Religious question for Popcornbird

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

I in no way want this to turn into a bashing of any religion, I'm just trying to understand a little better.....again....yet....

In Afghanistan a guy has been sentenced to death because he converted from Islam to Christianity. From what I've learned here from you, Pops, is that Islam and Christianity are SO close in their beliefs that I really don't see the big deal in this conversion. But in Christianity, we have the Ten Commandments, which one of them is "Thou shalt not kill." It doesn't say "Thou shalt not kill unless you leave the Christian faith, then watch out, you're one dead piece of meat." ! Are these just the radical muslims at it again or is this really a doctrine that Muslims live by?

Unfortunately, I am well aware that quite often through history people have been killed in the name of religion - especially in the name of Christianity. I see this as just another example of that and I am in no way condemning all Muslims or anything like that. I'm just starting to wonder....death/killing seems to be the answer for so many Muslims - like in the case of the Danish cartoons their first reaction was kill 'em!

I can't believe this is really a doctrine of the Muslim faith and I do believe that it is just another example of the radical side of this religion. Unfortunately the sane, calm, reasonable side of the religion doesn't get much press, which leads me there to you, Pops, since I see you as a great voice for the sane, calm reasonable side of Islam.

[Laura's Babies]

Good question! I have wondered the same thing myself but had no one to ask. I don't understand the killing that goes on in the name of religion either. Maybe Pops can explaine it to us so that we can better understand.

[beeniesmom]

Good question. Looking forward to the explanation for this one.

[Scooby4]

The muslim faith has gotten a bad name lately. Ironically, it is one of the most PEACEFUL religions on the planet. However, just like Christianity, some extremist of the faith give it a bad representation. Christianity we have sects that believe in letting snakes bite them and drink poison during their services. They believe if God allows them to "survive" then they are good chrisitians. Do ALL Christians practice or believe this to be true even though the scripture they follow can be pointed out in the bible?
It is similar to the Muslim religion. They have extremist who's view ONLY match a very small segment of the muslim believe that 99% of other Muslims do NOT believe nor follow in. 99% of Christians don't let snakes bite them during church services that I know of.
Even amongst other Muslims this practice of "suicide bombing" or killing is looked down upon and NOT supported. Their true religion does NOT involve the killing of other people. A true muslim does NOT believe in the hurting or maiming of another person. You are right in that their religion does coincide with many christianity doctrine who preaches the same.
Muslims do believe in Jesus. However, they don't believe he was the "chosen one". They believe that "Mohamed" was the true "child" of God or Allah. I believe Mohamed roamed earth earlier than Jesus did. Our christian bible does not mention Mohamed much nor does it base it's believe system that he was the "chosen one". The Muslim religion instead does. So essentially, the Muslim and Christianity faith just differs on their belief of who the real "Messiah" is and the name of their God. Allah is theirs while God is Christianity's. Jewish people are also similar to muslim in this way as well.
The killing of the cartoonist is more of a "crowd" control issue than religious belief. Yes it was Muslim's there protesting but the crowd got out of control. That is how many of these people we here about getting killed by muslims is by uncontained crowd control at a protest. The suicide bombing part is more of a cultural connection nowadays than religious. It would be more religious if the entire religion supported such acts. However, it falls more along the lines of cultural/politics for suicide bombings.
The cartoon was offensive because the Muslims do NOT believe that Mohamed should be shown in a ridicule such manner. The cartoons published showed Mohamed in "caricature" which is extremely offensive and is a BIG NO-NO or tabu in their religion. We in america are used to having our President caricaturized and don't think anything about how truly offensive that can be. Political cartoons are extremely offensive in their views at times but we believe in the freedom of speech. Other countries of the world it doesn't work that way. They respect their leaders be it religious or political.
Please don't assume Muslim are raised or believe in killing other people to get their points across. It just isn't the truth. They are a truly peaceful religion who have a few bad apples within it. It is more of a cultural issue that has gotten out of control than anything God or Allah has wanted.

[Corinna]

I think its afaganniy constiution not Muslim faith.

[Sophist]

I think its afaganniy constiution not Muslim faith.

It is Shariah/Sharia (you'll see various spellings in different news sources)... basically, a system of civil law based on the Koran and other muslim holy writings (or, at least, based on the Afghani cleric's interpretations of parts of those books). The afghani constitution actually now contains a lot of tripe about religious freedom, which is pretty much soundly negated by also embracing a 'muslim' law that says anyone who rejects Islam has offended Allah and should be put to death.

[caseysmom]

I am no expert on any of this but from my view it is some countries using the religion to control the populas, they can dictate all sorts of things and keep the women from voting them out by the use of religion.