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dialamah

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Everything posted by dialamah

  1. Figures. I'm thinking pot-smokers - surely there are no extremist potheads? Oops, not even potheads. Reefer Madness indeed.
  2. From another of your links: But on 15 April, Patriarch Gregorios had warned in a statement sent to a Catholic charity: "There is no safe place left in Syria." "The future of Christians in Syria is threatened not by Muslims but by... chaos... and the infiltration of uncontrollable fanatical, fundamentalist groups," he said.
  3. The only *religion* I am aware of that has never engaged in some degree of violent extremism is Buddhism, and as I know very little about Buddhism, I could be wrong about that. Every single other religion I know of teaches peace, forgiveness, tolerance. Every religion I know of fails their own teachings - sometimes horrifically. So, as far as I'm concerned there is very little difference between Islam and Christianity, both in what they teach and in how well their adherents follow those teachings. In the Bible there are some pretty horrific penalties for 'wrongdoing' in the old testament; in some places of the world, self-described Christians believe that's the way things should be done. There are a number of Christian sects who believe polygamy is perfectly acceptable, based on old testament scripture. And others who think marrying very young girls is ok, because you know - its in the Bible. The Christian religion has more adherents than Islam and an incredible variety of beliefs and practices. Most of these people do not kill non-believers, do not believe in polygamy, and do not marry young girls. But how would you like it if I claimed that as a group, Christians were inherently murderous pedophiles who enslaved women, because that's what their Holy Book said? You could bring up Jesus, and explain to me how they're supposed to just follow his teachings of peace, etc., but I could just brush that off with "Wrong, because even Jesus said that God's Laws were to be followed; just look at Matthew 5:17-19 where it clearly states that Jesus did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, and that those who do not follow the law of God will not gain God's favor". I've cherry picked a New Testament verse that allows me to impose the most brutal of God's laws .... The above is exactly the situation the Muslims are being put into. The majority of Muslims take the teachings of the Quran and the prophet about peace and tolerance to be the primary teachings, and the stuff about war as being context-and-time specific, not applicable to the modern world. It's people like you and ISIS who want to hold them to the worst of their religion today. It's people like you and Trump and ISIS who cherry-pick the portions of the Quran that command violence to support your own personal agenda. For Trump and ISIS it's political power through fear and divisiveness; for you and other Islamaphobes, its so you can clearly define *those* people as being different, foreign, scary, dangerous and ultimately unwelcome. ISIS wins with you and Trump on the job. Despite the plethora of religions who teach peace/tolerance/love for all, there is a certain segment of the human species who seem unable to take those lessons to heart regardless of which Holy Book they follow or what name they call their God, or even if they claim any kind of God.
  4. You should re-read what I wrote. My viewpoint is this: Extremists commit acts of brutality; they seek to impose their beliefs on people by any means possible, including with violence. Extremists can be from any group - Islamic, Jewish, Christian, White Supremists. I do not condone or support acts of brutality and terrorism carried out by extremists. Christians as a group tend to be peace-loving, and follow Biblical commands that enable them to live peacefully with others. They do not condone acts of terrorism carried out under the banner of Christianity. Muslims as a group tend to be peace-loving, and follow Mohammed's commands that enable them to live peacefully with others. They do not condone acts of terrorism carried out under the banner of Islam. You and others seem to prefer this: Muslims as a group are prone to violence and brutality; Muslims as a group are backward, and have stone-age mentality regarding human rights. Muslims support terrorism and even if they are moderate today, they are not likely to be moderate tomorrow. We will define all Muslims by the activity of the minority, and ignore or discount the exactly opposite actions by the other 1.5 BILLION PLUS Muslims. Christians are not like that. If anyone does carry out acts of brutality and terrorism under the Christian banner, they are obviously not Christians. We will define all Christians by the activity of the majority, and assume the activity by the minority is an aberration. Therein lies the problem. If you are going to generalize about the "group", you should at least generalize that the MAJORITY speaks for the group, not the minority. Since the VAST MAJORITY of Muslims live peaceful, tolerant lives within their own countries as well as in the West, why is there any claim at all that Muslims are inherently violent jihadists?
  5. Except, there isn't anyone here defending or excusing vile behavior; some just choose not to blame people for behavior that they neither indulge in or condone. If you were on trial for murder, I bet you'd rather have me hearing your case than someone who assumed all people named 'Argus' were homicidal by nature. I'd listen to the evidence that was specific to *YOU*, instead of assuming that because your name was Argus, you must be guilty. Wouldn't mean I think murder is ok.
