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 A recent global survey suggests that Muslims are more religious than Christians and Hindus.
December 3rd, 2011
10:00 PM ET
Conflict, theology and history make Muslims more religious than others, experts sayBy Richard Allen Greene, CNN (CNN) - Every religion has its true believers and its doubters, its pious and its pragmatists, but new evidence suggests that Muslims tend to be more committed to their faith than other believers. Muslims are much more likely than Christians and Hindus to say that their own faith is the only true path to paradise, according to a recent global survey, and they are more inclined to say their religion is an important part of their daily lives. Muslims also have a much greater tendency to say their religion motivates them to do good works, said the survey, released over the summer by Ipsos-Mori, a British research company that polls around the world.
Islam is the world's second-largest religion - behind Christianity and ahead of Hinduism, the third largest. With some 1.5 billion followers and rising, Islam's influence may be growing even faster than its numbers as the Arab Spring topples long-reigning secular rulers and opens the way to religiously inspired political parties. The case against TLC’s “All-American Muslim” But while there's no doubt about the importance of Islam, experts have different theories about why Muslims appear to be more religious than members of other global faiths - and contrasting views on whether to fear the depth of Muslims' commitment to their faith. One explanation lies in current affairs, says Azyumardi Azra, an expert on Islam in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim majority country. Many Muslims increasingly define themselves in contrast with what they see as the Christian West, says Azra, the director of the graduate school at the State Islamic University in Jakarta. "When they confront the West that they perceive or misperceive as morally in decline, many Muslims feel that Islam is the best way of life. Islam for them is the only salvation," he says. The case for TLC’s “All-American Muslim” That feeling has become stronger since the September 11 attacks, as many Muslims believe there is a "growing conflict between Islam and the so-called West," he says. "Unfortunately this growing attachment to Islam among Muslims in general has been used and abused by literal-minded Muslims and the jihadists for their own purposes," he says. But other experts say that deep religious commitment doesn't necessarily lead to violence. "Being more religious doesn't necessarily mean that they will become suicide bombers," says Ed Husain, a former radical Islamist who is now a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. In fact, Husain argues that religious upbringing "could be an antidote" to radicalism. American Muslim women who cover explain their choice The people most likely to become Islamist radicals, he says, are those who were raised without a religious education and came to Islam later, as "born-agains." Muslims raised with a grounding in their religion are better able to resist the distortions of Islam peddled by recruiters to radical causes, some experts like Husain argue, making them less likely to turn to violence. But he agrees that Muslims are strongly attached to their faith, and says the reason lies in the religion itself. "Muslims have this mindset that we alone possess the final truth," Husain says. Muslims believe "Jews and Christians went before us and Mohammed was the last prophet," says Husain, whose book "The Islamist" chronicles his experiences with radicals. "Our prophet aimed to nullify the message of the previous prophets." The depth of the Muslim commitment to Islam is not only a matter of theology and current events, but of education and history, as well, other experts say. "Where religion is linked into the state institutions, where religion is deeply ingrained from childhood, you are getting this feeling that 'My way is the only way,'" says Fiyaz Mughal, the director of Faith Matters, a conflict-resolution organization in London. The Ipsos-Mori survey results included two countries with a strong link between religion and the state: Legally Muslim Saudi Arabia, which calls itself the guardian of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina; and Indonesia, home of the world's largest Muslim population. The third majority Muslim country in the study is Turkey, which has a very different relationship with religion. It was founded after World War I as a legally secular country. But despite generations of trying to separate mosque and state, Turkey is now governed by an Islam-inspired party, the AKP. Turkey's experience shows how difficult it can be to untangle government and religion in Muslim majority countries and helps explain the Muslim commitment to their religion, says Azyumardi Azra, the Indonesia expert. He notes that there has been no "Enlightenment" in Islam as there was in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, weakening the link between church and state in many Christian countries. "Muslim communities have never experienced intense secularization that took place in Europe and the West in general," says