Posted by
JayPeriod on Tuesday, October 02, 2007 1:39:13 PM
During the Dark Ages, Christianity was used and manipulated by corrupt men. They extorted and killed innocent people, all in the name of religion, to further their own power. The power they wielded they claimed came from God, so the people were afraid to respond. Ultimately, though, Christianity came to a crossroads. The followers had to decide how history would remember their faith.
Men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley and others were determined they were not going to let corrupt, power hungry men distort and manipulate their faith, and their God. They stood up and faced imprisonment and death to make sure their faith was not turned into something despised by all men. Today, Islam sits at that same crossroads.
For the past 40 years we have seen men with dangerous, radical ideas rise and make war with humanity. All the while they claim to be doing the will of their god. They use the name of Islam to justify their terror and mayhem. At the same time, there are those, both within Islam and without, who claim these men are subverting the faith.
For the past 6 years, cries have come up from around the world, calling on peaceful followers of this faith to take a stand against such men and prove to the world that Islam is indeed a peaceful religion. For 6 years, those cries have failed to produce a uniform declaration denouncing these brutes. There are those who justify this silence claiming that for followers to rise up against such radicals would certainly mean death.
As I have stated, men in the Middle and Dark Ages suffered greatly for taking a stand. They refused to allow men to pervert their faith, even at the point of death. Many were brutally killed and tortured. Yet, they would not back down. It was larger than they were.
Now is the time for followers of Islam to stand up. If their faith is truly being subverted, they must begin to stand up and show the world. If not, the silence is deafening.