[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Aldebaran *
**First of all I need to clarify something: I didn’t say I disqualify people (no matter who) as Muslims. I have no power to do so nor do I have any authority to do this. What you do is between you and God.
As for your question considering “clerics”.
Maybe you are confused in what you call “cleric” since in Islam there is in fact no clergy, meaning: there is no equivalent of Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, priests or other sort of hierarchy like for example in Christianity. **
I understand your “disqualifier”, having had brief question/answer meetings with Muslim scholars. I use the term “cleric” as a generic term for a religious leader because, IMO, Islamic Scholars act as such. Your point about scholars having no linear hierarchy have been a main focus of some of my discussions. I would go so far as to suggest Mohammed intended such a system to avoid the power structure found in Christendom. I may start a thread on it later in regards to religious hierarchy.
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It is true that some scholars have more credibility and/or more influence then others. From which I gave the example when I referred to the Al Azhar being since centuries considered to have the most influencal authority in Sunni Islam.
This doesn’t imply that you have an obligation to follow their advice or judgements considering the religion, like for example in Christianity where the clergy is ordered to follow the rules and the Christians are considered to follow what the clergy declares to be the rules.
Islam is a very personal religion. People ask scholars for advice and scholars give advice (this can go about everything you can think of) and of course they hope that their advice is followed. Yet they have no power to command that they should be followed.
(We leave here countries where the scholars in fact rule the State out of the picture… I’m talking about the core principles of Islam)
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So far you have affirmed everything I have learned about Islam.
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So if tomorrow I hear the Imam of a mosque nearby my home declare that I have to kill every non Muslim passing by, then he can say that until his breathing stops, there is no obligation for me to even listen to him in the first place.
I think however that I would go inside and tell him in a polite way to go to a hospital in order to have his vocal cords removed…But that is an other issue.**
Interesting choice of words. Was the last sentence a loose translation of an ethnic expression?
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Well I surely would think they risk what you refer to as eternal damnation.
Yet I can’t declare them to be doomed.
There is a saying every Muslim adheres to very strictly, namely: Only God can judge because only God knows what is in people’s heart.
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Well, I had to practically beat it out of you. I know you can’t say Mullah so-and-so is blasphemous because you risk an international incident (a la Pat Roberts infamous “Muslims are worse than Nazis” speech). I just wanted you to separate the religion from the terrorist. The closest American example I can give is the Ku Klux Klan. It was a very powerful group in the United States at one time and they used religion (Christianity) to justify terrorism.
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My reading ability of the English language is a thousand times better then my writing skills, which are hindered because of the fact that this is a language I never studied. But equally because of my limited vocabulary. And not in the least because of my precious birthgift dyslexia. It is a gift that keeps you awake, yet it tends to influence my writing (and reading) of every language that uses the roman characters (I think you call that Latin script).**
I disagree. Your vocabulary is probably better than a majority of Americans and I’ll trade you your dyslexia for my inability to pick up a 2nd language.
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But you are completely right that when you don’t master a language you aren’t able to distinct its nuances.
The use of short sentences by people adressing themselves to me are a blessing to me for all these reasons.
Yes, I did feel insulted because I read it as if you were sort of convinced that I support people calling for the murder of innocents and that you were trying to have me make some sort of statement against it. While being convinced that I wouldn’t do it in the first place.
So I readily admit that I went in defense mode. (It has to do with the “welcome” I received and still receive here by some other members.)
I would appreciate if you would be so kind to accept my apologies since clearly I misunderstood your intentions completely.**
My apologies as well. .You are correct that I was trying to extract a statement from you but it was not meant to separate you from terrorism. It was meant to separate terrorism from Islam. I know it seems an obvious statement but it never makes the news.
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As for the bizar thing: I’m known to be the excentric lunatic of the family… Since you don’t know me and thus aren’t used to my lunatic humour mixed with grains of cynism and to my writing style which can fluctuate between almost good and completely incoherent… It doesn’t come as a surprize that you find me a bizar creature.**
** But I’m completely innocent and extremely harmless.* *
That actually made me laugh out loud. I may borrow that line in the future. You have a better handle on the nuances of the language than I gave you credit for.
omnis natura Deum loquitur