Originally posted by yavash
i think you are feeling a bit over sensitive - my dad use to tell me plenty of nasreddin stories and he was a proud dedicated muslim. he stories taught alot about spiritual / religious wisdom. i am proud that these stories exist and are shared... that islamic culture and stories are shared in a positive way teaching wisdom rather than people putting islamic culture down and identifying muslims as radical, violent and oppressive.

the vast majority of Muslims are not radical, violent and oppressive.

there are radical, violent, oppressive and evil people of every faith, national origin, ethnicity, creed and color.

Muslims, in my experience, are folks just like me.

I've been reading books both in praise of and critical of various aspects of Muslim history, culture, and legal theories.

So far, I've not found anything that would make me single Islam out from any number of other religions, especially the Abrahamic ones, for special criticism. The strengths and weaknesses seem about equal all around.

To me, Nasrudin is a figure very much like a universal character that stands for excessive cleverness, guile, while at the same time serving as a fount of wisdom. even at his own expense. He is like Coyote, or Loki --

He's not unique to Muslims, therefore -- he is an archetype you find in many other cultures.

You have to love those stories.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
There is no gospel of Jesus in the bible. There are gospels of Matthew, John, Luke and, Mark (and some others) but none written by Jesus.

if there was, it wouldn't be called the gospel of Jesus, it would be called jesus' autobiography.