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<p>tell that to their families</p>
<p>It’s shocking that so many refuse to see the threat from these extremists. Why?</p>
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<p>[Poll:</a> 90% of ME views Jews unfavorably | JPost | Israel News](<a href=“http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Poll-90-percent-of-ME-views-Jews-unfavorably]Poll:”>Poll: 90% of ME views Jews unfavorably - The Jerusalem Post)</p>
<p>According to the article even 60% Nigerian Muslims hate jews.</p>
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<p>I don’t get it either. These islamists are as hateful as the KKK and more violent. Everyone condemns the KKK, but our society bends over backwards not to say anything bad about a religion of intolerance.</p>
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I’m not trying to say that the victims and the pain of those close to them are insignificant. I am attempting to point out that the number of victims is not connected to how good or bad the intent of the perpretrator is.</p>
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I recognize the threat from the extremists. I’m only trying to retort to statements which seem to imply that Islam is inherently violent.</p>
<p>The Jerusalem Post isn’t exactly an unbiased source… Although I would like to point out that the antisemitism is largely a result of ignorantly believing that being Jewish is synonymous with being a Zionist rather than a problem with Islam itself.</p>
<p>If you look at Islamic history, Muhammad SAW (who Muslims believe conveyed Islam and nonMuslims believe created Islam) did not kill nonMuslims unless attacked beforehand, and lived peacefully with nonMuslims. how then could Islam logically be a religion that inherently advocates for killing nonMuslims?</p>
<p>geeps20, you just made stressedout’s point. He/she was saying that it doesn’t matter if a terrorist attack kills one or one hundred people, it’s still a terrorist attack.</p>
<p>razorsharp, the point that I and several others are making is that it is one thing to condemn Islamism, which is the nutty extremist position analogous to the KKK. It is another thing to condemn Islam, the faith followed by millions and millions of people around the world who, on a daily basis, live, work and coexist with non-Muslims just fine, and wouldn’t dream of beheading their friends and neighbors with a machete. Call it an Islamist attack perpetrated by nutcase extremist Islamists if you want. Don’t use it to condemn Islam, the religion.</p>
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<p>All Muslims are not terrorists, but Muslims who believe Islam is perfect leave no room for dialogue. Same for Christians and Jews. Enough of my religion is perfect. God is perfect. Man cannot be.</p>
<p>I think the sad thing is while people realize that one person being a terrorist doesn’t make everyone of that religion the same, they totally don’t understand the equally valid concept that just because the people they know are not dangerous, it doesn’t make the religion as a whole to be not dangerous either. </p>
<p>Terrorism is a huge problem even if a very minute percentage of a group indulges in it, so the significant stat is not at all that “only a very few people commit acts of terrorism, so don’t judge everyone”, but rather the a small portion of society is responsible for a huge fraction of religious terrorism.</p>
<p>Can suicide bombings of civilian targets to defend islam be justified? Apparently, 8 percent of American muslims say “often/sometimes”. I think it is safe to say the a muslim who supports suicide bombings in the name of his or her religion is radicalized. If you look at countries other than the US the numbers are even worse. 16% in france and spain and 15% in Britain. All of these are modern civilized countries that should be able to assimilate muslims into secular law. It has not happened and that is a problem.</p>
<pre><code>http://pewresearch.org/files/old-assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf#page=60
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I feel like the trouble with stating that one’s religion is superior lies more with the fact that there are so many interpretations within each religion. Having similar beliefs and having the same religion isn’t the same thing, though they seem overlap sometimes. </p>
<p>If you believe that your religion is from God, you can believe it is perfect, though you can admit that the way you practice it isn’t perfect, and your understanding is incomplete, because, like you said, man cannot be perfect.</p>
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<p>The problem with your point is that religion is practiced and interpreted by people.</p>
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<p>That’s true of all religions.</p>
<p>Here is British Islamist Anjem Choudary on Iranian Press TV:</p>
<p>Anjem Choudary: “Let me be absolutely clear: As Muslims, we reject democracy, we reject secularism, and freedom, and human rights. We reject all of the things that you espouse as being ideals.”</p>
<p>Other TV guest: “You reject human rights? I believe you.”</p>
<p>Anjem Choudary: “There is nothing called a republic in Islam. When we talk about the shari’a, we are talking about only the shari’a. We are talking about rejecting the U.N., the IMF, and the World Bank.”</p>
