Is islam the religion of evil?

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If Islamic extremism and the manners in which some highly conservative non-'extremist' states (such as Saudi Arabia) interpreted Islam did not exist, there would be little concern about its place today. I daresay such concern about the viability and validity of practising Islam in this day and age would only be at a level comparable to that of Christianity, rather than the absurd generalisation, stigma and discrimination towards Muslims that is so rife within our society due to the actions of a few.
 
No?

I know a lot of people preach this stupidity but nobody in their right mind would follow a "religion of evil" (even Satanism is basically a response to the bad parts of Christianity, not a wholesale endorsement of evil). Islam is "right" enough that its followers intuitively think it is a force of good. There's a lot of your typical good stuff in the Qur'an. Heck, it's basically just another book on top of the Christian bible: Muslims believe Moses and Jesus were both prophets of God, but that Mohammad was God's final prophet and was sent to basically clarify God's message due to people going astray, much like Jesus was sent to do the same.

The fact that there are a number of people who commit great evils in the name of Islam does not mean that the message in the Qur'an is a message of evil. There are people who commit great evils in the name of anything. If it wasn't Islam, it would be something else. From what I understand of it, it's primarily a message of unity. It's certainly not any more evil than some of the nasty stuff that goes on in the Old Testament.

Before you start making wholesale accusations like this, it would behoove you to actually understand the concept you're lashing out at. If you're going to claim Islam is evil, read the Qur'an. And read the Bible as well for context, since the words of the former prophets are also considered holy to Muslims.
 
Well, let me tell you that I really don't have anything against islam per se. It's just that I'm concerned how easily it can be interpreted in destructive ways.
 
My position on Islam is the same as my position on all religions in general: believing in something as absolute truth without any supporting evidence for it does more harm than good, no matter what the belief is.
 
LauriJ said:
Well, let me tell you that I really don't have anything against islam per se. It's just that I'm concerned how easily it can be interpreted in destructive ways.
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Most religions can easily be interpreted in bad ways, especially if you remove context, which a lot of radicals tend to do. Heck, look at the Crusades. Anyone who's read the New Testament would understand just how absurd the Crusades were: they were basically wholesale slaughter and every other manner of evil targeted at Muslims in the name of Christianity and reclaiming the holy land. Does anyone really think Jesus would have endorsed such a thing?

I'm in a bit of a hurry here, so hopefully this makes sense.

Ideally, everyone would base their ethics on systems which can be rationally constructed. Now, we haven't found a perfect, rational basis for morality yet, and we may never find such a thing. People even disagree strongly on the different systems we've come up with. But these systems we've produced are, for the most part, clear, easy to follow, and easy to understand if presented correctly. And they tend to provide the right answer for deciding how to act in nearly every case (most of the problems come from thought problems, extreme cases which almost never happen in reality). Moreover, the discussion is something that anyone can contribute to, given sufficient interest and expertise. The philosophy of ethics is a huge field with many, many people continually working toward a better, more useful answer to the question of "what is good?"

But this isn't an ideal world. Religion's a real thing that matters to a lot of people. If it's a force of good in their lives, I see no reason to upset that balance. When it's used as an excuse to do evil, though, that's another story. I think our best option there is to point out how their behaviors conflict with what their religious texts say. If that doesn't work, then appeal to the common basis for ethical understanding that nearly all of us have: most of us understand at least some subset of human behavior to be wrong, and these are things that can cause some clear, measurable harms that we can point out. Normally, I wouldn't suggest appealing to someone's emotions, but sometimes a rational argument isn't enough. Pointing out how much pain their actions can cause might be enough to move some of these people away from the path they've decided on.
 
I have yet to encounter a fully evil religion. All I have seen presently(and during history)is existing religions being twisted by extremism. Now, of course, there will be those who simply blanket religion in general as a great evil of humanity, but that's as unfair as deciding all of science is progress for the sake of progress with no regard for consequences or ethics.

Holding entire groups and belief systems to blame for the acts of what are clearly a radical few is an unfair way to go about things. There are enough Muslims out there publicly disapproving of the activities of extremists to show that.

Personally, I have no problems with Islam itself. I have a problem with humanity. Humanity will take literally any excuse to commit evil when it decides to commit evil, whether that excuse is religious or not.
 
Would rather get rid of the Christians.
 
-Lapras- said:
Would rather get rid of the Christians.
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I don't think anyone's saying we should "get rid" of anyone. Most Christians are good people, just like most Muslims are good people, just like most PEOPLE are good people. Even those who have pretty clearly mistaken beliefs about what is good and what isn't aren't bad people, simply misguided and wrong. "Getting rid" of people isn't the answer to anything.
 
The problem isn't islam. The problem is the terrorists who use their religion as a motive, you can find people like that in any religion really. It isn't the religion itself, it's just a group of dick heads.
 
No? Good lord this is a loaded question. Islam by itself isn't inherently evil, it's just that Muslim extremists exist. Had a good discussion with a few people from Egypt about it.

-Lapras- said:
Would rather get rid of the Christians.
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Congrats, nobody cares. Religion is one of the fundamental freedoms given to the developed world so I guess it's cool that you like to undermine that or something?
 
