Muslims may succeed to force non-Muslims (or even enlightened Muslims) in not offending their religion by threatening them with assassinations, bombs and bullets, but increasingly they have a harder time to sell Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance. In fact sincere respect is rarely gained through intimidation. -- Omid Paydar
This quote by Paydar is significant, especially to me. I once asked a Muslim fellow if we could become friends, and discuss Islam according to essence of jihad (religious education of unbeliever).
He consulted with his father, who forbade him to do so. My chance at befriending a Muslim was dashed..
I do not know of any religion, other than some Protestant sect of Christianity, that specifically forbids a believer from being with an unbeliever in such a fashion.
Apart from a strange email discussion with a Maltese Catholic who believed that meditation was the gateway to the Devil, most Christians I have talked to soon stopped talking to me when I expressed my personal philosophy on God with respect to Buddhism.
Indeed, intolerance might the root of the problem Muslims face in today's world. I have found on the whole that there are many different schools of thought in Islam, some of which espouse Paydar's description of intolerance.
On the whole, enlightened Muslims who have incorporated the virtue of loving-kindness are more tolerant of non-Muslims than the Muslims who threaten violence to force everyone else in not offending their religion.
However, mass media has been filtering out the tolerance of enlightened Muslims and focusing on the intolerance of radical Muslims to sell the product called "Muslim terrorists".
This kind of anti-Muslim propaganda contrasts with the message that the majority of Muslims are tolerant of the West.
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