If that slogan appears odd because it’s not the usual variant, „Islam means peace“, you’re a bigot!

If there were so-called „honor killings“ in the Church of Scientology, if Scientologists conquered nations and proclaimed Scientology dictatorships, if only men were allowed a say and women were veiled, homosexuals discriminated against, bloggers flogged, Israel flags burned and fatwas proclaimed, they’d certainly be accepted with multicultural understanding.

What many people criticize about Scientology is tolerated in other religious ideologies.

1. The lives of those who leave Scientology become a living hell.

In many Islamic countries apostasy is punishable by death. Many Muslims in Germany receive death threats if they want to leave Islam; some threats have been carried out. Nevertheless, there are no state-funded programs for Muslims who want to leave Islam, however for Scientologists there is such an assistance program.

2. Scientology involves itself in the economy and pressures people if they do not live according to the principles of Scientology.

In Germany, laws are tolerated which allow ecclesiastical organizations to run publicly funded hospitals, nursing homes, kindergartens and other institutions; their employees may be fired if they are living „in sin“, i.e. lead a sexual relationship outside of marriage. The Church as employer is allowed by the State to climb into the beds of their employees. Homosexuals and divorcees can be fired. The Catholic Church is even granted the right to gender discrimination when appointing priests, without compromising State support.

3. Scientology seeks political influence.

Christian churches and Muslim organizations have the right to organize religious education in public schools. Christian holidays are stipulated by the State. In some German states, not only Christians, but everyone else is not allowed to dance, make music or perform theater on Good Friday, on pain of sensitive fines.

4. Scientology seeks world domination.

Islam maintains many dictatorships worldwide. Many of them have the constitutional intention to submit the world to Islam. There are Muslim bombs. When has a Scientologist detonated a bomb?

5. Scientology is only interested in the money of its members.

The German government collects church taxes! But, Scientology has to get its money directly from its members. The German government carries out this nasty work for the Christian churches.

At one time, Christianity and Islam were just religious sects. They may have been more charitable than Scientology, but historically and currently they are also more violent.

Religions are not peaceful! Religious people can be peaceful, but there’s not a religion which claims a powerful God (and may He be so merciful) to whom one must submit!

In the Jewish Tanach it is written in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 3, 1-14:

“There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven: A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted. A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for building. A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing. A time for throwing stones away, a time for gathering them; a time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing. A time for searching, a time for losing; a time for keeping, a time for discarding. A time for tearing, a time for sewing; a time for keeping silent, a time for speaking. A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace. What do people gain from the efforts they make? I contemplate the task that God gives humanity to labour at. All that he does is apt for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does. I know there is no happiness for a human being except in pleasure and enjoyment through life. And when we eat and drink and find happiness in all our achievements, this is a gift from God. I know that whatever God does will be for ever. To this there is nothing to add, from this there is nothing to subtract, and the way God acts inspires dread.”

Jesus says aloud Matthew, 10: 34-35:

„Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword. For I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

And the Koran is in Sura 5:

“Because of that, we decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.

„Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.”

War is a fact in every religion! War appears in the Torah, in the Bible and in the Koran. In the Koran, war is described frighteningly clear as a means to an end under certain circumstances. Mohammed was a military commander! That’s religion!

It took some time and not just a little blood-letting, until the writings of Christianity – which have influenced me – could be criticized and laughed at. I’m not willing to sacrifice the achievements of the Enlightenment. Whoever says a religion means peace is lying, and will therefore be criticized sharply!

I have many Christian friends. When I ask them what they think of the homophobic and misogynistic passages in the Bible, they tell me that the Bible is just a book and those passages can’t be taken literally, and that there is indeed a lot silly stuff in the Bible. That’s a „historical-critical exegesis“ approach to understanding the Bible.

Anyone who takes each word in the Bible literally, can not be for gay rights and women’s equality! In the New Testament the following is written in 1 Corinthians 11:5–9:

”But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.”

Worldwide there are about 2.3 billion Christians, which is one in three inhabitants of the earth! Most Christians do not abide by all the laws of the Gospel! They are good Christians because they do not blindly follow the Gospel. Worldwide there are 1.6 billion Muslims. What’s their take on the Koran?

It’s repeated often that the terrorist attacks in New York, London, Madrid and Paris have nothing to do with Islam. That’s utter nonsense! The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the genocidal conquests in South America, the pogroms in Europe, Martin Luther’s anti-Judaism, all of these events have something to do with Christianity. On the other hand, the attacks in New York, London, Madrid and Paris have of course something to do with Islam! During their attacks, Islamists shout: „Allah is great!“ That means they murder in the name of the Koran. The Islamic State (IS) rules like the NSDAP had ruled in the German Reich! In all of the seven countries where homosexuality is punishable by death, we find Islamic governments: Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Nigeria.

I’ve read both the Koran and the Bible. After all, almost every second Earthling is either a Christian or a Muslim; I want to know my neighbors. Jesus appears in both books, but He doesn’t die on the cross in Islam. The Gospel is a conglomeration of texts written by various authors and these often contradict each other. The Koran, however, has only one author with a clear intention. That author was a military commander!

The main character in the Gospels was a carpenter who hung out with prostitutes, sinners, and alcoholics. He’s often providing people with wine. Jesus was a hippie who refused to intervene in secular politics. The main character in the Koran is a warrior with a penchant for wives under ten years of age. He intervened with pronounced violence in world affairs and declared in the name of God that it’s best for followers to submit entirely. In the Gospel, Jesus died miserably on the cross, but a well-contented Mohammad ascended from a distant city up to heaven. I think it makes a difference whether the main character of a book is a poor carpenter who miserably dies at the end, or a military commander who is content with winning wars.

So if Christians can creatively derive a warlike religion from the life and deeds of a poor carpenter, then what can Muslims make out of a successful warrior?

The terrorists of the Islamic State claim that their deeds were inspired by Mohammed. That’s very true if you’ve read the Koran. The Islamic State does nothing what Mohammed had not done. This statement is not a lie, offensive or racist!

Racism is judging people on the basis of ethnic origin. However, the assessment of a person’s beliefs and belief systems is called criticism. Whoever judges a Muslim because he may be an Arab is a racist; but whoever judges an Arab because he is Muslim, criticizes an ideology. Those who criticize a Jew because he has a Jewish mother is a racist, but a person who criticizes him because of a lot of funny things Moses did, is Mel Brooks!

If an ideology can’t be criticized, then it’s totalitarian. Whether Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or communism, the right to criticize and laugh at beliefs ensures they remain human. Whoever says that the soldier Mohammed, who lived about one and a half thousand years ago, shouldn’t be caricatured, but remains silent when a baker in Mecca is executed because he converted to Christianity, is truly a fundamentalist fanatic and deserves criticism.

It’s high time that Islam be thrown off its worldly throne as was done to Christianity. It will only be possible with education, criticism, mockery and scorn! Was that islamophobic? Counter-question: Was the Enlightenment christophobe?

(Translation: William Wires)