"Being offended" as a means for forcing a belief system upon others

No, you are just someone who gets very angry and makes a lot of assumptions.

 

Probably good advice. I know you speak from experience.

 

Hateful things? Hardly. Your posts exude a lot more self-righteous anger and hate than mine.

 

Good example Rashmon - in this picture, it's not about prayer, but about staging a political demonstration.

 

I'd be more inclined to pray that the guy in front of me had no burritos.

 

Point out any "hateful" things I supposedly said with actual quotes and I can address it. As I said, your recent posts sound like those of someone who is self-righteous and someone who carries a lot of suppressed anger.

I am interested in what exactly led to you being so hateful against me. I'll be happy to talk about it.

 

Thanks for replying in detail.

I think you misunderstood me. I tried to explain specifically what it is that makes me uncomfortable about people praying in public (if in that instance, I feel that it is an ostentatious display rather than a sincere prayer, one picture of that has been posted in one of these threads, not by me) - but I think you stopped at "this guy said something bad about praying in public, what a bigot". The "ass in the air" comment - if someone wants to take it the wrong way, they can take it the wrong way. It was certainly not PC, but I'm not losing sleep over that. It was said in jest and if the PC police thinks they can gain a few PC points because of it, so be it.

Also, to say I don't like Muslims is wrong. I have nothing against Muslims. I have many issues with Islam as it is practiced today in many parts of the world (oppression of women, anti-semitism, radical elements, lack of understanding and lack of willingness of free speech and democracy, hate against homosexuals, crazy/draconic sharia law, anti-Americanism, lack of distancing from radical elements within the religion, no understanding of separation of church and state, tacit or non-tacit support of terror, etc. etc.), to an extent that I doubt that "appeasement" or trying to accomodate all their concerns and their "offended feelings" is the right way to deal with it.

That, however, does not mean that I don't like Muslims. Most people are born into their religion and it wasn't even their conscious choice. It is not easy to disassociate oneself from what one has been taught. I know that myself. So just because someone is a Muslim or Buddhist or whatever, that doesn't mean to me that they are good or bad people. Just because I disagree with a lot of things in the Catholic church doesn't mean that I don't like Catholic people either. If someone believes and represents some of the things I observe in Islam, specifically if someone were to represent the even more fundamentalist Wahabi sect of Islam, I would have many issues to debate with them, though.

There is no bigotry and spite. As I stated above, I simply cannot agree with many of the things Islam in many of its currently practiced forms stands for, and I will not tire of voicing that. I understand that others will not do that because they want to see themselves as open-minded, tolerant, multi-cultural, etc. - but tolerance ends where it paves the way for those who want to enforce intolerance. You cannot be at the same time "tolerant of some forms of Islam" if some forms of Islam stand for oppression of women and for no freedom of speech. That is where you need to speak up to prevent yourself from losing the ability to be tolerant.

That's all pure bull****. I made one silly joke, which was the ass in the air comment. I did not try to play off anything. I made a drunk post later. I am not distancing myself from any statements. Present me with any particular statements that you find offensive, and we can discuss them. All the stuff you posted in the paragraph above is pure horsecrap.

You're trying to be condescending, but you fail. Explain exactly what views you have a problem with, and we can discuss. Unless you are able to do that, your post completely lacks substance.

 

Oh really? Didn't "Lights Out" get banned? Who are you to talk about endings? You are one of the known lunatics on the board, so please be quiet.