Mr. Stevenson, first let me say it publicly that I find Mr. Alsuezi's habit to block you a breach of the first amendment of our constitution, the same amendment that allows him to promote better understanding of the Quran and Islam. Unfortunately, I am not a teologist and have no answers to many of your queries about the Quran. On the other hand, like Mani, I have a "beef" with my own religion in its strict construction, and long ago, actually just before I was to have passed the ritual of the "Bar Mitzva", I have developed a number of major objections with some of the "Moral tenets" of the old testament and Jewish law. Therefore, I am "practicing" my own faith (or lack thereof) in my own way, maintaining, all that I believe is good and moral in traditional Judaism, but rejecting the like of "He who hates his son, saves his whip" (another version of your beef with wives beating in the Kuran), or "the almighty bears the sins of fathers on their children and the children of their children..." or the genocidal extermination of "Amalec" for some sins committed 3000 years ago. The mainstream of Judaism, has already abandoned or interpreted many of these less than "moral" tenets more than a thousand years ago. The question is whether Islam can undergo a similar transition. I think it can, but I also think it may take some times. Since most of the Quran is based on Judeo Christian moral principles, that include, peace, love for thy neighbor, and I would suppose that eventually the peace loving forces will prevail.
Zeev |
