14-year-old girl beaten to death in the name of sharia

Maybe you get it. Judging from the responses, there are plenty of posters who do absolutely not get it. And it is not like I make these new incidents up. They happen, all the time, all over the world. Maybe you should not be tired of me, but you should be tired of the ideology that is behind these heinous acts. Rather than shutting your eyes and getting angry at the messenger because he disturbs your numbed state of comfort with what you know is wrong, you should wake up and confront what you know is wrong.

 

My intent is to marginalize the elements of islam that I perceive as dangerous, namely the culture of intolerance in some interpretations of islam, oppression of women, medieval and cruel punishments, aspiration to force believers of other religions into submission ("dhimmi" status), etc. That does not necessarily mean that I want to see Islam as a whole marginalized, only those elements that I perceive as dangerous. I have no problems with moderate Muslims. I have more problems with fundamentalist Christians (or any fundamentalists) than I have with truly moderate Muslims. Of course, someone like trustme who does think the Muslim Brotherhood is "not extreme" might consider himself a moderate Muslim - I do not.

 

The 1 billion people do not all believe the same things (fortunately). Most of those 1 billion (I hope) do not believe in the intolerant brand of Islam poisoned by Wahabism.

Moreover, just because a lot of people follow the same ideology does not necessarily make it right.

 

Maybe it is a wording issue. I was thinking...how far from each other are a "moderate Christian" and a "moderate Muslim"...do they not sort of believe in the same things? (Do good in life, there is some kind of salvation in afterlife, there is a God, there are certain moral principles we should follow.)

What I am struggling with: While I have no doubt that there are many moderate Muslims, I wonder whether Islam at its core is "moderate". If Sharia Law is a core part of the religion, then I have problems to consider the religion itself "moderate". Maybe there are moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam? Many prominent Muslims (like Erdogan in Turkey) claim that there is no such thing as "moderate Islam". Are they right?

 

Islam is not a race, it is a religion/an ideology. People of all kinds of races follow it or do not follow it. Why would disagreeing with certain elements of an ideology - and I despise, condemn and abhor certain practiced elements (even though people will argue in defense that they find no theological basis in the religion itself) such as, for instance, stonings, intolerance, suicide bombings, oppression and persecution of women and gays - make you a racist?

 

Is there some rule that you cannot see "an entire religion" in a negative light? Or that you cannot see all religions in a negative light (at least partly)?

If you do, that automatically makes you ignorant? That is what your statement implies. Is it not much more ignorant to ignore the negative effects of people blindly following certain ideologies/religions, than to point out their flaws and negative effects in order to educate people and prevent the flaws and negative effects from spreading even further?

Just because the truth hurts you should not hate on the messenger. Is it much more convenient to close your eyes and pretend it is not happening? Yes. Does doing so make you more tolerant or less ignorant? No.

 

A lot of other posters? Most of the posters getting up in arms are Muslim posters whom, from their posts, I would not consider "moderate Muslims" (e.g. trustme, adeelsiddiqui, Hydhypedplaya, etc.), as well as posters who lean to the far left (e.g., glynch), which mirrors the alliance between leftists and Islamists in the political field, plus some people who try to appear smart but are not (e.g., Carl Herrera).

What exactly do you base your accusation on that my objective is mainly to troll? I usually provide sources. Do you contest the truthfulness of my posts? If yes, please provide specific instances. Thank you in advance.

 

What's with this "an entire religion" talk - your statement makes no sense.

If there is a religion that calls for forcing non-believers in that religion into submission and assigns a lower status to them ("dhimmi"), do you consider that tolerant? I consider that intolerant.

But wanting to prevent that from happening makes you intolerant?

You have it backwards.

 

They are all over the world. The terrorist organization Hamas is an offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Qaeda's no. 2 is also a former (?) member of the Muslim Brotherhood.