SO, GARY Ruddick (NDL Letters, November 18), thinks Malcolm Turnbull’s statement that Islamic State is a defamation of Islam is merely weasel words.
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Mr Ruddick, Malcolm Turnbull is spot on.
The members of Islamic State are not, repeat not, Muslims, but psychopaths who have hijacked the religion of Islam for their political agenda.
Their aim is to divide the world and society into warring anti-Christian and anti-Islam camps through murder and mayhem, rape and pillage.
Rants from people like Mr Ruddick on the Christian side and his counterparts on the Muslim side would be music to Islamic State’s ears – “Our tactics are working. Wonderful.”
Yes, we all know Saudi Arabia indulges in slavery, but so did the England and America Christian nations in the 19th century, when they exported slaves from West Africa to the West Indies and southern USA to work in the sugar cane fields – and in parts of the sex industry in this country it seems.
The treatment of women in Islamic society? Oh dear.
Mr Ruddick must have been living under a rock over the last few years.
We are in no position to criticise any county about their treatment of women because of our appallingly high rates of domestic violence.
It is a national disgrace.
Worse, it is happening in a supposedly Christian society.
Mr Ruddick’s “flogging and public stoning of women” in Arabic countries has become private flogging and stoning of women in their own homes in this country.
Enough said.
It amazes me there is so much ignorance about Islam in the general community, as illustrated by Mr Ruddick’s letter and others like him.
Then there are the off-the-planet groups like Reclaim Australia and Love Australia or Leave It.
Then again, they too could be hijacking the religion of Islam to further their political agendas.
I suppose I’m amazed because I studied Islam in my last year at boarding school in Sydney, along with Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucius, etcetera.
Miss Chisholm, the headmistress at the time, said, as many of us would travel overseas in years to come, we needed to have a good working knowledge of the major religions and to respect their customs and beliefs.
The major difference between Islam and Christianity is that the Muslims regard Jesus as a prophet, whereas Christians regard him as the son of God.
The holiest place I, a non-believer, have encountered in my many travels overseas?
The beautiful white mosque standing on the shores of the main lake in Mash Mir.
The serenity and peace towards Allah inside was mind blowing. A true holy place.
That was over 30 years ago and it is still very clear in my mind.
It left all the Christian churches, Hindu and Buddhist temples and other mosques that I visited for dead.
And something for the Tamworth community to mull over in light of the Muslim community hall: it was nothing in southern India to see a Christian church, a Hindu temple and a mosque in the same block and sometimes beside each other.
Religious harmony at its best.