Good for you Norma, for investigating for yourself. I have heard different experts talk about the Koran and how violent it is and how Mohammed came into power. Some say that the Muslims who are peaceful are not following the Koran. I've heard on the news that some of the leaders have stirred this all up and they continue to do so.

People have done horrible things in the name of Christianity, but that does not mean they are true believers. I wonder if any of those people in history who committed atrocities in the name of God are with Him now. I bet not. We can fool humans into thinking we are good, but God knows the true heart of each man and woman.

Daisygirl

I too have read the Koran. But I also have studied the history of Islam (and of Christianity). The early Muslims (monotheists) were under constant assault by barbarians, which is why some of it reads the way it does. Also, the Koran extols Jesus and includes passages about Mary.

That's true. Muslims don't believe that Jesus is God but they do honor Mary - more than most Christians do.
Another interesting note. Many of you have heard of the apparitions known as Our Lady of Fatima. They were in Portugal in 1917 and supposedly Mary appeared to 3 young children there.
Fatima was the name of Muhammed's daughter.

Bluebird, when the MapleThorpe exhibit was mentioned it brought back memories of another art show in which an artist used elephant dung to make a portrait of Mary!!

I thought I must be seriously out of touch with art because I thought not only did it look horrible, but it seemed it was mocking Mary. I wasn't sure what the artist was trying to convey. It looked like he sat his butt on the canvas and had an epiphany of his last night's dinner. Truly disgusting.

The MapleThorpe exhibit, if I'm not mistaken, caused such a brouhaha in Cincinnati that it was closed down and deservedly so.

Some people just like to shock others. I thought the purpose of art is to make you feel good or teach a truth or just uplift one's spirit.
I feel sorry for people who don't understand life, love or beauty enough to not offend others.
How sad they must be.

It is my understanding that the democratically elected goverment of Iran was overthrown in 1952 with outside western help because the iranian president wanted to nationalize oil fields in order to raise the living standards of his own people ..... ... that the shah of iran who then came into power had a secret police force called 'savak' ...... which constantly terrorized iranians through torture ...... and this brought about revolution and government of clerical rule, sharia law .... and that western dollars and military hardware were continually funneled to afghanistan warlords to fight russians .... despite the abusive undemocratic beliefs of those warlords who ruled their various groups ...... and that similiar aid was given to sadam hussein and his government during the iran-iraq war .... despite the extremely cruel rule of hussein ..... and that there are top western leaders who have been close business partners and friends with saudi rulers ...... who represent a regime which is as far removed from democracy, equality and the protection of human rights as one can get ....... but i could be wrong in these understandings .......

seems to me many hands on all sides have been causing hate and discontent .... unfortunately it is the common woman, man and child who too often pay the price .... no matter which country one lives in ..... but i am optimistic ..... just as race has now become a non issue for most ... so creed will become a non issue as the desire for shared human rights, equality and decent standards of living continue to spread....

[ February 09, 2006, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: norma ]

I'd like to see that happen too Norma.

There is nothing new under the sun.
Just as humans have wonderful traits like love, compassion, nurturing, giving, sharing and mercy, we also have traits like hatred, beliggerance, intolerance, anger, selfishness, etc.
It is our fallen nature. We should each strive to bring out our own, and others', good traits. If others choose to live and act unkindly, we can at least have peace that we tried to be the best we could be. We can't change everyone, but we can change ourselves.

From what I have gathered in an article in our Plain Dealer today this whole cartoon problem was started by a young Islamic scholar and Danish activist named Ahmed Akkari. He flew to Beirut with copies of cartoons depicting Muhammad. This happened in December and over the next few weeks he had handed out copies of his booklet to the grand mufti of Egypt, leaders of the Arab League, the top official of the Lebanese Christian church and others.

The problem was that his booklet contained not only the 12 depictions of Muhammad that appeared in the September newspaper Jylands-Posten but also was filled with hideous, amateur images of the prophet as a dog , a pig, a woman and a child being sodomized by a madman. Akkari insists he separated these images from the newspaper cartoons by several pages of letters. "How could anyone mistake these for the newspaper images?" he asked.

While he still expresses anger at the media for glibly printing these images he regrets the results and is looking for a way to quickly resolve this crisis. He has acknowledged that the riots have placed his fellow European Muslims in a far worse position than they had previously known. His friends, strangers and family members are now blaming him for exactly the thing he says he was trying to prevent: the caricaturing of Muslims as violent fanatics.