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We are going to talk today about the subject of Islam and world religions. Since our organization was founded in 1995, it has become apparent to us that the solution to the world's problems have to be done on a global basis. There is no America first China first Japan first solution. It does not mean that country should not look after their legitimate interests. Of course they can but that alone won't work and people are going to have to work together if the planet is going to survive in terms of environmental problems as well as the prospect of nuclear war. These are simple realities. People are going to have to work together whether they want to do that or not. So we come to the question of dialogue and tolerance and nonviolence. A lot of complex issues here.
Let's just clarify the concept of tolerance tolerance doesn't mean you agree with somebody else. Tolerance doesn't mean that you put up with evil behavior from somebody else. It does mean that you are willing to adopt at least some kind of live and let live if we are talking about the case of religion with somebody who practices a different faith.
Today we talk about Islam because there are some major problems in our world relating to Islam. There are major problems in the West in terms of how Islam is understood. To be frank there are also major problems inside Islam where there are some factions who seem to believe that violent acts of intolerance violent acts of terrorism are somehow legitimized by the teachings of Islam. These ideas are wrong.
Now in order to to understand all this you need to understand the basic principles of Islam. Islam is the world's newest religion it's the only major religion where we know the person founded it actually existed and it is in many ways the world's simplest religion Islam means submission to God a simple line that means so much what that means is that you're here to serve God who is defined as in the current is defined as a lot in our view for very intelligent reason to define him as the master of reality the supreme God not to confuse him with the hodgepodge of guides and also it's of other different religions this is the person who is the absolute master of the universe Lord of the worlds and so on and so forth. So people are here to serve him and carry out his rules and one of those rules is defined in the Koran as tolerance that's just what's there now. We also need to look at how the Islamic caliphate dealt with other religions and they implemented this policy of tolerance that's why Islam is a popular when it came in. Christianity was horrendously intolerant with one word organization of persecutions after another equally among different sects of Christians. it was a nightmare. When Islam came in Christians were not burned at the stake. They were not massacred contrary to lies peddled by some people today Tthey were allowed to contend Jews and Zoroastrians and other people Islam conquered were allowed to continue their faith. They were required to pay a tax but that was basically it they were allowed to continue their faith and to go on living unmolested by the state. Didn't meet the standards of modern concepts of civil liberties probably not but it wasn't modern times so that's a reality.
So this is the law in Islam this is the rule in Islam and it was a key to the religious revolution of Islam the greatest revolution in history where within a thousand years of a man coming out of the desert Islam had created an empire which stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the snows of the Himalayas was the greatest religious revolution in history and Islam for that thousand years became the dominant religion on the planet that's a reality
Now insofar as Islam has not been successful there are cases of where intolerance may have been part of the problem the original Islamic invasions of India were very violent and very cruel and that may have been a reason why Islam was never able to displace Hinduism. In deference to our Hindu friends that does not mean that we think Hinduism is wrong or whatever but it's just were making a tactical observation not a theological observation about Hinduism we know for sure that the collapse of the largest Islamic state in the world the Mughal Empire starting in around 1700 was directly caused by the intolerant policies of the last Mughal Empire of any importance.
Today the world's largest Muslim population is the population of Indonesia and Islam spread in Indonesia in a tolerant largely nonviolent manner. So these are the facts. This is the truth. Now as we mentioned in our time there people who have called themselves Muslims who've gone around murdering and blowing up civilians. This is evil this is wrong this is not Islam this is contrary to what Islam says. Unfortunately at the other end of the political spectrum the people run around in reaction to that claiming that Islam is a bunch of pacifism and so on and so forth and Islam and American-style democracy or just up two peas in a pod that is also nonsensical Islam is Islam. It doesn't need to define itself in terms of anything other than itself.
Now moving to a conclusion of this lecture we need to make some basic points about life. Life here is to serve a lot serve God. We have to deal with the issue of vengeance. I feel that wrong should be published punished the issue of you punishing someone who's done you are wrong is is a legitimate point it's and Jim at point but you need to understand that you are not here as your main goal in life to satisfy every wrong that was made against you and be a certain point this becomes very destructive and self-destructive here's a basic point someone is done you are wrong with the neuron they deserve to be punished they may deserve to be severely punished. You have to ask yourself whether the cost of pursuing your punishment of them even if your hundred percent successful in you have to ask yourself can this do more harm than the original harm that they did you that is also an issue of personal prestige and not putting up with nonsense with people and were not going to get into all the details of that but just to make the point that vengeance is a tricky business and it needs to be fitted into a a system of discipline as you move forward in life discipline is part of what is required of you and it's not always easy and there a lot of difficult decisions to make which is why the importance of prayer is important which is why the importance of conducting your life in a moral manner is important. So this is a initial draft to cover some very important subjects and we will be refining this draft with future efforts to discuss the subject