MehmetHilmi
Junior Member
Selamun Aleykum everyone,
Currently the issue of ISIS has become a central issue of discussionamong many. My thread is not about them though. It's about us. Why do we condemn them when past Muslim Empires have commited greater crimes in their histories? For example I love the Ottomans but the more I read about them the more I find out that there were instances of grand scale massacres and injustices.
This is not only for Muslims. Non Muslim nations in the past were probably more violent than Muslim ones. Yet today, our hearts burn at the death of even one Palestinian. In reality there have been much more violent occupiers than Israelis. Less people are dying by war in general.
But what confuses me is that we say that we Muslims were always peaceful and our sahaba were good examples and we don't condone violence. Our understanding of peace is new however and wasn't around at the time of the sahaba. The sahaba engaged in warfare and spilled blood. So I can draw two conclusions from all of this:
1. Islam is meant to be reinterpreted throughout different periods of time to suite the events, ideas, and movements of that time.
2. Everything must remain the same as the sahaba and we pacifists all got it wrong and we have to impose jizya, fight the unbelievers, and establish sharia by force on every corner of earth.
Correct me if I'm wrong on any of the observations. But the two ideas above are huge clashes I see within Modern day Islamic thought.
Allah knows best.
Currently the issue of ISIS has become a central issue of discussionamong many. My thread is not about them though. It's about us. Why do we condemn them when past Muslim Empires have commited greater crimes in their histories? For example I love the Ottomans but the more I read about them the more I find out that there were instances of grand scale massacres and injustices.
This is not only for Muslims. Non Muslim nations in the past were probably more violent than Muslim ones. Yet today, our hearts burn at the death of even one Palestinian. In reality there have been much more violent occupiers than Israelis. Less people are dying by war in general.
But what confuses me is that we say that we Muslims were always peaceful and our sahaba were good examples and we don't condone violence. Our understanding of peace is new however and wasn't around at the time of the sahaba. The sahaba engaged in warfare and spilled blood. So I can draw two conclusions from all of this:
1. Islam is meant to be reinterpreted throughout different periods of time to suite the events, ideas, and movements of that time.
2. Everything must remain the same as the sahaba and we pacifists all got it wrong and we have to impose jizya, fight the unbelievers, and establish sharia by force on every corner of earth.
Correct me if I'm wrong on any of the observations. But the two ideas above are huge clashes I see within Modern day Islamic thought.
Allah knows best.