You always write perfectly understandable posts, and the you put something in it that is so hard for me to understand.
I try to be understandable... I'm not the best though... ADHD prevents too much straight thought...
Why would this be true? You don't understand polytheism? I'm neither but I understand monotheism and polytheism just fine, I also respect it.
To put in context: There is what the Quran says, and there is the rationalizations people make to justify what the Quran says.
I get where you are coming from, and from a respect a person's belief standpoint I agree. When you start talking about merging lives together, I think it becomes important to understand the why's, so that both parties can keep from insulting the other accidentally. For this example, She might understand that he doesn't want Idols, and may even understand that it is religious and important. But then she brings in a photo of Shiva (is that the 6 armed lady?) or a medallion that she remembered getting when she was young for "protection" or "health" or whatnot. To her these may not be bog deals, but to a devout Muslim, it is quite clear. Then even if he throws it out she may get mad as it was a thoughtful gift to her.
I'm personally fine with just following the Quran and trusting in it's authority. I find the reasons to do so redundant and often flawed.
from a purely religious sense, this is the right thing. Only Allah would know all the benefits or reasons. However some things we can find some reasons for, and confidently say that is why that is the way Allah has set forth. I think as a Muslim we must remember that whatever we find as a reason isn't necessarily all, therefore we can't slide by the command because we can fix that issue. For instance, eating Pork. We know pork is full of cholesterol, some say it is easily infested with worms or diseases that transmits to us since the flesh is similar to our own, etc. That doesn't mean that if we cook the heck out of it and drain the fat that it somehow becomes OK. No we must not "Eat of the swine" period...
Why for hundreds of years did Muslims paint pictures and create mosaics with images of Mohammed and Allah? And now will destroy museum pieces with images of ordinary people?
Farhan I think covered this as briefly as I would want to, essentially it is from cultures who had not fully understood the whats and hows. Turkish for instance still uses "Evil Eyes" and while they are art, they are essentially idols as some people believe they hold powers (similar to dream catchers and horseshoes over a door). These acts are done, but that doesn't make them Islamic.
One thing is written in the Koran; the other is NOT written in the Koran (Shariah). Is this correct?
No, Shariah is a collection of Rules based on Quran and Hadiths. Quran being the inarguable source, while Hadith is largely debated. Some Parts of Shariah are well known, while others are not obvious. In essence there is 1 Shariah, but there are many different Ideas as to what that is. There are core ones, that aren't debated usually, but there's always someone out there wanting to question, and then we have to look at proofs from our sources (Quran and Hadith) to determine the answer. This decision is loosely Fiqh (or Scholarly opinion of law... if someone has a better definition please do so)...
Really? Hmmm......makes me think it weren't so sacred to begin with then....if that is all it takes to diminishm
Ironically this quip is a great summation of my point to ACOT, you see the errors of some people as diminishing sacredness. While I (and many other Muslims) would simply say they were wrong, and not accept the paintings (possibly destroy them if they came upon our possession in a rightful way). For someone to paint a portrait of Allah, the most accurate way, would be to have a blank piece of Paper. In our view, Allah has no form, at least not that we could comprehend in this existence.
