Why is sympathy for Islam so common on the political left?

Based on what? I think all religion is dangerous stuff and I personally would never recommend anyone become a Muslim....or a Christian or whatever.

Reality is that there is no singular Islam, or singular Christianity for that matter. There are different sects and even within that different interpretations of the religion.

Which interpretation defines the religion? Which interpretation should be criticized?

I hate when people make this attack because it simply isn't true and I don't say that Islam isn't above criticism. But there's a difference between critique and demonization.

Islam needs reform. I want to focus on how to do that instead of people who are bent on trying to create fear and exacerbate the problem.

 

DAMN RIGHT!!

THEIR establishment is doing a HALF assed effort reining in THEIR basket of deplorables. It's like THEY want THEM to hog the stoplight!!

 

I think if you intentionally continue to refer to gay people as "the homosexuals" you probably will raise almost as much of an eyebrow and a reasonable amount of suspicion that you are pining for the 50s as if you had referred to black people "the negroes."

 

Why is it that nobody in Detroit's Muslim Community, once the biggest in all of America, never had issues with radicalization etc since 20 to 40 yrs ago or even 15 yrs ago? The rise of 'Jihadist' in this form is much more recent and has become more extreme over time.

 

Why is it that melanoma develop out of moles that were seemingly benign for many years? Sadly, that's cancer's nature.

 

Sept 11 2001. I would call that the most extreme and the rise to that was at least 5 years before, but probably decade.

 

So all Muslim have the nature to be extremists. I don't disagree. I would extend that to all human.

 

Yes, all humans have it, I agree with that. It's not like Muslims have it "in the blood by birth" any more or less than other people. The problem is the ideology of Islam, though. It's like a drug or radiation that sadly increases the probability of cancer developing.

When you are constantly brainwashed with an "us vs. them" mentality from an early age and with a worldview that builds on ideas of supremacy vs. people of other beliefs, then this increases the probability that your inhibition to be violent towards people you have been taught are inferior is reduced. Fortunately, most Muslims are good people who trust their natural empathy and who withstand this brainwashing at least to the degree of not following through on this. Unfortunately, some are not. It's the ideology that is the problem, not - by birth - the people.

 

Here is the official republican platform on gay marriage:

Discriminates against gays by opposing gay marriage. Opposes ("condemns") the very Supreme Court ruling ("edict") you mention.

 

I reckon its good that you as an individual confront your fellow Christians on their stance on homosexuals. There are also numerous individuals of the Muslim faith that speak out against violence perpetrated by radical islam.

http://time.com/4112830/muslims-paris-terror-attacks-islam-condemn/

http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015-12-18/yes-moderate-muslims-do-denounce-terrorism-though-the-media-ignores-it

If your belief is more people of the Muslim faith need to speak out... could you not also make the same statement about fellow republicans (or Christians, if you prefer) need to also speak out against discrimination against homosexuals?

 

Seems to me like it was just June when a Muslim... Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a terrorist attack/hate crime inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando.

Seems to me gay people have much more to fear from some Muslims than they do from some Christians. But that's just me.

 

I reckon its a question of what has a greater impact... an isolated case of a Muslim bombing a gay nightclub, or one of the two major political parties actively opposing laws that prevent discrimination and enacting laws that discriminate against gays.

 

Sympathy for Islam....???... As someone from the Left I can tell you now that you can't be more mistaken.

The religion actually is what is to blame for most if not all of the war, and terror around the world. Religion is the great divider of this world that extends beyond color, gender, etc. Sometimes money, power, and land play a part but it almost always is sold as a religions or a righteous fight for what we believe in. Its a fact of our society.

However, Religion is a freedom that we all have in THIS country. And if you start picking and choosing which religions you allow and don't allow then you do NOT have freedom of religion. Most importantly, Christians need to understand this. If you want to fight for your ability to practice Christianity, you also need to fight for the ability for Muslim's to practice their religion as well.

Is one religion better than the other.... maybe but it doesn't matter. The day you start saying this one is better than that one is the day you start again.... denying religious freedoms. If you want freedom of religion, than you need to be able to accept all religions in order for it to be a true free religion country. If the religion is causing their followers to commit crimes, than it should be addressed which it has been.... over and over and over again. Muslim faith leaders in the US, and in much of the world have denounced the violence, and the radicalization, and perversion of Islam text & the terrorists that use that to recruit, and advance their power in the middle east.

So Sympathy for Islam... I have none. I sympathize with groups that are, or would be denied their constitutional freedoms. As someone who was raised Christian myself, and still attends church, I would never want Christianity to be demonized because 1% of the Baptist church created a terrorist group that took text out of the book of Exodus & Revelations, created conspiracy theory recruiting video's on Youtube with THEIR OWN interpretation of the text, and went and waged war against the Pope.

Technically that group would still call themselves Christian, and their intentions would still in principle get their motivation from text in the Bible.... but it would immediately be denounced by the Christian church, and 99% of Christians would likely denounce that group as well (or so I'd hope).

The door swings both ways. That's why intelligent people (call them the political left if you want to) stand up for peaceful Muslim's both here and across the world.

 

Unsurprisingly, when you aren't demonizing them they are actually pretty chill.

 

Religion -- killing people for thousands of years.

Great!

DD

 

Spoiler

 

Wrong. Are the midwestern Muslims, the group that I am talking about, killing people?

Work on that logic champ... or get better at spinning it. Good try though...

 

The internet. More and more social media and other internet communication processes allow crazies from any spectrum get together, share their radical ideas, and act on them.

I think it is why you've seen polarization in politics (both parties moving further from the middle and close to the extremes). I think it is why you see "lone wolf" style shootings by bullied and desperate teenagers...and I think it is why you see more home grown radicalization. An angry Muslim kid that grows up in America, has parents with normal jobs, sees all kinds of stuff going on...gets angry, gets in chat groups with radicals, figures out how to make a pipe bomb, and blows someone up.

People get worked up on the internet. They watch videos that make them mad. People post comments that they violently disagree with that make them mad. Someone else posts something that they agree with, or allows their anger to vent, or calls to violence and they think "I can do that!"

10-15 years ago, that same person would have not spent that much time on the internet. Would not have been exposed to so many violent or like minded people. Even if they had violent thoughts, or felt angry, or wanted to off some infidels, they would have felt alone in those feeling and would not have acted upon them..

Just my 2 cents.