From the posts above I formed the view that you think solely in terms of good Muslims and bad Muslims where a good Muslim is defined as someone who adheres strictly to the Qu’ran and the sunnah (and note hadith wasn’t mentioned?) and a bad Muslim is one who does not i.e. the range of how good and how bad is defined by how devout or how lax the Muslim is.
I actually had one particular hadith in mind while writing, decided not to use it because I didn't want to be redundant, but here it is:
Anas reported that: “Three men came to the houses of the wives of the Prophet and asked how his worship was. When they were informed, they considered their own worship to be insignificant and said: 'Where are we in comparison to the Prophet when Allaah has forgiven his past and future sins?' One of them said: 'As for me, I shall offer prayer all night long.' Another said: 'I shall observe fasting perpetually, never to break it.' Another said: 'I shall abstain from women and will never marry.' The Prophet then came to them and said: “Are you the people who said such things? I swear By Allaah that I fear Allaah more than you do, and I am most obedient and dutiful among you to Him, but still, I observe fasting (sometimes) and break it (at others); I perform (optional) prayer (at night sometimes) and sleep at night (at others); I also marry. So whoever turns away from my Sunnah (i.e., my way) is not from me.” [Al-Bukhaari & Muslim]
The question that follows is, could the non Muslims world fairly define a person who adheres strictly to the Qu’ran and the sunnah as a radical extremist?
There is nothing stable about the definitions nonMuslims give Muslims. In fact, the majority of nonMuslims can't even define a Muslim because they're simply ignorant. I've had a lot of people mistake me for being Indian Hindu and are baffled by why I don't have a red dot on the middle of my forehead. Many nonMuslims don't pray at all, some take those two minutes before they go to sleep, some only when they're conflicted with a problem, etc. so for them to hear that a Muslim must pray 5 times a day, the reaction is always, "That's too much." Why is it too much? When your soul is not perfect and you sin through out the day and need forgiveness, and when you should thank God for everything He's blessed you with, or when you just need a 5 minutes to remember Him, 5 prayers is honestly nothing, but Allah has made them to be the weight of more than all this earth and all that's in it. When I explain it to them, they fully understand and so many of them have said, "I respect you so much for sticking to your beliefs and practicing the way you do," and others have said, "I wish I could do that, but that'll just take too much out of my day" or something along those lines, so in the end it's their problem, not the religion, and they acknowledge it.
Back to my point, anything that seems to be different or is different from the nonMuslims' practices is going to be viewed differently by different people. There are some Muslims who, due to their ignorance of their own religion, sugarcoat Islam because they are afraid to say "I don't know," and thus they mislead people into having a different concept of Islam. I do feel that the more nonMuslims are exposed to Islam through questioning, the more they grow interested in it and the more they are able to tolerate it or even grow to love it.
Charisma’s eloquent post above describes how Islam promotes both peace and division, cohesion and conflict. I would argue that if you weighed the volume of Islamic teachings preaching conflict and division against that preaching peace and cohesion there would be a lead weight one side and a few feathers the other. I have studied the verses of the Qu’ran and have found non which preach unconditional peace and tolerance, all I have found are a few verses which at best suggest that non Muslims be tolerated, treated with some respect and kept at arms length; that’s a long way from unconditional peace and tolerance.
Post up the verses you've studied, let's see. You too should provide proof of your work, can't always expect us Muslims to do it for you
One thing I don't understand is why do nonMuslims only study the Quran when Islam is Quran & Sunnah? Our practices come mostly from Sunnah, not the Quran.
Does it not then follow that the person you describe as a good Muslim is the person non Muslims describe as the radical extremist and the person you describe as the bad Muslim is the person is the person non Muslims describe as the moderate?
Through my perspective, it's not to which the degree the Muslim practices, it's honestly the degree to which the viewer is knowledgable about Islam. Whether I prayed once or 50x a day and made it a religious obligation, to one person it may be more radical than to another simply by the degree in which they themselves practice or understand. Therefore, I cannot generalize because I've met some different nonMuslims who's thoughts quite differed. There are whites who are still very much racist, so no matter what shade of "dark" someone is, they'll still dislike them because they have been conditioned to do so, or because they isolate themselves in a white community where everyone else is an outsider and does not belong, even if they talked, ate, slept in the same exact manner that they do. In the same way I suppose, that's how Muslims are viewed by those types of close-minded individuals.
The video looks interesting, will check it more later.
