What Makes Islam Different From Every Other Religion?

[rainbow1]

In order to gain strength to the argument that Islamic is different and not a religion, what makes Islamic Doctrine different to; Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc? If we can define it, we can make a better case. Let's do some brainstorming. This is my list of attributes that no other religion but Islam ascribes to. I will add more as members come up with suggestions.

1. There is no Free Will
2. No Golden Rule
3. Islam does not seek self-transcendence/transformation, individual spiritual growth in this life, as a primary goal. Islam is purely "materialist".
4. Sin is seen as a communal, rather than an individual , issue (hence raped women get stoned to death )
5. Its book is the only "dictated" text
6. It began as, and spread itself by, war and death threats, rather than dialectic and debate.
7. Islam doesn't value ideals such as Truth, Beauty and Goodness
8. Islam's sole purpose is to spread itself.
9. Taqqiya. Islam is the only religion where lying is permitted and even encouraged.
10. Blood sacrifices ... of animals and humans (executions, slaying infidels etc)
11. Mandates retaliation


.

[enceladus]

I agree with all of the above points.

Another important point is that change is impossible in Islam. If I remember correctly, the Catholic Church eventually conceded that Galileo's description of the sun being at the centre of the solar system was correct. I think that a few years ago, they even admitted that evolution was true. Anyway, such change is impossible with Islam.
- enceladus

[pr126]

The Terrifying Brilliance of the Islamic Memeplex

Islamic supremacists are doing this all over the world, attacking westerners and their own fellow Muslims alike. Why?

Because of memes. A meme is anything that can be copied from one mind to another. The custom of shaking hands, for example, is a meme. A melody is a meme. A recipe for lemonade is a meme. Even the word "meme" is a meme, which has just made a copy of itself in your mind. Read more about memes here: What is a Meme?

One of the characteristics of memes is they can evolve because some memes are better at making copies of themselves than other memes. They get more copies of themselves into other minds.

So memes compete with each other and evolve. Part of the way they become better at making copies is to join together with other memes in a mutually-supporting group. A combination of memes (known as a "memeplex") is often able to get itself into more minds than single memes.

From a memetics standpoint, a religion is a memeplex — collection of memes. One of the memes might be, for example, "This is a holy book."

And the holy book itself is, of course, a collection of memes.

I think it is a brilliant essay. Read it all.

[crazymonkie_]

Hey there rainbow1! Just thought I'd drop in my opinions on some of these. For the most part, I think you're dead on; I'll just say that right away. If I disagree, it's in a relatively minor way.

This is my list of attributes that no other religion but Islam ascribes to:

1. There is no Free Will

Well, this point is arguable with Christianity as well. There god is supposed to be all-knowing and all-powerful. If such a being exists (never mind the logical impossibility of being all-knowing and all-powerful and yet to not be able to make oneself ignorant, ever, of anything at all), free will can't exist. Muslims simply ignore the same theological problems that Christians do in this regard. Jews seem to more accept that god is really really really powerful and knows a LOT, but not that he's all-knowing and all-powerful, and so don't run into this issue.

2. Islam does not seek self-transcendence/transformation, individual spiritual growth in this life, as a primary goal. Islam is purely "materialist".

Totally agreed. Though I think you should say Islam is ritualistic, and that because of that, it's ultimately "materialistic".

3. Sin is seen as a communal, rather than an individual , issue (hence raped women get stoned to death )

As an addendum, honor is also seen as communal- in the sense that there is an *imagined* world-wide (even across time barriers) "community" of believers, and *supposedly*, if one believer is insulted or harmed, the entire community is insulted or harmed. So we get situations where allegedly insulting Muhammad or the Quran or where fighting against, say, Chechens or Pashtuns or Palestinians raise the (public) ire of other Muslims. Though of course what they say or think in private may be another matter entirely- hence why so few of those upset by the plight of their "brothers" actually DO anything about it.

This is all not exclusive to the cultures that Islam created, but Islam is certainly the only religion that I'm aware of, at least as presently practiced, that believes in this.

