Quote:
Originally Posted by JustinW20
The books are all good. It's when nutjobs start interpreting them to meet their own political ends that things get screwy...
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This I don't agree with. Are there some who use the Quran cynically to bolster their own desires for power? Sure. But I think there are a lot of jihadists who don't have a political agenda, but sincerely believe that God is real, He is watching them, He is going to judge them one day, and He demands that they enforce Sharia at all costs, including violence. There are such things as true believers. Men who would have been perfectly happy to stay at home and live a normal life except they are compelled by their faith.
Theologically speaking, I think the "religion masking a political agenda" thing is kind of a cop out. You can say that about Christian extremism because the Bible makes no statements about government. The Bible addresses personal morality and implicitly assumes that a government of good men will be a good government. This is not the case in Islam. On the contrary, there is no "render unto Caesar" in the Quran. The Quran is, in a lot of ways, an explicitly political blueprint for organizing and operating a community. So there's always going to be a political agenda. The question is what the nature of that agenda is going to be.
Furthermore, the jihadist interpretation of Islam is a perfectly valid and well-reasoned reading of the Quran. Its not the only such interpretation (as I said earlier in the thread, it depends on what verses you believe take priority in what situation), but its not a "perversion" in the sense that its making up something thats not there. The dispute between moderate Islam and jihadist Islam is an honest dispute, thats what makes it so dangerous.