Muslim Australians - Religion Cultural Diversity Resource Manual

Islam is intolerant of
other religions
First of all, Muslims believe that
Islam was the religion of all prophets
and messengers who came before
Muhammad. Therefore, Adam,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and
Muhammad all taught essentially
the same message. Muslims also
believe that God sent prophets to
all communities on earth. This is an
inclusive view of religion.
It is true that the Qur’an considers
certain forms of religion, such as
polytheism (belief in many gods),
as unacceptable, but it recognises
the right of polytheists to practise
their religion. The Qur’an even tells
Muslims that they should not ridicule
the deities of the polytheists. It also
criticises views expressed by some
Christians and Jews for not being in
line with the teachings of Jesus or
of the biblical prophets. But Islam
does not criticise the religion of
Christianity or Judaism. In fact, it
refers to the Christians and Jews as
People of the Book, and treats their
Scriptures with reverence. However,
some Muslims tend to interpret
certain verses that are critical of
some Jews and some Christians and
generalise from them to all Jews and
all Christians, ignoring the context in
which such verses were revealed.
Muhammad’s respect for a Jew
One day the Prophet was sitting with
some of his companions and he stood
up as a funeral procession for a Jew
passed by. When asked why he stood
up for the Jew, the Prophet said: Was
he not a human being?
Islam recognises that different people
will follow different religions and that
not all people will become Muslims.
The Qur’an commanded the Prophet
not to force anyone to accept Islam
and said that the duty of the Prophet
was to convey the message, nothing
more. It is up to each individual to
accept or reject Islam.
Muslims cannot be friends
with non-Muslims
Muslims are encouraged to act
with kindness and generosity to
people regardless of their religious
background. It is true that Islam
teaches that Muslims should not
take untrustworthy people as
guardian-protectors (sometimes
wrongly mistranslated as ‘friends’).
However, that has more to do with
the intentions of a person than with
his or her religious background.
The Prophet himself employed a
trustworthy pagan to be his guide for
the dangerous journey from Mecca
to Medina. Furthermore, he married
Jewish and Christian women and
his marriages reflected his love and
friendship with them.
Islam is a backward religion
There is nothing in the religion
of Islam that requires a person to
reject the technological and material
successes of the modern world.
In fact, the Prophet Muhammad
encouraged his followers to travel the
world in search of knowledge. Nor is
there anything in Islam that requires
Muslims to pretend that they are
living in the seventh century. Most
Muslims feel that their religion can
and does adapt to all different times
and contexts. While Muslims have
different ideas on how to cope with
living in the modern world, there
is nothing in the Qur’an to say that
they have to reject modernity or be
backward.
Muslims point out that fundamental
moral values do not change – it is
no more acceptable to kill or steal
now than it was fourteen hundred
years ago – but sometimes our
understanding of how to best live
our lives might. They see a difference
between the fundamentals of Islam
(such as believing in one God, doing
good to other people, trying to live a
righteous life), which never change,
and the cultural expressions of Islam
(such as preference for certain types
of food or dress, political systems and
other customs), which can and do
change.
68 Muslim Australians:THEIR BELIEFS, PRACTICES AND INSTITUTIONS