Do you refute Anti-Islamic Comments Online?
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I used to sometimes, but rare now. There are great resource websites now out there that I/you/anyone can link to, that address the most common misconceptions
www.learn-about-islam.com
www.misconceptions-about-islam.com -
Peace,
It is difficult to counter the falsehood and most of these people are generally nearly completely sealed off in their mind. I think only strong faith, wholeness with God, can affect them and then you have to counter the evil with good, if you want to change them, or otherwise the only other option is to kill them when they aggress. One should propagate goodness and learn well about God and learn to "sharpen their tongue" so that words are effective as a weapon against them and not just curse-words for their actions because they will be ineffective. You need to find a weak spot to attack that causes them to pause for a while and reflect for their primary functions of the mind is contaminated by the virus Satan so it is only by extreme exposure to the light of God and strategical aim with the words that you can affect them positively.
Their image of God is way tainted and simply rhetorical questions about God could be a way to start. Perhaps sarcasm may feed more fuel to the fire, but it hurts much and many will think after some while of exposure. The problem is how you put if forth and it ought to be balanced and not really intended as humor but more like contradiction. Highlight contradiction in their thinking. Making fun of them may not be as effective, or in fact have no effect at all.
It is difficult to reach out to these people but only your strong faith may be enough to affect them and then you have to live as you teach.
Peace,
It is difficult to counter the falsehood and most of these people are generally nearly completely sealed off in their mind. I think only strong faith, wholeness with God, can affect them and then you have to counter the evil with good, if you want to change them, or otherwise the only other option is to kill them when they aggress. One should propagate goodness and learn well about God and learn to "sharpen their tongue" so that words are effective as a weapon against them and not just curse-words for their actions because they will be ineffective. You need to find a weak spot to attack that causes them to pause for a while and reflect for their primary functions of the mind is contaminated by the virus Satan so it is only by extreme exposure to the light of God and strategical aim with the words that you can affect them positively.
Their image of God is way tainted and simply rhetorical questions about God could be a way to start. Perhaps sarcasm may feed more fuel to the fire, but it hurts much and many will think after some while of exposure. The problem is how you put if forth and it ought to be balanced and not really intended as humor but more like contradiction. Highlight contradiction in their thinking. Making fun of them may not be as effective, or in fact have no effect at all.
It is difficult to reach out to these people but only your strong faith may be enough to affect them and then you have to live as you teach.
Sometimes it helps when I explain that there is a group of us who shed all of that and follow the Qur'an only, and that I have found an Islam quite different from that which they see portrayed in the media, by politicians, and by our own misguided brothers and sisters out there. I also make the point that it's not fair to anyone to paint an entire faith with one brush- within the Muslim world we are as different as the colors of the rainbow, and not all of us (few relatively speaking) are of the less-than-righteous variety.
You can tone down on the usage of "Islam" as the name of your faith, for that is only the effect of your faith. These people adhering to "Islam" have nothing to do with God anyways, and just as God has no fixed name, the faith has no name either.
I seldom present myself as Muslim but prefer being unlabelled and I speak of God without belonging to any sect except being one of God. I can speak of Qur'an, but then it is mostly to highlight contradiction to people, for people already know the decree revealed to Moses, so people argue over nothing really. Qur'an confirms what we already know.
How do you respond to such comments?
Discussions on the Internet is difficult because the hypocrisy of people is more evident there. I rely on my faith in countering the arguments. As of lately I have become better at this.
Relying too much on Qur'an in your teachings about God will be quite futile, but you have to enable your own brain and thinking, particularly because it is without effect on some people, and remember the substance of the teachings of God rather than make Qur'an into an object for this is a dead end. Most important is to not take offense as a labelled group but sometimes it can be worth giving empathy to their criticism and understand that this version of faith is completely off the charts. And you know that you belong to no labelled faith at all so you can be calm because the faith of God is quite abstract and has not the fallacy of needing a name but is only labelled briefly for our reference.
Or do you even get involved in such discussions?
