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Islam represents 25% of the world’s population of which Sunni are approx. 90% and Shiite 10% |
Hindus represents 15% of the world’s population |
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ISLAM |
HINDUISM |
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Founded |
Muhammad
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Based on traditions that stared around 2000 BC, but probably became Hinduism as a specific identity about 400 BC |
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God(s) |
Belief in a single God |
The Hindu tradition encourages Hindus to seek spiritual and moral truth wherever it might be found, while acknowledging that no creed can contain such truth in its fullness and that each individual must realize this truth through his or her own systematic effort. Our experience, our reason, and our dialogue with others—especially with enlightened individuals—provide various means of testing our understanding of spiritual and moral truth. And Hindu scripture, based on the insights of Hindu sages and seers, serves primarily as a guidebook. But ultimately truth comes to us through direct consciousness of the divine or the ultimate reality. In other religions this ultimate reality is known as God. Hindus refer to it by many names, but the most common name is Brahman.
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Prophet(s) |
Various including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and finally Muhammad who received the final revelation from God through the archangel Gabriel.
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Personified Gods and Goddesses created to assist (through stories) understanding of Brahman. Known as Saguna Brahman (Brahman with attributes) these personified forms of Brahman correspond to three stages in the cycle of the universe. Brahmā corresponds to the creative spirit from which the universe arises. Vishnu corresponds to the force of order that sustains the universe. Shiva corresponds to the force that brings a cycle to an end—destruction acting as a prelude to transformation, leaving pure consciousness from which the universe is reborn after destruction. Other personified forms widely worshiped by Hindus are Shakti, the female aspect of divinity, and Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity associated with the removal of obstacles. Krishna appears at times to save the world. The majority of Hindus choose a personal deity, a saguna form of Brahman with whom they can feel a direct personal connection. Devotion to this deity can take a number of forms, including prayer, ceremonial worship, chanting of the deity’s name, and pilgrimage to sites sacred to the deity.
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Leader(s) |
After Muhammad's death, a schism occurred based on who should succeed him. Basically a political dispute, although over time theological differences also appeared. The various problems relating to succession over the years lead to assassinations and civil war. Today the two factions (Sunni and Shia) are led by people who follow a hierarchy based on achievements in religious study such as jurists, mufti etc., down to the lower levels of mullahs, imams etc. There are no overall leaders, although different Islamic countries have their own levels of seniority.
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Spiritual authority in Hinduism flows from enlightened sages called gurus. The guru is someone who has attained realization and acts as a guide for other human beings. He or she guides the individual seeker of truth and self-realization to the appropriate deity, practice, or yoga within Hinduism. The disciple’s goal is to transcend the need for a guru through direct experience of the divine and self-awareness. Having a guide is considered critical for traversing the complexities of spiritual practice and self-discovery. The guru thus constitutes an important centre of spiritual activity in Hinduism. *Yoga - there are different forms of yoga within Hinduism, hatha yoga (a physical yoga well known in the west), karma yoga (appropriate selfless deeds and actions), bhakti yoga (the yoga of devotion and love for a personal deity), Jñāna yoga (the yoga of knowledge)
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Afterlife |
Following bodily resurrection, paradise in Heaven or eternal fire in Hell
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We normally think of ourselves as coming into being when we are born of our parents and as perishing when we die. According to Hinduism, however, this current life is merely one link in a chain of lives that extends far into the past and projects far into the future. The point of origin of this chain cannot be determined. The process of our involvement in the universe—the chain of births and deaths—is called samsāra. Samsāra is caused by a lack of knowledge of our true self and our resultant desire for fulfilment outside ourselves. We continue to embody ourselves, or be reborn, in this infinite and eternal universe as a result of these unfulfilled desires. The chain of births lets us resume the pursuit. The law that governs samsāra is called karma. Each birth and death we undergo is determined by the balance sheet of our karma—that is, in accordance with the actions performed and the dispositions acquired in the past. Time in the Hindu universe moves in endlessly recurring cycles, much like the motion of a wheel. The duration of the various phases of the universe’s existence are calculated in units of mind-boggling astronomical duration.
