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Dear Professor Gillies

The need for inter-religious dialogue is urgent. However I am of the opinion the first step is to respect other religions as valid paths to God. Only when there is a foundation of deep respect, can dialogue be initiated. One must proceed one step at a time. Most people seem to be trapped at the level of 'my way is the only way and yours is wrong.'

Hindus have been the pioneers in inter-religious work. Think of the genius of Vivekananda revealed at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, who carried the message of his Guru, Ramakrishna, others like Swami Sivandanda, Ramana Maharishi etc, not to forget the political giant, Mahatma Gandhi.

The Catholic Church has followed suit with the II Vatican Council, and we have Catholic giants like Thomas Merton, William Johnston, Enomiya Lassalle, Dom Bede Griffiths, Abhishiktanda among others.

I consider myself fortunate to have known Dom Bede Griffiths from 1984 until his death in 1993. He is considered a visionary by people who understood his message. I wish to share the title of the books written by Dom Bede Griffiths that helped me along in my spiritual journey as a lay (Syro-Malabar) Catholic woman, especially since it helped me to remain Christian and yet be enriched by the spiritual tradition of other religions:

1. Marriage of East and West

2. River of Compassion - Christian commentary on the Bhagavad Gita

3. Cosmic Revelation

4. A New Vision of Reality

Thank you for the work you do in increasing the awareness of people about the need for inter-religious dialogue, and in helping shape academics who are skilled at the task.

Soja John Thaikattil
Sydney, Australia

"I'm pretty sure the one turning pipettes into one-hitters has won the prize."

Prize Winner: Check this out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6606931.stm

"We could try to learn about their religion and they about ours, so that we could discern if indeed we are on the same journey of faith,

This is very telling the beginning of mankind tells us that religion has been playing the divide and conquer game with humanity....but still people don't seem to get it. Faith in God has nothing to do with religion. Religion is the law and the letter killed....Jesus came back to level the playing field and teach us about what mattered the most....test the spirit by the spirit.

Jacob, what do you think about this?

"World peace
The possibilities of Synergetics are not limited to what I have said so briefly here any more than the possibilities of Apathy are limited to what ....... said in the March 8, 1984 issue of the ..... newspaper under Viewpoint.
World peace, as a democratical phenomenon and
not a messianic dictatorship, can only come through us and our children exercising the faith of our intelligence in a synergetical way inspired by the scriptural fulfillment of that Almighty Wonder in every atom of our humanness and the cosmo3>of our origin and development.
I think it is that time in the history of our souls. So I salute ......... for
her worried essay. And I leave you with your imaginations flashing, whoever you are, who may be destined to make this a better world to love in with Gridarian Democracy. Instead of apathy, today, tomorrow ... forever; let's make it Gridarian Democrats, today, tomorrow ...
forever! What say?

No, RussD, I'm pretty sure the one turning pipettes into one-hitters has won the prize.

Seems like Tammy is smokin some REALLY GOOD stuff...........WOW!

Just another sign of the times.
Have any of You so called "SCHOLARS" noticed a pattern of what is happening. Did not my beloved bible teach of this even before Jesus was born.
That there will be wars and Rumors of Wars, pestilence, Talk of one world religion, WORLD PEACE (By the way there will never be until the Prince of Peace, Jehovah Tsidkenu, Jehovah Shalom, Jehovah Raffa, Jehovah Shiloh returns to the earth)It's all playing out before us.

So there is no need for arguments, or THESIS, or any of that. Because no matter what you do or hard you try not to believe in the ONE ETERNAL Lord (AND NO NOT BUDDAH, NOT KRISHNA, NOT MUHAMMAD) JESUS THE CHRIST BORN OF A VIRGIN MARY is the only way.

So what's next after WORLD PEACE, ONE WORLD RELIGION, I believe it's the Anti-Christ. Well guess what, I won't be hear to find out, I will be raptured with those who have gone before me.

Praise Ye the Lord. The one true God. Whose mercy endures forever and ever. There is no other God before you. You are KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. I will worship no other than you. I will PUT NO OTHER GOD BEFORE YOU.

I THINK I understand too.

The Eclatarian faith, or Church of the New Song, was originally founded by Harry Theriault and Jerry M. Dorrough at the federal penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia, allegedly as the result of visions experienced by Theriault at the Marion, Illinois federal penitentiary in which he received prophetic messages from 'Eclat' informing him that he was the 'Eclatarian Nazarite' and directing him to establish CONS -the Church of the New Song.