Sometimes. I have had a few discussions with "atheist" people in this forum, and I have had contact with people in real life to whom I have talked about the teachings of God in a traditional sense of preaching. I expect it to reoccur more frequently now when I know more than I have ever done before.
If you do, what is your go-to counter-argument?
I mainly explain the misconceptions, and use a mode of tongue much like the way I write in this forum. If they turn hostile I try to remain calm and if I can see that they are not willing to accept anything I just close my mouth since I talk to them as a service for God and it is for their sake that I do it and if they do not want to purify themselves then I am not responsible for that.
Besides I have no label to defend and I am not embarrassed to talk about anything relevant (anymore), and I talk about only God. In the past I was embarrassed to have faith because I did not have confidence among people who have no faith in God. These days I am also better at using allegories unbound to the dogmatic "religions" which has a better impact on atheists and the wise, because it is often the pathetic impression of "world religions" which turn people away from faith. To improve the image of God and de-objectify God has proved quite efficient. The image of an illusive grumpy bearded old man in military uniform yelling out orders like a drill sergeant does simply not cut it.
I usually say that these people have nothing to do with God, which is also true. They are the worst hypocrites.
It is quite hard to understand why these people defend their image of God and why they believe that God is like that. They have really become narrow-minded and traded away their brain, eyes and hearing completely. It is hard to understand until you add 1 + 1 and see that these people are divided and not united in Oneness and that the virus Satan has completely contaminated their souls.
I see the standard 'that Koran book tells them they have to kill anybody that's not a Muslim' and 'they hate everybody, even their own women' and every other manner of idiocy that passes for facts out there about Islam and Muslims in general. 'Every one of them is a terrorist and we should nuke them right now'.
If you interpret the Qur'an literally then you can jump to such a conclusion without further research. As long as "salat" is a ritualistic prayer then "Islam" is not an upright faith, because unless people practice salat then you should kill them.
They must fathom the possibility the book called Qur'an has been interpreted by fools for over thousand years and just as the Bible advocates atrocity sometimes also Qur'an on a first-hand approach advocates atrocity. They must learn to realize that the meaning derived from a context, particularly when it is very old must not represent what it originally said.
As long as fools represent the Qur'an and dogmatically propagate their falsehood the general crowd will also turn more aggressive against them, and I can understand them. It is quite natural that people include you in their label when they have a certain image of it. The majority of those who call themselves Muslims propagate an erroneous image of what was the faith taught by the prophet allegedly called Muhammad. The ignorant crowd observing that sect are not stupid and they use their logic to draw their conclusion based on what they know that "Islam" is a horrible faith and I have empathy with them and that is true. Muslims are generally the worst of hypocrites and deluded people, and most people do not understand their strange practices and nor do I.
Be whole
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No use because majority of them are shills. It came in the news. Its quite normal now. Political parties, Israel, religious groups and even tv channels use them. It started after 9/11 when many were saying that official story of the disaster was 2+2=5.
You will find tons of them in Ramadan section of Yahoo answers or 9/11 inside job videos I spied on a few. Thanks to Facebook and Google, the partners of NSA, after digging a little, I found out that some of them were working for CIA.
If you notice the comments found under Yahoo news you will see almost the same people making hateful comments. They aren't from CIA though.
I admit that there are normal people also who make such comments against Islam. But there is nothing we can do about it. We can't convince anyone about our Islam. If we tell them that many of us are peaceful they will think we are hypocrites because our peaceful and normal deeds get overshadowed by things that ISIS and other militants are doing in the name of Islam. The artificial sharia laws are to be blamed next. Majority of the Muslims are standing up for lies instead of truth and Allah does not tolerate it. See below.
394 - Those who fabricate false prohibitions after this, and attribute them to God, are truly wicked.
2159 - Surely those who conceal the clear proofs and the guidance that We revealed after We made it clear in the Book for men, these it is whom Allah shall curse, and those who curse shall curse them too.
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I discuss mainly with orthodox muslims online. I believe they should be our priority since they started it all; coming up with the whole hadith & sunna stuff, sharia etc. The atheist, christian or jews are a distant second when i discuss online, most of them don't even want to have anything to do with Islam by the way.