-Lapras- said:
Religion holds back the developed world from developing further. Should get rid.
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Does it, though? I mean, I'm an atheist and growing up in Ireland I've seen and heard a lot about he awfulness of the Catholic Church, but I'd never say that religion as a whole stops the world from developing because it's such a huge blanket statement that ignores the massive variety of religions out there. You should probably expand a little more on these statements if you want to debate properly.
 
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Oh my god no. no. no. no. no. no. NO.


First, take a trip to Dearborn, Michigan. Dearborn is one of the largest Muslim populations outside of Muslim countries. You know what there's a surprising lack of there? Terrorists.

This whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is propagated from a radical few who are pretty much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s who go against their own religion who are more motivated by hatred and bigotry than their texts.

-Lapras- said:
Would rather get rid of the Christians.
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Also no, no no no no no no!

This whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is propagated from a radical few who are pretty much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s who go against their own religion who are more motivated by hatred and bigotry than their texts.

It should also be noted that Muslims and Christians share a lot of their main texts. So there is that.

-Lapras- said:
Religion holds back the developed world from developing further. Should get rid.
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Again, a radical few. It should be noted that a lot of top scientists are Christian (as well as other religions too). It only holds you back if you're not willing to change your opinion as new evidence is presented, which is something that occurs in those who read the bible literally and are unwilling to accept that it was a book written thousands of years ago.
 
Sopheria said:
My position on Islam is the same as my position on all religions in general: believing in something as absolute truth without any supporting evidence for it does more harm than good, no matter what the belief is.
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That's actually quite absurd and bold of you to say without sufficient evidence. Religious beliefs usually turn people's lives around, making them better people. Who cares if you don't believe it? They do, it's real to them, and it works for them. There is no proof that having religious beliefs hurts people's lives. You seem to have very little understanding of what all religions teach people to practice. Kindness, compassion, love, selflessness, those are all bad things? Explain to me why you believe this so I may understand your point of view better.
 
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Islam is a religion of peace -- the name Islam itself says so. Terrorism and US propaganda are the factors that makes the world frown on Islam. I actually admire Sharia law for how it actually works on a population. I read the Qu'ran once, and while I have to say it actually has more contradictions than the Bible, it's as graceful and unique as any other holy book. I was surprised when I read it in second person instead of the usual first or third person.
 
Magic Guard said:
That's actually quite absurd and bold of you to say without sufficient evidence. Religious beliefs usually turn people's lives around, making them better people. Who cares if you don't believe it? They do, it's real to them, and it works for them. There is no proof that having religious beliefs hurts people's lives. You seem to have very little understanding of what all religions teach people to practice. Kindness, compassion, love, selflessness, those are all bad things? Explain to me why you believe this so I may understand your point of view better.
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The prospect of kindness, compassion, love, etc. is already being taught to us outside of religion. You don't need to be a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Mormon to be able to do good to people. What preachers teach are moral lessons of the stories from their respective source books. Moral lessons are part of the human experience, not necessarily religion itself.
 
LauriJ said:
Well, let me tell you that I really don't have anything against islam per se. It's just that I'm concerned how easily it can be interpreted in destructive ways.
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As can any religion, quite frankly. Christianity, especially in the US, has become so easily perverted to justify all sorts of injustices, including, but not limited to, advocating for open discrimination against gays in housing and employment, and the condemnation and denial of other religious faiths to build houses of worship in towns.

Anything man-made can be perverted into something destructive if allowed to. And religion is no exception.
 
Magic Guard said:
That's actually quite absurd and bold of you to say without sufficient evidence. Religious beliefs usually turn people's lives around, making them better people. Who cares if you don't believe it? They do, it's real to them, and it works for them. There is no proof that having religious beliefs hurts people's lives. You seem to have very little understanding of what all religions teach people to practice. Kindness, compassion, love, selflessness, those are all bad things? Explain to me why you believe this so I may understand your point of view better.
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Well, if you read my post you'll notice I didn't say religion is bad, I said believing in things as absolute truth without any supporting evidence is bad.
 
Based on what this thread is revolving around, I'm very reluctant to leave it open. Without proper citation and expansion, the claim of calling a religion "evil" is too open to interpretation. The word "evil" suggests that the religion itself is and was brewed to serve a negative impact on individuals or humanity. Or if it is "evil" in the spiritual sense we are discussing here, that would be somewhat insulting towards those who worship Allah as a means of positive spiritual guidance and salvation.

Before you create threads like this, be sure to define the goal and direction of the subject matter. In this case there isn't one, and I foresee too many negative connotations being slung towards a faith, rather than much of a fair discussion on its merit. One thing you should never do however, is base a discussion on extremity without noting that extremity is the specific subject matter; and not as a generalisation for the topic as a whole. For what it's worth, Islam isn't seen as one of the 5 Major religions because it is "evil". The world hasn't fallen into ruin and masochism just yet, so the majority of religious people on this Earth follow religions about peace and prosperity. Even though the extremists do not respect this and doctor their own beliefs into something it should not be about.

With all that said, I'll have to lock this one. Have the loveliest of days, all.

Locked.
 
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