Tag: Islam
-
Warnings from history
Religions get interpreted by their followers in many ways. Some have been very positive (such as affirmations of love, compassion and forgiveness), but they have also been used to justify violence and repression. In the past few years Muslim suicide bombers, for instance, have frequently set out to kill innocent people with the words of…
-
Religious texts
There are many wonderful religious writings. Most were written in allegorical style and were never meant to be taken literally (although some people do); others are reasonably accurate records of events as far as we can tell. Some reflect the best information available at the time of writing, but were subsequently proven to be untrue.…
-
Musings in Mostar
Browsing through old photo albums recently reminded me of a holiday in the Balkans several years ago. We took a day trip to Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina, the site of vicious fighting a few years earlier. On the way we stopped briefly at a village (the name of which I didn’t note down at the…
-
There’s no such thing as evil
If there is only one power working in the universe – as Christians, Jews and Moslems believe – and that power is good, then surely evil has no inherent substance! Of course there are all manner of undesirable things appear in the world, but these do not create themselves and nor do they define themselves.…