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ADL Condemns Remarks by Geert Wilders

351
zombie4/30/2009 4:00:08 pm PDT

re: #225 haakondahl

Disappointing. You are using the same brush with which Americans are tarred by Europeans as Puritanical, and by the Middle-East as Crusaders.
There are “a way of life, a philosophy, a military doctrine, a political structure, a legal system, and so on” available which conform closely to Islam, but these are not the religion itself.

So say you. But what authority do you have within Islam? Your laissez-faire Western-style opinion goes in complete contradiction to the leading scholars of Islam in Egypt and Saudi Arabia who insist that Islam is inseparable from sharia.

Who gets to determine the true nature of Islam? The most respected leading Islamic scholars in the world, or Western Christians like Karen Armstrong who want to emphasize the touchy-feelie aspect of Islam and paper over the inconvenient parts?

It seems to me the any religion’s leading scholars must necessarily be the ones who define the religion. Not some outsiders who want to shape the religion to match their wishes for it.