I mainly discuss on apparent ills of the hadith that have practical implications in our society.
In the good old days, i tried being persuasive, appealing to their conscience but they exploited my softness and accused me of lustfulness and seeking to westernize Islam simply bcos i deny beards or headscarf etc are mandatory in Islam. They were mostly snubbish, rude and riddiculous.
I took a break, learnt that being soft and persuasive in your discourse would only seem weak to most orthodox muslims, especially the extremists. On return, i ve been firm, direct and in my discourse, i strictly seek to expose their fallacies and contradictions(which they are often too weak to face) with reasoning and the Quran. Now, most of them may still not accept my views out pride or dishonesty, but they are smart enough to avoid a direct confrontation and few among them and the non-muslims have commended me.
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Erase the Islam label, the faith is not labeled islam that is also from their invention. You should discuss with those who want to hear without preaching Islam but preach what 'is that is' (traditionally God) which is to harmonize with God, or better expressed; enter an abstract symbiotic state where the light of 'is that is' shines through your very being in reflection. What you call yourself is not important but what you make of yourself.
The Master is not a yelling grumpy skyman resting on the moon that you may treat like an object.
Be of one in 'is that is'
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Peace All.
We should be patient and persevere and keep working on ourselves !
What better example than to be role models?
Let us try and mend our ways by doing rather than saying !
What we do and what others see us do speaks volumes about us.
Discussing /telling/convincing with words is never effective!!!
GOD keeps asking us to ,to clean our minds and bodies from rubbish ways/behaviour/thinking....etcGOD s words must be taken seriously by us first?
I seek refuge in the Lord of the "creations"- Falak", 1) From the bad of all His creations- 2) From the dormant "viruses" if awakened- They can be devastating- 3) From the bad thoughts- if turned into action-they will harm our bodies/ourselves....etc
Everything can be useful or harmful,depending on our attitudes and intentions. Religion can be deadly as extremism has shown us.
What do we expect others to say?
May the Lord save us and help us give a good example .
GOD bless.
Peace. -
Fine words, brother good logic. I see you have grasped a big part of the light.
Be of one in 'is that is'
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Erase the Islam label, the faith is not labeled islam that is also from their invention. You should discuss with those who want to hear without preaching Islam but preach what 'is that is' (traditionally God) which is to harmonize with God, or better expressed; enter an abstract symbiotic state where the light of 'is that is' shines through your very being in reflection. What you call yourself is not important but what you make of yourself.
Well, you are right. But this can fail. Unless you aren't willing to delve into the Quranic aspect of your beliefs, at certain point you just have to use the "Islam" label. Otherwise, this would not be taken lightly by your audience who will consider it a waste to have been discussing with another muslim all along.
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I ask this because I find myself reading the comments sections on various news stories that impact Muslims and I see a LOT of misinformation out there, and misconceptions of Islam that our 'hadithistas' (my term for the die-hard followers of the hadiths) have fostered among the unsuspecting public. When I see obvious falsehoods and lack of information, I feel drawn to add my own comments and do as I may to correct those errors (and adding that I do not lay claim to be a scholar or leader of any kind- just an individual).
I see the standard 'that Koran book tells them they have to kill anybody that's not a Muslim' and 'they hate everybody, even their own women' and every other manner of idiocy that passes for facts out there about Islam and Muslims in general. 'Every one of them is a terrorist and we should nuke them right now'.
I have de-attached myself from any 'social identity'; (Islam, Muslim, Arabs, Jews, Christians whatever), thus I pretty much don't care when somebody make a stupid remarks on any 'social identity'.
The "Religious" (from whatever religion) are basically one of the same thing.
They are arrogant and HATER.Example, we can also found the same remarks / belief coming from the 'other group'.
- 'that Bible/Tanakh book tells them they have to kill anybody that's not a Jew/Christian'
- 'Every jew / christian is a terrorist and we should nuke them right now'.
The 'Hadither' is not much of a difference with the 'right wing christian' or 'fanatical orthodox jew'.
