Wednesday, November 30, 2011

inter the faith

I am a member of the Christchurch Interfaith Council.

I know, I know...
I represent my church on this council
and it's filled with lovely, open hearted and open minded people
from all sorts of faiths.

Last night there was a meeting of the society,
which is the larger group of interfaith interested people.
The subject for discussion was
Pillow Talk - Interfaith Marriage.

So there were Catholics, Anglicans, Ba'hai, Unitarians,
Muslims, Jews, Hindu and I'm sure some others.

The interesting bit I learned is this.
For Muslims their marriage rules are
that a Muslim man may marry a woman of the Book
i.e. a Muslim, Jew or Christian.
But a Muslim woman may only marry an Muslim man.

Everyone else was pretty relaxed about it
even the Catholics
but to be fair we weren't talking about marrying in the Church
we were talking about two people
marrying who were of different faith traditions.

It did get a little fraught because one woman
asked a very poorly worded question
of Talib (the lovely Muslim representative)
that was a just a tad hostile but it allowed Talib to explain who
the people of the Book are
(cause that's a Jewish term).

Ok firstly Muslims believe everyone was a Muslim first
(this doesn't stack up in accepted history)
They have a point when they say that
their scriptures are unpolluted
meaning that when you read the Koran or Qu'ran
you should read it in Arabic as that is it's original language.
Unlike the Bible which started out in Aramaic,
then Hebrew,
then Greek,
then Latin
and then English.
That's why some churches still use the King James Bible
because it is the first English translation.

There are five books recognised as scripture by Islam,
so remember that Muslims see Jesus as a prophet
but not THE prophet, cause that's Mohammad.
The five books are
Psalms,
Torah,
Bible,
Can't remember
and the Koran or Qu'ran.

So if you believe in any of the above books
then you are ok by the Muslims.

Those members of Islam who are not peaceful
and a smidge warlike are not considered Muslims.
They are opting out of being a true believer
by their actions.
There is only one Islam,
so no sects like in Christianity of Judaism.

Muslims can claim this cause there is only one Qu'ran.
And you can't misconstrue it...
in principle.

And that's all for today.

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