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Practices |
The five pillars of wisdom: 1. To recite the creed during prayer "I testify that there is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God." 2. Daily prayers. 3. Almsgiving. 4. Fasting during Ramadan. 5. Pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime.
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Daily individual or household worship, occasional communal worship, worship at temples, religious festivals. |
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Texts |
The Quran |
There is no single revelation or orthodoxy (established doctrine) by which people may achieve knowledge of the divine or lead a life backed by religious law. The Hindu tradition acknowledges that there are many paths by which people may seek and experience religious understanding and direction. It also claims that every individual has the potential to achieve enlightenment. Although Hindu tradition maintains that the ultimate reality lies beyond all scriptures, it is equally convinced that the scriptures help people orient their minds and lives towards Brahman. This attitude has given rise to a body of sacred literature so vast that by one calculation it would take 70 lifetimes of devoted study to read all of it.
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Human situation/ Life's purpose |
That the purpose of life is to worship God.
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The highest aim of existence is the realization of the identity or union of the individual’s innermost self with the ultimate reality. Although this ultimate reality is beyond name, the word Brahman is used to refer to it. (But how can the human mind, with its limitations, conceive of this transcendent reality? Human comprehension requires a more personal reality, with attributes. Therefore Saguna Brahman—that is, Brahman with attributes—generally takes the form of one of three main Hindu deities: Brahmā, Vishnu, or Shiva to serve this purpose.)
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Punishment for heresy |
Historically: Death.
Currently: Death in almost all Islamic countries that adhere to Islamic Sharia law rather than secular laws.
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Not applicable |
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Attitude to Women |
Historically: Extremely unequal, androcentric (male oriented), even misogynistic (fear or hatred of women).
Currently: Extremely unequal, androcentric (male oriented), even misogynistic (fear or hatred of women).
“The fourth chapter of the Quran is called "Women". The 34th verse is a key verse in feminist criticism of Islam. The verse reads: "Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great”.
“Thanks to the subjective/biased interpretations of the Quran (almost exclusively by men), the preponderance of the misogynic mullahs and the regressive Shariah law in most "Muslim" countries, Islam is synonymously known as a promoter of misogyny in its worst form. Although there is no way of defending the so-called "great" traditions of Islam as being libertarian and believing in equality with regard to women, we may draw a line between the Quranic texts and the corpus of declared misogynic writing and spoken words by the mullahs having very little or no relevance to the Quran”.
“Misogynistic interpretation has been persistently attached to the 34th verse because commentary on the Quran has been the exclusive domain of Muslim men". |
From the 6th century, the Tantric tradition influenced the role of equality of women in Hinduism including allowing women to be gurus.
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Main objectives in theory |
1. Originally to spread Islamic beliefs by uniting peoples and tribes in to one religious and political society. (Muhammad as a religious warlord drew Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula to Islam by his forceful personality, the promise of salvation for those who died fighting for Islam, and the lure of fortune for those who succeeded in conquest. The caravan raids of the early years of Islam soon become full-scale wars, and empires and nations bowed to the power of this new religious, military, political, economic, and social phenomenon.)
2. Latterly, following the decline of Islam after the colonial era, to revive Islam throughout the world by re-establishing the straight path of Islam in personal and public life, which will ensure the restoration of Islamic identity, values, and power worldwide.
Thus, the renewal and revitalization of Muslim governments and societies require the restoration or reimplementation of Islamic Sharia law, which provides the blueprint for an Islamically guided and socially just state, society and world.