They all shares common characteristics and traits.Sometimes it helps when I explain that there is a group of us who shed all of that and follow the Qur'an only, and that I have found an Islam quite different from that which they see portrayed in the media, by politicians, and by our own misguided brothers and sisters out there. I also make the point that it's not fair to anyone to paint an entire faith with one brush- within the Muslim world we are as different as the colors of the rainbow, and not all of us (few relatively speaking) are of the less-than-righteous variety.
This is the main point that all people should understand.
GOOD AND EVIL ARE EVERYWHERE
across all Religion/Ethnicity/Social IdentitiesHow do you respond to such comments? Or do you even get involved in such discussions? If you do, what is your go-to counter-argument?
I usually show them the evilness or stupidity within their own social identities / group.
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Well, you are right. But this can fail. Unless you aren't willing to delve into the Quranic aspect of your beliefs, at certain point you just have to use the "Islam" label. Otherwise, this would not be taken lightly by your audience who will consider it a waste to have been discussing with another muslim all along.
Well then just switch your 'label'?
Social identity is like a clothing, you can change and put on another one at any time that you wishes to..
Or even put multiple clothing at the same time. -
Harmony,
I would not necessarily have to use the word Islam or the root s -l -m but I can use words from English or similar to present the faith of God for people, particularly since I know islam is not a label but a description for a certain behavior and being. The problem would be, for example, to make Christians separate Jesus from God but it is equally difficult to do the same with Muhammad for those who label themselves Muslim.
I need no label identity and knowing God's label" is "is that is" and Rabb (foundation for). God has no proper name and so goes for the name of the faith as well, i.e it does not exist other than in a highly descriptive way. The word Islam is marking the state of mind and does not equal to submission but rather to be in harmony of that or described as symbiotic, or perhaps a descriptive "whole with God". You cannot force God by submission unless changing comes from your own heart and you are responsible for your deeds and you have to work on your character and God will not do that for you as you control your mind and soul. God helps, but then you ought to become "one in God". The will to change must be realized by no one but yourself. You cannot imagine that God will just give you a free ride if you indulge in a lot of rituals and proclaim "submission", particularly when you do little to do like God, for example, be goodly and kind spreading the light.
Being goodly and peaceful, spreading the light, is what is Islam so if you can just describe this in English to others then you have no need to use Muslim or Islam when discussing things with people. And use synonyms in English for hakmat and ketaab talking about justice and fair living for that is exactly what the words imply. Instead of masadeqeen you can speak of spreading the light.
Then you teach God's faith without the label Islam.
What is "quranic aspect"? People had the same decree of God and what kind of justice and being to live by much earlier than when the scripture called Quran was presented.
You may run into problems if you begin proclaiming non-existent teachings and conjecture which did not occur for people except those who materialize God and indulge in Pagan style of ritualism which needs for God to be an item for worship, or if you adopt the same biased interpretation of the text as in their traditions and inability to read the scripture properly. And particularly it will be hard to convince atheists when God is a neanderthal item rather than the most advanced and abstract entity in existence and not separate from us but rather it is the foundation/platform for the whole world, the living and only thing eternal. We are nothing without God, we must just realize it. Thus is why God speaks of removing the light who else can get it back and the answer is no one can but "is that is", eternal.
We must face it that religion has tainted the image of God and made it look pathetic and repairing the deluded projection into the brains of those who call themselves atheist is not an easy task. In ways I do not blame those who take that stance and I am only glad that I found God through myself and philosophies, for had I sought religion I would likely have ended up atheist. Many of them have taken a adversarial stance and changing the intention of a human in the first place is difficult for man is stubborn and leaning on arrogant.
I have absolutely no lack of empathy for those who judge Islam as evil because so many make a mockery out of the very label they assign for themselves. Just look at taking a word which one of innate meaning the being of a soul or to be masadeqeen, spreading light. Murdering innocents and all sorts of oppression, is that spreading light?
I often teach people that Quran does not really teach what they do and many people can accept that. Knowledge of Quran is very bad for bystanders and it is no wonder they think it is from Satan without further information because people often judge by what they see. It is just unfortunate that Quran is associated with such a group of fools.
Be of one in 'is that is'