Theriault acquired his Doctor of Divinity certificate through a mail order application. Theriault then, as self-appointed 'Bishop of Tellus' ordained Dorrough First Revelation Minister of the Church of the New Song.

Harry W. Theriault claims to be, among other things, the second Messiah, Shiloh, and the Bishop of Earth (Tellus)

In the document submitted by Harry W. Theriault he claims that he would have established a new World order by 1976.

The Church of the New Song appears not to be a religion, but rather as a masquerade designed to obtain First Amendment protection for acts which
otherwise would be unlawful and/or reasonably disallowed by the various prison authorities but for the attempts which have been and are being made to classify them as "religious" and, therefore, presumably protected by the First Amendment.

Rather than urging upon its followers any particular theology or philosophy of life, the Church of the New Song appears to encourage a relatively non-structured and free-form, do-as-you-please philosophy, the sole purpose
of which is to cause or encourage disruption of established prison discipline for the sake of disruption. Disruption of and/or problems for
prison authorities is not the result of this religion; it is rather the underlying purpose of it. For example, the "Church's" one attempt at a paschal type feast produced a tongue-in-cheek request for prison authorities to supply Porterhouse Steaks and Harvey's Bristol Cream.

Jacob, you slay me! ;D

I THINK I understand.

heuristic

- As an adjective, heuristic (pronounced hyu-RIS-tik and from the Greek "heuriskein" meaning "to discover") pertains to the process of gaining knowledge or some desired result by intelligent guesswork rather than by following some preestablished formula. (Heuristic can be contrasted with algorithmic.) The term seems to have two usages:

1) Describing an approach to learning by trying without necessarily having an organized hypothesis or way of proving that the results proved or disproved the hypothesis. That is, "seat-of-the-pants" or "trial-by-error" learning.

2) Pertaining to the use of the general knowledge gained by experience, sometimes expressed as "using a rule-of-thumb." (However, heuristic knowledge can be applied to complex as well as simple everyday problems. Human chess players use a heuristic approach.)

As a noun, a heuristic is a specific rule-of-thumb or argument derived from experience. The application of heuristic knowledge to a problem is sometimes known as heuristics.

é·clat (ā-klä', ā'klä')
n.

Great brilliance, as of performance or achievement.
Conspicuous success.
Great acclamation or applause.

Archaic. Notoriety; scandal.

[French, brilliance, from Old French esclat, splinter, from esclater, to burst out, splinter, probably of Germanic origin.]

Mohamed Malleck,

Assalam mualaikum,

Thank you for reminding me of Peter Watson's book, "A Terrible Beauty". What he wrote is pointing out the plain truth of what happened to Muslim societies and states since the 15th century. I am past being "pained" for a while on the truths of what we have done to ourselves, be it governments, clerics or as individuals.

What is apparent was that, the European Rennaissance happened while Muslims states and societies stop developing in every way. Smug is not too far off to describe that state. And the Muslim empires do over-strech themselves then, taking on more lands and peoples than they can govern or provide security for.

Of course, Muslims like to point out that they were colonized by the west in from the 17th to the first half of the 20th century and hence, could not develop their states and societies. And conveniently not highlighting internal weaknesses due to rulers making bad judgements on domestic and foreign issues, and clerics closing the Gates of Ijtihad and deeming all new scietific development in the 17th century onwards as western/Christian - a "defensiveness" too far in seperating and distinguishing "us vs them" to unite the populations against western territorial incursions and control of Muslim states.

I am glad to see Muslim states, socieities and individuals encouraging and promoting the study of the sciences. Many Muslims do so except for those mired in inter-state or intra-state conflicts and not able to get a decent education. So far, not a single Muslim getting the Nobel prize for the sciences that I can recall of, and hope to see one, many eventually.

Tariq Ramadan do have a lot appeal and connections in the wider Muslim world, especially in the Middle East. But of course, Muslims in Muslim majority states do tend to look to their local thinkers, writers and ulema on Islam rather than casting their eyes and minds to those based in the west. This for no other reason that the local ones are "on the ground" so to speak, and can certainly reach out to their target groups and intendedf audience more easily - especially in the respective native tongues.