(Sharia, a term that refers to the body of laws and rules that regulate Muslim life. These laws are an expression of God’s will, according to Muslim belief, although derivation and application of the laws depend on interpretation by leaders versed in Islamic law. Over time, the laws that Muslims must follow have been elaborated upon by the schools of law. Today the schools of law, and their work is largely limited to applying laws and judgments generally not legislated by the secular governments, chiefly family law and ritual. The most important debate among modern Muslims concerns whether the Sharia should be applied in all aspects of life and whether and how to renovate it so that it addresses the most pressing issues facing the Muslim world today.) |
More strikingly than any other major religious community, Hindus accept—and indeed celebrate—the organic, multileveled, and sometimes pluralistic nature of their traditions. This expansiveness is made possible by the widely shared Hindu view that truth or reality cannot be encapsulated in any creedal formulation, a perspective expressed in the Hindu prayer “May good thoughts come to us from all sides.” Thus, Hinduism maintains that truth must be sought in multiple sources, not dogmatically proclaimed. Anyone's view of the truth—even that of a guru regarded as possessing superior authority—is fundamentally conditioned by the specifics of time, age, gender, state of consciousness, social and geographic location, and stage of attainment. These multiple perspectives enhance a broad view of religious truth rather than diminish it; hence, there is a strong tendency for contemporary Hindus to affirm that tolerance is the foremost religious virtue. On the other hand, even cosmopolitan Hindus living in a global environment recognize and value the fact that their religion has developed in the specific context of the Indian subcontinent. Such a tension between universalist and particularist impulses has long animated the Hindu tradition. When Hindus speak of their religious identity they emphasize its continuous, seemingly eternal existence and the fact that it describes a web of customs, obligations, traditions, and ideals that far exceeds the Western tendency to think of religion primarily as a system of beliefs. A common way in which English-speaking Hindus often distance themselves from that frame of mind is to insist that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life.
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Main objectives in practice |
1. As in 1 above.
2. Muslim societies suffered from a feeling of failure and loss of self-esteem after they achieved independence from colonial rule by the mid-20th century because of failed post-colonial political systems and economies and the negative effects of modernization. Characterizing many of the newly independent Muslim nations were autocratic leaders, repressive governments, overcrowded cities with insufficient social support systems, high unemployment rates, government corruption, and a growing gap between rich and poor, including abject poverty and a total lack of education for the poor. Many Muslims blamed Western models of political and economic development for these failures. Once enthusiastically pursued as symbols of modernity, these models increasingly came under criticism. Modernization, a process of Westernization and secularization of society, was seen as responsible for an excessive dependence on the West; for a weakening of traditional family, religious, and social values; and for a loss of identity that contributed to the breakdown of Muslim society. Therefor many Muslims wish to re-establish Islamic societies and values throughout the world. The majority of Islamic activists seek to achieve this gradually by working within their respective societies systems and laws. Known as Islamic Fundamentalists their ranks include members of non-governmental Muslim organizations that provide much-needed services to the poor through Islamic schools, medical clinics, social welfare agencies, and other institutions.
3. There is however at the fringe of Islamic Fundamentalism a significant minority of people who believe that they have a mandate from God to carry out God’s will. This extremist minority further believes that because the rulers in the Muslim world are authoritarian and anti-Islamic, violent change is necessary. They seek to topple governments, seize power, and impose their vision or interpretation of Islam upon society.
Radical Islamic movements often operate on the assumption that Islam and the West are locked in an ongoing battle that reaches back to the early days of Islam, a battle that has been heavily influenced by the legacy of the Crusades and European colonialism, and that today is the product of a Judeo-Christian conspiracy. This conspiracy, they believe, is the result of superpower neo-colonialism and the power of Zionism (support for a Jewish nation, now the state of Israel). These radical movements blame the West (Britain, France, and especially the United States) for its support of un-Islamic or unjust regimes and biased support for Israel in the face of the displacement of the Palestinian people. Thus, violence against such governments and their representatives as well as Western multinationals is regarded as legitimate self-defence.
