Greetings

[veritasamat]

Greetings everyone,

I am new to the forum and this is my first post. I actually followed Vajradhara here from the Understanding Islam discussion forum.

Vajradhara, I read your recent post announcing your departure from the forum. In it you said you had learned some things about Islam and Muslims. I was hoping you would share your insights.

Thanks,
veritasamat

P.S. I realize this doesn't fall under the category of Eastern Thought, but this is where you said you could be reached. If the administrators need to they can move this thread to the appropriate place.

[Vajradhara]

Namaste veritasamat,

thank you for the post.

what screen name do you utilize on that forum?

eh... i'll let Brian decide if he'd like to move the post from here... i really don't mind...

what i learned of Islam.. well... that's a very good question.

as you may or may not know, i grew up in North Africa, Libya to be exact. my exposure to Islam was much different than it is for most non-Arabs. as a youth, my knowledge of Islam was mostly the practices, not the meanings behind them, if you understand what i'm saying.

i would hear the call to prayer and observe the prayer.. heck, on several occassions i've participated in such.

one of the first things i learned about Islam concerned myself i had been under the impression that to become a Muslim one simply recited (pardon me, i've forgotten the Arabic term) "creed" in front of another Muslim and that was it. that was, in fact, one of my first questions. i was told that this was not accurate.. that it did, in fact, depend on the declarer understanding what they were saying... which i did not at the time.

most of the rest of the things that i learned were things regarding doctrinal positions vis a vie aHadith, i learned why the different sects of Islam are different from each other... i.e. the hisotry of how they came about.

i also had the chance to converse with some very patient and knowledgeable individuals that could explain the Muslim position in a way that even i could understand that is always rewarding in and of itself, in my opinion.

i believe that i understand the basis for the Mulism faith, what they believe and why. though, without putting too fine a point on it, i have not studied very much aHadith....

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Zdrastvuitsye, hola, shalom, salaam, Dia dhuit, namastar ji, hej, konnichiwa, squeak, meow, :wave:, veritasamat.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[I, Brian]

Hi veritasamat and welcome to CR!

Yes - this is perhaps better placed in the introductions board - but feel free to explore around the rest of the forum.

[veritasamat]

Thank you for your welcome and thank you Vajradhara for your response. In sha'Allah this will be an enlightening engagement.

[Susma Rio Sep]

I have lived with peoples of different religious affiliations from mine. For many years now I have caledl and considered myself a postgraduate Catholic.

You know what, if you would live peaceably with peoples of other religious groupings, make sure there are plenty of them and no one group in a lopsidedly big number. So, don't move to a neighborhood where there is a very disproportionately big number of one religion.

You will be a minority and behave with all the defensive hostility of a minority, while the majority will behave with an aggressive hostility.

Good that nowadays peoples of various religious allegiances are exposed by the mass media to other peoples' religions and their life and daily religious observances. They learn to be tolerant among themselves, even though in their immediate circle one group might be the vast majority.

Exposure to various religions in close quarters is good, you learn and become used to not taking your religion seriously. You get to be religious without being blindly partisan. You can even lose your religion, which is good for mankind, but not hopefully your religiosity.

You will not want to kill being a Muslim someone who says that Mohammed was an adulterer; or being a Christian that Jesus was a homo. You will feel bad, but not enough to go and take up suicide bombings, like those guys who keep away from the rest of the world.

Susma Rio Sep