tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post4301725640278206193..comments2024-03-28T04:26:49.354+00:00Comments on Tony Greenstein's Blog: Islam: The Untold StoryTony Greensteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14300640929161205370noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-60674587074397213012012-10-21T14:42:49.535+01:002012-10-21T14:42:49.535+01:00hi.please like and share and put your idea in this...hi.please like and share and put your idea in this page about stop the violence<br /><br />http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-the-Violence-Coalition/230850553592615Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-1338392758496843392012-10-20T20:18:18.510+01:002012-10-20T20:18:18.510+01:00Joe, I shoujld have made it clear that what I refe...Joe, I shoujld have made it clear that what I refer to Islam is present day theology and its interpretation of the past. In essence western colonisation has frozen the development of Islamic theology and built the fundamentalists. Hence the lack of an equivalent to the Reformation. Islam reflects the society arounds it just as in any other society. <br /><br />In Bosnia and Albania Islam has developed in different directions because of the different political conditions.<br /><br />Whether Holland is right or not I know but I am opposed to attempts to shut him up, that is all. Just as Shlomo Sand produced apoplexy amongst the Zionists for his book on the myth of a Jewish nation.<br /><br />I don't at all dismiss the history of Islam. In many ways it is Political Islam today which reduces Islam to its fundamentalist and literal interpretation, much as the Christian fundamentalists and Zionists of the US do.<br /><br />I haven't time to explore this topic in depth because I wish to devote my time to Zionism and exposing it for what it is!Tony Greensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14300640929161205370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-29223301844575328382012-10-20T16:55:24.731+01:002012-10-20T16:55:24.731+01:00Tony, with respect I think it is more complex than...Tony, with respect I think it is more complex than you make out when you say, "why should Islam remain immune" to criticism. In fact, if you read the history of diverse Islamic philosophers and poets ( see AnneMarie Schimell's work), it is clear that Islam has indeed,already been repeatedly scrutinised and challenged to 'justify its tenets' and has been tested, very closely, sometimes very dramatically and shockingly and controversially over the centuries. <br /><br />In Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, these analyses have been taken seriously, and debated with precision and rigour and intellectual honesty and incredible clarity, for hundreds and hundreds of years, by scholars, saints, mystics, meditators, kings and laymen,poets, artists and merchants. <br /><br />However,in comparison, the recent 'challenges' to Islam are amateur, and lack any true depth, and -- often enough -- are clearly the acts of agent provocateurs, going out of their way to trample on spirituality -- that is what irritates many Muslims and non Muslims. Much of the post industrial world is, to use religious terminology, profane -- Islam holds the sacred as the highest value. They are fully aware that agent provocateurs use their knowledge of that sacred and profane dichotomy against them in the most devious of ways, relentlessly. <br /><br />Whether you or I believe in such categories or prisms as 'the sacred' and 'the profane' or see them as absurd nonsense, is irrelevant, because to Muslims, whatever naysayers, think or do, that separation will always be real. If Muslims did not see it as real, then they would no longer be Muslims. For Muslims, there is no way around that understanding -- if, indeed, they are to remain Muslims .<br /><br />I will watch the programme -- I haven't seen it yet. However, for much more rigorous and disciplined, scholarly and serious study of Islam, I'd strongly advise you to read and research Annemarie Schimmel, Martin Lings and Seyyed Hosein Nasr, and to a lesser extent, Reza Shah Kazemi and William Chittick. All of these are serious thinkers who have closely analysed Islam, and the sects that crossed over into each other in Iran, Iraq, Baku, Syria, Palestine,North Africa, etc, drawing influence from the mysticism of Islam, Judaism, a myriad of Gnostic sects, and Christianity.<br /><br />The main problem with the likes of Dawkins , Tom Holland and many other current popular critics of Islam is that they are so very lightweight and shallow.<br /><br /><br />I respect your knowledge enough from the quality of what you always write on your blog, to expect you will not dismiss the vast and deep and very very diverse history of Islam in a like shallow manner.Joenoreply@blogger.com