Islamic radicals also believe that Islam is not simply an ideological alternative for Muslim societies but a theological and political imperative. Because it is God’s command, implementation must be immediate, not gradual, and the obligation to implement is incumbent on all true Muslims. Therefore, those who hesitate, remain apolitical, or resist—individuals and governments—are no longer to be regarded as Muslims. They are atheists or unbelievers, enemies of God, against whom all true Muslims must wage holy war in the form of the fourth aspect of jihad.
(Jihad - the struggle to please God. Jihad is the duty of all mainstream Muslims, who belong to the branch known as Sunni Islam. There are four ways they may fulfil a jihad: 1. by the heart, 2. by the tongue, 3. by the hand, 4. by the sword. The first refers to the inner, spiritual battle of the heart against vice, passion, and ignorance. The second way means speaking the truth and spreading the word of Islam with one's tongue. The third way involves choosing to do what is right and to combat injustice and what is wrong with action, or one's hand. The fourth way refers to defending Islam and waging war against its enemies with the sword. Islamic legal scholars, during the early centuries of Islam, divided the world into two 1. Abode of Islam and 2. Abode of war—that is, of non-Islamic rule. Islamic law further stated that it was the duty of the first to strive to bring as much of the second as possible under its control, preferably by conversion but by force if necessary. Although jihad has come to be equated with “holy war” in the West, most Muslims would argue that military action is only a small part of jihad and that this form of jihad should be undertaken only in self-defence or against injustice. They see the internal struggle to attain self-mastery and lead a virtuous life as far more important. In some countries, however, Muslim activists would like to see Islamic governments installed, and for them jihad encompasses a more revolutionary goal of replacing their country’s political leadership. Still other Muslim militants extend the concept of jihad to acts of terrorism against Western countries whose influence they view as harmful to Islam. The Quran (Koran), states that those who die in this type of jihad, while fighting for the faith, automatically become martyrs and are awarded a special place in heaven. Most modern branches of Islam, however, stress the inner, spiritual jihad. In contrast to mainstream Sunni Muslims, Muslim groups such as the Imami and Bohora-Ismaili Shias are forbidden from participating in a hostile jihad. These sects believe the only person legitimately capable of conducting such a jihad is their imam, or spiritual leader.)
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As Above. |
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Major benefits to the human condition |
The bringing together of warring tribes and stopping the resultant slaughter and thereby creating a more peaceful society, although initially by also waging war and committing slaughter.
Many early advances in science. Establishment of the first public hospitals. Establishment of some of the first universities.
The giving of charitable donations (Zakat) to aid the poor and those in need (currently estimated to be 15 times global humanitarian aid donations).
Many beautiful buildings, architecture and works of art depicting abstract designs. (the human, animal or natural world is generally forbidden in Islamic art, although interpretation varies by country)
In general most Islamic cities, towns and villages live in relative peace, although "outside" influence is heavily curtailed.
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Many beautiful works of art and architecture. A religious love of theatre, drama, music and dance. Generally, when not defending themselves from attack, Hindus live in a gentle and peaceful social order.
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Major detriments to the human condition in deaths. |
Many deaths resulting from centuries of wars of conquest, plus both defensive and aggressive wars of the crusades.
Aggressive wars of Islamic colonialism throughout India and under Aurangzeb’s fanatical Islamic reign brought India close to total economic decline.
Wars of expansion of the Turkish Ottoman empire.
Aggressive wars of separation between Islamic Pakistan/India, causing over 250,000 deaths in 1947, followed by civil war between Islamic Pakistan and Islamic West Bengal (Bangladesh).
Currently increasing numbers of deaths from Islamic fundamentalist terrorism and civil wars in many countries aimed at the formation of Islamist only states.
In the 21st century, heresy is still punishable by death in many Islamic states
In the 21st century, adultery is still punishable by death in many Islamic states
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Hindus live with a legacy of domination by Muslim and Christian rulers that stretches back many centuries—in northern India, to the Delhi sultanate established at the beginning of the 13th century. The patterns of relationship between Hindus and Muslims have been different between north and south India. While there is a history of conquest and domination in the north, Hindu-Muslim relations in Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been peaceful.
