Dalai Lama Defends Islam

[Lightkeeper]

Dalai Lama defends Islam as peaceful religion
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM – 3 days ago

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) — The Dalai Lama said Sunday that "it's totally wrong, unfair" to call Islam a violent religion.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, appearing at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, offered a defense of Islam in response to a question about the rise of violent religious fundamentalism. He added that he has made a point of reaching out to Muslims since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Dalai Lama arrived at Lehigh on Thursday for a series of talks on a 600-year-old Buddhist text. He took a break Sunday to lecture on "Generating a Good Heart," and afterward took questions from Lehigh President Alice P. Gast that had been submitted in advance by the public.

Asked why so many Americans are depressed and anxious, he joked: "I'm the wrong person to ask. You should ask Americans." Then he answered that U.S. society is too competitive and that people always want "something more, something more, something more."

The Associated Press: Dalai Lama defends Islam as peaceful religion

Do you agree with him?

Do you agree that Americans are to competitive and always want something more?

[RevKathyV]

I think americans are very competitive.

I agree that it is unfair to label Islam as violent. People are acting out their own frustrations and doing it in the name of Islam......which is causing some problems...so some followers of Islam are interpreting things to fit the actions that they want to display....just as a lot of people do in various situations....

[evangelicalhumanist]

Clearly Americans are very competitive. That's not necessarily the problem, it's the incessant demand (shared by many around the world) for "something more, something more." It is, in the end, unsustainable, and I think many of us know that. Since we can see that it is our own behaviours that are harming our planet, and yet we don't want to change our behaviours, we wind up with a bad case of cognitive dissonance. That's bound to make anybody depressed and anxious.