Do you want the Comparative Religion section Open?

Greetings and peace be with you ardianto;

How if the section name changed into "Interfaith Understanding", with purpose to make people from different faiths can understand each other and coexist better?.

The term "Comparative Religion" can accidentally motivate people compare one religion with other religions with purpose to declare that "My religion is better than yours!"

I think this is the best solution, the name needs to change to something along the lines of 'Interfaith Understanding' as you suggest. We now have some new eagle eyed mods, so I cannot see anything getting past them.

And just a thought for my Muslim brothers and sisters here, with all the trouble in the world, it is as much in your interests to build interfaith understanding. It cannot be Muslims against the rest of the world.

I find the 'Introduce yourself section' troubling at times, newcomers launch into confrontational issues like Islam and terrorism. I find this worrying, especially if they declare they are Christian.

In the spirit of praying to 'One God'

Eric

format_quote Originally Posted by farhan

everyone . for all your votes.

However though... the votes have left me stuck in a square box. I thought it would be either mostly YES or mostly NO, currently now it's exactly even at 11 votes each .

Let's review this so far:

Advantages of opening
- Forum will attract experienced senior Muslims and beneficial posters. Currently there are few people waiting for the opening of this section, the section being closed is what prevents them from joining IB.
- Any Islamic articles/posts that take a look at other religions can be posted there.
- ALL threads and posts can be moderated to prevent problems. Problematic members can be banned.
- An opportunity for Dawah. Opportunity for non Muslims to ask questions about their faith. "Direct dialogue with other faiths" as mentioned in @anatolian 's post.
"Invite to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Quran) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided." - An-Nahl : 125
- Forum will be more clean. There are already many threads, even recently that have ongoing discussions which are best suited for comparative religion section.
- People will learn about Aqeedah and misconceptions in other religions clarified.

Disadvantages of opening
- Non Muslims can use it to get publicity for their faith.
- Can create heated arguments/debates/bashing.
- Younger members may not have sufficient knowledge to respond to the points.
- The internal Jihad. We need to understand ourselves first. As mentioned in @najimuddin 's post.
- More moderation needed.

Read the points above everyone, and send your final comments before decision is made .

As a reminder brother, the decision should not be influenced by members comments or votes but rather it should be based upon the Islamic principle. The comparative religions section may bring some benefit but the harm is more. And in Islam, the removal of harm takes precedence over the attainment of good. Based upon this principle, and the very foundations upon which IB was created, the section should not be reopened.

May Allah guide us all. Aameen.

format_quote Originally Posted by czgibson

If understanding is the goal, then why are you so frightened of a critical examination of your beliefs? Surely if "truth stands out clear from error" (Qur'an 2:256), then Islam should be able to stand upright in the forum of ideas, with no need for the kind of artificial protection that is being suggested here by keeping the section closed.

Peace

Peace gibson. Because most of the muslims tend to answer those questions from what they hear from other sources than Quran. If they stand Quran as their base surely truth would stand out clear from error...

format_quote Originally Posted by ardianto

Greeting, czgibson.

We should avoid debate, and change it with peaceful friendly conversation. So we can understand each other better.

Salam brother. We can make peaceful friendly conversations always. This is another dimension. However, we must be able to debate too without hate.

I voted yes we should reopen it. It has been and could once again be a venue for understanding.

On the plus side it is an attraction for Non-Muslims, it is a visible sign that we do seek peaceful co-existence, it does expose our young Muslims to other religions and gives them experience on how to counter attempts at leading them astray.

On the negative side it easily slips into attacks, it is sometimes used as an attempt tp proselytize Non-Islamic beliefs, it easily breaks down into personal attacks.


But I think that over all it can have more good than negative.

It will take someone with strong eeman and at the same time a desire to find good in non-Muslim members and can treat what looks like anti-Islam comments as misinformation spread by the media. Will need a person who is not insultd easily and looks for reasons not feelings."

format_quote Originally Posted by lonewolf007

Basically what hamza bro said, the section has its pros and cons, me personally I'm not too sure but if we do have this section we'll need to have mods active and make sure we don't get trolls posting disrespecting Islam etc.

Mods are active 24/7

format_quote Originally Posted by ardianto

Salam, brother.

We can debate about the best restaurant in town without make us hate or offend each other. But faith is very sensitive issue. Debate about faith always make people who involved feel offended, and very possible will reply with offensive words.

Salam ardianto. Offensive people shall react offensive. Peaceful people will react peacefully

format_quote Originally Posted by lonewolf007

yeah I know I'm glad mods are active, as members we can report posts that seem dodgy etc like ppl disrespecting Islam or mouthing off a bit too much etc.

Salam sis. Your avatar is the symbol of turkish nationalist movement lol