If Muslims Stop Drinking Will They Become Violent?

[cbayer]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/6900/if_muslims_stop_drinking_will_they_become_violent/

March 11, 2013
Thank God newspapers are dyingBy HAROON MOGHUL



If the Washington Post’s deceptively titled article, ‘Rise of a Bosnian Mayor With Headscarf Challenging Assumptions about Islam,’ is the best our major media can do, then perhaps it’s good they’re dying. The title’s half the length of a tweet and it happens to do everything but challenge assumptions about Islam.

It shouldn’t be hard to make this one of those feel-good, informative, on-the-ground, we-get-you-a-perspective-no-one-else-can-because-we’re-The Washington Post stories. Instead it reads: “A woman wearing hijab must mean Islam is taking over Europe. Because hijab, and alcohol.” Put in similarly brief terms: “Article with really long title that refers to a woman as ‘mayor with a headscarf’ unsurprisingly recycles assumptions about Islam.”

Now, you might ask, what assumptions?

Frequently, people assume that Muslim terrorists, because they sometimes defend their actions in the name of Islam, are just very religious Muslims. In this conception, there’s a continuum between the areligious who are tolerant and peaceful, and the devoutly religious, who are never far from being a murderous zombie, which is the implication of the author's opening line linking moderation and alcohol consumption: “For years, Bosnian Muslims embraced a form of religion so moderate that many capped dinners during the holy month of Ramadan with an alcoholic drink.”

more at link

[raging moderate]

1. "Moderate" Does not equal less "Religious."

I just want to clarify this one point, which I seldom see acknowledged. People can be extremely moderate and also extremely devout. This is true of me, and I am sure it is true of many others. I am a devout Christian (although I was not raised that way). Part of being a Christian is reading the whole Bible, so I know that Christ told His disciples that whoever was not against their message of love, forgiveness, and humility was actually with them. I know that He urged them not to judge others, but above all to love others and help people in trouble. I know that pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Therefore, I am a moderate, by which I mean that I try hard to remember that I am fully human, and therefore fully capable of being mistaken. I try hard not to get overly pushy or persnickety about what I think others should do. Of course, this is difficult for us all to figure out, both in what to say and what to do. We are all feeling around in the dark, and I think we should reach out gently, tentatively, with tolerance and humility. I believe in listening to others and working to reach compromises. Since I really believe in God, I try to remember that He is not what I think He is, but is an Entity far beyond my small brain capacity. Apparently, God is currently involved in some huge struggle, which He can understand and manage far better than we ever can. I trust God to know what is really in everyone's hearts and what eventually should become of us all.

[brooklynite]

2. So, are Christians "moderate" if they eat shrimp?

I suspect Red Lobster does plenty of business down south...

[cbayer]

3. Why would a christian be moderate if they eat shrimp?

[brooklynite]

4. Leviticus 11:1

But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you.

[Meshuga]

5. I always had the idea that Christians are not...

...bound to these rules since Jesus replaces the rules as the sacrificial lamb who died to save humanity from these sins. I could be wrong but that is the idea (or misconception) that I always had about how Christians view these rules.

[cbayer]

6. I've never met a christian who follows that.

There are lots of culturally based dicta in the Old Testament that christians don't follow.

[brooklynite]

7. ..ditto modern Muslims and alcohol

[cbayer]

8. There are lots of Muslims who don't drink, whole countries in fact.

I doubt you could find much similar for christians and shellfish.

[okasha]

10. Acts 10:9-17

Christians not required to observe dietary laws.

[brooklynite]

11. Matthew 5:18

For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished

We could play this all day, which is why I don't believe any of it.

[okasha]

12. There was considerable conflict

in the early church over whether Gentile converts should be required to observe the holiness code. It was permanently settled, unfortunately, by Titus. Hence, Acts trumps Matthew.

[brooklynite]

13. I though God got to decide these matters, not Emperors...

[okasha]

14. Titus wasn't Emperor yet,

just the guy who completely destroyed Jerusalem, and the Jewish leadership of the church along with it, in 70 CE. At that point, Christianity became primarily a Gentile religion.