  6. A Muslim friend from the Middle East told me about the experience of a countryman he'd spoken to a trip back to the ME last year. This guy had been approached in a cafe by someone promising a very well paying job, out of country The recruiter was cagey about exactly what the job entailed, but over the course of several days persuaded this man to join up. After arriving at the "job site", he discovered that it was in fact, ISIS. By this time, however, he was under guard and was told he could fight or die. He chose to fight, while watching for an opportunity to escape. He was able to do so eventually, but saw others who tried killed. He was indeed paid well, apparently, and knew of others who were happy to stay and keep fighting even though they didn't necessarily believe the ideology. It seems this method of recruitment is not uncommon across the ME. And yes, there is much anger in the region against the West and America.
  7. It does help that Western allies tend to ignore/discount reports of civilian casualties. Or the Canadian response to a Pentagon report of up to 27 civilians killed by Canadian airstrike: Didn't happen. We really have little interest in or information about the civilian casualties in the wars we conduct in other countries, it seems.
  8. I just wanted to say that I agree here. Also, thanks for finding that BBC article. Honestly, 27,000 seemed low to me but I failed to find any sources with better numbers. And whatever the real number is, and regardless of which religion is at fault, it's heartbreaking that so many people have died in God's name.
  9. And I seriously doubt that. Here's where you'll find daily tracking of LRA activities - how often do you see these stories on the evening news? Now what can we find on Islamic extremists? According to this Wikipedia list, about 17,000 people have died from Islamic terror attacks since the 1980s. In addition, Breitbart claims that ISIS has killed 10,000 people since declaring Caliphate in 2014. So, if these numbers are anything to go by, over the last 35 years, a single Christian extremist group has out-killed all the Islamic extremists by 70,000 or thereabouts. Islamic extremism is on the rise, so obviously at some point they'll surpass the Christians in death toll. Still, it boggles my mind that anyone could think that Christianity is any less violent than Islam or that it's adherents are any less likely to use violence should it suit their agenda.
  10. No, Western media just doesn't also include the same focus and framing for acts of violence motivated by non-Islamic ideologies.
  11. I do. And if I were a Christian intent on punishing others for their improper behavior, I could easily use that single verse to justify deadly force. You might then call me not really a Christian, but I would still have used your holy book to justify my homicidal behavior.
  12. Is any of this stuff that you hear, read and see presented by Western media?
  13. Jesus said "Do not suppose I have come to bring peace to the world; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" Matthew 10:34. We in the West have certainly taken that to heart.
  14. The countries that identify as primarily Christian go out and kill because we have an ideology that informs us of our superiority over these other countries. Our ideology is about freedom/democracy/human rights, so we can feel morally justified. In actuality, we Christian nations pursue a much uglier ideology, focused on oil, capitalism and self-interest. How is ISIS any different? They cloak their ugly ideology in one of moral superiority and deal out death and destruction as a result. How would you know? If a woman in Canada kills her kids because "Jesus told her to" that's a 'flawed Christian", but we call her crazy and discount her claim to Christianity. I've mentioned before that Christians in African and Middle Eastern countries are exactly as likely to perform FGM on their daughters as are Muslims; Christians in those regions also practice honor killings - how many flawed Christians does that add up to? How many flawed Christians around the world believe it's their *duty* to kill gay men and rape lesbians? Or to impose severe penalties on non-believers? There are dozens of active Christian terrorist groups around the world, which rarely make the evening news so we're essentially blind to their activity. How can you count those flawed individuals if you don't know they exist? Until the Western media starts counting up violent acts by Christians the same way they count up violent acts by Muslims, we have no idea who has more "flawed" individuals.
  15. In my mind they are equal - good and bad. Faith can make a person better; it can also make a person worse. It's the individual who decides how to apply whatever their chosen faith teaches. We don't hear much about *Christian* terrorism; all the focus is on Islamic terrorism. How would we, in the West, determine if Christian terrorism took as many lives as Islamic terrorism? Christian terrorist acts don't show up on the news. Consider that guy who killed three people at the abortion clinic; if he'd been a Muslim, the story would have been much different. But he wasn't, so instead of it being a 'Christian terrorist' act, instead, it's just a crazy guy. The anti-abortionists are motivated by Christian teachings - so why does this guy get a pass, but a Muslim doing the exact same thing would not? Not to mention that terrorism is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case - victim. A family working their farm and targeted by a US drone isn't likely to see that as anything but terrorism, but our side would call that 'collateral damage', an unfortunate side effect of war. Civilians, including children, injured or killed by Western bombs that were slightly off target aren't even worth mentioning on our side; how do you suppose the other side feels about that? Do you not think that counts as terrorism from their perspective? Given that the State especially, but also the UK and Canada, identify primarily as 'Christian nations', I wouldn't be surprised if Christian killings outnumbered that of Islamist terrorists - if we had even a chance of finding out the real numbers.
  16. If the ratio of terrorist to non-terrorist priests, rabbis, monks and nuns was .0000625%, yes, I would consider it racist and phobic to suggest that *everybody* dressed that way was a terrorist, either in fact or probability. Like those Hasidic Jewish guys.
