Buliding bridges between Islam, Judaism and other religions

[Scott]

I was inspired to write this thread by listening to 2 videos from the Emir-Stein Center. Their mission statement is below:

**
The Emir-Stein Center is an initiative committed to the promotion of empathy and understanding through cultural and religious literacy. Ignorance breeds hate, and hate breeds violence. Our objective is to dispel ignorance through educational productions and publications that rekindle the spirit of our shared humanity. It is our sincere hope that this endeavor will strengthen the bonds of the Abrahamic family of faiths in our mutual pursuit of peace and the common good.
**

Source:
https://www.youtube.com/@EmirSteinCenter

Below is the first video I saw from their channel that I thought was quite good:

I'll post the second video from their channel in a comment to this thread.

 

[Scott]

Here is the second video I saw from the Emir-Stein Center:

 

[Uncensored2008]

Thank you for your Pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist position.

Will your side be adopting a position that Israel can exist? Will your side stop chanting "death to America," any time soon?

Of course not.

 

[coldjoint]

There is no compromise in Islam.

 

[Scott]

Thank you for your Pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist position.

Did you even read the -title- of this thread? Last I checked, Hamas was not exactly that good at building bridges between Islam and other religions.

Will your side be adopting a position that Israel can exist?

The name of a place doesn't matter nearly as much as how it cares for its people. Israel has done a terrible job of caring for the millions of palestinians that are under its control. That needs to change.

 

[archives]

Did you even read the -title- of this thread? Last I checked, Hamas was not exactly that good at building bridges between Islam and other religions.



The name of a place doesn't matter nearly as much as how it cares for its people. Israel has done a terrible job of caring for the millions of palestinians that are under its control. That needs to change.

Your wasting your time with those two^, neither ever have much to offer other than cliches and talking points they heard on the radio

 

[Scott]

There is no compromise in Islam.

Talk about stereotyping. Muslims are not uniform in nature, just as Christians and Jews are not. Just like there are Jews and Christians that are apalled at what is happening in Palestine, there are muslims who are trying to build bridges with other religions as well. This is not news, but one does have to look for it, as it's certainly not highlighted much in the mainstream media. Here's an article on this happening from NPR:

How the Muslim-Jewish interfaith movement is navigating these tense times | NPR

 

[Scott]

Did you even read the -title- of this thread? Last I checked, Hamas was not exactly that good at building bridges between Islam and other religions.

The name of a place doesn't matter nearly as much as how it cares for its people. Israel has done a terrible job of caring for the millions of palestinians that are under its control. That needs to change.

Your wasting your time with those two^, neither ever have much to offer other than cliches and talking points they heard on the radio

You may be right, but here's to hoping they realize that Islam is not as black and white as they seem to think.

 

[coldjoint]

Talk about stereotyping. Muslims are not uniform in nature, just as Christians and Jews are not. Just like there are Jews and Christians that are apalled at what is happening in Palestine, there are muslims who are trying to build bridges with other religions as well. This is not news, but one does have to look for it, as it's certainly not highlighted much in the mainstream media. Here's an article on this happening from NPR:

How the Muslim-Jewish interfaith movement is navigating these tense times | NPR

I am talking about Islam not those who follow it. Read the Koran and tell me different.

 

[Scott]

I am talking about Islam not those who follow it. Read the Koran and tell me different.

I've read parts of it. I could also point out that there are passages of the Bible and the Torah that are pretty bad. Here's an article that has some of the worst from all 3 texts:

30 of the Most Violent Exhortations from the Bible, Torah and Quran | Alternet

The article has 30 passages, lets you guess which verse came from which text and has the answers at the end.

Bottom line for me, I can certainly find flaws in all 3 religions and their texts. This thread was meant to show that people can still build bridges between these and other religions, with some videos showing how people have done so.

 

[Nordberg]

Religions think they are the only true religion and they compete with other religions for the money and power they seek. We have had religious wars as long as we have had religions. They are the wrong place to look if you want peace.

 

[Scott]

Religions think they are the only true religion and they compete with other religions for the money and power they seek. We have had religious wars as long as we have had religions. They are the wrong place to look if you want peace.

I personally don't have a problem with religions per se. I think the best definition of a religion is a set of beliefs, and if we're defining it that way, we all have one, even if we don't believe that God exists. I think the problem of a lot of religions is something that also happens in politics and its relationship to power. There's a well known saying that power corrupts and a counter which I like that it's not so much that power corrupts so much as that power attracts the corruptible.