And yes, Muslim thinkers, writers, members of the academia and ulema in the developing Muslim world do link up with one another, including their Muslim counterparts in the west based Islamic centres, think thanks and universities, especially in UK, US and France. What they are doing is "cross-fertilization" of ideas and approaches on how best to move Muslims forward in every area. These people do bring ideas back to their respective countries and societies for practical, intellectual and spiritual applications.

As for the Ahmaddiyas, there are two known main sects -one that consider Ahmad Qadiani as a prophet, and another that regard him as a reformer. The Ahmadiyyas, originating in India, certainly by their existence woke up the Indian Muslims to try to reform the Muslim community there while contending the Ahmaddiyas are deviationists.

And yes, Prophet Muhammad not the greatest of the prophets, but one of the prophets from Adam to Moses to Jesus. However, Muslims do tend to distinguish prophets such as Abraham, David and Lot etc from Adam, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, the latter ones not only considered as prophets, but as Messengers of God and for God. Peace be upon them all.

I am a Muslimah by the way. A woman can't strive for greater jihad? We all should, regardless of gender, race and age:)

Salam and no offence meant if I don't respond to your posts if addressed to me subsequently. The workday week has started.

Jihadist,

Assalaamu-'Alaikum, brother!

Thank you very much for your profound and open-minded post.

I especially appreicted the sentences : The Suras do leave a lot of possibilities for interpretation as to how the heaven and earth came into being and created by God. And man (Adam and Even) created from dust/clot of blood/sperm leaves a lot of room for scientific inquiry.

Indeed! I feel that even the other religions' teachings, to the extent to which I have read PSRTS of their Holy Scriptures, do not necessarily endorse the supernatural and the superstitious. They do leave a lot of room fro interpretation.

Regarding the rest of your post, I agree with you with certain nuances.

Most really well-informed people (e.g. Roger Penrose, author of The Emperor's New Mind and Peter Watson, author of A Terrible Beauty) are perfectly aware that Islamic Civilization's contributions to science and technology, to medicine, astronomy, philosophy, mathematics, historical investigations, administration, economics, and sociology have been phenomenal -- up to about 300 years ago. There has no doubt been a slowdown after that, but this is changing very fast -- thus Lotfi Zadeh is the world's foremost authority in Fuzzy Logic and artificial intelligence, many Muslim scientists are at the forefront of stem cell research, Abdus Salaam's contribution in Physics outshines those of several of the other recent Nobel prize winners... Now, talking of Abdus Salaam, it is true that he is Ahmadi Muslim but from what I hear from other Physicists who have discussed with him, he does not believe that Ahmad of Qadian was a prophet as apparently some Ahmadis do. Similarly, I agree with you that the practice of going to the tombs of Sufi personalities of great piety and saintly figures without associating them as capable of intermediating between the believer and God is thoroughly acceptable and should not thoughtlessly be associated with shirk.
However, certain other practices should be discouraged -- like a group of Turks who, in 1969, committed suicide when the first man walked on the moon.

In his book "A Terrible Beauty", Peter Watson stresses (extremely painfully for the Muslim reader) that relative to he glorious lead that Islamic civilization once had in all of science and technology over the rest of the world, it is undeniable that their contribution in the lasy 300 years has been very marginal.

As I said above, giving a few examples, this is fast changing. I think that people like Tariq Ramadan, and so many others (several contributing to the website metanexus.org and Qantara.de) should come together to give a determined push to the revival of Islamis civilization, but at the same time engage with the other religions to help the same type of revival of spirituality.

After all, Verses 284-5 of Surah 2 of the Quran read : Say "I believe in Allah, in the Angels, in the Revelations, in the Prophets; I do not make any distinction among the Prophets". The Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. was the Last of the Prophets but not the greatest of the Prophets. In Islam, there is no greatest of the Prophets.

Wassalaam.

"If you mean Jacob, it certainly is gibberish"

Do a Google Search of eclatarian humates.

Alan:

"The respondent, however, writes the most incredible, hatefilled, jibberish I've ever had the mispleasure to read."

If you mean Jacob, it certainly is gibberish, but I don't see how you can say it's hatefilled. Or rightwing, for that matter.

...and Mohamed Malleck, I am not disagreeing with you. I love your posts. Just sharing.

