Yet A Personal God Can Become A

Let Us Bring Something New To The Table. Let Us Use Our Pain Always To Remember The Others, Bring Them Into The Conversation, And Get Beyond The Stereotypes And Prejudices That Create Injustice All Over The World.

If We Could View Muhammad As We Do Any Other Important Historical Figure We Would Surely Consider Him To Be One Of The Greatest Geniuses The World Has Known.

A God Who Kept Tinkering With The Universe Was Absurd; A God Who Interfered With Human Freedom And Creativity Was A Tyrant. If God Is Seen As A Self In A World Of His Own, An Ego That Relates To A Thought, A Cause Separate From Its Effect, He Becomes A Being, Not Being Itself. An Omnipotent, All‐knowing Tyrant Is Not So Different From Earthly Dictators Who Make Everything And Everybody Mere Cogs In The Machine Which They Controlled. An Atheism That Rejects Such A God Is Amply Justified.

Islam Is A Religion Of Success. Unlike Christianity, Which Has As Its Main Image, In The West At Least, A Man Dying In A Devastating, Disgraceful, Helpless Death. The Cross, Crucified, And That Turned Into Victory. Mohammad Was Not An Apparent Failure. He Was A Dazzling Success, Politically As Well As Spiritually, And Islam Went From Strength To Strength To Strength.

Ever Since The Crusades, When Christians From Western Europe Were Fighting Holy Wars Against Muslims In The Near East, Western People Have Often Perceived Islam As A Violent And Intolerant Faith - Even Though When This Prejudice Took Root Islam Had A Better Record Of Tolerance Than Christianity.