My brother the Islamist

Just watched this documentary (on ITV3 I think it was, I'm not sure), and it didn't so much shock me as anger me. The film centered around a white, middle class British male who's step-brother has recently converted to Islam, or should I say, a fundamentalist form of Islam that fights for the Sharia law in the UK and is fueled on hatred, violence and oppression.

I simply don't understand. I look at Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism, mainstream Islam and all sorts of different religions and I see people full of hope, love, peace, empathy, understanding and kindness and I look at this fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and I see blood and hatred, so much hatred that I can't even begin to comprehend where these people are coming from.

I don't believe that any God would rule that women be stoned to death for adultery, theives hands be chopped off and eternal damnation for women who show their flesh in public. If the one true God is Allah and that is his rule than I'm afraid I'm going to hell because under no circumstance could I ever condone murder and violence in the name of religion.

People say that the Christian God is the moral voice inside our heads, our conscience, telling us right from wrong and guiding us in a direction that benefits people. They say he is forgiving, loving and that he even sent a part of himself down to be sacrificed for our sins. This is the kind of God that I would be proud to say I worship, not one that forces me to condemn people who don't share my beliefs.

The justification for wanting Sharia law in the UK is that a prophecy was made in the holy book that said that one day the world would be under Islamic rule. Personally, if I was a muslim and I believed without question in everything my holy book said, I would not try and force this prophecy to come true: I would sit with a quiet confidence and wait for it to come true. Prophecies were made about Jesus, prophecies that seemed very unlikely at the time they were made but prophecies that happened none the less. If the world really is going to be under Islamic rule that the world will be under Islamic rule, the prophecy will come true without it needing to be forced. Chill out.

(This isn't an attack on the majority of muslims. I have friends who are muslim. I have family who are muslim. This is simply an attack on the God that extremists believe is the true God. It is an attack on the Sharia law.)