Opinion from the desk of the Editor
It is nothing new…..religious bigotry, that is…….it has been around a long time….but in the last decade it has gotten out of control. This post will most likely not be high on the must read list for the radical Right.
My problem is blaming Muslims for the acts of some….granted those acts are horrible and not worthy of comment….but to blame ALL Muslims for their actions is like blaming all Christians for the acts of Westboro Baptist church…..only a scream moron or a rabid racist would do such a thing.
I have read a few of the accounts by Christians that have lived through some dastardly things…….they recount the actions in vivid detail. I do not doubt that the stuff occurred….but the acts described are NOT SOP for Muslims.
There are about 1.2 billion Muslims in the world…….most have never fired a weapon or committed an act of terrorism or burnt a flag or effigy……..again would you blame ALL Christians for the act of the moronic few?
Not all Muslims believe the way the extremists do……those are salafists or wahhabis…in other words the extreme fundamentalists…..you know….kinda like the fundamentalist within the Christian belief………believers that are rabid……..no difference.
For those that are not regular visitors……in my younger days I worked in North Africa and the Middle East…..so I was exposed to Muslims every day and I found them nothing like the portraits painted by some…….they were very friendly, generous to a fault, even to strangers, strong sense of humor, strong family values and very devout in their religion. I still keep in touch with friends from the past and not one of them carries an AK or committed an act of terrorism and couple of them would have good reason to resort to violence but have not……that says a lot for their character in my opinion.
To label all Muslims for the acts of a few is a huge disservice, especially if all one is going by is the words of others………STOP judging others based on misinformation and stupidity………
You’re right, mostly. We shouldn’t blame all Muslims for the actions of a few. However, this isn’t really what people do. Islam, not Muslims, deserve the blame. it teaches, explicitly, to do violence against non-Muslims in the name of Allah. So-called “moderates are peaceful in spite of the Quran, not because of it.
The problem is that by and large people genuinely believe all religions teach peace, love, and good will toward man and this simply isn’t true of Islam.
Of course, you could speculate that the verses are out of context, but I urge anyone to just read it, especially Suras 4 and 9.
I know I’m not a regular commenter here so posting a link to my own blog might be considered in poor taste, but I’ve written on exactly this. If I may: http://siftingreality.com/2010/08/22/religion-is-peace/ No hard feelings if you remove the link.
John, there is no problem posting the link….I encourage all my readers to not take my word on anything, to do their own research since I am an opinionated SOB……I was speaking out of my personal experience when I was working in the ME…..I will not condemn anyone for their religion just how they live life….and we could say that the Torah does not teach peace and love either…….
The torah actually does. But it also records God commanding Israel to take back the land given to them and to be the vehicle of exacting God’s justice…which is different from just commanding to make war with non believers.
Is that basically the same thing….for the Canaanites were non-believers…..
They werent attacked because they were nonbelievers. They were attacked because of their deeply entrenched evil. It was a judgement on their sin. There is a difference.
From time immemorial every religious text, including the New Testament, the Koran, and the Torah, are permeated with violence. “Kill them wherever you find them. Expel them from where they drove you away” (Qur’an, [002:191]), “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the Earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword “(New Testament, Matthew 10:34), “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7). IMHO, there is no right or wrong religion or a more or less violent for the simple fact that they all have a double aspect (peace and blood). The fact is, we luckily live in a society that allows anyone to worship his own god peacefully and that is based on a sacrosanct principle: ‘your freedom ends where my nose begins’.
Ge thanx for the comment……my problem is that NO religious text can justify violence against innocents…..
I’d say, no religious text can justify violence at all
I can agree with you on that…….chuq