I'm a muslim, and there's lots in the media recently, giving Islam a bad message.
I would never say all non-muslims are bad and that all muslims are good. I'm saying; as it says in the Qur'an (this may also be the case in other religons and scriptures) that everybody is born sinless; and they remain sinless until they reach maturity. But Human kind have been given "free-will", and what we do affects us. There are obviously non-muslims that are good; and there are also muslms who are bad; that's just human nature-- Free-will.
Also there are also the facts of the mis-interpretations of 'Kafir' and 'Jihad'.
All lot of people think that Kafir means non-believer; but it's a bit more precise. It actually means "Rejecter of faith", same thing? I think not, by rejecter of faith, it means someone who has clearly been informed about Islam, and then rejects it. And the king of the Kafir? Iblis/Shaitan aka The Devil,Satan. He did "know" about God's faith, but he was too proud, too arrogant, too self-obsessed to follow him. He "rejected" Islam, he didn't like it. The same could be said for the the one of the groups of people that Muhammad (pbuh) first approached his revelations to, one of the groups that the Qur'an was SPECIFICALLY aimed for, the followers of past prophets, the Arab Jews. At first they were willing to embrace Islam, but later they rejected it, as they couldn't change it to profit their beliefs.Maybe some did, but that was those who didn't, there priests, from the past, had changed their beliefs to reflect on what they wanted, I wouln't like to offend anyone, these are past people I'm talking about. If a "non-muslim"-- not kafir-- learns about Islam clearly and properly then rejects it, then they are a "Kafir"-- "Rejector of Islam". If they spend there whole lives not knowing at all about Islam, or being misguided by lies, then they are not Kafir, but still technically non-believers none the less. So in the Qur'an it mentions that a muslim shouldn't be friends with a "Kafir", this doesn't mean that they can't mix with people of other religons; this means that they should stay away from those people who fully-know about Islam, and reject it.
Two more groups; "People of the Book"-- Christians and Jews; they are sometimes known as this in the Qur'an, the actual group that the Qur'an was aiming for the descendants of the followers of Moses (pbuh) and Jesus (pbuh). They aren't "proper" non-bleivers as they do believe in some prophets-- Jews believe in many prophets including Adam (pbuh), Noah (pbuh), Abraham (pbuh), Ishmael (pbuh), Issac (pbuh), and Moses (pbuh); to name a few, Christians believe in the Jewish prophets and a few more including John the Baptist (pbuh) and Jesus (pbuh); Muslims also include Muhhamed (pbuh), and there are some prophets mentioned in the Qur'an that aren't mentioned in the Old or New Testaments; and then there are all the ones that weren't mentioned in the Qur'an either, thousands of them. They also believe in the angels, and the books and in One God (debatable about the Trinity of Christianity), and "the Day of Judgment".
Also there are these hypocrites, some of the worst people on this Earth. People who claim to be muslims, but who don't follow the most important rules. The may claim to be muslims, but these people aren't. They may be muslims to the outside world, but in real-fact, inside they aren't. Maybe these include the Muslim terrorist groups. They are Extremists, they go to extremes to get their message across and and end up breaking up the most important rules of what they believe; kind of like Enviromental Extremists, they say protect the whole planet and nature and all life, then they go killing many people (life), and wreck the atmosphere with the pollution, and destroy the plants and animals in their way, and they destroy the artificial objects/builings that they may aswell of recycled.
Anyway, that leads to this next paragraph. The true meaning of Jihad. Jihad is an Arabic verb for struggling or striving for a cause. In the Qur'an it means to struggle for your religion. Jihad doesn't just include "military jihad", but also other aspects of deending against lies about you're religon. Like Putting things right; setting a good example as a person,to anyone, like your family, and you're friends. Showing them that you are a good person, and that this because of following your faith. You might also say that me posting this is classed as "Jihad". As I am trying to correct these misconceptions, but you don't see any random act of violence and destructing of somebody's life. There is also military jihad, more closer to the in-correct definition, "holy war". This is when somebody protects there religon, etc from threats. Kind of like joining the army, but there are rules; you can't attack innocents, women, children, the ill, or the elderly. You must only attack the "soldiers" and so. And you can't harm trees, plants, animals and try not to harm the environment. And this type of Jihad, is like a last resort. Before this, you must try other methods of reasoning. So these terrorist groups, may be doing things for the right cause, but they certainly aren't doing it the right way. They are evil things to do, but let's remember that people aren't always remembered on their morality, but on their popularity. Examples of some evil-doers:
ADOLF HITLER: Evil dictator; killed many people, including Jews; eventually went (more) insane, adn started acting like he was a demi-God. Hated by many people including the Allies, who won. Went down as Evil in history.
OSAMA BIN LADEN: In charge of Al-Qieda; responsible for the lives of many. The majority of the Public think he is an evil tyrant, which I actually kindof agree with.
GEORGE W. BUSH JR.: Some like him, some hate him; thought of as an idiot, and made mistakes like the situation in Iraq; hmm, hard one...Made Major mistakes with Iraq, and quite unliked for this by many people not just non-muslims.
OK, Get back your history books; this one might surprise you.
WILLIAM WALLACE: Well not saying that he is "evil", but he has done wrongs. Murderer, Rapist, "Extreme Freedom Fighter", "saved" Scotland, But not the nicest man. Well he is quite liked and very popular, especially with the Scottish people. But what about his bad side? He is remembered as a "good guy", because Scotland won against England then, and well that's what really counts their populairty, especially by those that "win".
Okay, so it's not that plain and simple. But I don't support these extermists. But I don't support Bush and that either. I as a muslim am part of the Muslim community, the Ummah. Like a big family of world wide muslims, and we don't like it when other innocent muslims are attacked, so we are the first to help them. But extremism isn't the way. I mean think about the situation in Palestine and Israel, I mean they do both have evil people attacking eachother, but could I add an example of what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians, they bombed places that were nowhere near Hezbollah, and killed many innocents. So remember that Muslims aren't the only ones who can be extremists, so can others.
And lastly, women aren't mistreated in Islam. Infact they are considered to be better treated in Islam than other communities. Like in Islam, women "choose" to cover up as it makes them feel more independent, and it's kind of like a way of being feminist. They don't want men pervving other them, thinking that they are only sex objects, like in a lot of western societies. They want to dress modestly, and not always be jusged on their looks. But in Islam it says that everone should dress modesley, which includes men.
In Islam women are probably more free than in other societies. Muhammed (pbuh), brought justice to pre-Islamic world filled with female-infantcide, disrespect for women, wife-beating and prostitution. women were subjected so much ill, and Islam order this to be wrong.
Not all muslims are good muslims, so when judging religion look at the faith, not the people-- human are imperfect, they can make mistakes and they have the free will to commit evil, and that's people of all faiths. Anybody could try using religion as a "tool" to justify misdeeds, but that doesn't mean the religion subscribes to that view. People have interpretations and make misjudgements. And people can do good aswell, religion can be a "tool" for good deeds such as giving to charity, polieness, etc. Religion just gives people on guidance on how to live, but at the end of the day the people can choose how they use that guidance. So don't assume all people of the same faith are the same.