4. Its book is the only "dictated" text

Again- arguable with Christianity. Not all sects believe that- in fact, it's a really recent idea (about, oh, mid-19th century), but there are some who believe it. And perhaps there are some Judaic groups, ultra-Orthodox, who believe that as well. Did Zoroastrians believe this at one point? I don't know enough about them to say "yes" or "no".

5. It began as, and spread itself by, war and death threats, rather than dialectic and debate.

Very true. I keep getting reminded of these nasty stories of attempts at interfaith dialogue with whatever Majhdid or Mosque happens to be nearby, how badly it all ends. We even see that here with people who come by and may CLAIM to be open-minded or wanting real debate, but in the final analysis, they're lying- either to us or to themselves- about how they feel about debate.

There was a guy named Truthseeker who seemed like he really wanted to debate.... but he ended up already totally convinced about Islam, and therefore NOT interested in real debate. He lied to us and to himself, and I really hated that. I felt used, really, like I was only there for him to showcase his awesome debating skills (he thought he had them; he did not).

6. Islam doesn't value ideals such as Truth, Beauty and Goodness

Unless you or I or anyone else change our ideas of truth, beauty and goodness to things that Muslims seem to think are good- submission to Allah (via mullahs and imams, of course.... been quite a while since anyone's talked to Allah directly), male domination, copying the example of Muhammad, ultimately the prevalence of sharia or "Quranic" law (some Quran-only Muslims claim there are enough guidelines in the Quran and that sharia is a human invention) over all humanity- not necessarily that all must be Muslims, but that all must "respect" (IE, submit, kowtow to, so on) "Allah's" (again, through mullahs and imams) laws. Among other things, of course.

So yes, I'd say I do agree- but I'm a bit more specific in my disgust. There's a lot in the Quran alone to make the bile rise, despite the few verses that talk about respect of "people of the Book"; the rest of it's slander against Christians and Jews, and much, much worse against believers of other religions (let's not even get into the atheist thing!)

7. Islam's sole purpose is to spread itself.

There have been relatively few evangelical religions- there was a brief period where Judaism was one (Maccabeean royal period), and Christianity has been one off and on, depending on where/when you look. Other than that, most other cultures have been content to coexist with, or, more commonly, absorb the old religions/rituals of conquered peoples.

I'd say that Islam is the most aggressive evangelical religion, and that its tactics in spreading are definitely the sneakiest and most crooked of any evangelical religion. Kidnapping women and girls and forcing them into marriages is low, low, low... as far as I know, even the worst of the Dark Ages didn't have Christian conversions that way... at least, not any more than nominal conversions- and I KNOW no king, prince, baron, whatever, didn't authorize any activity like that.

I'll add one: 8. Islam is the only religion which sanctions retaliation for any given level of "mischief" or "offense" against Muslims, Islam, the Quran, or the personal character of Muhammad.

Good list!

[calhounite]

Values of muslimity.

1) Murder. Murder is exhorted as the supreme virtue in Islam. No Islamic state has ever outlawed murder. Rather contract murder is institutionalized. If no contract has been drawn up prior to the murder, then it can be drawn up after the fact. Murder is so institutionalized in Islam that it is considered the only acceptable method for the transference of political power.
2) Slavery. Outside of murder the second most exhorted value. Every aspect of life is micromonitored and controlled by Imams with their own personal militias with which to enforce their mastery.
3) Fornification. The 3rd most exhorted value. Continual, utter raping of anything that moves (or doesn't). No concept of the institution of marriage.
4) Masochism. Love it. Hangings, beheadings, stonings, tortures of all kinds.
5) Blind, total pursuit of wealth. Can buy more of 1,2, 3 and better seats to 4 above.

[Saif al-Hafle Chai]

Taqiyya is probably one of the biggies. To my knowledge, it's the only religion where you are permitted to lie.

[rainbow1]

Thanks for your suggestions, friends I am adding them to the first post in this thread.