Yet there were periods when the political ambitions of Islamic rulers took strength from the iconoclastic (to destroy religious images) aspects of Muslim teaching and led to the devastation of many major Hindu temple complexes, from Mathura and Varanasi in the north to Chidambaram, Sriringam, and Madurai in the far south; other temples were converted to mosques. Since the 14th century this history has provided rhetorical fuel for Hindu anger against Muslim rulers.
In 1946 the Muslim League declares August 16, Direct Action Day for the purpose of winning a separate Muslim state. Savage Hindu-Muslim riots broke out in Calcutta the next day and quickly spread throughout India. As independence approached Hindus and Muslims continued to fight and kill each other.
Three wars have been fought between India and Pakistan:-
1947. Pakistani forces invaded independent Kashmir, Kashmir asked for military help in return for Kashmir's accession to India. India then joined the war in defence of Kashmir.
1965. Military personnel disguised as local Kashmiris began to infiltrate into the Kashmīr Valley in early August. Once they entered the valley, the infiltrators intended to foment a rebellion among Kashmiri Muslims. The Kashmiris did not respond as expected; instead, they turned the infiltrators over to the local authorities. Accordingly, the Indian army moved to secure the border and on August 15 scored a major victory after a prolonged artillery barrage. Attacks and counterattacks followed in quick succession. On September 1 the Pakistanis opened a new front catching Indian forces unprepared. Indian forces responded with air strikes, leading to Pakistani retaliation. On September 5 the Pakistanis made a significant thrust into Indian territory that threatened to cut off Kashmir state from the rest of India. The following day Indian troops crossed the international border near Lahore. Faced with this threat to Lahore, the Pakistanis launched a counterattack in the neighbouring Indian state of Punjab. This attack, was anticipated by the Indian forces and failed, with Pakistani forces suffering major losses.
1971. The 1947 partition had created a Pakistan comprised of two “wings”—West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan) and East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan; now Bangladesh)—that were separated by 1,600 km of Indian territory. In the wake of Pakistan’s first free and fair election in December 1970, the leaders of the western and eastern wings failed to reach an understanding about power sharing. In March 1971, after talks failed to break the deadlock, the Pakistani government launched a military crackdown in East Pakistan. Large numbers of the Bengali intelligentsia in East Pakistan were killed and many prominent Bengali leaders were thrown in jail. In response, the leadership of East Pakistan declared the province’s independence on March 26. As the crackdown escalated into a full-blown and brutal civil war over the next two months, some 10 million Bengalis fled East Pakistan and took refuge in the neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal. The Indian leadership of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi quickly decided that it was cheaper to resort to war against Pakistan than to absorb millions of refugees into India’s already bloated population. The third Indo-Pakistani war formally began with a Pakistani air attack on a number of air bases in north-western India. The Indian air force responded the next day An invading Pakistani tank column was bombed by the Indian air force, which carried out as many as 4,000 sorties during the conflict. An Indian thrust made by three Indian army divisions launched a five-pronged attack on Dhaka, the provincial capital, and received the surrender of Pakistani forces there on December 16. East Pakistan immediately seceded from Pakistan and became the sovereign nation of Bangladesh.
The bloody partition of the subcontinent from India into India and Pakistan in 1947 mobilized Hindu sensibilities about the sacredness of the land as a whole, Hindus have sometimes depicted the creation of Pakistan as a dismemberment of the body of India.
At the end of the 20th century in a campaign to destroy the mosque built in 1528 by a lieutenant of the Mughal emperor in Ayodhya, a city that has traditionally been identified as the place where Rama (Rama - incarnation of Vishnu) was born and ruled. In 1992 militant Hindu nationalists from throughout India, who had been organized by the VHP “World Hindu Council”, the RSS “National Volunteer Alliance”, and the BJP “Indian People's Party”, destroyed the mosque in an effort to “liberate” Rama and establish a huge “Rama's Birthplace Temple” on the spot.
