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[politicman]

113. try this example....

Sure you have some hierarchy in certain places, but that hierarchy means nothing except to the very people that follow that hierarchy.

For instance, Sunni Muslims have their Imams that they will listen to and follow, and then you have Shia Muslims that have their own Imams that have completely different interpretations of the religion.
Each sect believes that the other sects Imams are fake Muslims and as such that the people that follow them are also fake Muslims.


Not too mention that any tom, dick and harry can proclaim himself to be an Imam and build his own followers without ever getting any permission from any authority to do so.


This following example might be able to explain this a little more clearly:

Imagine you have one Muslim that is gay. All the Imams he speaks to clearly tell him that he is sinning and should change himself because but he doesn't want to accept this because he believes he was born gay and cant change it.
So he keeps looking until he finds an Imam that is way more moderate and modern and eventually he comes upon a self-proclaimed Imam that agrees that homosexuality is not a sin.

Now this Muslim can continue to consider himself a true Muslim, even though very many Muslims consider him to be sinning or even not a true Muslim.


Take that example and adapt it to the terrorists we see nearly every day on the news. They are recruited or find Imams that bend and distort the religion by preaching that terrorist actions are good and that every non-believer and fake Muslim needs to die.
These terrorists continue to think of themselves and call themselves Muslims because that one self-proclaimed Imam told them they were, BUT other Muslims with less extremist Imams think of these terrorists as fake Muslims, etc.

So which one is the true representation of a real Muslim?