Azra. "So Islam is still adhered to very strongly." But it's not only the link between mosque and state in many Muslim majority countries that ties followers to their faith, says professor Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani diplomat who has written a book about Islam around the world. Like Christians who wear "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelets, many Muslims feel a deep personal connection to the founder of their faith, the prophet Muhammad, he says. Muhammad isn't simply a historical figure to them, but rather a personal inspiration to hundreds of millions of people around the world today. "When a Muslim is fasting or is asked to give charity or behave in a certain way, he is constantly reminded of the example set by the prophet many centuries ago," argues Ahmed, the author of "Journey Into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization." His book is based on interviews with Muslims around the world, and one thing he found wherever he traveled was admiration for Muhammad. "One of the questions was, 'Who is your role model?' From Morocco to Indonesia, it was the prophet, the prophet, the prophet," says Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington. But while Ahmed sees similar patterns across the Islamic world, Ed Husain, the former radical, said it was important to understand its diversity, as well. "There is no monolithic religiosity - Muslims in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are following different versions of Islam," says Husain. "All we're seeing (in the survey) is an adherence to a faith." Political scientist Farid Senzai, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington, raised questions about the survey's findings. "Look at the countries that are surveyed - Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Turkey," he says. "There are about 300 million Muslims in those three countries, (who make up) about 20% of Muslims globally." Islam is "incredibly important" in Saudi Arabia, he says. "But in Tunisia or Morocco you could have had a different result. It would have been nice if they had picked a few more Arab countries and had a bit more diversity," says Senzai. The pollster, Ipsos-Mori, does monthly surveys in 24 countries, three of which are majority Muslim – Turkey, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The other countries range from India to the United States, and Mexico to South Korea, and are the same each month, regardless of the subject the pollsters are investigating. In the survey released in July, about six in 10 Muslims in the survey said their religion was the only way to salvation, while only a quarter of Hindus and two out of 10 Christians made that claim about their own faiths. More than nine out of 10 Muslims said their faith was important in their lives, while the figure was 86% for Hindus and 66% for Christians. Ipsos-Mori surveyed 18,473 adults via an online panel in April and released the findings in July. Results were weighted to make the results as representative as possible, but the pollster cautioned that because the survey was conducted online, it was harder to get representative results in poorer countries where internet access is not widespread. CNN polling director Keating Holland also warns that in an "opt-in" survey, where respondents actively choose to participate, results tend to come from "people who are confident in their opinions and express them openly... not good for intensely private matters like faith or income or sex." Online surveys in countries that are not entirely free are also open to the possibility that pollsters get "the approved response" in those nations, "where the people who are most likely to be willing to talk about such matters are the ones who hold, or at least verbalize, opinions that won't get them in trouble if they are expressed," Holland says. That may have been an issue in Saudi Arabia, where respondents were given the choice of not answering questions on religion due to their potential sensitivity in the kingdom. The Saudi sample was the smallest, with 354 participants, meaning "findings for Saudi Arabia must be treated with caution," Ipsos-Mori said. About 1,000 people participated in most countries, but sample sizes were smaller in the three majority Muslim countries and in eight other countries. The survey participants did not reflect the true percentage of Christians and Muslims in the world. Christians were over-represented – as were people who said they had no religion – and Muslims were under-represented. Nearly half the respondents identified themselves as Christian. Eleven percent were Muslim, 4% were Buddhist, 3% were Hindu and 3% were "other." A quarter said they had no religion and 6% refused to say. Fiyaz Mughal, the interfaith expert, argues that even though the countries surveyed might not be representative of the entire Muslim world, the findings about Muslims rang broadly true. Muslims in different countries were committed to their faith for different reasons, he says. "Saudi Arabia is an institutionally religious state. Indonesia has religion tied into its culture," says Mughal. But Muslim immigrants to Europe also show strong ties to their religion, either as a defense mechanism in the