The continuing tensions in the Kashmir region have also spawned outbursts of sectarian violence on both sides, including the destruction of some Hindu temples there by militant Muslims.
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Other Major detriments to the human condition. |
Muhammad indulged in Polygamy, having many wives, and also kept slaves.
Women's rights in Islamic states today vary greatly, however generally women are treated inferiorly, despite the Quran stating that men and women are equal, although may have different responsibilities.
Although greatly varied by Islamic country, and that countries level of conservatism / fundamentalism, even today in some Islamic countries:
· Women are not allowed to vote · Women undergo arranged marriages · Women are not allowed to inherit (land, property, goods or chattels) · Women are not allowed to work except in the home* · Women are not allowed to attend school or be educated* · Men can have up to four wives · Men can marry non-Islamic women but not the reverse · Men and women are not allowed to mix socially* · Women must dress modestly in public - varying from simple hair covering to total bodily cover including a yashmak* · Women are not allowed to drive cars or ride bicycles* · Women are not allowed to participate in sport* · Women must be accompanied by a male relative when in public* · Women undergo genital mutation as girls · Women are not allowed to dance or listen to music · Many more………….
*In some countries special religious police enforce these rules/laws in public
Education of boys (and girls in countries that allow it) is strictly controlled and follows a narrow Islamic agenda of total Islamic indoctrination.
Freedom of thought, expression and freedom of speech are not allowed and generally considered heresy. (only statements concomitant with Islam are allowed)
Certain Sharia inspired punishments are generally barbaric - the cutting off of hands for theft, public beheadings, stoning to death for adultery, payment of blood money or undergoing physical mutilation etc. Although these are extreme examples, many radicals wish to revive these types of punishment.
(Although an Islamic country like Qatar is supposed to have one of the finest rehabilitation prison systems in the world, resulting from the segregation of secular law - that deals with crime, and sharia law - that deals with family affairs) |
The traditional caste system of India developed more than 3000 years ago when Aryan-speaking nomadic groups migrated from the north to India about 1500 BC. The Aryan priests divided society into a basic caste system. Sometime between 200 BC and 100 AD, the Manu Smriti, or Law of Manu, was written. In it were the four great hereditary divisions of society still surviving today, placing their own priestly class at the head of this caste system with the title of earthly gods, or Brahmans. Next in order of rank were the warriors, then came the farmers and merchants. The fourth of the original castes were the labourers, born to be servants to the other three castes, especially the Brahman. Far lower, in fact entirely outside the social order and limited to doing the most menial and unappealing tasks were those people of no caste, formerly known as Untouchables. In the modern world any form of caste system is totally unacceptable.
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Notes |
· In many instances, most religions have been able to adapt to modernity by accommodating the diversity of contemporary culture, in part by the adaptation of religion to secular values and the repositioning of conservative religion that was previously in direct opposition to secular values (such as the Vatican II council in the Catholic Church). This is not so in Islamic fundamentalism which sees itself as unchanging. (The retired head of MI5 when discussing the radicalisation of young people to violent fundamentalism – terrorism – said about the Islamic religion "as a whole is not well geared to reviving and modernising itself so that it meets the values and the norms of a 21st Century society").
· Islamic fundamentalist inspired terrorism, which wants to take Islam back to the middle ages, which kills schoolchildren for wanting to be educated, kills women for attending parties and dancing, kills people born in Islamic countries but who believe in a different religion or no religion at all, kills men even for shaving off their beards etc., is abhorred by a horrified world at large and by mainstream Moslems.
· It is surprising that in the west the leaders and hierarchy of Moslem organisations only seem to condemn Islamic terrorism when absolutely pressured to do so. Could this be because of the subconscious and unstated belief, even in supposed moderates, in the 4th way of jihad (by the sword) to bring about world Islamisation?
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