Political compass for the21st century

[Eric the Green]

(12-25-2018, 02:45 PM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(12-23-2018, 12:38 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: The Koran was written some decades before Mohammed's war from Medina to conquer Mecca. The notion of jihad is that of an internal, spiritual war against temptation. Thus in essence Islam is not a warrior religion. It is about surrender to God; that's what the word means. Islam is Judaism for Arabs. It is worship of the One God, the Judaic God.

Within the Koran there are Meccan surahs and Medinan surahs. The Meccan surahs indeed contain "Judaism for Arabs". They are an attempt to restore the pure religion of Abraham. And then Mahommed decided he wants to wage a war. Then he started "receiving" the Medinan surahs, which teach violent jihad. Because they are later, they are considered to abrogate the peaceful Meccan creed. It's not about "fundamentalism", it's classical Islamic theology:
https://wikiislam.net/wiki/List_of_Abrog..._verses.29

Mahommed always used the word "jihad" in the military sense. The idea of internal jihad arose only in the 11th century:
https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Lesser_vs_Greater_Jihad

The article uses the word "abrogated" all the time without defining it. I suppose it means changing it?

The Muslims went to war and conquered territory starting in the 640s after the prophet's death. But once they had conquered, the Islamic rulers were tolerant and promoted science, culture and art. The art focused on design and Koran verses rather than imagery since it was considered to be idol worship. Since internal jihad is in the Koran, iirc, I don't think it's something that arose later. Wiki articles often discount the more spiritual aspects of religion and other pursuits.

Fundamentalism is what "it's about" today. Those who are making war and terror today are the fundamentalists, and that is a new perversion of Islam. An Islamic army is not new, but the interpretation of literal Islamic Law and Islamic Jihad waged to establish it is new and this fundamentalism has been promoted by the Wahhabi sect from Saudi Arabia. Of course the Jews and Christians had just as many if not more warriors and wars than the Muslims have had (the Bible is full of the Jewish wars), and so have pagans, Hindus and the Chinese adherents of Confucius and Taoism. It is notable that in Mohammed's day women's rights were respected in Islam but in our day they are not. Religion is often perverted because the spiritual roots of it are adapted to worldly power.