face of a perceived threat, or because of an effort to cling to identity, he contends. He detects a link between insular communities and commitment to faith regardless of what religion is involved. It is prevalent in Muslim Saudi Arabia, but he has seen it among Israeli Jews as well, he says. "The Israeli Jewish perspective is that (the dispute with the Palestinians) is a conflict of land and religion which are integrally linked," Mughal says. "What does play a role in that scenario is a sense of isolationism and seclusion in Israeli Jewish religious communities, a growing trend to say, 'Our way is the only way,'" he says. Religious leaders of all faiths need to combat those kinds of attitudes because of the greater diversity people encounter in the world today, he argues. They have a responsibility to teach their congregations "that if they are following a religion, it is not as brutal or exclusive as possible," Mughal says. "Things are changing. The world is a different place from what it was even 20 years ago." Politicians, too, "need to take these issues quite seriously," he says. "In the Middle East there are countries - the Saudi Arabias - where you need to be saying that diversity, while it may not be a part of the country, is something they have to deal with when moving in a globalized area," he says. But Senzai, the political scientist, says that it's also important for the West to take the Muslim world on its own terms. "Many Muslims want religion to play a role in politics," he says. "To assume that everyone around the world wants to be like the West - that they want liberal secular democracy - is an absurd idea." - CNN's Nima Elbagir and Atika Shubert contributed to this report. soundoff (5,459 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Psalm 137:8 O Babylon, you will be destroyed. Happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us.
Blessed is the one who grabs your babies and smashes them against a rock.
It's been estimated that God commands or supports over a million killings in the Bible.
I noticed you used old testament verses, Christians follow a new covenant, brought forth by Jesus, It's called the new testament,
BTW while you were reading the old testament, you might want to read about the description of Satan as the Angel of Light, and what was it that Mohammed saw in the cave.... An Angel of Light.
-Quran (2:191-193)"And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]"
Quran (3:56) – "As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help."
Quran (4:89) – "They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks."
Shall I continue?
*yawn*
@Tom So God is a flipflopper? I guess God figured killing so many people was not good so he changed his beliefs. You guys are so pathetic.
@Skep Please find me something similiar to what I quoted in the quran and hadith like killing women and children and smashing heads of babies
Proud - they *all* say it. The old testament, new testament and Quran all contain violent phrases and to pretend than one or two of them contain them and the others dont is plain lying.
Religions are like that by nature - they are exclusionary. So at some point or the other, many of them will say "be really good to your fellow religionist, but the others, they are (choose your pick) - to be pitied / exterminated / less than human / tolerated / what have you, sometimes all of the above.
Islam implications can be clearly understood by looking at the Indian History. Islam has pillaged India, Holocaust Indians, occupied India, split India and now it is bombing every lives. There is no end in sight. They are psyched with the teachings. Most of muslims are more religious because of fear of hell. Some muslims are more religious because they want to go to heaven. Many muslims are not able to leave Islam because they will be put to death by their friends or relatives or by society. So there is no way to go. That's all. Many are tigers in cow skin. Once day it will show real face. In a given chance 60 years old muslim wants to marry 8 years old girl child like Prophet Muhammad did. In a given chance majority of muslims want to enslave 4 girls in the name of marriage like the Prophet did. In a given chance majority of muslims want to kill Jews like the Prophet did. and the goes on. They believe that Allah loves only muslims and hates others so you know what average muslim wants!!!
Yep, India has had a rough row to hoe with its muslim invasion. Ghandi's strategy of peaceful, righteous resistance worked against the British, because the British did hold the basic belief that freedom and self-determination were things all people deserved. His strategy was useless against muslims. They don't carry the same opinions about freedom, individual rights and self-determination that most other cultures have developed in the modern world.
It has nothing to do with muslims or christians, it's a simple fact across the bank: The less educated people are, the more they tend to believe in supernatural answers for everyday problems.
Fritz;
You are going to have to reconcile your remark to the fact that several of my secular college textbooks declare that witchcraft (Wicca in particular), is growing among the most educated elite in this country. Interesting.
