What People Don't Get.

Islam, Religion, and How The West Doesn't Get It.

I would be a rich man if I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say: 'all religions are basically the same'. The idea behind this view is that Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism etc all fall into this box called 'Religion', and thus are all on about the same thing: which is usually interpreted as love, compassion, tolerance for others etc.Of course there's some truth to this: most religions are asking similar questions. Questions like: Where did we come from? Why are we here? What happens after we die? However, (and here's the key point), each religion comes up with (radically) different answers to those questions. And that's precisely what the modern western secular mind just doesn't seem to get:Just because you ask similar questions, does not mean you come up with similar answers. And it's the answers that make all the difference. Let me illustrate by way of political example:Adolf Hitler and Nelson Mandela were both leaders of their respective countries, and both of them grappled with the question: how do I lead my country well? However, they came up with radically different answers to that same question.Would you therefore say that Adolf Hitler, and Nelson Mandela, were basically on about the same thing? Were they 'basically the same'?Of course not.In answer to the question of how to lead their country well, Nelson Mandela decided it would be best to forgive his enemies. Hitler thought it best to destroy them.Just because you ask similar questions, does not mean you come up with similar answers. And it's the answers that make all the difference. Now, a friend of mine, Gavin Crossley, (a Christian who lives in a Buddhist majority country) recently put up a great status update on his Facebook wall, illustrating this from a religious perspective. He compared three of the major religions of the world (Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam), by noting that they all ask a similar question (what is wrong with the world?), but come up with radically different answers to that same question.And it's only by listening carefully to the answers each religion gives, that we can come to a true understanding of each religion.  My previous blog post was all about the Lindt Cafe Siege, and I suggested that this tragedy should at least get us asking questions about religion in general, and Islam in particular. But I don't think the secular western mind, as it currently stands,  is capable of engaging in such a mature conversation about Islam: simply because the modern western secular mind has bought the lie that 'all religions are basically the same'.Anyway, here's Gav's status update, which will hopefully help people see just how different each religion is. I hope this will help start a mature, adult conversation on the differences between the religions, and the implications that this has for society in general:If you think a little about the basic answers to the big questions of life that each religion offers, it's easy to see how the answers shape the character of that religion. By the big questions I mean, what is wrong with the world and how can it be fixed. According to Buddhism, the big problem with the world is the trap of physical existence (the first noble truth of Buddhism is "All life is suffering") and so the goal of Buddhism is to escape the world. When Vietnamese die, for example, they hold a ceremony for the dead called "Lễ Siêu Thoát" which means "Escape Ritual". They hope that the soul will escape from trap of physical existence and fly away. That means Buddhists, on the whole, are fairly mellow people. They are just doing their best not to get reincarnated and stuck here for another round of suffering.According to Christianity, the big problem with the world is us. More specifically, sin which is a power at work within each and every individual that makes us corrupt and powerless, guilty and ashamed before our creator. Sin draws along with it the righteous judgement of God. Because the nature of sin is so comprehensive and because we are under the judgement of God for it, only God can solve the problem for us, which he has done in sending Jesus as our saviour, an act which demands the personal response of love, repentance, trust, gratitude and humility from us. That means that Christians, on the whole, are fairly mellow people. They are just doing their best to share the good news around so that other people can also enjoy what they have found in Jesus.According to Islam, the big problem of the world is non-Muslims (the infidels), those who do not submit to Allah and his Prophet, Mohammad. The infidels harass and persecute Muslims and stand in the way of the Islamic agenda - the spread of Shariah law until the whole world is brought into submission to Allah. The solution to this problem is obvious: the infidels must either be converted, killed or placed under forced submission. In short they must become Muslim (submitted). That tends to make Muslims, on the whole, not very mellow. They see the world in "us" versus "you" terms, with the underlying tension that is often energised into violence.We should not hate Muslims. We should love them and respect them. We should also speak respectfully of their religion and their prophet. But we must also understand them and the reason that Muslims have such difficulty living harmoniously along side others. It's because the basic world view of the Muslim is a binary conflict: Muslims (the solution) and non-Muslims (the problem).To those facebookers who would hasten to call me a religious extremist and a hater of Muslims, please read the paragraph above one more time then come back here. I am attempting to give an account of why there is so much Muslim violence in the world and so little violence of a religious origin from any other corner. I am not attempting to provoke religious violence but to understand its causes. Of course, there is a lot of other violence, mostly political, but that is not my concern here. If you care to offer a better account for this phenomenon than I'm more than willing to hear your case and consider it. If convincing, I'll change the above diagnosis but, for the moment, this one seems to best fit the evidence and the reading I've done on Islam (which includes the Quran).Well said, Gav.Steven Turner, a poet, summed it up this way in his poem 'Creed':We believe that all religions are basically the same,at least the one that we read was.They all believe in love and goodness.They only differ on matters ofcreation sin heaven hell God and salvation.