Not very long ago, in a thread on this forum, a lot of people were going crazy trying to prove that Islam is a religion of peace. They discarded the allegation that Islam is an intolerant religion as a propaganda by the west. Muslims complain that they have been discriminated against after 9/11, and their religion has been falsely associated to violence when it is the religion of Peace.
Very recently, one of the most strong defenders of othodox Islam on this forum, while defending the acts of Taleban, claimed that Islam does not teach tolerance towards other religions, and is not for peace with them. He has quoted a renowned scholar and some ahadith in favour of his opinion.
Islam may or may not be the religion of peace, but it certainly is being portrayed as the religion of Hypocracy. We justify every act of ours with any suitable logic at hand. If the someone blames muslims of intolerance, they produce verses from the Koran that apparently promote peace and tolerance. When someone questions them about their own intolerant behaviour, they justify their violent behaviour with other verses of the Koran. why is it so?
Why is it so that we want secularism in India, and we want all the countries in the west to let us practice and preach our religion freely, despite the fact that a large number of muslims in the west use the mosques to plan violence and promote hatred against their own government. On the other hand, we reject secularism as the system of the Devil when it comes to our own country. We ourselves destroy the idols and temples in our countries and justify it from the Koran and the Hadith.
Why this hypocracy? Why is Islam a religion of peace when it suits it, and a religion of intolerance when it suits it?
each group has its own share of hypocrates, and we have our own, although their impact gets multiplied due to teh widespread ignorance due to the social and political climate of many muslim countries.
The solution is education, exposure and some control on educational standards at religious schools and minimum standards needed to be a preacher. Right now anyone can claim to be some authority and start mouthing off.
A few bad apples can thus start spoiling a whole lot. In Pakistan this government had taken a bold step by introducing regulation for educational standards and curriculum in madrassahs. This way the problem with some idiots poisoning other minds will be decreased as they will have to abide by some standards and some regulation..otherwise I could have set up a madrassah in some remote area and start telling kids anything I wanted..sadly that weakness in this system was exploited by certain groups with their own agendas and the effects of thata re in front of us. not only do soem of thes eplaces churn out intolerant bigots, but the combined impact of this is an impact to society at large.
Others that hold these double standards are ignorant and can not defend their stances if cross questioned. But they have to find some excuses to justify their views, what ebetter way than to distort some verse or some saying for their own purposes while conveniently forgetting other verses and statements that openly tell ppl to be tolerant and equitable.
You're spot on. I empathise with the questions you're asking, and Fraudia response.
One of the problems I see around us is the willingness, often of seemingly 'educated' people, to fall blindly behind so called 'scholars' and 'sheikhs' . It is as though Islam is such a great mystery that only a few people have the insight or gift to unlock that mystery and that they must be followed. One of the often quoted reasons to justify this runs along these lines:
" if you want to be a Doctor you have to study medecine, if you want to know something about architrcture - you go to an architect etc etc ..hence if you want true Islam go to a scholar who has more knowledge then you..."
This theory implies that Islam is out of reach of most people until they have imparted years of study, the easy route is to fall behind some 'sheikh' or scholar who knows it all. It also discourages personal responsibility for understanding why and what you do for the sake of your religion. It is when people stop using thier own brains, have stopped rationalising, that they justify acts of violence and intolerence by quoting isolated verses or hadith which they have heard.