threat to the organized religion industry like the evangelical religious industry and its TV networks soliciting donations, to maintain the opulent lifestyle of the ministries. This explains the vicious attacks of many Evangelists, who are really fighting to keep their empires to continue exploiting the members of their ministeries.

A WORD TO THE WISE

Islam is intentionally misrepresented in the Media for a lot of ulterior motives. It is imperative that individuals, research and find out about their religions, the origin of these religions and how they ended up with so many different churches, when there was only one Jesus.

God shall not forgive the fact that people did not try to find out about him. The same as the law, the fact that we are ignorant about the law of the land does not spare us the punishment. On the other hand, if someone marches towards God, God took it upon himself to run towards that person to guide him/her to the right course as long as the individual is sincere about finding God.

All humans must abide by God's rules as spelled out in his final message, the Quran and demonstrated by the Prophet Mohammed's practices and quotations. Moslems and Non-Moslems alike will be judged by God for their deeds and actions, towards other humans, creatures and resources that God put at our disposal in life. No amount of wealth will buy anybody’s way out of God's punishment for abusing others or denying the existence of God as he really is.

God does not favor anybody based on their skin color, their looks or country of origin. It is only the individual’s heart and deeds that God judges that individual by.

God is in charge of this whole universe, he manages it as he sees fit. He is not God only on Sunday. He is in charge of all his creations, those that we know fo and those that we are not aware of, and eE helps them survive by providing to them, because it is He who invited them to this life and his world. God is good to humans, though they might deny his existence or disobey him. After we pass away, God will judge us for our actions in life and compliance with his teachings and reward us accordingly.

Many societies are making full circle back again to the practices defined by God, after they realized that other practices did not work and failed to bring happiness or achieve their desired objectives. It behooves everybody to get a good objective look at the teachings of Islam. It might save them futile experimentations with their lives and the society as a whole to reach happiness sooner.

The media has to assume an honest, conscientious and responsible role by bringing up the facts, instead of presenting distorted images of Islam. Wealth and power won’t help in the hereafter. People have the right to know the facts and be exposed to all points of view and have the right to make a choice and decide for themselves, not only presented the viewpoints that they want them to listen to, presuming that ordinary individuals are not capable to think and decide for themselves objectively.

People, in the East or the West, are the same. They are all humans, God’s children. They share the same feelings and have the same fears. The only difference is that in the West, they were given a distorted image of religion to make them easier to manipulate and manage. The spiritual void in Western societies has never been greater. The Western version of religion lacks many necessary ingredients, amongst them is the deterrence factor which makes every individual aware of the fact that God knows our intentions and He will eventually catch up with those who hurt others. Deterrence and fear of God will stop crime and atrocities at the source since every individual knows that sooner or later they will stand before God for judgment and punishment, that ought to stop harm towards others before its inception. This is the most effective way to prevent the formation of human predators who turned cities and communities unsafe to live in and those who shattered other peoples lives to increase profitability.

God decreed that punishment should be swift and just to provide deterrence and help the society to function properly. Punishment is no cruelty, it is Heavenly fairness to allow humans to live in peace with one another not fearing for their children, their families nor their belongings. That’s what God decreed in his commandments and wants for his children and he will see to it by guiding us towards the right course.

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Nice story and it is very true in all Moslem countries which I visited. Unfortunately, our zionist controlled and managed media which shapes our opinions and perceptions from the soap we buy to the person we elect for president, made every effort to keep us in the dark regarding the facts about Islam let alone stereotyping Islam as a religion of terrorism and so on, for one reason and one reason only, and that is if we learn about Islam people will switch in droves to that religion which does not allow any individual to submit to the authority of any clergy or to give them a portion of their earnings nor does it allow any human to be exploited by others, so bye bye usury and loan sharking practices and many practices that we accept as a way of life, while others are making like bandits.

Those of us who happened to work or got assignments in the Middle East which allowed them to spend a long period of time with people over there, learned in a hurry that they don't have any antagonism between the various religions over there, unlike what we experienced throughout history all over Europe and to a lesser extent here in the US between Protestants and Catholics or Jews. In the Middle East all religions live in peace and there was never any incident of Moslems turning on Christians or Jews or Christians massacring Jews, unbelievable harmony, which stems from the tolerance that they all practice which is part of their heritage.

I suggest that you read the attachment (cur & pasted above - WHY IS ISLAM VILLIFIED IN THE MEDIA), it will explain a lot of things because many of us are confused and can not make sense of the events and what the media is telling us. Chuck Brucks - US WW2 Veteran