Greetings to all. I was led here by a member of your faith who indicated that I might find reasonable and moderate Islamic views being espoused. I am eager to see for myself.
First of all, I would like to have a custom avatar. Here is the image I would like to use. I could not find how to create a custom avatar.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8180/ulyssesjd8.jpg]Ulysses
I have had a look at the site rules, and as a non-Muslim, I am wondering if I am actually welcome here, given that what I might have to say might not be in line with one or two of the stated site rules. I seek clarification and edification on this matter from the site members, administrators, moderators, owners.
15.Promoting Religions other than Islam
While interfaith discussions are allowed promoting another religion is not allowed on the discussion board. This discussion board was created to promote Islam, not another religion. There are many other discussion boards on the Web which you can promote your religion other than Islam.
I do not follow a "faith." I have chosen Buddhist as my way of life, for the simple reason that Vipassana Buddhism is the best approximation of my spiritiual, cosmological, and philosophical views which I have encountered in my lifelong survey of the fundamental ethos comprising each of the major world religions. I will not promote Islam, on this site or anywhere else. I have no need or desire to attack Islam, but I also have no desire to see it spread. I have no desire to see any religion attacked, or promoted. I would prefer to see awareness, knowledge, and critical thinking promoted personally. At times, this may involve what a devout Muslim would interprete as being "promoting" a belief sysmte other than Islam, be it a religion, or other worldview.
So, according to the purpose of this site, am I already at odds with the rules by the very nature of my relationship to the stated purpose of the site? Have the founders of this site stopped to consider that having a rule that no religion other than Islam will be promoted constitutes a fundamentally Islamocentric, and some might argue, unacceptably partisan position to take in a globalized world in which Islam only comprises some 20% of humanity?
I look forward to discussing this matter with you all.
As a newcomer to your site, one who brings an alternative perspective to that of a follower of Muhammed, I would propose that you eliminate, or at least change this rule so as to more appropriately reflect a tolerant, pluralistic stance, as is only fitting in the age of modernity.
If you really want to promote the spread of awareness and understanding to non-Muslims about your worldview, then stating that it is against the rules to promote anything but your worldview during discourse with the other will result in one net effect: the elimination of discourse, and the homogenization of all participants to comprise only believers. It would seem to me to be shame and indeed misleading to state that the purpose of the site is to promote understanding when a rule exists that nothing except Islam can be promoted on the site. Am I being unfair in reaching this conclusion?
16. No attacks against Islam in any form will be tolerated on this discussion board. This includes, but is not limited to attacks on the Qur'an, Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), his family and companions, or any other prophets in Islam, or Islamic scholars, past or present. While some may complain that there is "freedom of speech" please remember this is a privately owned discussion board which was created and is maintained to serve the purpose of promoting Islam. What is allowed in speech is determined by the Admin and not the member.
I have some similar questions and discomforts with respect to this rule. What exactly constitutes an attack? Was the set of questions and suggestions I posed above about a culturally relativistic view an attack? If so, then your rules for discourse with non-Muslims have already eliminated the possibility of discourse with non-Muslims.
I would respectfully submit that, these two previous rules need to be reconsidered if the true purpose of this site is to promote understanding, mutual friendship, peace, and coexistence, and not instead to simply prosletyze and sooth the psyches of the Muslim community.
18. Do not say "Islam says X" unless your position is based upon sound evidence - which means the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Always cite your sources. If quoting the Qur'an, give soorah (chapter) and ayah (verse) number. For ahadeeth, you must the name of the collection, volume/book number and hadeeth number. Unless you quoting from an agreed-upon authenthic collection (i.e. Bukharee, Muslim) you must also provide authenthic information.
Again, I have to say that, this rule seems to place all rational and critical discourse about your religion out of reach, by invalidating any claims about Islamic actions, words or behaviors unless those phenomenae can be verified through reference to your Koranic scriptures. If I interprete this rule correctly, it means that, I am only allowed to make observations about the behavior of Islamic persons, social trends in Islamic societies, or values, movements, and historical events in Islamic societies if I can show that these events are verified by things written in Islamic scriptures? So if I quote let us say, Saddam Hussein, who is a secular Muslim, or Amadinejad (the leader of Iran) who is a devout Shia Muslim, but I cannot show how what they have done or said is representative of the words in your Koran, then those quotes are invalidated? This last rule is a bit confusing, so I look forward to having it clarified.