Ouh no. I am far from religious.

(Note: This was taken from TheOatmeal.com. Some may find him vulgar but some of the things he said make sense)

 In my honest opinion (IMHO), a religion should make someone a better person. It should make us happy and help us to inspire people. It should not (including but not limited to) make us condemn, hinder, hurt or ridicule someone who have different belief.

 Islam, based on my understanding, is no different. Then, pray tell, why in 2013, there are still Muslims who do all the things mentioned above that should not be done?

 Al-Ghazali has been noted as an Islamic philosopher that lended his thoughts about economy (feel free to browse through The Economics Book) (among others), the Father of Chemistry was Jabir Ibn Haiyan (known as Geber in Europe) while famous astronomers include Al-Bitruji (Alpetragius in Europe) and Al-Zarqali (Europe calls him Arzachel). Al Biruni, if you must know, was said to be \"one of the greatest scientists of all times\". I suppose many of us remember that Algebra was derived from Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, the famous book of Abu Abdullah Mohammad Ibn Musa al-Khawarizmi? If that\'s not a contribution, I do not know what is.

 FYI, Khawarizmi was touted to be the greatest mathematician alive.

 Al-Kindi was a geographer, physicist, mathematician and an expert in music too, among others. Omar Khayyam was both a popular poet and a scientists, not too far from Da Vinci I guess (although Omar Khayyam mostly contributed to algebra). Who quotes from Jalal al-Din Mohammad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Husain al-Rumi ? I know I do. Up to this day, many people still quote Rumi\'s spiritual poems, despite race(s) or religion(s). There are other names too like Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Al-Nafis (who trained the famous surgeon Ibn al-Quff al-Masihi).

 Muslim scholars never stray away from science, as illustrated above. Co-tangent, trigonometry, tangent and sine came from the Muslim. Astronomy has always been our interest as we try to determine when Ramadhan starts. Medicine, sociology, geography....it takes real effort to jot down everything. So tell me, how are we reduced to such paranoid folks? How can we be so afraid of wishing the health or the safety of another person who have different religion, saying that we are afraid of our own faith? Why was it a need to be concerned that the phrase Allah should only belong to the Muslims in Malaysia (there are 99 names, my goodness. Just pick one if you insist).

 There should not be any case of confusion in the name of God or what happens when you wish someone of their festivities. It\'s a norm in the Middle East where other religions do exist. I believe when a religion promotes harmony between mankind, it also means respect and tolerance. Not wanting to acknowledge someone\'s festivities and their belief is not, as far as I can see it.

 The first Quranic verse received by our Prophet was \'Read\'. Ask ourselves, do we read (as in research and understand, ask around, dig for information) on certain stuff or just read one line and just believe in it? It\'s a waste of the brain granted by God if we do not seek knowledge while trying to at least logically think of a subject.

 If we put up the argument \' we are better than other people because we are Muslim\', what sets us apart from anti-Muslims who see us as a bunch of trigger-happy, extermists lot? If we hate labels, maybe we should stop too.

 It\'s 2013 and people are still boycotting so-called products that came from Jew like Starbucks, McDonald, Johnson & Johnson and I do not know what else (funny thing is, the boycott was done on Facebook that was created by Zuckerberg, a Jew). How sure are we that the proceeds are sent to Israel? What if the money is used by a university student who worked as a part-time worker and wants to pay his/ her medicine school fee? What if it\'s not true (the remittance to Israel thingy) and what will we answer God during judgment day? For me, the only thing that needs to be banned is cigarette.

 If Ahmad Deedat, a fisherman, thought too high of himself as a Muslim, the infamous debate will never happen. Imagine if the debate never took place, will there be a reference for us to make?

 The Islamic scholars laid foundation for further development in science. They have done that so shouldn\'t we move on to create technology? As far as I can see, that was not the case. We had to step back to a few hundred thousand years and start focusing on petty little things.

 I say, if you cannot improve, at least try not to ruin it.

 Again, no religions will promote mockery, condemnation and such (IMHO). Let us all think about this today.

Sources:

 [1] IslamWeb http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?id=134284&page=articles

 [2]Muslim Scholars and ThinkersThrough the 14th Century http://www.princeton.edu/~humcomp/scholars.html

 [3] Islam Awareness http://www.islamawareness.net/