IS ISLAM AS BAD AS SOME PEOPLE THINK IT IS?

From up here I can have different perspectives and options, but I need the freedom to choose.

So, let us talk religion. If one has the choice about which religion he/she follows, I wonder which one of the many religions they would follow?

The choices are many. There is Christianity, of which there are many versions. We have the Anglican, the Catholic, the Pentacostalist, the Orthodox religions of the Middle East, Russia and the Mediterranean, the TV evangelist, and the various other independent religious establishments scattered around the world. You could also choose from Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, worshipping your ancestors, paganism, or atheism. And, finally, you could choose Islam and become a Muslim.

So, which religion would you be most likely to choose, if you were to be given relevant information on all or most of them, and the freedom to choose which you follow, without being in any way persecuted for your choice.

Would it be Sikhism, with its marshal undertones and use of the dagger as a religious symbol, and its ritual around how the men care for their hair?  Or could it be Hinduism, with its emphasis on the special place the cow has in their society, and belief in Reincarnation?  Would it be Buddhism, with its emphasis on pursuing a peaceful life - although we saw a violent side of some Buddhists in their conflict with Muslims in Burma a few years ago - ?  
What about Catholicism, with its barbaric and genocidal acts of the past, carried out under the Cross and for the supposed glory of its god, and its continuing oppression of poor Catholic people by insisting that they cannot and should not use contraception? Or would it be the comparatively staid and even flat European Anglican approach to religion? A religion which seem to be now accepting people are no longer willing to unquestioningly accept its doctrine, or the existing of god as self-evident, or essential to their daily lives. 

Or probably the more emotional and spirited overindulgence of the Black churches approach to religion? Or, how about Islam, with its hatred for 'the unbelievers', its oppression of men and women, but especially women, it 'jihadist' tenet and its lack of capacity to initiate and promote human growth enlightenment? And, probably in common with Catholicism, its intolerance towards people enjoying themselves?

Or you could choose Judaism, with its long tradition of particularistic rituals, and its insistence on its divine right to the Jews having an homeland in the Middle East.

This week I saw an article in The Guardian newspaper stating that a woman MP in Iran has been suspended for shaking the hand of a man.  Yes, there was no suggestion that the man has a vile disease which he could have transmitted by shaking the MP's hand, or that the handshake was in anyway a voyeuristic attempt by either parties to have a sexual encounter. Shaking hands is a normal way of greeting people, except, it seems, in countries which have made the normal relationships between men and women, the business of the state, when it so clearly should be none of their damn business. 

In the same newspaper, their is a comment by a commenter on the paper's Comment is Free section, noting that he/she is from a Muslim country, and that of the many Muslims he/she has met, none of them would accept that men and women are equal, or that Muslims and people who are not Muslims are equal. Also that none of them would see jihad as not having relevance today.  

Can you believe that people can be so narrow-minded and lacking in enlightenment in the 21 century?

How is it, you might ask, that apparently thinking people, who have such abundant evidence from all over the world, as well as in there own countries, could have such skewed and ignorant views?  It raises this question: In Islam, does being 'a believer' means believing what you are told by and about the Quran and the Prophet, irrespective of what other sources - including your own eyes and intelligence - tell you?  

Is this why an orthodox Muslim would see a woman - including his/her own mother - as inferior? Why some would consider it right to stone people to death, for adultery (when what people do consensually in their bedrooms is not something the state or religion should concern themselves with) ? Is it why Orthodox Muslims would approve of jihad, and hates people who are not of the Muslim faith?  It would appear that, like many if not most religion, Islam requires a very high level of deception of and self-deception from the 'believer', in order to make him/her 'a believer' or act like one.

And what about not believing in any religion or divine being, but just getting on with the business of living and doing so cooperatively with your fellow humans, while you eschew the hatred, 'exceptionalism', secret rituals, and deceptions and lies which sustain all religious beliefs?

So, yes, if you were to be freed from the religious faiths in which you were born a prisoner, and has the freedom - something which some religions, but, especially Islam, it seems to me, does not ordinarily allows Muslims - to choose the one which is most likely to meet your vision of yourself and the world you would want to live in, what would you choose?

I suspect that Islam, like other mainstream religions, would be in massive decline.

How nice it would be if everybody could enjoy this Sunday, without have to be mindful of the religious intrusions which affect the lives of millions of people around the world?

Living only or mainly for god can be very isolating and bereft of feedback

OWOHROD