No shortage of ignorance in rhetoric over Islam

Heated rhetoric and absolute ignorance characterize much of what is said about Islam on the news.

You know how I can tell that someone knows nothing about Islam or the Quran? That person says something to the effect of "Islam is ... ."

That's like saying "Protestants are ... ."

Islam is a multi-faceted religion. It ranges from the ultra-conservative Wahab to the poetic Sufi, from the Sunnis preaching death to anyone who worships a false god to the Shiites who wait for the second coming of the prophet in the well. Muslims are the dervishes of Turkey and the secularist majority of Iran. They range from the blackest child of Africa to the palest child of North America.

One rumor going around says Muslims are bound by their faith to murder Jews. The Quran does not order the faithful to murder Jews. If it did, there would be no Jews in Iraq -- and there have been synagogues in Iraq (Babylon) since long before Islam was born.

The Quran offers up the Talmud as its foundation, "the Book." Islam calls Christians, Jews and Muslims "people of the book." If you have taken the time to understand how and why heretics challenged Roman rule and Judaism 2,000 years ago, perhaps then you can understand why a disenfranchised people living six centuries after Christ would need their own powerful words.

The Quran is actually a compilation of poetic stanzas, much like the King James version of the Bible. Those who formed the New Testament were literate people with a specific political agenda who determined which primarily oral histories transcribed into gospels were going to be included in the Testament of Christ and selectively shared with illiterates; those who formed the Quran were literate people with a specific political agenda who determined which oral histories transcribed into Surahs were going to be included in the Holy Quran and selectively shared with illiterates.

Where Christianity preaches that a reward to the faithful for believing in Christ is a heavenly mansion, Islam preaches that a reward to the faithful for believing in Allah is a home in paradise.

Just as there are hate-mongering ministers in the Christian world, there are hate-mongering Imams in Islam. While most Christian ministers have some formal education in their chosen denomination, many Imams in Third World nations may not even have completed grade school. Those uneducated people have been chosen by their neighbors to be the village guiding light in matters of faith, law and diet.

I can understand the ignorance of those Third World people, but I cannot fathom the ignorance of self-proclaimed religious leaders in today's West. We must never let our problems in the Middle East become a war between Christianity and Islam.

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Ken Kalish, who served in combat and as an announcer with American Forces Viet Nam Network, operates a llama rescue service in Park Rapids. He is a source in MPR's Public Insight Network.

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