[rainbow1]

1. There is no Free Will. Well, this point is arguable with Christianity as well.

No, both the OT and NT support Free Will. It's pretty well known. As for the 3 O's Omnipotence, Omniscence and Omnipresence, these are not biblical, but 6th century ideas by Christian writers of the time, most of whom did not own a copy of the bible. There were only a handful of bibles in existence at the time which were written in Latin and chained to posts in monasteries. Plus, even an O God does not stop free will. Interestingly, the 6th century was just before Islam appeared on the scene and decided to take the 3 O's for themselves, probably thinking they were in the Injeel.

4. Its book is the only "dictated" text

Again- arguable with Christianity. Not all sects believe that- in fact, it's a really recent idea (about, oh, mid-19th century), but there are some who believe it. And perhaps there are some Judaic groups, ultra-Orthodox, who believe that as well. Did Zoroastrians believe this at one point? I don't know enough about them to say "yes" or "no".

The bible has never been a dictated text. "Inpsired" is totally different to 'dictated'. Only the 10 commandments were supposedly dictated, but even that suggestion was written by a human. There has never been any secret about who wrote the bible. It is a "closed canon", which means it can't be altered or added to, so you make the most of what you have, but that doesn't mean God wrote it word for word, like he Koran says of itself.



[

[sum]

Islam is the only "religion" that does not extend the Golden Rule to those outside its belief system. The only one. All others have the Golden Rule at their core towards all people - Islam does not.

sum

[Brendalee]

Islam "qualifies" its so-called morality, eg Do not murder (an "innocent" person...or "unjustly"), do not steal (looting and raiding against non-dhimmi infidels is fine), It's good to free a slave (and good to take masses of them as booty which Allah's uses to reward Muslims), Do not lie (but you may buy your way out of oaths which are Islamically binding and be excused those that are not Islamically binding [these are numerous]), be charitable (but only to Muslims), Don't commit adultery (except you have 4 wives if you like and all the "right hand possessions you can get) All Muslims are "equal" but Arab Muslims are more "equal" as Allah tells them they are the best people, and it is pretty clear that people who have power and money are, in a very Orwellian fashion, "more equal" in Allah's eyes than those who do not. Allah mocks any comparison between a Muslim slave and his Muslim master. It is laughable to compare one whom Allah has favoured with wealth and power and one who has not been so favoured. Men and women are "equal", but women are a degree below men (and anyway, hell predominates with women). Etc.etc.etc.

I rather doubt there is ANY "morality" in the Quran without "get-out" clauses and/or qualifiers. I have not found any.

[Marie]

Islam is the only religion where one's life is dictated.

[pr126]

I think religious free will works like this:

A robber comes up to you, holding a gun. He says your money, or your life.
You have free will, you can make a choice.

Except the outcome has already been decided.
If Allah is all knowing, he already knows what your choice will be.

[Muhammad bin Lyin]

Well, while the Christians clearly deviated from the Jews in the case of Jesus, they never invalidated the past Jewish scriptures and instead acknowledged them, but claimed that while they are all authentic, Jesus brought a new covenant. So Christianity did not try to wipe Judaism out at all, it tried to add to it, and the Jews disagree with this addition. But there is actually not much quarrel about the original Jewish scriptures (although there is a small amount). So in effect, the Christians never tried to wipe Judaism out and instead respected it and thought they were adding to it.

Islam showed no respect for either Judaism nor Christianity and instead leveled the charge of corruption against both and tried to invalidate both and therefore wipe both of them out and replace them after it used them and essentially hijacked them. The entire basis of Islam requires leveling a conspiracy charge against the two earlier religion, and that's what makes Islam different. Without this "supposed" conspiracy, Islam doesn't have a leg to stand on as the two prior religions simply don't leave any room for Islam. So there had to be a conspiracy, so that Muhammad could rewrite both in a manner that made his "supposed" prophethood seem legitimate.

[Brendalee]

In regards to a similar point already made, the core goal of other religions is personal individual spiritual enlightenment/salvation; In Islam it is collective dominance and superiority.

