An Analogy For Islam

when soldiers are not busy with official duties, or entertaining themselves in the way soldiers like to be entertained, they sit around and tell stories.

Since any small group of soldiers may include men from across the country, these stories are often both interesting and informative. Occasionally, however, there is a clinker. Some Private, who has already demonstrated that he is not the brightest bulb in the string, will relate a story, preceded by a bit of a threat. Typically, a tale may go as follows:

"I'll tell you a strange story my mother told me. She knew this to be a fact, and anyone who says it is not true is calling my mother a liar. There was this young girl, about five years old. Every night she would save a little bit of her supper and take it outside. Everyone thought she just liked to finish eating outdoors, but one night her daddy followed her just to see what she did.

"She went out behind the barn and as her daddy watched from a distance, she fed her remaining food to a huge rattlesnake. Her daddy stayed out of sight, but as soon as the little girl returned to the house, he grabbed an axe and killed the snake. The next day the little girl died."

Obviously some other dim bulb would hear and believe the story, because I heard it told the same way by soldiers in different parts of the world.

I always felt these wild stories were born of ignorance. They were retold by people who lacked the mental capacity to rationalize the story and dispute its accuracy. Doesn't that remind you of Islam?

As I understand it, Islam began when the Prophet Muhammad went out from his village to some caves where the Quran (The Recitation) was repeated to him (by some unnamed spirit)until he committed it to memory. (It seems a lot of religions started in a similar fashion, but that is a subject for later exploration.)

All this wisdom was supposed to be recited from memory, but some people later decided it should be written and the book of the Quran was born.

To perpetuate the religion, the children of devout adherents are kept in ignorance of much of the world's accumulated knowledge, and forced instead to memorize the recitation. Like the soldier's story of the little girl who fed the snake, Islam requires a massive helping of faith and not a shred of rational thinking.

I will admit that I have not read the Quran, but what is most apparent to a casual observer is that Islam teaches complete intolerance of any other religion or belief system. After all, we could spoil the soldier's story by pointing out that rattlesnakes eat only live prey - mice, small birds, etc., not left over chicken and dumplings. Similarly, a knowledge and understanding of other religions and belief systems may well lead the Muslim child down the path of tolerance of other teachings and doubt in his own.

So long as intolerance is an integral part of a belief system, there is the liklihood that someone will consider it their mission in life to express their intolerance violently. We see it in racial intolerance, and in the utter hatred some direct toward persons of a sexual persuasion different from their own.

Will there ever be a change? I am doubtful.