Good evening.
Either ignorant and uneducated, or just easily manipulated or brainwashed.
How you accord "more religious" with something that is less religious is doubtful – but the "experts" will tell us. CNN what you really mean to say is "Religious People Cannot Be Trusted Expert Says."
The statement "Muslims are much more likely than Christians and Hindus to say that their own faith is the only true path to paradise" is fallacious as Hindu's do not believe in the concept of paradise. And with regard to being the "one true" path, again Hinduism does not claim there is only one path. There are multiple paths that a seeker can pursue to reach realization, these paths include Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Animism, Atheism, Rationality or simply Love. This flexibility in thought has allowed Hinduism to exist from the time before the pyramids till today. It does not restrict free thought due to some dogma rather it takes from new religions and ideas and adopts it to itself, ever growing ever changing.
Articles like this do nothing but pit man against man. In the end religion is just a way for us to improve ourselves to be the best we can be in our journey called life. Belief or lack of belief is immaterial.
I really liked what you said. It made me think. There is a big " Butt" about this article, and the media attempts to formulate they way people think. Why would the media side with Muslims?
I have seen an influx of muslims in the work place. Not like the mexicans where they cut grass or do work people dont want to do, but get most work in higher positions in corporate America. Kinda made me think.
Guys, despite our demonization of Islam and Muslims, people continue to flock to it especially women. Why? Could it be that it is the truth and truth cannot be hidden. Truth always prevails. Maybe we should praise it then maybe so many people will not flock to it. Out strategy of demonization of Islam in the hope that it will stop people from reverting to Islam is backfiring.
True Christianity happens under persecution when the rebel heart is ignited. Let it come.
I think Jainists are far more religious and quite ascetic about their religion. Jainists make Christians and Muslims look like hypocrites.
No ways. I'm indian muslim and alot of my friends are jains. Their dedication is limited to diet(food habits) and they pray only on specific occasion. No where close to us. We pray 5 times every day. Fast 30 days of obligatory fast in Ramadan and optional fast around the year..Give 2.5 % of our total income every year in charity to poor which is obligatory on muslims...And the best of all, we follow one God who is imageless, shapeless and has no form or idol which is also the message of Hindu Veda which most jains violate. They make image and idols of God violating their own book. But the Quran and Vedas says to worship One God who has no image. So we follow their book more than them..
"na tasya pratima asti"
"There is no image of Him."
[Yajurveda 32:3]
"Ma cid anyad vi sansata sakhayo ma rishanyata"
"O friends, do not worship anybody but Him, the Divine One. Praise Him alone."
[Rigveda 8:1:1]
The Brahma Sutra of Hinduism is:
"Ekam Brahm, dvitiya naste neh na naste kinchan"
"There is only one God, not the second; not at all, not at all, not in the least bit."
[Rigveda Samhita vol. 9, pages 2810 and 2811 by Swami Satya Prakash Sarasvati and Satyakam Vidyalankar]
Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begets not, nor is He begotten; And there is nothing like Him.
[Quran 112: 1-4]
in saudi arabia a man will stand outside a mosque with a knife and push people in who walk by. you can be informed on and killed for not going to the prayers. muslim fathers have been killing their kids in American for not worshipping. in austraila followers beat new converts who drank alcohol. islam is a violent religion and you are controlled by that religion. Richard Allen Greene, CNN shows his complete ignorance of islam and what religious freedom means. There is no relgious freedom with islam, it will kill you or enslave you if you dont fight it. ***Christ Christ rules***
Christ is a Jew. The Jews are right. Christ was just another Jewish guy that died. Then a bunch of loonies went and claimed him as a savior.
None of this makes a person any more or less religious than another...it is merely an indication of the relative level of delusion.
Indoctrination through peer pressure. You have to pray multiple times a day with your family/friends or whatever. Remove the compulsion to pray several times a day and Islam would collapse.