[tejpat]

Both christianity and islam have no Free Will.
both dictates and hence all can see Anti-gay bill in Christian nation Uganda.

[Bob]

I agree with all these points. Just my small contribution.

ONE

As Mohammed bin lyin has judiciously pointed out, Islam is innately regressive. For Muslims the Koran 'corrects' previous scriptures and restores the so-called original truth of God's word that had been adulterated by Jews and Christians. Muslims look upon the hadith as a guide for action in modern life. Hundreds of millions of Muslims pine for the earliest Islamic society created by Mohammed and the first caliphs.

The Bible on the other hand is progressive. Not only is there a narrative that progresses from the OT to the NT but also within both halves there is an evolving narrative. No Christian or Jew wishes, for religious reasons, to recreate or revert to a social order that existed over one thousand years ago. The contrary is the case for Muslims. In other words, the concept of historical progress is foreign to Islam for RELIGIOUS reasons.

TWO
Islam requires state control in order to be fully implemented. That is why it is a threat to non-Muslim countries. There is no 'render unto Caesar' principle in Islam. Islam from the very beginning aimed at control of the state. Mohammed was his own Constantine. Islam and politics are joined at the hip. No other religion is.


THREE

Only Islam has inflicted upon itself the debilitating notion of Al-jahillyah or of "pre-revelation" ignorance. This notion has meant that Islam has committed intellectual suicide, has cut itself off from the treasures of previous civilizations and, ironically, has made Muslims themselves some of the most wilfully ignorant people on earth. Western Christianity has always maintained a rich and complex relationship with what has preceded it. There has never been any serious theological opposition to the study of Greek philosophy or Roman law.

[Idesigner]

Only Muslims believe that their religious book is dictation from Allah to Gebreel to Mohammed.

This includes each and every word, syllable. Its all from Allah. Here they get caught and their excuses starts about historical context ? or eternal message.? Here they fall in trap whether he is Koranic Muslim or Hadith + Koran Muslim. Here they start playibg Kittman and Taquia. When talking to other muslims each and every word of Koran becomes message to be followed till the day of judgement. When they are in dawah mode with Kaffirs they resort to 5th century Arabia context.

It took a long time to expose their contradiction, lie and duplicity.

Where as believers of other religions believe that their scriptures are inspired by their God. Of course they will quote us some verses which were directly addressed by their god to their prophets. This makes other religions flexible..

[marduk]

Saying that the whole Quran is the direct word of God was pretty dumb. Makes it really easy to prove Muhammad a fraud by simply pointing out parts that the God of Israel would never say, like that the ninth month of the year was when the Quran was brought down to mankind. Allah had 12 months to choose from so why would he choose the holy month of the Egyptian god Khonsu? Since the Jews had supposedly been held captives in Egypt for many years they would certainly have been aware of that. If Allah really had chosen that month then he would have had Gabriel also say that it is mere coincidence that it is the same as the holy month of Khonsu and that the Jews should not think it odd. Since no such statement was made, the only possible outcome would be that the Jews think Muhammad a madman, which is exactly what happened. Too bad Allah was unable to predict that outcome because now the whole world, except for really dumb people, know very well that Muhammad was a fraud and a liar.

It might not be so bad if it weren't for the fact that Mecca, and the Qaba itself, are not far from Egypt and actually form a very nice triangle with the holy mountain of Amun, Jebel Barkal, and the Karnak Temple of Amun and that the Qaba Stone looks like Jebel Barkal. With those facts now known, we can see how crazy it would be for Allah to have chosen Mecca as the site of the first temple and the center of the world and for that stone to have been allowed by him to be put in the Qaba. The combination of the ninth month being special and the position of the Qaba and the shape and color of its stone being directly related to the holy mountain of Amun makes it complete insanity to believe that the God of Israel was in any way associated with any of that. How can anyone seriously claim that to be credible? Was Allah giving us the message that he is actually the Egyptian sun god Amun? That's the only possible conclusion other than Muhammad being a complete fraud.