A Dialog with Iskandar Shah (Part I)

Prologue

Iskandar Shah 2 on Tun Dr. Mahathir's Blog Chedet on the Topic
of 'PEMBUNUHAN WANITA BERZINA (Death of an Adulteress)'  in
an excerpt remarked that

10-In the meanwhile,when the flow into the religion of one true God has 

become insignificant,the flow out of Muslims of the one true God to the 

‘three-in one’ God instead has now become very significant. Millions in 

Africa and Indonesia are now officially murtads.

 My reply in context:

Does Iskandar know why millions of Africans or Indonesians have found 

Yeshua. Its not just disillusionment. Yeshua has begun to appear in dreams to 

oppressed Muslims. Those oppressed by their own Brethren. No one preached

to them. They actually seek out Missionaries. Islam’s inner conflict which is 

growing exponentially. I’m afraid, if Israel is gone from the middle-east.

 Someone else is going to be the scapegoat. I’m pretty sure it is going to be 

Christians. Actually, the Coptics are the targets now. Lastly, Missionary Work.

 Why not? If there is ‘no compulsion in religion’(Surah 2:256) then one should

 be free to freely leave the faith or is that just a mantra? 

Iskandar responded with 11 points which i feel needs to be addressed. 

I will list 3 in Part I 

 

1-Dear dtan I am not keen to start a Muslim-Christian dialogue here but I must 

respond somehow to you.

Iskandar, I hope you will respond to my invitation on this Blog

2-The only thing you people had succeeded we Muslims has not is the ability to

 get out of the crutches of the church that had kept you in the dark ages a few 

centuries ago -at a time we were  the ones enlightened with a Golden Age just 

before our ‘church’ took over.

I am well aware of Ancient Arabic contributions of Algebra and Astronomy
prior to the introduction of Islam

The Church (Chatolic) in the Dark Ages was popularly potrayed as some malignant
'Anti- Science' which could not be further from the truth. Eg. Galileo controversy.

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 Persecution of Galileo [http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-galileo-controversy]

The Church is not anti-scientific. It has supported scientific endeavors for centuries. 

During Galileo’s time, the Jesuits had a highly respected group of astronomers and 

scientists in Rome. In addition, many notable scientists received encouragement and 

funding from the Church and from individual Church officials. Many of the scientific

advances during this period were made either by clerics or as a result of Church funding. 

Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated his most famous work, On the Revolution of the Celestial 

Orbs, in which he gave an excellent account of heliocentricity, to Pope Paul III. Copernicus

 entrusted this work to Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran clergyman who knew that Protestant 

reaction to it would be negative, since Martin Luther seemed to have condemned the new 

theory, and, as a result, the book would be condemned. Osiander wrote a preface to the book,

in which heliocentrism was presented only as a theory that would account for the movements 

of the planets more simply than geocentrism did—something Copernicus did not intend. 

Ten years prior to Galileo, Johannes Kepler published a heliocentric work that expanded on Copernicus’ work. As a result, Kepler also found opposition among his fellow Protestants
for his heliocentric views and found a welcome reception among some Jesuits who were 
known for their scientific achievements. 
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Note, the Vatican has a full time Priest (Phd Canadian Astronomer) who works at the

Vatican Observatory today

3-We Muslims had been kept closed by these self righteous and insecured religious

 authorities who are quick to condemn us to apostacy the moment we challenge 

their wrong practises,like holding on to time bound secondary documents that not

 only may be irrelevant for another time,it is also doubted to be authentic materials

 in the first place.Without even allowing a fair debate they have condemned these 

critical minded people apostates,so that the mainstream will be kept away from them.

I've brought this issue up with Parameswara 2  in another conversation per Uthmani

standardization of the Quran. Over 200 original manuscripts were torched. The excuse

given that the others were defective. Yet for some reason burning manuscripts are
acceptable. Also, recent discovery of the Sana Manuscripts in Yemen which predate
the Uthmani version under lock and key. Why? Why then claim that the Quran is the
direct revelation i.e. word from God if it was re-written and re-compiled several times?