The Peaceful Religions

I was listening to an AM Talk Show the other day when the subject of the Mohammad Cartoons was brought up. The guest was a teacher of Islam and his comment was, “Islam is a peaceful religion and he disagrees with what is going on with the violent protests.” I then substituted the word Islam with two other religions, Christianity and Judaism, so the statement would read, “[Christianity] is a peaceful religion OR “[Judaism] is a peaceful religion. I then stated each of these three statements out loud and came to this conclusion: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are not peaceful religions. The correct word to use instead of religion would be philosophy. So, the sentence would read Islam is a peaceful philosophy, Judaism is a peaceful philosophy, ect.

The philosophy of something is the core or heart of the matter. One could say that the philosophy or even the teachings of Islam, Christianity, or Judaism is at their very core, peaceful; however, the religion of the three is in fact violent. Religion used in this way can be described as a cult. The religious believe so much that they are right, that they would kill, they would wage war, they would put others in harm just to get their point across.

Christianity had its history of violence during the “Holy Wars”, and Islam is getting more press in relation to violence these days. One could argue that Jesus, Mohammad, or Moses never wanted a religion named after them. They taught what they believed God wanted the world to hear; however, it was a philosophy, or a way of life that was taught- not a religion.

If religious people in the above three religions mentioned around the world would start thinking and acting on the philosophies of their various teachers, this would bring about a peace that is indeed “beyond our understanding.”