Islamic Conversion Forced on Fox Journalist's for Freedom!, page 7

Originally posted by krossfyter
im trying to find out for real if true islam is what he says it is... or if it is a peaceful relgion. whats wrong with that?? im far from being a neocon by the way... so your generalizations dont fit me.

No, there is nothing wrong with wondering and asking. By all means, question, ask, and wonder. Form an educated opinion based on facts, and be open to discussion.

The ones I spoke of are those whom have already made up their minds without asking, without reading, and without the ability to change it.

Anyway, no, Islam is no more a religion of war than Christianity and Judaism. It is, however (just like Christianity and Judaism) an organization of people looking out for their own best interests.

Now, first and foremost, keep in mind when these three religions really started coming together. Mankind was primative in their ways in many respects:

Communication between cities only scant miles apart could take days or weeks and generally only involved the most important parts. The most important parts generally consisted matters involving disease, warfare, trade, and empirical decree. There was no postal system. If you wanted to send a letter or package outside of eyesight, you either had the money to pay a dedicated messenger to ride to your target (very expensive plus horses), or you just handed the package to the nearest person riding in the general direction you wanted it to go and hoped it eventually got to where it was going. There were no grand publishers, few editors, and though there were a handful of authors, the vast vast majority of people were illiterate.

In short, there were a LOT of people who didn't know anything except what they were told, verbally, by someone else, and that had to be taken on faith that the person knew what they were talking about. Most of the time, the authority to speak came from the fact the person was atop a mount, and/or holding a weapon (two things most people did not have). Most people lived and died during the reign of a ruler they'd never known the face of, except, perhaps, on a coin or statue, if they even saw a coin in their life (or a statue).

Government was, for the most part, a mere shadow of what it was today. They collected taxes, and in return, they sometimes protected your land from being overrun by bad guys. Perhaps they provided a few services here or there in the wealthier areas, usually in the form of a guard. It wasn't until the Roman Empire that many of the "typical" government services (like roads, running water, welfare, sanitation, etc) were even considered something that government should provide.

Laws were just starting to come into being, and for the most part, only applied to the people being ruled and not the rulers. If a court existed at all, it was usually without a jury of ones peers, and was quickly decided after a brief explanation by both sides. Whomever was wealthier generally won. You didn't have to face your acusee, and the burden of proof was on the accused (who then had to have someone else gather the evidence for them because they were too busy being arrested). Government didn't dabble in a whole lot of laws. Laws generally amounted to "piss of the guards and pay or die" or "might and/or riches makes right" or "the tax is whatever you've been told at swordpoint it is". what few laws there were only became enforced if a guard was inclined to do so (something they weren't likely to do against any kind of superior wealth, class, rank, relatives, friends, etc.) There wasn't any kind of review or Internal Affairs office at which you could drop an anonymous tip about a corrupt official. If you decided to try that, it was almost always a death sentence.

Public Sanitation was a joke. People tossed their waste in the street (or the dirt that passed for a street). In some places bathing was considered unhealthy, in other places people would drink right out of the very water they'd bathed in, or dumped their waste in. When people did take a bath, it was usually several sittings for each tub of water. Soap was extremely rare, and certainly not anti-bacterial.

There was no Food and Drug Administration or anything like it. Slaughtered animals for food were often left outside (not that inside was any better), where any sort of vermin could land and lay eggs on it before being prepared by some guy who had no concept of what "wash your hands before returning to work" meant. And people thought nothing of buying and eating this fare, except perhaps that it might cost a bit much. Liquor could be as dangerous as the meat. Unless you knew exactly where it came from, and had tried it before, you were literally rolling the dice when it came down to quaffing spirits and wine. You might be drinking fine grapes mashed by virgin women's feet, or you might be drinking fermented wood and go blind the next day.

Lastly, the caste... which one could never rise out of. If you were born a serf, you died a serf, Hollywood be damned. The only way to rise up was to marry up or to buy up, and even that was only available to the merchant classes and higher. In the rare civilization, slaves occasionally were granted the ability to buy their freedom, provided they worked enough outside contract jobs and saved their money and didn't get it stolen from them by their masters.

Now... imagine living in a hell like this. Most people nowadays would be dead in a week. The average life expectancy for someone BORN into that life was barely 40. You're a native of this timeframe, and you've had enough. Enough watching corrupt guards get away with crimes they're supposed to be enforcing. Enough paying taxes to a government that gives you no reward. Enough watching people die from eating bad pork or liquor. Enough watching people die out of sheer despair for the life they were born into and can never ever escape. Things HAVE to change, YOU have to change them? But what can one poor serf or slave do to change the way in which mankind governs himself?

Start a religion.

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