Without the “criminalization of assaults on the sanctities of all heavenly religions,” the Muslim Brotherhood warned on Thursday, insults to
Islam “will continue to cause devout Muslims across the world to suspect and even loathe the West, especially the USA.”
I might be a bit more compassionate regarding their position if their statement was reflected by their actions.
“criminalization of assaults on the sanctities of all heavenly religions,”
See that part regarding all heavenly religions? Well their protests included replacing the American flag with a banner stating “There is no God
but Allah.”, In my opinion they are ignoring the sanctities of all other heavenly religions.
Source
In Iraq on Thursday, hundreds of Shiite followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
because of the film. Protesters burned American flags and carried banners reading, “We reject the attack on the Prophet Muhammad. “No, no, to
Israel! No, no to America!” thousands shouted in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad. “`Yes, yes for Messenger of God.”
I personally would not promote or participate in outright overtly insulting another s religious belief's, and from what I saw of the video it was
derogatory and just bad. But this was not a video put out by the US Government it was a small group of people who do not share my views regarding
respecting others faiths. It certainly had nothing at all to do with the people that were killed over it.
I would like to thank those Muslims who spoke out against the reaction to this video and understood it did not speak for all US Citizens.
I personally would like to make a plea to people of all religious belief systems. The majority of religious belief systems, definitely the
Judea-Christian and Muslim sects are explicitly tied to and seated in faith. Although there are ancient texts that have maintained a level of
consistency regarding each belief system and people can actually travel to the destinations on earth described therein, those elements no matter how
revered do not provide tangible touchable proof of God, Jesus or Allah's existence. (and I'm willing to bet that if someone on the street walked up
to you claiming to be one of those entities people would be calling the men in their little white coats for him) Faith is core to all of these belief
systems and faith is something that cannot be forced on someone. You might be able to force someone to act as if they had faith in the same belief
system as you, but that does not do them any good in so far as instilling faith in them. That is something each must come to on their own.
Once one has grown to accept and place their faith in a belief system the hold on to it tightly. We see this in threads all of the time, people
proclaiming their faith and no matter what arguments are thrown at them their faith remains unshakeable.which is as it should be. But this is also
where problems arise, each tightly holding to their faith that what they believe is the one and only way to truth and salvation trying to convince
each other to give up their tightly held faith and adopt another. It just doesn't work that way, because true faith is something so deeply
meaningful to the one holding it, that other faiths are wrong in their eyes. I would liken it to someone trying to take away a mother's beloved
infant and replace it with someone else's totally different child.
Throughout history people have battled and fought over issues of faith, seemingly never getting the idea that faith can't be forced it must be
accepted willingly or it does not exist. Now determining who has got it right and who has got it wrong is a matter that is unlikely to be revealed to
any of us until we actually cross that bridge and pass from our existence here on earth to whatever awaits us after. And you know what, maybe that is
the way things were meant to be. So this is my plea to people of all belief systems, keep these things in mind when confronted by someone with a
differing belief system, just as you feel your faith is the one true way and would not convert to their belief's for anything because you have faith
in your beliefs, they are feeling the very same about their faith. Forcing someone to adopt mannerisms of your faith when they have not accepted that
faith doesn't do anything to "save them" based on your faith, it only serves to make you more comfortable and them less. In a nutshell,
understand what has gone into your faith and how unwilling you would be to just throw it away on the whim of someone else and respect that others have
the same ties to their faith.
