Islam Making Friends

Islam

Making friends

Without any hidden agenda, I want to make friends with Muslims both here on the internet and at home here in Somerset West and Macassar, for example. As a Christian, I do not want to persuade a Muslim to become a Christian, or to persuade them that they are wrong. I do not want to argue about violence. Let me take the last one first. All forms of faith have the spectrum from pacifist to holy war in their scriptures. Christians have behaved badly towards Muslims, especially in the crusades where racism first became a white Christian superior race over black Muslims in Spain, so as Christians and a white one, I have a lot to answer for, both racism and Christian superiority are rampant in my world. Forgive me, whoever you are. Now let’s be friends because you worship the same God as I do. You, the Muslim, and I with the Jew share the same scripture.

Being a liberal Christian, I do not take our scripture literally, which as a Muslim you do. I could hinder our relationship with you because you do not mess with the Quran. However, because I am liberal I think that Muhammad is a prophet and the Quran believes in Jesus, also as a prophet surely means we can be friends?

Let me return to another theme on this web site, discontinuing all religion, politics, economics, the law and the nation. By religion, I mean organisations that hold us up as distinctly separate, I do not mean God as religion. The scientists are saying, like Dawkins that God does not exist. What if we take on a Gandhian idea of both of us ‘searching for truth’, Gandhi’s prayer form. He always added, ‘truth as I understand it’.

Being a Hindu, Gandhi found a prayer life that all forms of faith can follow. Instead of focussing on violence and our differences let’s find a common prayer that as we join in it, we find truth and like Gandhi we find justice and make friends overwhelming the enemy, poverty.