Hi Arsalan,
I have read all of your responses and thanks for taking the time to respond. I see that we will just disagree on many subjects so I'm going to narrow everything down to two.
First: Islam has been around for 1400 years. You say that Islam is the perfect beleif system. You also say that this isn't self-evident today and that today it isn't working - but this is due to the people. The people's fault.
Im not saying its not evident today. It is. Just not in some places due to the ignorance of the people.
What I want to know is when and where did it work? Just a time and place in the last 1200 years. If there is no time and place in 1200 years I'd say it's simply not going to work. You can not say it's a great system and then not provide at least ONE example in a thousand years of when it worked.
There have been many ups and downs and goods and bads during the time of the Islamic empire so I’m just going to pick the time of the Prophet and the Khalifa-e-Rashideen.
It was one of the biggest selling points of Christianity.
The message of Jesus was not meant for the whole world, something to which Jesus himself testifies in the Bible. So to say it was one of the biggest selling points of Christianity is wrong because the whole concept behind that in Christianity is flawed.
If you could please first define the term "Universality" and then explain why Islam's definition and teaching is novel that'd be great.
First of all, the main problem I have with your reasoning is that you say that for something to be perfect it has to be both novel and enlightening. This is the major flaw in your argument.
But lets move on. The concept of Universality in Islam in short is that God did not send down just 1 message. Over the course of the history of mankind different messengers were sent to different people. This shows that Islam does not deny other religions, but in fact presents the fact that there are other religions as an argument for the existence of God.
Also, some other religions claim to be the only message divinely revealed. This attitude shuts down any kind of cooperation or debate etc with other religions. The Quran itself proclaims that the Prophet was a universal Prophet with a universal message. Contrast this to the Bible here Jesus says he was only sent to the Jews. The fact that Islam is a universal religion, accepting of the Prophets of other religions, be they Christian, Bhuddist or Hindu, and accepting that they were the messengers mentioned in the Quran, means that it can unite the worlds religions instead of keep taking potshots at others.
There are many other concepts in Islam which are unique and or enlightening to the human condition. The concepts of Prophethood, the afterlife, conscience, creation/evolution, Mujaddids and God in Islam appeal to rationality and are one of the reasons it is the perfect and final religion according to Muslims.
You said that Christianity had a major thing going for it, namely forgiving. Ill take this to mean that you were talking about sin and salvation. Unfortunately, those concepts are fundamentally flawed when examined in the Bible.
*************
M*W: Yes, of course it would! It is also denying that Jesus was an historical person. The 12 "tribes" is symbolic for the 12 signs of the zodiac. And, oh, since Jesus didn't exist, there was no crucifixion. The "sign of the cross" represents the four seasons that form a cross in the center of the zodiac that forms N-S-E-W directions, depending on the season it is viewed in could look like an "+" or an "x." That's where the symbolism of the "cross" came from. I could go into the astro-theological symbolism of Peter (Jupiter) being crucified upside down on the "x," and Paul (Apollo) being beheaded, but I won't.
That old myth about Jesus going to Kashmir to preach after his "resurrection," simply means that when the sun rose in the morning over Kashmir (i.e. resurrection), it shone brightly down upon Kashmir and its people. Then the myth was created. Sure, there may be tombs galore where Jesus was alleged to be laid, but all "Jesus's tomb" means is the sun going down.
I could elaborate till hell freezes over, but I know you're not going to accept my interpretation anyway.
You are right about 1 thing: I wont accept your interpretation. The simple reason being that if I had to choose between your fantasy and the historical records, traditions passed down from generation to generation and the whole identity of the peoples living between Palestine and Kashmir, I would choose their side. Simply because they can show me historical records, city histories, records from Bhuddist temples even!