  17. And Christians should also throw out the Bible and denounce Jesus because Christianity is just as flawed as Islam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_terrorism http://aattp.org/here-are-8-christian-terrorist-organizations-that-equal-isis/ http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/10-worst-terror-attacks-extreme-christians-and-far-right-white-men http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/religion/christian-terror-12-examples-of-terrorism-from-the-right/
  18. You can't say "No Islam" and then pretend you didn't mean Muslims.
  19. I absolutely do consider many of your comments bigoted, as I do Trump's. That is my sister you and Trump are talking about - she is neither violent nor radical, she is as frightened of ISIS and similar extremist groups as you and any other Westerner, as any one of 1.6 BILLION other Islam followers. And given that she actually lives in the Middle East, she is at a hell of a lot higher risk than Trump is, or than you are. And now she also gets to be held responsible by such as you and Trump for the actions of people who would kill her because she doesn't wear a headscarf. She knows that if she were identified as a Muslim while in Canada, some jerks would feel justified in attacking her, calling her names or demanding that she leave the country - because, like Trump and yourself, they hold a view that *Islam* is evil and thus their followers are not worthy of respect. The willfull ignorance of comments such as the one I quoted above is appalling, and the refusal to accept anything but a narrow, perverted 'truth' is EXACTLY the same problem with EVERY EXTREMIST. Ignorance and intolerance drives extremism, it puts innocent Jews in ovens and innocent Japanese in internment camps; it makes people put on suicide vests and it makes dumbasses such as Trump declare that billions of people are wrong and unwelcome - which statements you support. Already among the conservative Islamaphobes there are whispers of extermination of the over 1.5 Billion people who PEACEFULLY follow Islam - and that is exactly, supposedly, the evil you claim you are against. Read about that here and here, watch it here. Then look in the mirror and ask yourself if that's the kind of people you want to stand with. Extremists are wrong on every level, whether its some shithead wearing a suicide vest in the name of Islam or some shithead creating conflict and fear, and putting innocent people at risk in the name of political power. Trump's ideology is no more acceptable to me than is ISIS. Your conservative bigoted comments about Islam are no more acceptable to me than some equally bigoted conservative Muslim deciding my sister is not Muslim enough for them.
  20. So, in agreeing with Trump, are you comfortable being painted with the same brush - that of being a bigot and an Islamaphobe?
  21. And here I thought Conservatives preferred to hide in closets.
  22. Then perhaps we agree more than I think we do. Thousands of people died in the Arab spring, fighting against governments not even as brutal as ISIS or Boko Haram. What makes you so sure that 'moderates' will be happy to let radicals put them under another harsh yoke? When I read or talk about Nazi Germany, I think "Nazi" as distinctly different from "German" so to me Nazi Germany represents something very different than Germans in general. "Nazi Germany" was an aberration, short-lived in history, but it's impact was horrific. Yes, I certainly agree that passivity and non-involvement is damaging, that people must speak out in order to avoid repeating past mistakes. If I want to combat extremism in Canada, than I want to make sure Muslims feel welcome and accepted. If a Muslim person feels welcome and accepted, they have much less motivation for deciding "All Westerners" are against "All Muslims". If a group of Muslims got together and submitted some kind of official request for their legal system to over-ride the Canadian legal system, I would not be ok with that. If a Muslim congregaton got together and decided to use Sharia law in ways that did not contravene any Canadian law, then that would be up to them, same as it is for Mennonites and similar religious groups.
  23. 1: Abrogation is a concept used to explain why different passages in the Quran contradict one another. 2: Some Muslims do not believe abrogation is at all valid, because it implies that Allah "made a mistake", so they use other means to explain the contradiction - such as claiming that some verses only apply in a certain context, or a certain time period, or simply that the additional verses added clarity to the original verses. 3: Other Muslims believe that abrogation is valid, but only in a very limited number of verses (24 was one number I saw bandied about a lot) and only for very specific contexts - none of which include Jihad. 4: Some Muslims believe that abrogation means that Sura 9:5 abrogated *all* previous verses of the Quran relating to peaceful co-existence with non-Muslims, and is a command for waging war upon all non-believers. This definition of abrogation is the LEAST SUBSCRIBED to among Muslims but apparently the most subscribed to among non-Muslims. 5: Ideological wars are not easily dealt with, and recruitment is ongoing aided by the actions of the West. Encouraging hatred and bigotry toward moderate Muslims in Western countries helps with recruitment - so you and a few others on this board are furthering the agenda of Islamic extremists, much as you deny it. It is a stated goal of ISIS to 'erase' the grey - that is, moderates - through terror. People become a part of their recruitment process because when they are unable and unwilling to differentiate between the majority of moderate, peace-seeking Muslims, and the minority of extremists.
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