Since you mistakenly assume that I care about being politically correct, your post doesn't really make sense. Political correctness is a form of censorship, often, and is counter-productive so I'm against PC. There is a different reason most people refrain from using the term. http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/politics/islamic-terrorism-trump-obama-clinton/index.html I personally don't care whether the term is used or not. If experts say it is detrimental to the fight against terrorism to use it, then I'm in favor of not using it. I simply want to do what is most effective against terrorism. But even that isn't what's important. Silly folks will for some reason devote a lot of time and energy about whatever labels people use or don't use when talking about it. I believe that isn't near as important as the actions we take to stop and prevent terrorism. I think some of them hate all Islam and don't like being made to feel bad if they were to use the comments about Islam they feel in their in their hearts. Why can't they just hate Muslims without everyone giving them a hard time? That's not really an argument I want to waste my time having. It's much better to worry about actual actions and working together to stop Islam.
We could do away with all religions. I am a very strong advocate of protecting people's religious freedoms. But not having them exist would probably be better for the world (God, or Yahweh, or Allah, if you're reading this, I apologize- but too much bad **** happens in the name of religion. We can discuss my being right or wrong during my stay in Purgatory). Personally, I could do without religion. I've been raised Catholic all my life. Catholic school for 8 years. Did it make me a better person? Probably not. I think it's a combination of being born a certain way AND how you're raised. I was very fortunate to have been born without any major illnesses, like depression, alcoholism, etc.- but I also had very nice parents who did a great job raising us 4 kids. Now, mom was and is a devout Catholic. Did it play a part in how she raised us? I'd have to say yes. So, indirectly, religion helped make me a better person. But if I had a choice, I'd rather do away with all religions and just have people be decent human beings to each other. Religious beliefs lead to too many evil acts- that at times outweigh the good. Do we really need a religion to be a better person? Not me.
You have to protect people's religious freedoms- but the intolerance of religions in general is irritating. No matter how much I'm supposed to be understanding about it, proposing death for making fun of Mohammed is completely ridiculous. Same with fundamentalist Christians- stop trying to shame people into believing. I haven't been to a formal mass in years,and I can still recite the prayers word for word - hours and hours of repeating the same words- and they're essentially meaningless to most because of that. I have several Muslim friends, and I'd be the first to defend them for the right to worship as they please. Heck, someone wants to pray 5 times per day, or not eat certain foods? Fine, they're not hurting anybody. But if they feel it's OK to discriminate against women, or penalty-by-death for blasphemy, then no, I'm completely not OK with that and I'd tell them to their face. I walked out in the middle of a Mass once b/c they had this group presenting to us about how using birth control was a sin against God and that, basically, if that means you have 10 kids due to that, well, that's just God's will. Complete bullshit. If you're against abortion, then you should be completely supportive of birth control. Expecting abstinence is complete bullshit. Or the rhythm method. The Catholic religion is fine with most things- but they're definitely wrong in several areas, and the exercise of going to church on Sunday is more an exercise that people do out of obligation or fear rather than that they truly want to and relish repeating the same prayers verbatim every week. (wow- that sounds unhinged- end rant here)
Oh, look at what we have here. A classic virtue-signaling post from Lubbock. Trying to equate Christianity with Islam in this thread is just absurd. That's what you just tried to do.
Fundamentalist Christians are more similar to mainstream Muslims. Fundamentalist Muslims are more similar to Nazis.
I'll point out education when posters attempt to disparage the Muslim immigrant community in the United States as uneducated and that liberals want to bring mass swaths of uneducated Muslim migrants especially when the actual truth is the opposite.
It has to do with many predicaments including Islam. Islam is one of many factors. Islam has been in existence for 1300 years. It was in existence in the mid 20th century. Why was it in 1960, the average American thought of Islam as some benign exotic religion akin to Hinduism? Hell, that was the sentiment of Islam before 9/11 when I was in elementary school. I had kids ask me when they knew I was Muslim if I worshiped elephants and cows. Something changed.
That's just simply not the case here in the US. The ratio of pork eating, beer drinking, pray once in a while Muslims to ardent adherents is quite within the realm of normal.
Which other factors did the attackers scream about while running over innocent people with their car, and while slitting innocent people's throats? As far as I know, they screamed "this is for Allah" - they didn't scream "this is because I don't like your haircut". Islam has changed, more radical versions of it have spread like a cancer.
I'd also like to point out that the comparison was meant to express a point. That our immigration process is already selective and working. Yes, the Muslim immigrant population is more educated than the average American in the US, not because Muslims are superior... far from the case. It's because we are comparing a selective group of humans brought in here through tough scrutiny and comparing it to the general populace.
Many Muslim terrorists were once pork eating, beer drinking, not praying. I'm sure there are fundamentalist Christians who eat pork, drink beer and really don't pray that much. I have met fundamentalist Christians. They made me feel uncomfortable, but generally speaking, they weren't really doing anything, e.g., no matter how "fundamentalist" they were, I don't think they would have demanded the death penalty for someone leaving their church. On the other hand, that's mainstream Islam for you. Fortunately not in the US, but as you described - people would still get shunned.
You are being purposefully naive. So why has a more radical version of Islam formed recently? Why are there more people doing these things? What changed in the past 40 years?
The percentage of Muslim families here that would shun or disparage their children for leaving or speaking ill of Islam would be the same as any Christian household. There are plenty of Christian households in the US that have domestic spats over their children not adhering to their religion.
Islam has always been violent. Not just in the last 40 years. It has been violent since its inception. And yes, oil money to the Saudis and Iranian Mullahs played a role, it's like giving a bunch of Nazis unlimited money to spread their beliefs in the world.
No, I believe that Islam is more extreme and intolerant. I'm just not a big fan of religion in general. I feel that it does more harm than good. Now, on Lubbock, it would be very nice if you would continue to not show your ignorance as I've posted numerous times on here that I moved to Houston back in May of 2016- specifically, I live in the Alden Bridge area of The Woodlands near 1488. I mean, if you enjoy being ignorant, that's up to you, but every time you equate me to Lubbock, a place I lived in for 17 years vs. 32 years in other locations, you're basically saying to everyone on here, "I'm a dumbass. I'm a dumbass. I'm a dumbass." Your decision, I suppose.