<p>Me talking: no matter what an individual Muslim believes, a lot of Muslims believe stuff like this. That is the problem. As for Jew-hating among Muslims, I could fill every page with examples. Here is Saudi professor Tareq Hawwas on Palestinian TV. He’s at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh: “When they were dispersed throughout the world in the days of Hitler… Incidentally, most of what is said about the massacre is exaggeration and lies. If only Hitler had finished them off, thus relieving humanity of them. But Hitler was more merciful than they are themselves. They exploited this minor incident in order to extort the world. In short, their dispersal worldwide, their sense of being ostracized, and their feeling that they could not achieve anything without money led them to contemplate the economy.” This guy is on the faculty at a school with 24,000 students in the Saudi capital. That such rabid incoherent hatred is supported by the Saudi state is a problem.</p>
<p>BTW, it is an old myth that a Jewish woman poisoned Muhammed. It’s known he got sick and died, with symptoms that match meningitis. Sometime later they invented this story. It would be funny if it weren’t sick because there’s no evidence any Jews lived anywhere near where Muhammed was living then. </p>
<p>Note there are a few contrary voices. I can quote a few liberal Saudi voices saying the US is their friend and teaching hate is bad. But there’s much more of this kind of thing. This is a former Hamas official writing in the Egyptian political opposition weekly Masr Al-Gadida and posted on a PLO website in April: </p>
<p>“The Jewish Passover has always been accompanied by suffering and pain… When the Jews began celebrating their holidays, blood would begin to flow. Since ancient times, their festivals have always involved sorrow for others and their aspirations have always entailed suffering for others. In the past, their Christian neighbors used to fear the holiday of Passover. They did not anticipate it [with pleasure], but feared what might happen [during this holiday] and the violent incidents that might accompany it… For the Jews always made sure to hunt down a pure and innocent Christian child, who had not tasted wine and whose blood had never been contaminated with impurity. They would take him to the altar in their temple, where they would stab him with knives, or else place him in a barrel lined with needles, under which they would place a large bowl to collect his blood. Then they would mix the blood into some dough [and bake a matza] cake, which would be divided up and handed out to many Jews who wished to partake of the blessing… Then they would drink four glasses of grape wine, their children would sing, and their daughters would dance…”</p>
<p>So when you hear stuff about what the Arab world thinks, this is closer to the truth than the lies they tell Westerners. I believe I posted an excerpt from a Jordanian politician who described the two versions of truth: that to his voters he’d say awful things about the US and the West and in public he’d praised them because they give Jordan aid. I can also dig up lots of similar two-faced statements by Yassir Arafat and others, saying one thing to Western audiences and a completely different, extremely violent other story to their Arabic speaking audiences.</p>
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<p>Possibly the worst problem with islam is the mistreatment of women. Expecting a wife to always obey a husband is a human rights violation yet significant majorities of muslims in many countries believe just that.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Muslim/worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-full-report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Muslim/worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-full-report.pdf</a></p>
<p>see page 93 of that link.</p>
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<p>No-Once one believes his religion is perfect then by default a different religion is not. Besides the a lack of outside dialogue, it also breeds cultism since (alleged) perfection does not need nor tolerate internal change.</p>
<p>@razorsharp: Plenty of “Christian” extremists in this country believe women have no rights either.</p>
<p>The postings in this thread indicate that the terrorists have succeeded in turning people into haters like themselves.</p>
<p>Guys why are you hating on Muslims on CC? Go to some random political website and spread your hatred over there. There is a comon misconseption of Muslims; they do not hate Judaism; they hate ZIONISM. And about the Shariah, if the Muslims believe that it’s the form of government they want so be it. Isn’t that what democracy is all about?</p>
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<p>Sadly, you are right.</p>
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<p>Exactly the same can be said of some branches of Christianity, such as the Quiverfull movement. It’s not right or proper (IMHO) but it’s hardly confined to Islam. </p>
<p>More widely, to claim that because a few people use Islam as a vehicle for their own hatred, and that therefore Islam is in some way inherently bad, is like claiming that the Westboro Baptist Church means that Christianity is inherently bad. Every religion has its extremists. </p>
<p>It should be noted that the far right are having a field day with all of this. The EDL (English Defence League - a far right skinhead protest group) have been out on the streets in Woolwich (attacking police, ironically enough) and spreading their hatred via Facebook. It doesn’t take much really - economic problems, casting people of other religions as being the enemy… well, we all know how that ended in Germany. I can’t see the BNP (British National Party, a fascist party that advocates ‘repatriation’ of immigrants and their descendants) suddenly rising up and taking power. But there are parallels.</p>
<p>If man hadn’t created gods (and I know that’s impossible b/c we arrived “on the scene” without higher level thinking, knowledge of how things work and fear over the misunderstood), but just what would the world be like?</p>