There are small religions that have been around for a long time and you don't hear them engaging in holy wars and the like. I personally have come to associate what I believe with Pantheism. It's not so much that it persuaded me it was true- rather, I already believed the basic ideas in it, so when I found the term, I said to myself, that's what I believe.

As far as I know, Pantheists have never engaged in a religious war, though those associated with its tenets have certainly been persecuted. Wikipedia offers an early example:

**
The Catholic Church has long regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy.[20][21] Sebastian Franck was considered an early Pantheist.[22] Giordano Bruno, an Italian friar who evangelized about a transcendent and infinite God, was burned at the stake in 1600 by the Roman Inquisition. He has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science.[23][24]
**

 

[NiftyNiblick]

How can we possibly preserve religion and dispel ignorance at the same time?
I personally see no path to that.

 

[Scott]

How can we possibly preserve religion and dispel ignorance at the same time?
I personally see no path to that.

I think part of the issue here is how we're defining religion. I've seen a fair amount of definitions, but my favourite is that religions are just sets of beliefs. If that's the case, we all have one, even if said religion is just a religion of 1.

So I think the more important thing is, how can we make bridges between our various religions, or sets of beliefs. I think one of the better general principles is the old "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". It's certainly not perfect, but I think it's a start. In the video that I posted in the opening post of this thread, Chris Hedges talks of how he was taught not just how to speak Arabic, but the customs of Palestinians and perhaps to a lesser degree, muslims in the middle east generally. It served him well when he was kidnapped in Kuwait.

I also liked the second video I posted in this thread, which was in the very first comment to this thread. It speaks of Jewish thinkers who found some good things in the thinking of Islam's Muhammad.

I also think that interfaith groups are a good step in the right direction to healing wounds between communities from different religions.

 

[Nordberg]

I personally don't have a problem with religions per se. I think the best definition of a religion is a set of beliefs, and if we're defining it that way, we all have one, even if we don't believe that God exists. I think the problem of a lot of religions is something that also happens in politics and its relationship to power. There's a well known saying that power corrupts and a counter which I like that it's not so much that power corrupts so much as that power attracts the corruptible.

There are small religions that have been around for a long time and you don't hear them engaging in holy wars and the like. I personally have come to associate what I believe with Pantheism. It's not so much that it persuaded me it was true- rather, I already believed the basic ideas in it, so when I found the term, I said to myself, that's what I believe.

As far as I know, Pantheists have never engaged in a religious war, though those associated with its tenets have certainly been persecuted. Wikipedia offers an early example:

**
The Catholic Church has long regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy.[20][21] Sebastian Franck was considered an early Pantheist.[22] Giordano Bruno, an Italian friar who evangelized about a transcendent and infinite God, was burned at the stake in 1600 by the Roman Inquisition. He has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science.[23][24]
**

Jainism and Buddhism can be thought of as more peaceful.
There are about 4000 recognized religions on Earth. Almost all are too small or too weak to start a war. Many strong ones have. They are also responsible for of much world terrorism.
Some religions have had wars among the sects of their own faith. Islam still does.
Religion is not a positive. Remember Ireland's religious horrors?

 

[Scott]

Jainism and Buddhism can be thought of as more peaceful.
There are about 4000 recognized religions on Earth. Almost all are too small or too weak to start a war. Many strong ones have. They are also responsible for of much world terrorism.
Some religions have had wars among the sects of their own faith. Islam still does.
Religion is not a positive. Remember Ireland's religious horrors?

I'm not familiar with Ireland's religious wars, no. As to wars among sects of their own faith, I think we could agree that Christianity may perhaps win the gold metal for that one- sometimes even of the same sect- Russia and Ukraine are both orthodox, but it seems they'res now a schism between Russian orthodoxy and Ukranian orthodoxy. Politics can certainly get involved in religions and vice versa.

I think the idea of making rules for everyone to follow is a good idea in theory, whether those rules are in a holy book or in a document like the constitution. The problem, ofcourse, is when bad rules are mixed in with good ones.

So who decides which rules are good and which ones are bad? I think we all do. Some people have more power than others to change what's legal, but we all have the power to follow rules we believe are right and to refuse to do so if we believe they're wrong.