Mutual Respect

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 12:43 PM PDT

On An Inquiry Into Islam's Facebook page, I posted a quote by Bernard Lewis: "The object of jihad is to bring the whole world under Islamic Law."

And someone made this comment: "Respect other peoples belief and they will respect yours."

Under ordinary circumstances, that seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to say. But the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.

This is how I responded: "Should I respect another's belief that I am a kafir, an unbeliever, and therefore fair game for abuse? And if someone is following Allah's teaching that Muslims are the best of people and nonbelievers are the worst of people, will that person really respect my beliefs if I respect his? And what good would it do if he did? So I respect his belief that I am an unworthy human being, and he respects my belief that we should all live and let live? What has my offering of respect done for either of us?"