This article on Syed's web site has a few priceless remarks. I thought I want to point them out to you, it really is worth a smile.

I found this article posted on the newsgroup by some other Muslim, who was very ignorant and extremely aggressive. I responded to him as he deserved from our long "dialog" that went before.

Only later did I find out that this came from Syed who is in general more polite and the other Muslim just posted his web page content. I would not have answered as sarcastic to Syed himself as I did here, but the factual content is still as false as it was. So, please look for the substance of the response, and understand the sarcasm from the circumstances for the reply.

| The Following is a corrupted web page on Islam with corrections of=20
| truth.
| 
| >http://www.indirect.com/www/thebible/islam.html#Basic

Well, this file first of all does not exist. At least my netscape says:
File does not exist on this server.

Wondering where you got it from. I happen to know this page from about
a year ago... and that it doesn't exist anymore for already quite some
time... Well, why harboring resentment even if the reason for it is 
long gone? I agree that this was a bad and uninformed article about Islam 
and I told that to the author myself. And he took it off the web.

| >    + Prayer(As-Salah):Bow down and pray five times a day toward
| >      Mecca. This is idolatry.
| 
| Idolatry is the practice of worshipping that which does not deserve
| worship.  We do not pray TO Mecca, but rather FACING it, as a
| directions for all muslims. By your definition all Jews are also idol
| worshipers for facing the wailing wall in Jerusalem.

I agree that was a real dumb comment from this author, but yours coming
up isn't displaying much more insight.

| The Christian practice of worship of the trinity can be seen as
| idolatrous and iconoclastic, because christians associate partners with
| Allah (SWT).

If you say so, it must surely be true.

Then you questioned several statements of the author demanding evidence
and declaring that there are not facts to be found. For example:

| What is the factual basis for all of this?  None.

| Again, there is no evidence whatsoever that any idols were not cleaned
| out of the Ka`bah.

| Okay, but once again you do not prove that ...

| THESE ABOVE TENETS HAVE ALL BEEN PROVED FALSE ACCORDING TO A MORE
| UNBIASED VIEW.

In light of these demands it is interesting to observe:

|  Many Christians and Jews do believe that Abraham (pbuh) built the
| Ka`bah with one of his sons and Jews used to worship there before it was
| taken over many years later by pagans, ...

?? I hever heard that Christians and Jews believe that. Would you support
your claims with some evidence?

| There is no strong factual basis of Khadija (ra) being a Roman Catholic.

Hm, but there IS some, that is what you are admitting?

| The Arabic word for God is Allah.   There might have been an idol named
| this, but this does not mean that that idol was believed to be by
| Muslims as a representation of Allah.  We are not like you Christians by
| proposing that our Deity must be seen and touched in the form of an
| icon.  We believe iconoclasm to be a form of shirk (association of
| partners with God) where people worship other than that is to be
| worshipped (Allah [SWT]).

Tell me ONE Christian authority who states that "our Deity must be seen and 
touched in the form of an icon."

I am sure, Catherine, being a member of the Orthodox Church, the only church 
with icons, can shed more light on this. But none believes that touching the 
icon is touching God. Goodness, so much ignorance.

| Not true.  In fact, the Black Stone was sent down by an Angel and is not
| at all to be considered worthy of worship, but rather an artifact and as=20
| an item of respect (for having come from heaven).

Hm, any ehm, sorry to use this word ... "evidence" for this claim?

| The Qur'an is protected from diverging=20
| into
| many versions like the Bible has.  Muslims proudly display one of the=20
| first
| written Qur'ans in Turkey as verbatim exactly similar to any Qur'an
| you'll find today.           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That expression deserves a prize. :)))  The second best prize, because the
best one is still to come.

verbatim ... exactly ... and we are all waiting for ... "identical", 
but what do we get?  "similar" :-(  If that is not the total anti-climax...

| Islam was not forced on Arabian tribes.  Again, there is no force in
| religion.  Many Arabs remained pagan, Christian, or Jew after the
| conquest of Makkah.  Islam was quickly spread throughout the Middle East
| as a readily accepted religion, rather than by the aword.  Had Muslims
| been instructed to spread Islam by the sword, there would be no
| non-muslims in the middle east, since Muslims constituted a vast
| majority. and BTW it's 1 in ever 5 of the world's poplulation well over
| 1.2 billion.

Logic, logic again. By your argument the Crusades must have been entirely 
peaceful. Because otherwise if they had been really using force and killed 
people there had not been any Muslim left...
And in fact, there are not only a few Muslims left, there were many left.
So incredibly peaceful was it.

| >    * There are close to one billion Muslims in the world. In the
| >      next ten years Islam will exceed the one billion mark!
| 
| Already has, by 2025 25% of the world's population will be Muslim

It is fantastic how the author is able to look 30 years into the future.
I don't even dare asking for the confidence of his prophecy.

| >From the time of Prophet Adam (pbuh), for whom you
| Christians have no respect, Allah (SWT) was referred to as Allah.  The
| disbelieving arabs use to speak arabic, so they called an idol Allah
| because it means "The Creator" and "Worthy of Worship."  Just because
| something is named a word of that language does not mean that it always
| meant that something.  What do we use the term "god" or "God" as in
| English?  The true believers always believed Allah (SWT) to be the one
| Worthy of Worship, because He is the Creator and Lord.  An arabic word
| does not automatically signify wrothiness of worship.

I am sure Adam spoke Arabic, as did all the believers at all time in all
countries. Yes, believers have always believed in the creator God, but
I think that at all times the Arabs were a small minority and most other
people have for sure NOT called God "Allah".

What dictionary did you find these meanings of "Allah" in? 
"the creator" ?  "Worthy of Worship" ?  I am sure these are true statements
about the true God, but "Allah" does not mean that, it just means "(the) God".

|   Interestingly enough however, Elohim does appear in the bible as a=20
| name
| for God which is in the royal singular (ie written as plural refering to
| one) The singular of is Ello(h)a.

That is called royal plural. BUT, the only problem is, it doesn't exist
in Biblical Hebrew. And the fact that it exists in English isn't much of
an argument here.

| I believe every word Jesus ever said, but I worship the one who sent him
| for "the messenger is not greater then the one who sent him"

Exactly. Nobody believes that Jesus is greater than God, but you think this
means he is not God. Nothing here is said about the possibility to be equal.

And you believe every word Jesus said ... well apart from those you reject
because they do contradict the Qur'an. But according to the Qur'an, looking
how many words Jesus spoke, he was one of the "nearly silent prophets"

| Some Christians say that Jesus (pbuh) never claimed to be God
| (Catholics).  Get it straight amongst yourselves.

???  I am pretty sure Catholics do believe that Jesus is and claimed to 
be God.

| The Bible is soiled; look at the many different versions.  Get it
| straight amongst yourselves.

I have 4 differnt versions of the Qur'an.

|   Where is Jesus' (pbuh) death recorded in history?  History and science
| even doubt that he has died.  We muslims know he has not.  Read the
| recent evidence about "the shrine" according to scientists.

Now, this was THE best statement. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>   "History and science even doubt that Jesus has died."  <<<<<<<<<

I really really want to get a few references for this one.
First prize for the quote of the year.

| Christ once again cannot forgive our sins.  Only Allah (SWT) can.  SO
| repent, read Qur'an, and discover true Islam.

Mark 2:10 Jesus claims exactly that. You may want to put your statement above
to the test, that you believe every word that Jesus said...

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