I you are comparing a light "enlightened" Christian with a fundamuntalist "bacward" Muslim, than indeed very often one is going to be more strict than the other. I think you are overexagerating the place of Mohammad within muslims and underestimating that of JC within Christians. You are also forgetting about the influence of culture and societal environment on people behaviour towards their religion. Christians living in less open and backward societies are much less tolerant about "missing" with JC than Christians in Europe where people are used to free speach. I don't think it would be wise for you to go and shout "JC is a f**head" in front of a Church in say Manilla or Kigali.
Well, you are proving my point. It is due to secularism and values based on the enlightenment that most Christians are not fundamentalists and hence have a level of worship of their prophets which rarely escapes from the private to the public sphere. Of course you can find the occasional country where religiosity among Christians is still rather high. But even in these countries it will hardly match the degree of religiosity found throughout the Muslim world.
That is not true, but a fantasy unless you show us a hard evidence.
Just check the
polls. You usually get majorities who want to implement sharia, which includes blasphemy laws and the death penalty for insulting the prophet.
And Mary is the most common female name in many Christian countries, so what?
Mohammed is the most common name in the world, not just in Muslim countries. It is usually the oldest son who is named after him. This is an indication, albeit an admittedly small one in comparison to others, as to how highly he is regarded.
And I don't know if you realise how wrong your last sentence is: Muslims do not worship Mohummad, he is just a man for them, maybe the best human ever, but a human nevertheless. Christians do however worship JC.
Erm, maybe this is a language barrier. But of course Muslims worship Mohammed. They include him in most prayers. He is seen as the best human who ever lived. He is the perfect example they strive to achieve. This is the definition of worship.
that is your own interpretation of both M and JC. Millions of other people had a different one and countless Christians killed raped and enslaved thinking that they were acting as JC would have wanted them to do and many millions of Muslims spent their life praying and doing good deeds and lived peaceful lives hearding goats like hippies thinking that they were acting as M would have wanted them to do. What makes you think you know better about M and JC true life style?
Not every Christian or Muslim behaviour can be tracked to their prophet. I was refering to a hypothetical example. But I am sure that I don't have to point out to you that Mohammed and Jesus are vastly different characters.
First of all, it is not debatable at all whether Mohammed existed! at least it is much less debatable than my own as there is more historical evidence about him than about me. You are a history professor, I am surprised you state such thing
I work as a teacher at a high school, so I'm not a professor! Though I think "professeur" is French for teacher, so that is maybe what you meant. Personally I am pretty much convinced that Mohammed existed after having read various accounts. But his existence has been challenged academically, most notably by Robert Spencer. I have read parts of his book, and while I don't agree with his conclusion he does raise some valid points. That is what I meant when I said his existence can be debated.
What is debatable however is your description of him being a rapist having sex slaves etc. I 'd like to see the "Islamic sources" your claiming to take your description from.
With "Islamic sources" I mainly mean the koran and the hadith, and to a lesser extent the foundational texts of the Islamic schools of law (sharia) as well as current interpretations by Islamic scholars. I'm at work at the moment so I don't have my sources here, but just look it up. It is well established that Mohammed kept sex slaves and it is clearly justified by Islamic scripture.
I notice that you label "speculation" things that do not fit your opinion on the matter, and facts taken from "Islamic sources" thigs that do. That is very often a bad way of seeking the truth about a matter.
Show me a reliable pre-Islamic source then from the Arab world which talks about women's rights. They seem to be rather scarce. Whereas everything I am stating about Islam is indeed found in the Islamic sources. I believe you said you read the koran, surely its content is not new to you.
Slavery however was indeed not outlawed by Islam, well at least not clearly which is indeed shameful but not that surprising in the 6th century.
"Slavery was not outlawed by Islam"... now that is a way to put it. The practise is described in great detail in the sharia. Muslims imported and kept tens of millions of slaves over the centuries, mainly from Africa but also from Europe and India. Read "Race and Culture" by Thomas Sowell.
No, I wonder why the other outlets are ignoring it.
