Salam allahuakba
I am a educated American Christian, and have recently been researching the diferences and simmilarities between Islam and Radical Islam. Do, as a whole, muslims support the radicals?
I completely agree with Mustapha. To answer your question, there are radicals in every religion i.e Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam etc. But the media highlights only Islam radicals and neglects all others. You can name a bunch of Muslim terrorist organization but you cannot name any Christian/Hindu ones. The radicals are a really small minority and ofcourse there actions have to be condemned since they target innocent people. They go against this verse of the Quran
But many of the organizations are potrayed as terrorist in the media when they are really trying to get there freedom.
After reading "Because They Hate," I am amazed at the hospitality of the Jews, and the aggression and hatred by radicals.
To learn Islam, you cannot read books written by Muslim haters like Brigitte Gabriel. That book should be titled "Because Brigitte Gabriel Hates". You should learn about Islam and Muslims through Muslim sources. Here is a hilarious article regarding Muslim haters such as Daniel Pipes etc.
http://maniacmuslim.com/2005/01/02/trouble-with-haters/
Now, I cannot imagine most muslims support them, but I would like to know. Why do you hate, and why can you not extend the same kindness to Jews?
So Jews and Muslims. I'm going to tell you a bunch of things which every Muslim knows but you will never find it in books written by Muslim critics.
Some Jews are peaceful and Allah Almighty loves them:
"
It was We who revealed the law (to Moses): therein was guidance and light. By its standard have been judged the Jews, by the prophets who bowed (as in Islam) to God's will, by the rabbis and the doctors of law: for to them was entrusted the protection of God's book, and they were witnesses thereto: therefore fear not men, but fear me, and sell not my signs for a miserable price. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what God hath revealed, they are (no better than) Unbelievers. (The Noble Quran, 5:44)"
So we don't hate anyone. It is a misconception, spread by people like Brigitte Gabriel.
In his book, More in Common than
you Think: Bridge between Islam and Christianity, Dr. William Baker elaborates on the fact that Muslims view the Torah and the New Testament as inspired revelations of God and that Islam neither targeted the Jews nor Judaism. He says: "It is a fact of history that when the Jews were being persecuted in Europe during the Middle Ages, they found peace, harmony, and acceptance among the Muslim people in Spain. In fact, this was the era of Jewish history that they themselves refer to as 'the golden age'. In the famous treatise by Rabbi Minken, he says of this era: 'It was Muslim Spain, the only land the Jews knew in nearly a thousand years of the dispersion, which made the genius of the Jewish physician Moses Maimonides possible. After the fall of Spain, the Jews followed the Muslims to Morocco and Egypt where Maimonides became the personal physician of the great Muslim leader Salahudin, who sent him to King Richard in order to treat the king'. During the Ottoman period and their great empire, Jews and Muslims lived and prospered together".(copied from
http://www.muslimbridges.org/content/view/318/83/)
But for Muslims, the problem is not Judaism. It is Zionism. So we do extend kindness to Jews. But many Jews in Israel support the mass murders of Palestinian children, women etc. That is what we condemn. I would recommend that you read :Palestine Peace not apartheid by Jimmy Carter, which was hailed by antiZionist Jews in America
Peace