Because they are backwards. It ia a religion of slaves.
Dude, did you drink your fresh glass of uring this morning? If not, may I offer you mine? Don't forget to worship your monkey and snake god. I milked your god this morning. The milk was delicious.
Muslims are dangerous retards, with zero tolerance for other faiths or cultures.
you mean a lot like you.
Dear Friends, I'm a Muslim and As far as I understand Islam following are few main reasons;
– Quran is the final testament which experienced no modifications. This is final message of God and is preserved by God (hence can't be changed).
– Islam teaches peace and the different ways to handle every single issue of the life.
– From doing your daily cores to managing large business to dealing with families, friends, relatives and praying God; it has all instructions.
– Quran doesn't contradict with science but as a matter of fact Quran contained too many discoveries 1400 years ago which today's science just discovered.
That is the reason Muslims are so attached with their religion. Muslims respect all Prophets and Religions. Have you ever noticed that Muslims never ever made cartoons for Prophets (Jesus, Moses, etc). They will never do because we believe in all of them; they brought same message.
But unfortunately a small number of people have misrepresented it by following their own traditions under the umbrella of Islam. After 9/11 Islam experienced more growth.. go guess why? Because people started reading Islam out of curiosity and only then they realized what Islam is about.
Today's wars are not about religion but are about the resources. No true Christine would hate Muslims or Jews, No true Jew will hate Muslims or Christians, and likewise no True Muslim will hate any Christian or Jew.
I hope there will be peace among all humanity.
Blessings upon you all.
You must be joking.. 🙂
Religeon of peace.. Fes examples from the book:
Quran (2:191-193) – "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]... but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah."
Quran (2:244) – "Then fight in the cause of Allah, and know that Allah Heareth and knoweth all things."
Quran (2:216) – "Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not."
Quran (3:151) – "Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority".
Quran (4:74) – "Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward."
Quran (4:76) – "Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah…"
Yup. I've seen these lines. One thing I'll suggest; never ever look at one statement specially when it comes the Holy Books like Quran, Bible, Torah.
It is essential to understand every single line in the light of full context that is the time, place, people of that time, and events they were going through.
I hope this helps.
MMNH,
You might as well believe in santa klaus and the tooth fairy too.
"Quran is the final testament which experienced no modifications. This is final message of God and is preserved by God "
How do you know? Were you around when the Quran was written? How do you know that it wasn't made up by someone and passed off as "the final message of God"? How do you know that it hasn't been changed over thousands of years by the thousands of people who have copied it by hand before the invention of the printing press? I can't believe that people still believe in this fallacy, Christianity included. Seriously...
FusionX,
The Bible is full of similar commands issued by God when he set up the rules. Thank Jesus for convincing God he was wrong and needed to change the rules.
I've heard the same thing from lot of people like you.. out of context.. only at war.. only arabic liuterates will understand etc..
Put the damn thing in context then.. stop ranting you need to ask Mullah to understand it.. You need to learn Arabic to read it properly etc.
Actually, There were millions of people that listened to Howard Stern, than any other radio station. Doesnt mean Howard Stern is the way to godliness. Chains and shackles force people to do things. Religion also forces people to do things. Both enslave. God is supposed to be "Love". There was a people he had chosen. Not everyone is chosen. But there are people that are good. They dont have an intent of lying about being as good as god to be saved.
Hope you understand. Is there something man can do to make themselves like god. Not in real christian teachings. There is nothing man can do to be good enough for God. Only God Himself can bring man to Himself.
Pray all you want. Force people to wear things, force people to do as you say or die.
That is not Love. That is not God.
GREAT POST!! ignore the ignorance of the other posters on this site, most of them watch too much tv, and are so caught up in the commercialism of this country – that they don't know their anuses from the holes in the ground. I personally, don't subscribe to any organized religion because of how divisive it can be, but I do respect the people and their sustaining faiths. I just don't understand the people in the US, we have access to unlimited information about anything, at our fingertips. Yet we come on sites like this and others, and demonstrate to the world how really how stupid we are.