Mohamed Malleck,

You said: "The Brights", of course, is a movement that actively seeks to reject the supernatural and the superstitious in spirituality and religion and builds morality on the forces of Nature, including physical and biological forces, in particular evolution.

I would not go so far as to describe the movement as "The Brights". To use the term "The Brights" would be one way to make it dead before it got started, like "westernized Muslims" or "secular Muslims". Muslims generally simply prefers to call themselves Muslims. Labelings appended by others is not well-taken except when Muslims termed themselves this and that. A Muslim modernizing his society is more acceptable, but is admittedly wordy.

You will recall the Salafists/Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, in the 19th century, went so far as to destroy the tombs of the Prophet, family and Companions just so Muslims would not venerate them instead of God. Excessive I must say.
Likewise, the pilgrimages to the sites of the tombs of Muslim Sufis and other devout and/or saintly ones are frowned upon by tradional Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia. The practice is being actively discouraged nowadays by Sunni Muslim clerics as the prayers offered at these sites were for special favours which the clerics held should be directed toward God.

There was an incident last year, in Jakarta, Indonesia, when a Muslim group cut down a tree that some Indonesians feel have mystical and supernatural powers to meet human requests and made offerings and prayers to the tree. It was chopped down illegally (the tree being city "property"). The reason given by the Muslim organization was to prove that cutting down the tree would not bring any wrath by it and to stem off superstitious beliefs. Nothing happened after the tree was chopped down, either supernatural or legal/secular.

The incident offended pagans and animists, and certainly infuriated the environmentalists.
Personally, I think it is silly and reprehensible to cut down a tree to make a point. As for the jinns and angels created from fire and light respectively, that opens up a lot of minds on the possibilities of other beings and other creatures of God out in the universe and hence the popularity and acceptance of sci-fi and space fantasy movies and TV series for Muslims.

On evolution, there seems to be either mental compartmentalization, tacit acceptance or just plain lack of knowledge/ignorance on the matter depending on access to education and type of education receieved. Hence, no ire and demonstrations by Muslims on it. The Suras do leave a lot of possibilities for interpretation as to how the heaven and earth came into being and created by God. And man (Adam and Even) created from dust/clot of blood/sperm leaves a lot of room for scientific inquiry.

As you know, in Islamic history, Muslims have more aversion on speculative and theological discourses on God than on pursuing the practical sciences to better understand and know the true mystery and power of God in creation. Of course the study of science was not pursued when Muslim states focussed their minds and resources on offensive or defensive wars among themselves or with others. In the last three centuries, the clerics, seeing the fragmentation of their states and community in mental and physical disputes, did what they thought was best - freeze everything as is for stability and peace.

Salam.

PriveP,

The idea of 'The Brights' started with a number of scientists getting together to share the cross-disciplinary advances being made in the physical, evolutionary-biological, mathematical, philosophical, neuro-science, Game Theoretic, economic, and computer.science and artificial intelligence fields of study, and therefrom, using cutting-edge ideas and tools of scientific investigation, to probe the deepest questions that mankind have always asked: why is there something rather than nothing? what is consciousness? Who is 'God'? How do we define morality and what is its link to the world of reality?

I have explained the importance of seeking to achieve concensus on a concept of spirituality divorced from the supernatural. You will find more information on the website the-brights@the-brights.net. You might also want to visit the website edge.org to sample the wonderful world of transcendental questions that The Brights try to answer with themost rigorous logic and humanity, without compromising on a sense of awe in face of the depth of meaning in Nature.

A couple of caveats. I was as fascinated as you are about three years ago and became a member of The Brights (you can register online for free and receive their regular newsletter). I am still a member. Many thoughtful people became memebers, but some, no less thoughtful than the others, however, felt that The Brights had started becoming 'fundamentalists' of sorts. The point is about religion. Of course, most people think of religion as the established major religions, and as defined by the religio0us establishment. In particular, most Brights succumb to the notion that the God of the established major religions is anthropomorphic by definitiion. And therefore they reject religion, and are convinced that, in 25 years religion will be dead.

