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adyashanti
May 2009 
Islam, Spaghetti and me
Posted on Apr 21st, 2009
by 
Michael
Michael
Is it me?
I mean, am I like crazy to be triggered by everything I know or read or hear about Islam?
I wonder.
Maybe I'm a twit.
Let me take a look at the real thing, the Koran, here's something right away,
Frankly, I don't trust anyone that thinks like that about me.
I'm going to root around in my cupboad and see if there is any spaghetti.
I mean, am I like crazy to be triggered by everything I know or read or hear about Islam?
I wonder.
Maybe I'm a twit.
Let me take a look at the real thing, the Koran, here's something right away,
(5) As for the Disbelievers, Whether thou warn them or thou warn them not it is all one for them; they believe not. (6) Allah hath sealed their hearing and their hearts, and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom.Well now. That's pretty clear. Allah has made me blind to the truth and headed for an awful doom.
Frankly, I don't trust anyone that thinks like that about me.
I'm going to root around in my cupboad and see if there is any spaghetti.
Access: PublicTagged with: Adyashanti, enlightenment, Thoreau, Tucan, Maya, Deepak, Oprah, bliss, U G Krishnamurti, funny tags
I don't think you are crazy. At least you can acknowledge you are triggered by this stuff. Now, I'm no scripture expert, but I think if you take quotes from any scripture out of context you could construe almost anything you want to. I would see the piece you quoted as being like the bits from the bible that say things like “Nobody comes to the Father but through me” or *YOu believe because you have seen, blesed are those who have not seen, yet believe”
It's that promise that faith (which some of us would see as blind faith) will be rewarded (there being no greater doom than not being saved, knowing God, whatever the angle is)…allied with what is often taken to be a statement about this way being the only true way. I'm not sure if that is what was meant, if it is a demend that “this faith” , whatever it is, is the ONLY one, or whether its an exhortation to let go of other worldly things and follow a spiritual path.
You need to remember these things were written at a particular time, to communicate ideas to the people who lived then, at whatever level of society they were in. Not to mention what got lost in translation, ignored, left out or reinterpreted along the way.
Fundamentalists of any flavour can be dangerous, but I truly don't believe any one flavour has a monopoly of them. There are enough sincere, honest , scholarly Muslims trying to overcome this image and build their place in communities by reaching out and building bridges for me to feel different.
It would be sad if having built the bridge, there is no landing place on the other side of the river for them. Differences are things people need to work together to resolve, apportioning blame doesn't help
Liz
Thanks, Liz,
I like everything you've said.
I do “let” myself “go negative” (which is what it feels to me) RE Islam because as a bridge it leaves open so many off-ramps, which are built-in the Koran. That is to say, while “Nobody comes to the Father but through me” could be used some neg way, there are no actual instructions to go kill those who don't. I know this itself could be questioned, (my statement) so this is a good challenge of me, thank you.
I think what I see is that built-in there is an super-easily extractable set of instructions to kill other people. While the Old Testament had these, three thousand years of Judaism has removed the threat, of say, the idea of blood sacrifice. Just as an example. They stopped that first among the population and then later, all. The New Testament reversed “an eye for and eye” with “love your brother.” And I guess what I'm seeing is Koran reversing that and going a step further backwards to, “don't even wait for them to take your eye, they're already bad people.”
And if that is what I'm trying to say, or sensing, then yes I need to be very articulate or it looks like I'm not leaving a way “off the bridge” for sane people. And just because I forsake the bridge as [something] does not mean everyone sees what I see. You're idea is far more sane than mine!
Oh, though, I didn't feel I was apportioning blame. When I quoted the Koran, it was one click into it. I closed the searched page that gave me the online Koran, wish I had it. I had a suspicion that that is what would happen, one look and find something terrible and that's exactly what happened. Creating my own reality? I should have clicked a few more times and seen if I was taking out of context or is the Koran loaded with that stuff? If so, then I'm not blaming anyone, any person. I'd like to be just looking and responding, not reacting, “Yes this is what I am reading.”
I doane wanna get back-and-forthing on dis doe. I'd rather be lolcatting, which I'm about to blog. *big*smile* Maybe I'll delete it, the blog, the Islam blog.