A world without Islam PT 1

Mari kita lihat pemikiran orang bukan Islam mengenai Islam dan penganutnya.

'...there is one Islam, but many different ways Muslims live and interpret it that differ greatly from country to country, age to age, issue to issue, person to person. In fact, Islam is what Muslim think Islam is, as well as what they want it to be. And they differ, as do adherents of other faith.'

'Sadly, when religion becomes linked with political forces, it tends to lose its soul- its spiritual dimension'

'Yet the real issue is not the danger of religion per se, but of dogmatic thinking. The true horrors of the twentieth century have almost nothing to do with religions: two world wars, Franco, Mussolini, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Rwanda- the death of hundreds of millions of people, all involving secular, even atheist regimes that seized upon dogmatic ideas and brutality implemented them at all cost.'

Pemikir barat masih mempunyai tanggapan sinis kepada Muhammad.

'At age of forty, at a time when he had been suffering from periods of psychological restlessness, Muhammad reported a remarkable experience during a sojourn in the mountains: he had been visited on several occasions by the angel Gabriel, who instructed him to recite words brought by God.'

'But the environment in which Muhammad lived would, of course, exert influence over his mind, thinking, and personality; it would affect his receptivity to the message and the manner in which his revelations were understood and applied by himself and his followers.'

Perhatikan pandangan yang cukup kritikal ini:

'for Muslims, the Prophet Muhammad brought the final and perfect revelation that cannot be improved upon; there will be no more legitimate prophets. Muhammad is thus the 'seal of the prophets'. This belief has put Islam in the curious position of being quite tolerant in looking back into religious history, but intolerant in looking forward to any possible post-Muhammad religious teachings that involve new revelation; this is the source of the intense strain Islam has with the later Ahmadi, Sikh or Baha'i religions, which have some foundation in Islam but which in effect 'update' Islam in the preaching of still later prophets. These three movements are thus vigorously condemned by Muslim clerics, and their followers have been subject to persecution in several Muslim states'

Masih lagi kah sanggup membaca buku Graham E Fuller ini?....

To be continued....