Peace to you.
Its getting interested 🙂
I understand this is hard to believe.
No I was not there at that time. But there are copies of hand written Quran available dated back to that time. Let me give you once example and I believe that will help and experiment this by your own and you will be surprised....
"Gather 1000 copies of Quran from different part of word, different countries or what ever number is possible for you and from different times may be from last 100 years"
Try to compare them.. you will be surprised.
I know it is hard to do; but this is something you should at least think.
Destroy all books of this word....
Quran will be the first book to surface again on this earth as this book doesn't go by paper but it goes my memorization.
I apologize if I've annoyed anyone but this is what I understand..
Robert
I don't have a problem with people having their own faith.. I respect individiual's faith..
But I have a problem when they try to blow up humanity in the name of so called GOD and Religeon. Hope you understand the difference.
MMNH,
It doesn't prove a thing.. you can find 1 million copies of Stephen King's weird stories and the are the same and they will be the same in if they print it 500 years later.. That doesn't mean the stories are trure..
Just because the book says it't God's word it doesn't prove a thing either. Only a brain dead will would belive "Just because it says so".
Hi Robert,
Thanks for your nice post. That is what we all should be like. Respecting each other and loving each other. Love is the only thing which makes this world beautiful.
Reply for FusionX.... my friend, you or I don't need any Mullah's (by the way I don't ever go to Mullah)... it can be studied and researched by your own. Internet, Libraries, and all sort of media is available to help..
Even though there any many negative posts on this page but I respect all of them. Remember one only speaks what he has seen around. So no blame to anyone.
FusoinX
If you look back in history the suicide bombing just started only one or two decades ago. I believe the cause of it the wrong foreign policies of today's world.
If it was being taught by Islam then we should have seen such gestures since the beginning of Islam. Yes there were wars during Islam times but there were wars even before Islam. I think it is part of human nature to struggle of power hence ending in conflicts.
Commandments in Quran are more or less same as in Bible and Torah (if you compare with Originals).
Bible was the book who announced the coming of last Prophet Muhammad PBUH. Jesus PBUH mentioned about it as well.
But anyways.. it was nice talking to you all.
The supposed strength of the Muslim faith shows that Satan truly is the god of this world. When Jesus returns, Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire, and his worldwide deceptions will finally be brought to an end including terrorism; Jihad; terrible treatment of women; and subjugation, torture, and murder of those who refuse to convert to Islam.
If you believe in Jesus, Satan, AND a lake of fire, you are truly delusional. Seek help.
Because religion is the home of the ignorant and these people sink to the bottom of the intelligence pile.
Abrogration. The latter parts of the Quran override the earlier peaceful parts. Your masquerade will come to an end.
Which of the following is responsible for keeping a good percentage of the World's female population in a state of complete isolated subjugation and fear:
(a) barbaric dictatorships;
(b) organized crime
(c) the ku klux klan; or
(d) Islam
islam
All of the above!
I can not believe such twisted animosity and intolerance to other religious faiths. It is hypocritical to stigmatize Islam as a war mongering religion when throughout history and until today without exception people of the Christian, Jewish and Hindu faiths have ostracized and marginalized Muslims who practice Islam as villans. Let us not forget that it was the Christians who initiated the Crusades and specifically the barbaric acts that took place in 1099 when Jersaulem was sacked in the name or Christ. As for the people of the Jewish faith when the Christian Crusaders and at a time when Europe was allowing the Holocaust to continue it was the Muslims who helped take in the people of the Jewish faith and protect them to save their lives; and yet now the Palestinian people receive the punishment when their homes were taken from them at the initial creation of the Isreali State and recently the use of disproportional force that took place at end of 2007 that took some many innocent lives. Let us not forget Sabra and Shatila at the hands of Aerial Sharon an Isreali Prime Minister who was found indirectly responsible for the Masacre of unarmed children, women and men at the hands of Christians. As for the Hindus who reside in India and call it a democratic state how can you forget the Gujrat riots that occurred not to long ago where unarmed muslim men women and children were killed by Hindu extremists; yet no one was prosecuted or brought to justice. So yes all of you intolerant people out there who believe in a self righteous fantasy to think that your faith does not have flaws than you are misguided. Unfortunately for people of the Islamic faith are constantly targeted for the actions of a few as a whole while all other religions pass judgment of the few as interms of being insane or are exonerated of crimes against people who are muslims; so there lies the hypocrisy.
