[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

Again I'll explain in simpler words:
It was stated, that Christians are called Christians because of Christ, so Muslims could be as well called Muhammedans because of Muhammad. This reasoning is flawed, as - as stated above - there is a major difference between roles played by Jesus called Christ and Muhammad in Christian and Muslim religions, accordingly. Christ is worshipped, thus Christianism, Muhammad is not, thus not Muhammedanism.

But as I see some people here are not going to skip using the term, I'm not going to discuss it anymore. Those who don't wish to insult anyone nor to use terms that have been "tossed aside" by Western researchers and experts will just not use it, as there are other apropriate terms. Amen.

Stalin also was not worshipped as a deity, but still his followers are called Stalinists. Buddha originally was not worshipped as a God, but there are "buddhists". Those who believe in democracy are called "democrats".

Get over it, you defend a lost cause.

Muhammedans may worship this or that, it is not important, the point is they obey what Muhammad told them to obey, they worhsip what he defined is worth to be worshipped. You can turn and twist it as you want, not Allah, not Abraham, not Gabriel not the sriptures is the central thing in Islam, but Muhammad, he is the orgin, the centre, the cause. If he would have died as a young boy, there would be nothing like Allah, and Islam, that much divine and omnipresent it all is... Muhammad has defined all and everything what Islam is about. Later, kings and local rulers used parts of his system to found their own power basis by referring to the authority of Muhammad - like Paul did, and the churches. The scriptures of Islam, Quran and Hadith, as far as I am aware, do not tell any story of "Allah" revealing himself directly to any other man or woman on earth than Muhammad, never. He did never adress mankind himself, he never revealed himself. This is what makes Muhammad the central figure of Islam, the undispensable figure, if you want - he claimed to be the only witness of that Allah exists. Without Muhammad - no Allah, no Quran, no nothing. They even would not be missed. It is for pure random chance only, I suppose, that being elected by Allah to act as the divine master's voice suited Muhammad's personal power interests and egocentric agendas so nicely and perfectly.

The only one making flawed statements here is you. It is amazing how willingly you accept to give up simple academical precision and definition, to put it behind religious demands like in the dark age of Europe, were it was very much the same. One could thing about giving up the decimal system in mathematics, so that the diabolic number 6 no longer would have to be in use. Oh this wonderful thing called political correctness... but you are doing damage, it is no harmless thing that you demand. For you defend a way that demands everything that argues Islam's self-percpetion to be givcen up, for reasons of "not offending Islam", and showing "tolerance". Islam is a highly irrationall, selfcentred system of bitter inner contradictions and circular logic, it ask all questions about itself in a way that from the very beginning it is clear that it will get only self-verification as an answer. That any kind of objective analysis and critical reason from moutside is perceived as highly threatening and miust be prevented at all costs, is only understandable. But to allow this demand means to prevent any negative consequences that directly derive from Islam being the way it is - so that there is no reason and no motivation left to look critically and analytically at itself. You do not ask questions if you do not know that there are reasons to ask questions. It simply does not come to your mind. And this way of limiting oneself and crippeling human reason and intellect hardly can be an acceptable answer to backwardness and medieval superstition that demands to be treated as an equal to the western civilisation and set up demands to rule all man and all world, in the end - by referring to the words of an old desert bandit who lived one and a half millenia ago and labelled his very earthly powerpolitics as "religion" to silence any opposition and criticism.