Why can't everyone be so cool like llamavore? I don't think GS really wants to see Islam the way Muslims do; he has his own false conclusions that he is trying to put it down my throat.
Saying I am wrong without explaining yourself just leaves the impression that you know there is at least some truth in my comments, and you don't want to clarify what's wrong because it will highlight what's right.
I do see the Islam the way Muslims do - some of my very best friends since childhood are Muslim, and though I am not Muslim, we agree on a few fundamentals:
- one God (Allah, the Universe, whatever you want to call him or her, if we agree there is only one then we are obviously talking about the same thing). Even a pure secularist like myself must conclude that there is one origin for everthing that willed itself into exostence, else you are not logical
- heaven and hell exist just as much on earth as they do in whatever afterlife you believe in
- Osama bin Laden was a murderer, responsible for many more deaths than 911
- Islam, like Christianity, owes its success in practice to its inconsistencies in principle
- and we can chalk those inconsistencies up to not understanding the mind of God
- oh and a recent addendum - God is fickle and needs to take a communication skills class. First it's "the Jews are my peeps", then he delegates to his son who apparently didn't get His message across right and was too much of a hippie, so he he send Mo with the latest edition "forget all the peace stuff, kill anyone who doesn't agree that this latest memo supercedes everything else I said. And freak out at cartoons of Mo."
As for the rest, we don't get hung up on the details. I would agree that my opinions are formed, but not set in stone, so if you can reasonably elucidate, I will listen. Let's see if you can muster more than a female body part.