Imagine that you were living in Eastern Europe in the 8th century and you have been hearing on the forced conversion campaigns to Christianity made by Charlemagne against the heathen Saxons and Germanic tribes. What would be your impression on Christianity?
Imagine that you were living in a village in the 10th century and you have heard about the atrocities of the Crusades who murdered Muslims and Jews and committed horrible crimes in the name of Jesus. This was all what you knew about Christians and Christianity in your environment where no Christians were living.
Suppose that you were living in the 16th century in Europe and you were watching the Catholics and Protestants fighting each other, how would you see the image of Christianity?
Imagine you were living in the Middle Ages where the Muslims had a great civilization that affected Europe where Christians was living in ignorance.
Each one of the above has many similar examples in history, but the question here is:
Do you think that the above examples represent the real image of Christianity? Based on your Christian belief, I don’t think so. You’d say that people should search the truth and know Christianity from the Bible and from the teachings of Jesus not from what they hear about it.
However, if you were not a Christian and you were exposed to the above events you would have a very negative image on Christianity.
So it all depends a lot on the environment you were raised in and it depends on the media around you and how it affects your way of thinking.
The point here is: Muslims think about it the same way. Muslims don’t think that ISIS or other extremist groups represent the real image of Islam since they know what Islam is. So if you want to be fair, you should apply the same standards on Islam.
Don’t let what you are hearing in the media or the surrounding environment gives you a wrong impression or idea on Islam. Know Islam from the Quran and from the teachings of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ not from the media.
Don’t listen with one ear!!
Listen from both sides, search and then you can judge. Never judge based on listening from one side.
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