Metal Reviews

True. But this thread is about debate; I think people are criticising the reliance on dogma more than anything. Besides, if your religious awakening was so recent then you can't know more about it than us.

I know some. It would be incorrect to describe myself as a scholar or an authority. However, I don't see why I would listen to your statements that contradict a fundamental principle of Islam in a way that would be 'debate' ish. It would be like me arguing that oxygen is unnecessary to sustain life. Submission to Allah is the most important thing in Islam.

Why?

In short: That was the message he gave to the Prophet. Islam is the law you must follow as laid down by Allah; it is the lessons and the light that are necessary to learn and understand and try to follow. In following the law laid down by Allah, you are submitting to him; just as by following the law laid down by england, you are submitting to England. You are submitting to their authority. Do you follow?

Is my name 'Ruhollah Khomeini?' Am I a Shi'a? I have never read the Satanic Verses so I can't say whether or not it was blasphemous, but the fact of the matter is that people write awful things about Islam all the time. Allah does not need us to defend him; though it is our duty nonetheless, there are battles which should be fought and battles which are counterproductive or silly to fight.

I understand, but dispute its effectiveness or worth. You can present ideas for spiritual guidance, but to wage wars based on those as Muhammed did is sickening in my view. I can follow the English laws without submitting in a slavelike manner; the philosophical aspect of it is completely different.

In short: That was the message he gave to the Prophet. Islam is the law you must follow as laid down by Allah; it is the lessons and the light that are necessary to learn and understand and try to follow. In following the law laid down by Allah, you are submitting to him; just as by following the law laid down by england, you are submitting to England. You are submitting to their authority. Do you follow?

Just to ramble on about what I said above a little, I don't mean to reject the divine altogether, just that I reject it as something apart. There's something spiritual in everyone - not a floaty invisible thing that flies off to heaven, but a sense of an other existing. The realisation that this other is inside us, part of us, and can be contacted (without trying to sound too new-age) without Judaism, Islam or Christianity is part of the path to enlightenment, and whilst those religions can get you there through various ways, the fact that spirituality rests on the individual rather than the group is what cinches the (personal) pointlessness of organised religion for me. Theosophy is basically hippy Buddhism with a very open and inquiring nature, and if I had to choose a philosophy that most fits with my view at the moment, that would be it.

I'm a special case, I suppose; music and alcohol are more vital 'worship' experiences to me than going to a synagogue or whatever - God as an idea is everything inside ourselves that we can't explain, and as much as it annoys me that people have taken the human desire to cleave to the ineffable and made slaves of people with Christianity and Islam etc, if that's what gets you there who am I to judge? But yeah, those questions about the nonessential aspects of Islam pertaining to what you think of women, homosexuals, adulterers and so on do need answering.

The Sharia is the more important of the two, but it can only be enforced by an Islamic state, and if the believer lives in an un-Islamic state, he must enforce with regards to himself the personal points of Sharia, and not the community-wide ones.

Define a 'religious authority figure.' An Imam? A Sheikh? The Sheikh I have chosen to abide by? The Imam that I have been attending services with for twenty years?

Then define 'fatwa.' Are you asking about a specific fatwa that I would follow? Or are you going to present a stupid hypothetical where the Sheikh I abide by orders me to suicide bomb an orphanage for Jewish children?

I left my question deliberately open so that you could define your own parameters yourself.

A question that general is meaningless. I might as well ask you if you like beef without defining that I meant beef bourguignon or hamburgers or steak or steak tartare.

If you did I would answer "yeah, I like almost all beef, but tartar doesn't do it for me."

Alright then. Who do you consider valid religious authority figures? And what hierarchy to you adhere to?

Imam Shamsi Ali

Under his amara, the youths were given access to guitars and drums to play in the basment of the masjid. While one would pray salaat, he/she can hear music being played. This is violating the sanctity of the masjid. This was witnessed not by one but many of the I.T.S. members. The I.T.S. members appraoched the guardian and asked as to why this was going on. Why are the youths allowed to play haraam musical instruments in the masjid. The guardian responded that "Since the youth stay outside and do haraam activities anyway, why not let them inside the masjid and do it, so at least keep them close to the masjid." For such actions like this, we hold Shamsi Ali responsible for corrupting the Muslim Youths mentality.

If that's not far fetched, then what about the free-mixing environment of the Indonesian masjid itself? While the I.T.S. brothers were praying salaat ul-Eid couple of years ago, they were invited to eat some food with the community. After the salaat, when they went to meet with the community and eat, to their surprise they were shocked to see so many Muslims, young and old who did not even pray the salaat ul-Eid, who were sitting downstairs and free-mixing with the oppssite genders as if it were some sort of club. Then came the cheek kisses that they traded with the non-mahram opposite gender. This was really shocking to see such events taking place within a Muslim community. It makes one wonder, where is the sharee'ah implemented in the house of Allah. Where is commanding the good, and forbidding the evil? Under Shamsi Ali's amaraship all these behaviors were allowed to go on. WHY? Because Shamsi Ali is a moderate Uncle Sam Muslim who wants the Muslim community to imitate the west.

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