I don't accept that. Religion, if anything will, as Andre Malraux said, be a major force guiding the human endeavour during the 21st Century. But religion in that sense will be precisely a religion (or versions of the different major religions -- Islam, Christianity, Hinduism. Buddhism, Judaism, why even Humanism and Agnosticism) that is stripped of silly beliefs in the supernatural or in a God that interferes directly in man's life at every turn of events. The Brights have not really accepted that conditionality on their agnosticism. In fact, they have tended (according to me and several others who still consider themselves Brights) to harden their position from agnosticism to actual atheism. They have not taken a firm position on what atheism means -- non-belief in an anthropomorphic god or non-belief in 'god', without defining what 'god' means. It seems to me that they fear that if they accpet the idea of a 'god', their whole purpose will be defeated.

I don't think so. In particular, the God of Islam, most learned Muslims will tell you, is not anthropomorphic. There are 99 names of Allah which would go a long way towards explaining Islamic theology in a more precise sense, nd which would provide evidence for all to see that Islam (as distinct from admittedly widespread practice in Muslim countries) is far from superstitious and is in perfect harmony with the kind of Nature-friendly spirituality that The Brights seem to want to define.

One last point you raised: why stop at Islam? Why not include the other religions? You will find that I did make mention that parallel investigations of the prfound teachings of the other religions will also throw up evidence that, properly understood, the teachings are not superstitious nor supra-natural, but very much in harmony with Natural laws. However, already for the Islamic endeavour, I am going to run into difficulties and accusations of heresy, etc. But, I am certain that I discern patterns of interpretations (I have to be careful not to say 'revisions') especially of those who profess to follow the Sufi order in Islam, that have much in common with the ideas I have put forward, however crude or half-baked they are.

The danger of my suggesting the same appraoch for other religions is forbidding at this point, because, for example, in Christianity as construed by most of the religion's adherents, God took human form in the person of Jesus. My proposing a different interpretation of the Christian faith (even if other Great Authorities have done so successfully in the past) at this time when my religion is being taxed as the most retrograde and the most violent on earth is, you would agree, a little dangerous for my heath.

My best regards to you, Sir!

In Islam in particular

It

Professor Gillis

Excellent piece. Pardon the anology I am going to use here as you used them.

Perhaps we should not subsume the fact that the need for a dialogue is because some of us insist that there is only one right road to a destination.

Perhaps we should also consider the fact that some of us are getting to our destination using the highway, some using the sideroads and backways and some even by another road to another destination. Some may use cars, some the bullock carts, some bicycles etc.

Perhaps in the journey to the destination, we have accidents due to carelessness or "road rage". Or we are crowding the road, or blocking it, and would not give way, make way, nor agree to allow the use of the road or the method of transportation.

Perhaps too, in asking for directions, some of us insist on just one road or to be the drivers with reluctant and/or trapped passengers.

Perhaps the delays in getting to a destination are due to needless arguments on the best road and the best method of getting there.

And perhaps, we should consider that all will get there eventually, regardless of roads used, types of roads and methods of transportation. I see this in the Hajj pilgrimage - getting to Mecca by foot, by sea by air. And in getting to all the requisite pilgrimage sites once there, again by foot, by car, by bus in whichever way one can. All pilgrims do finally get to where they wanted and need to be.

And all believers and non-believers will find the right road, the right transport for them to get where they wanted. The spiritual and intellectual journey should not be fraught with disputes of only one way, one method, one road.

((((((( P.L.E.A.S.E.--T.H.R.O.W. --- D.O.W.N. Y.O.U.R. R.E.L.G.I.O.N.S. WEAPONS Of Mass destruction, first, Thank YOU all. )))))))

Mr. Malleck, you wrote:

"The Brights", of course, is a movement that actively seeks to reject the supernatural and the superstitious in spirituality and religion and builds morality on the forces of Nature, including physical and biologica forces, in particular evolution."

Wow! I'm absolutely fascinated by this idea. Since that seems to encompass much of what I believe as a pagan I would fully support such a measure. I just wonder if it would be permitted in the current mainstream Islamic community? How do you think such an idea would be received by today's Muslims?

"An 'Islamic Brightenment' would push to new frontiers the Sufi tradition of reconciling the physical with the spiritual and the transcendental, using the most advanced tools and methods of investigation -- heuristic as much as lab experiments based on sense data, plus 'thought experiments' as well as simulation using artificial intelleigence and tomorrow's quantum computing -- and still leave open the inevitable fact that there will always be an area of the unknown whose perimeters might constantly shrink but never disappear so that a complete knowledge of God would forever lay beyond man's reach.
Such a 'Brightenment' of Islam would be in perfect harmony with all other religions as they mov3e along parallel paths, and they will all be in harmony with an ever-evolving science."

