by: Ismail Bey

Islam, as viewed by many, is being portrayed as a violent and intolerant religion, devoid of compassion and mercy. This view is not altogether a mistaken view, as Muslims around the world seem to react to events concerning Islam with an anger replete with violence that bespeaks a hateful philosophy which calls for holy war fought in any way possible, including suicide and terrorism. Muslims continue to proclaim Islam as a religion of peace, but it grows more difficult by the day for many non-Muslims to really believe that.  If Islam was a religion of hate and intolerance, with nothing inherently good, it would not have lasted, as Nazism did not last. There are, in fact, many examples and teachings found within Islam that have inspired men and women for centuries that go unoticed and forgotten, due to nobody else's fault but the Muslims themselves. The current literalist interpretation, esposed by the clerics and scholars, needs to be swept away in a wave of reformation that would espose the core essentials of Islam and do away with the accumulations of desert tribal traditions that have attached themselves over the centuries. The goal is to allow free thinking Muslims to interpret for themselves the timeless teachings of Islam, which acknowledges the teachings that came before it and encourages Muslims to research, share with the members of all religous communities.