Freedom, By Any Other name...

I love Wikipedia! Generally the relevant information about a subject can be found there, or linked from there.
I had been guilty of running on assumptions-my firmly held beliefs about Islam were based on what I had read here and there, remembered from somewhere else, heard from someone who used to live and work in Saudi Arabia...and then jolly old Roger challenged my assumptions, suggesting that I was raging against a “Paper Asad” and that the Islam he was familiar with from his Muslim friends was nothing like my pre-conceived notions.
Rather than just saying, “Pip Pip! And Bob’s yer uncle!” and moving on with my life, I decided to actually do a little research.
To keep this brief, I will start with only a few of my Islamic notions mentioned in my last post, and see how they stand up to scrutiny. C,mon, it’ll be Fun!

From the post:
“I hearby institute Sadie Hawkins Days to be held on John Wayne’s birthday in every Muslim country.
See if any woman given the free choice of chasing or running away FROM you will show up on your Radar.
If she chooses to run, she is free indeed, and never has to live in fear of you again. I’ll even set up schools and teach the women skills! Take that, Ahab!”
As the Muslim world is under Islamic rule, these questions pertain to women and others in those countries, not the assimilated Western living Muslims. A generalization can still be true.
Do Islamic women have the freedom to choose a mate?
Can Islamic women work outside the home, drive a car in a city, be independent of a man as many women do here in the West?
Are Islamic women allowed to be educated? Dress as she wants, vote?
I didn’t think so, so I went Wiki-ing for some information. Rather than fill pages with quotes written better by those more knowledgeable, I’ll link to them instead. This also cuts down of the “pulling quotes out of context” dismissive argument. Read for yourselves.
This entire site should be read, beginning with the “Read this First” box:
http://www.faithfreedom.org/

Saudi Arabia is our friend? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia
I chose to check out Saudi Arabia as it is an Islamic state, under Shariah law, and is our... ally in the war on terror? Also, most of the terrorist hijackers on 9-11 were Saudi. What did I find?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia#Women.27s_rights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_Saudi_Arabia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

My opinion on homosexuality is that it is a sin, as the Bible clearly states. We have all sinned, and fall short of the Glory of God. But a capital crime, punishable by death?
Many works-based false religions believe that bringing the flesh under the control of the mind and spirit leads to purity. So you have self torture, mutilation, whippings, such as ric has a picture of over at ’Release the Hounds’
http://thehounds.blogspot.com/2006/02/marsellus-wallace-would-be-proud.html#links
Some apologists may suggest that Saudi Arabia is not representative of true Islam-that is, the Islam they see being practiced by their moderate Muslim friends. I posit that if those Muslim friends were somehow transported to live in Saudi Arabia, they would be killed for heretically joining with the Great Satan; that is, Western culture. On the other hand, take Saudi Islamists and place them in the middle of any Western country and what do we have? One of two results: either they buy a pair of jeans, get a job and try to disassociate themselves from Islam, or they refuse to assimilate and wait for Islam to come to them, sometimes helping it along in tramways or on busses.
Here are a few reasons why I oppose Islam.
Beslan.
The young Christian girls beheaded in Indonesia.
Anti-Semitism. No Jew is allowed to enter Saudi Arabia; no visitor, according to Wikipedia, who has a stamp on his passport from Israel can enter either.
The human rights abuses mentioned above, both from Wikipedia and FaithFreedom.
Mostly, I condemn Islam as a false religion, which destroys the lives of it’s adherents and dooms their souls to Hell. Jesus does indeed preach that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life-all others are imposters.
The most Christian work I can do is to tell the world, including adherents of Islam and all other false religions, that they are on the wrong path, and that there is Salvation possible only through Jesus Christ.
The apologist who suggests that the Islamist will not listen if I am offensive and disrespectful of Islam is missing a very important point: who can yell the loudest or the longest does not determine who is right. If that were so, we’d have a Democrat in the White House right now. The Gospel, the good news of God’s plan for Salvation can touch any heart; Christians are given the task of proclaiming that fact to the world. God touches the hearts and brings people back into a right relationship with Himself.
According to Walid Shoebat, http://www.shoebat.com/ ...if a Christian man witnesses to an Islamic woman, she can be killed by the Islamists for being sullied, having been spoken to by an unbeliever. Read that again. She is stained, and can be killed, because a non-Muslim witnessed to her. That’s how tightly Islam keeps its adherents chained by fear. That is the religion of Hate. Islam is the enemy of humanity.
Contrast Islam with:
“For God so loved that world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”