Quantum wrote on Sep 24
th, 2014 at 7:56pm:
Where do you keep getting this shlt from? Islam has a very powerful hierarchy system. It is part of the reason why their religion and politics are nearly inseparable. Even more bizarre is how you keep saying Christianity has a strong hierarchy when in fact it doesn't. The Catholic church certainly does, but protestant churches got hid of a hierarchy system centuries ago. You will not find anyone with supreme power or say in Presbyterian, Baptist, congregation, etc, churches. Instead, they do everything they can to avoid anyone having too much power.
Sorry Quantum, if you'd read the whole thread you would have seen that i have already admitted to being a novice on anything Islam ....
John Smith wrote on Sep 24
th, 2014 at 10:08am:
The problem with Islam as I see it (
and I am certainly not an expert in the Islamic religion
) is that any pshychotic megalomaniac is free to interpret any passage as they want ... at least with the christian religions, there is a head of the church that will ultimately dictate how the church interprets a certain passage
As I understand it, a Catholic priest answers to his bishop who answer to his Archbishop who answers to his Cardinal who answers to the pope. However, no such structure exists in Islam ... I understood that any Iman was free to interpret the Quoran as they see fit. I also was led to believe that no formal training is required to become an Iman ...
If I am wrong, can you tell me what the structure is and who is the head of the Islamic Church?