Date: Fri Aug 16 13:01:24 EDT 2002
Abu Muhammad Aqil from Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia 43000 whose e-mail address is azminita2000@yahoo.com has this to say--

Too bad you forgot that Islam is a religion of war ... and that there is ample evidence of that. http://www.faithfreedom.org Sahih Bukhari: Volume 5, Book 58, Number 188: Narrated 'Amr bin Maimun: “During the pre-lslamic period of ignorance I saw a she-monkey surrounded by a number of monkeys. They were all stoning it, because it had committed illegal sexual intercourse. I too, stoned it along with them.” So according to this hadith, first there were muslim monkeys and only later there appeared muslim people? Islamic Darwinism?
I would like to clarify this misunderstanding of the athar: Firstly, the one who uttered the above words was not the Prophet Muhammad SAW, but one of his companions by name of 'Amr bin Maimun. Secondly, the key phrase in the above athar is "During the pre-lslamic period of ignorance." The two points above should make it clear that 'Amr bin Maimun related his thinking or perception prior to the advent of Islam: how he ridiculously believed that even monkeys commited adultry. This means that Islam has elevated the status of mankind by making them more rational. If the above athar is used to condem Islam with regards to treatment towards animals, then the Bible has the following to say: Leviticus 20 15 " 'If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal. 16 " 'If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. Abu Muhammad Aqil