Why stop with just Islam? Think of the possibilities! Bringing and integrating such an idea to all organized religions might allow for greater cooperation, connection and understanding to allow people who believe all different sorts of things to come together. Maybe I'm an idealist- but the possibilities of something like that are absolutely fascinating to me. Thank you.

PriveR

When, months ago, after Foreign Policy magazine suggested that Tariq Ramadan was tracing the same footsteps that Martin Luther once had, I felt some affinity with that notion, a friend corrected me. He pointed out that Tariq Ramadan is not pursuing a Reformation of Islam nor is it the case that there is any Church in Islam that dispenses redemption for donations to the Church as was the case with Catholicism in the time of Luther. Whereupon, I investigated, from the writings and the discussions of various Islamic thinkers and opinion-makers, whether the body of Muslim scholars, informally and severally, were reaching out for an Enlightenment-inspired revision of religious pratice in the Muslim world(as opposed to a Reformation of the theology of Islam or a Revision of Quranic interpretations). In Britain, Archbishop Rowan dismisses "the late Enlightenment" as being stupidly arrogant and accuses it of having led to the utterly-misguided post-modern idea of moral relativism and its sequels of total licentiousness. Muslim scholars do not so explicitly reject the tenets of the Enlightenment, in part because they never warmly embraced them in the first place, but I detect trends where what I term a 'Brightenment' of Islamic thelogy is emerging. "The Brights", of course, is a movement that actively seeks to reject the supernatural and the superstitious in spirituality and religion and builds morality on the forces of Nature, including physical and biologica forces, in particular evolution.

The ideas of "The Brights" are in perfect harmony with Islamic teachings such as the most erudite among Islamic scholars construe it (there is no Church in Sunni Islam at least, and in Shia Islam, while there is a strict religious hierarchy in Islamic Seminaries, the idea of priests or religious authorities interceding between a faithful and The Almighty is tantamount to "shirk" -- praying to false gods). However, where Brights have succumbed to the arrogance of denying the existence of God -- not just an anthropomorphic God, the denial of which is not tantamount to Atheism in the Islamic sense, but even a God outside the laws of physics) --an 'Islamic Brightenment' would push to new frontiers the Sufi tradition of reconciling the physical with the spiritual and the transcendental, using the most advanced tools and methods of investigation -- heuristic as much as lab experiments based on sense data, plus 'thought experiments' as well as simulation using artificial intelleigence and tomorrow's quantum computing -- and still leave open the inevitable fact that there will always be an area of the unknown whose perimeters might constantly shrink but never disappear so that a complete knowledge of God would forever lay beyond man's reach.
Such a 'Brightenment' of Islam would be in perfect harmony with all other religions as they mov3e along parallel paths, and they will all be in harmony with an ever-evolving science.

Perhaps the dialogue must begin before the journey can go on for any of us.
Matter is not 'dialogue'.
God Has Many Names.Matter is not 'Name'.

Islam is not compatible with US Constitution,American Values,Civilized principles and Humanity.This is the problem.
Allah of bedouin is not and can not be God of christian.
Islam(Allah) curses christianity,Son of God,Bible,Trinity and all non-muslims.This is the matter.

Islam humiliates women.Islam washes brains.Islam rejects Human Rights,Democracy and Freedom.Islam means 'subjugated' that means brainwashed robot.A man who worships 150 times in arabic language in a month can not produce anything.Islam means Idleness.Islam means Backwardness.

Islam encourges violence,islam feeds hate,islam fosters fear.There is no any tolerance in islam for non-muslims.Forgiveness only for 'true believer muslims'subjugated ones.

Islam can not be source of Morality,islam is fanaticalism.Islam doesnt know what love is
Much more islam doesnt make US stronger,on the contrary makes weaker.According to islam,US is a House of War Area(Dar al Harb) that means unsubjugated land.

These are problems.

As one who has studied world religions, or what I prefer to call, the traditions that pass down wisdom for living, for thirty years, I heartly support the authors thesis. I, too, have read John Hick, Wolfheart Pannenberg, et. al. on the subject.

The respondent, however, writes the most incredible, hatefilled, jibberish I've ever had the mispleasure to read.

What a right wing whacko!