lemurgoddess ([info]lemurgoddess) wrote,
@ 2006-09-27 10:36:00
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Entry tags:culture and politics, in the news

Afghan women's rights activist slain
Afghan women's rights activist slain

It is this sort of sick, oppressive, barbaric ideology that we are ultimately fighting against. It all goes beyond "fighting terrorism," but standing up to an ever increasing brutal mentality that is running rampant in the Middle East, and growing here on our own soil***. Frankly I don't care what god** tells you hate, oppress and kill -- you are the true enemy -- the enemy of civilization, of freedom, of humanity itself.

Ed Brayton has a good run down of what concerns me so.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.


**god = any object of worship -- deity or otherwise.
*** I originally wrote "soul" not "soil." A very appropro typo.

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[info]thesaj
2006-09-27 03:20 pm UTC (link)
I was reading an article the other day detailing what the pope was actually talking about. And that he was expressing that God is a God of reason. And that we must have "reason" in religion. And the danger of departing from it. And that violence was at odds with God.

The freakish thing is that muslims are up in arms about the quote (which I've heard was not quoted in a favorable light). But regardless, they are up in arms about this quote and what do they do about? They re-inforce a quote by enacting actions which are specifically what the 14th century quote was expressing.

If you or I were to go and state "Much of the muslim community tends to over-react to perceived insult and to respond with violence in Muhammad's name." The likely response in those regions would be to react and threaten us and demand we take that back or we will be killed.

However, or whatever purpose of the pope's statement. I'll say this, the Muslim community sure did an excellent job of making a 14th century quote look damnably accurate in today's 21st century.

*sighs*

That said, i've found a few sites that are muslim run and dedicated to publicly opposing all this crap. Gives me a bit of hope....

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[info]angieohgirl
2006-09-27 03:30 pm UTC (link)
I have a feeling those good muslims are really going to have to get more open and boisterous. The hope is that it isn't too little too late.

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[info]lemurgoddess
2006-09-27 03:38 pm UTC (link)
I'm sure you've heard the news that a German theater stopped it run of an opera that has a part where the head of Mohammed is presented to the king? It also includes the presentation of the head of Jesus and the head of Buddha. Though I find it hard to imagine Buddhist monks taking to the streets and beheading Germans. :\

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[info]angieohgirl
2006-09-27 03:28 pm UTC (link)
Have you ever read the stories of how they stone women who have been 'accused' of adultery? Scary, very scary.
http://savemalak.googlepages.com/home

Or getting you throat slit for not wearing proper attire for a woman.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/013282.php

Also, did you hear the story of the musical that has been pulled in Germany?
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c6753a22-4dc4-11db-8704-0000779e2340.html

I don't know but it seems there is a lot of pandering to the Islamic radical's who are just going to use it against us.

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[info]lemurgoddess
2006-09-27 03:39 pm UTC (link)
I keep myself well read on all the brutality and "stupid," in this world. Doesn't help to brighten one's day but its good to stay informed. :\

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[info]25bluerose25
2006-09-27 06:40 pm UTC (link)
I agree that it is good to stay informed but it depresses me greatly to see so much oppression, hate and ignorance in this world.

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[info]specsteve
2006-09-29 03:48 pm UTC (link)
I wonder if Rosie O'Donnell still thinks that radical Christianity is as dangerous as radical Islam.

Never mind. The problem about Islam is that so much (or all) of the religion is wrapped up in middle eastern culture of absolute non-disclosure to outsiders. So these "moderate" Muslims out there, even the Imams who run mosques where terrorists pray will be hard pressed by both their faith and their culture to give them up. In Iraq I once had an Imam tell me that he would rather his mosque shelled into the ground while Muslims "true to their faith" shot at us than for an infidel set foot in that same mosque. And he was ideologically "moderate" as most Muslims in the area went. That is why I cannot help but disagree with the idea of Islam as a religion of peace.
At least Christian serial killers using their religion as motive are few and far between.

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[info]lemurgoddess
2006-09-29 04:14 pm UTC (link)
I'd agree that radical Christianity is just as dangerous as radical Islam. Perhaps not as deadly, but just as dangerous.

And I definately understand your position. Here is my general considerations:

1)Both the Holy Books of Islam and Christianity contain violent and ethically questionable passages that have been used to justify bringing great pain to others.
2)Both Islam and Christianity have a long history of violence (against those of their own kind and "outsiders")
3)Both Islam and Christianity demand their followers act in a humanitarian way, as well both have a long history of providing humanitarian services.
4)There are members of both Christianity and Islam that interpret their scriptures as demanding a peaceful existence, while others of each faith adopt an interpretation of forced conversion, poltical dominance and holy war.
5)Christianity was tempered by the European Enlightenment and other philosophical movements and cultural revolutions in its history that placed greater emphasis on individual thought, questioning authority, and basic human rights that were beyond a religious convention.
6)Jesus was a teacher who let himself be tortured and slaughtered. Mohammed was a warrior who went nuts because he couldn't live up to the ethical standards that were handed to him by Allah.
7)Islam developed in an environmentally and culturally hostile world where polytheistic tribes were in constant war for domination of limited resources.

Both are potentially dangerous, in my book -- I don't take a side on either faith. If they are crazed, anti-progressive, anti-modern, convert-or-die fanatics, I don't give a shit what God they presume, they are dangerous.

Its all in the humanity underneath, not the superficialities of religion.

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