Call me a hopeless optimist, but I prefer to try to find the highest potential in any system of thought (such as Islam) in order to understand how its most positive lessons might help me develop a true "philosophy for living on earth" (as Ayn Rand once called it). That positive focus doesn't mean I shrink from identifying what is negative about that system, but it does mean I recognize that there are almost always some good insights contained within any long-lasting system of ideas. I hope to find more such insights through my research into Islam. Is not true philosophy the love of wisdom in all its forms?