As experts have said. The LOWER the intelligence/education the HIGHER the propensity to believe in religion.....
AGREED!!
What do you expect when you were brainwashed since birth, that if you disagree or question your religeion you will be burned foever in hell? What would you expect someone to do if you get sentedced to death if you leave the religeon? As a teenager, what imagination you'd have you'll have the pleasure of 72 beauties with everlasting beauty if you commit yourself to the cause???
The creatue we call GOD is supposed to be all known, all powerful being who knows past, present and future.. who creates every being, can be in absolute control over every being,, if he wants.. Yet he needs a pathetic human being(s) as so called prophets to send his messages to his creation.. and want so much bloodshed in the name of religions (or in the name of GOD himself).. Yet he fails so many times because apparently his messenger failed few times to deliver the correct message (Islam accepts Moses, Jesus.. etc. has been sent by GOD)..
How an omnipotent GOD, who supposed to know past, present and future didn't know his messengers don't deliver the message? Didn't all knowing DOD know that Moses, Jesus and other so called prophets were going to be failures before he decide to send the deseart dude Mohammed as the final prophet?
Why does he create human beings and expect them to pray to him relentlessly? like 5 time a day top say "GOD IS GREAT".. Doesn't it sounds a bit like a cult leader, expecting obediance from all cult members? Why a real GOD gets angry and bring down harshest punishment on you if you don't say "GOD IS GREAT" 5 times a day? Is he so sadistic?
Guys.. wake up.. we live in 21st century.. GOD and all religeons are created to comfort our mind when we are vulnerable.. to defeat fear of death by making us to believe there's a place you go after death (that's provided if you stick to the bigh guy's rules).. A few Opportunistic people we call PROPHETS used this to create religeons and bring down so much bloodshed during the human history.. We would've been as good as animals if there were no religeons.. they only kill when they are hungry!!
Finally, CNN, please stop trying to be politically correct.!
So who failed you, FusionX?
Religious wars are not fought for merely religious reasons. Wars are always about domination rather than merely spreading religion. Human beings are always capable of evil and vice no matter whether they believe in God or not. Blaiming religion or God for the failings of our world is just shooting at the biggest target in the room or universe. You are quite welcome to believe or disbelieve as you wish, but assuming that because a human leader said that this or that religion demands the destruction and killing of those "people" is an just missing the point entirely. Humans did not start killing each other after they invented religious ideas. In fact, just the opposite is true. Religions have added stability to the societies they inhabited or died off. Do you know any one still worshiping Baal, or the Aztec pantheon? You could actually try practicing the basic tenets of the religion of your choice and see what happens. Prayer, meditation, and self examination are the basis of freedom, not slavery. Choose your own conception of God, and give your life over to his/her will as a reflection of all that is good in this world and you will actually be free. You will be free to choose good over evil when your own resources are insufficient to handle the job. The real danger is to believe that just because you don't need this type of life means that everyone who does is deluded. There are no atheists in fox holes is true because no human can really reach his potential while under extreme stress without Gods help. Contrary to your beliefs, the first successful crew of people to leave this planet behind will need the support of religious thinking to help them stay sane during the long dangerous trip to another world.
It's funny how boldly atheists deny the existence of God, but when caught in a life or death situation they call out to God in a moment of despair. After God saves them, they go back to denying his existence again. It's an innate human nature.