Is Islam Immoral?

[Thought Criminal]

Setting aside the very liberal Muslims who are fine people but not very consistent with their religion's teachings, I ask whether the ethical system embodied in traditional Islam is immoral. I am not putting it to a vote, since this is a matter of discussion, not head count. So feel free to reply, but defend your claims.

TC

[Thought Criminal]

The problem with this topic is that, while it's easy to find Islamic teachings that are immoral, it is necessarily true that Muslims will claim that all of these teachings are moral.

A good example is the extreme homophobia found in Islam, which includes death penalties in many Muslim nations. On a purely secular, humanistic basis, this is the height of immorality: killing people for a harmless variation. But on a conservative religionist basis, and I would include fundamentalists of Christian stripes along with Muslim ones, homosexuality is some sort of horrible sin, and there's no getting through to them.

So where does this leave us? At an impasse, I think.

TC

[JoeyKnothead]

Where the Koran requires all who are not believers to pay a tax, yep, that right there is immoral.

[Thought Criminal]

Where the Koran requires all who are not believers to pay a tax, yep, that right there is immoral.

If I remember, that's under the theory that they're allowing a conquered people to continue to exist within a Muslim nation, hence they get to demand tribute. In fact, I think they got the idea straight from Judaism.

TC

[Rathpig]

Where the Koran requires all who are not believers to pay a tax, yep, that right there is immoral.

This only applies to "people of the book". Non-Abrahamic believers and all polytheists are to be killed.


Islam is a very immoral religion. In fact, all Abrahamism is immoral in basic doctrine. The idea of a group of believers gaining paradise and the rest of the world condemned to torture is an immoral ideology. It is based on primitive superstition and forced in-group/out-group politics.

Nothing is positive about any form of Abrahamism and hopefully over the next several hundred years of human social evolution people can be educated away from this superstition.

[McCulloch]

Article 18.

• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

What is the position of those who had once been practicing Muslims who have chosen to change their religion to something else, or none at all in Islamic states?

[JoeyKnothead]

Here's some links to consider if you're think about leaving Islam...

http://weaselzippers.blogspot.com/2007/ ... g-his.html

http://www.peacefaq.com/apostacy.html

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/09016converts.aspx

And for those who think of travel from an Islamic state to Israel...

http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=2852

[Homicidal_Cherry53]

Article 18.

• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

What is the position of those who had once been practicing Muslims who have chosen to change their religion to something else, or none at all in Islamic states?

They usually occupy the position of corpse in the strictest Muslim theocracies, such as Iran.

[msmcneal]

Is there immorality in Islam? Depends on what your definitions of moral and immoral are. Muslims certainly don't see their values as immoral. Are they any more immoral than Christianity or Judaism? I don't think so. As a matter of fact, when I read the Qur'an, I felt like I was reading an extension of the Hebrew Bible, or OT. I don't necessarily see any real difference.

[Homicidal_Cherry53]

Is there immorality in Islam? Depends on what your definitions of moral and immoral are. Muslims certainly don't see their values as immoral. Are they any more immoral than Christianity or Judaism? I don't think so. As a matter of fact, when I read the Qur'an, I felt like I was reading an extension of the Hebrew Bible, or OT. I don't necessarily see any real difference.

And, just like every other debate involving morality, this reverts back to the question of exactly what is "moral" and what is "immoral". Certainly to a Muslim, the Koran can't, by definition, be immoral, but there are plenty of things in the Koran that many non-Muslims might view as unbelievably immoral (killing the conquered peoples of non-semetic religions, for example).