Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug
The only issue that I take with your scenario, is that Christianity seemed to have the ability to reform and moderate, whereas Islam takes the Qu'ran as the final and infallible word of god. How does one reform perfection? I hope that community finds a way, but I am not sure there is any evidence of any headway.
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I think the evidence is in the fact that a majority of Muslims (especially Western) don't take the Qu'ran as a literal, infallible text of God. Yes, Christianity has a second, more moderate version of it's first book that was pretty extreme, but not only is the Old Testament still explored by even moderate Christians, it's also solely explored by a minority of Christians and extremists. Just because Muslims explore the Qu'ran as a whole and still take it as the word of God does not mean they are unable to differentiate what applies to modern society and what doesn't. They do. It's not a 'community problem'. Christianity hasn't fully reformed, just as Islam hasn't. There are extremists on both sides but the moderates FAR out-weigh them.
To suggest that is similar to suggesting that (in the face of some Christian terrorist gunning down a church or a children's camp) the problems are that of the community, and that no change is visible.
If you're looking at extremists for change towards modern religious practices of any religion, surprise, you won't find them.
The sad thing about Christian extremism in the West is that the perpetrator is often labelled as 'mentally ill' whereas if it's Islamic extremism, it's simply in their religion.