Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
20 years ago, I spent some time in South America working as a missionary. During that time, I became close to one of the local pastors who as a young man had been influenced by Islam and he told me something very interesting.
He said that the Islamic missionaries used hate as a calling card to draw young men into the faith. He said, that he as a young man with little or no prospects for the future, was drone to the violent hate filled nature of the faith the "struggle" or Jihad that they spoke about.
This man told me in the end, Islam is an angry religion.
My reference to "father knows best: was not negative in the least. Please get your thinking cap on.
Actually, I think you are also wrong regarding practicing muslims. I have read and I believe it to be true that non-practicing are or could be somewhat harmless. Comparing muslims and christians are like comparing apples and oranges.
I think you can compare apples and oranges when it comes to many things; nutritional value, general shelf life, etc. And, I think a comparison could be made with today's Muslim population, and the Christian population, concerning the influence their religious beliefs have on them.
IMunHO - both Religions are delusional farces. Everyone would be better off if they just lives peaceful lives and stopped wasting their time on some nonsensical faith.
My girlfriend's father's side of her family are all Syrian Arabs and Muslims. Though he and most of the rest of the family consider themselves Muslims--because that's their culture--besides not eating pork or refraining from drinking much wine--I don't see very much observance from him. Nor the rest of the family living in the US or Germany or Switzerland, though maybe a few older relatives, will still pray daily. Nothing really for Ramadan, her cousins still in Syria who just decide to sleep during the day--which is sort of considered cheating. The ones in America all consider themselves "white" as this point, and in terms of culture, they basically all are. Many of the others are living quite fine in Germany. And some of them served in the military and a lot of them are doctors and successful and they're among the most cordial people I know.
So while the devout might not consider them to be true Muslims--her father's name is Mohammed(that's his birth name). So whatever he does in America--he'll always be a Muslim and judged as a Muslim. And this fact just sort of leads them to still consider themselves Muslims and Arabs. So anything that happens involving a Muslim they're still concerned about--because they feel it reflects poorly on how people would judge them--even if they'd never meet anyone like some low class thug like Tamerlan Tsarnaev. They're concerned about what's happening in Syria because they have family there, but they're have absolutely no real influence to what actually takes place in the Middle East.
These are the sort of Muslims we should be encouraging. They hold on to a little bit of the culture but they are happy to just be in countries where they can be successful. Like the half-assed Catholics like my Polish-American side of my family who show up for church two or three times a year, but could really give a crap about whatever the latest senile Pope is rambling about.
And yet on City-Data, armchair theologists who've never actually lived or travelled to in a Muslim country, probably don't know the different between Sufism and Shiites and like to claim that anyone who doesn't follow the Koran word by word aren't true Muslims--yet at the same time, they would judge my girlfriend's family them for being Muslims...
You've gotten a bit out-into-the-weeks by failng to not confuse Islam (and is various sects, with muslims. Try to stay focused on the difference.
The fact that most living muslims are non-violent, is like going to war and having most of the bullets missed you. It only takes one or two to hit you and you're done. It isn't the ones that miss, that count, but the ones that "hit".
IMunHO - both Religions are delusional farces. Everyone would be better off if they just lives peaceful lives and stopped wasting their time on some nonsensical faith.
Amen to that, so to speak. However, I think most people are so weak that they NEED religion to help them through life. Fear of mortality, is too much for some, and the promise of "eternal life" post-mortem keeps them going.
You've gotten a bit out-into-the-weeks by failng to not confuse Islam (and is various sects, with muslims. Try to stay focused on the difference.
The fact that most living muslims are non-violent, is like going to war and having most of the bullets missed you. It only takes one or two to hit you and you're done. It isn't the ones that miss, that count, but the ones that "hit".
There's is no organized Islamic mass though. It's not even like Catholicism where you have a central governing body or authority. It's as disorganized a mess as the Catholic/Protestant/Orthodox divide in 17th Century Europe.
You're claiming what, that we are(we're meaning what, the US? Europeans? Christians?) at war with Islam because they seek to conquer and convert to Islam-is that what your analogy is claiming? So by that same rationale since in the last two hundred years it's mainly been western(Christian) nations conquering much of the Islamic world(along with most of the rest of the world) would it be fair for people in those regions to say "the West" is at war with them? Maybe the reasons these days aren't for converting by the sword to the cross--maybe the reasons are economic or supposedly for humanitarian reasons or diplomatic ones--though often in reality for control of resources--but for much of recent history it's been western powers that have been the agressors... I don't trust Muslims in the Middle East, but I wouldn't trust the Russians or the Chinese either. In terms of who is the greater threat to the US imperial legacy--it's really the Russians and Chinese who you might want to be more worried about.
Most people just refuse to see that out of 1 billion adherents, only a fraction of a percent of any of them will ever engage in violence in the name of their religion.
Go back into Christianity's not-so-distant history and rifle around a bit - you'll find a people just as blinded by a holy book and an interpretation of that book. But a higher % of those Christians were engaged in acts of violence based on religion and/or supported those acts than Muslims today? It's only the mass-secularization that has taken place in Christian lands that has put the breaks to the Christian fundamentalism that caused bloodshed and terror for the better part of 2000 years.
Nobody lives in that distant past you refer to. That was then, and this is now.
Your observation about a small percentage... is true of any country at war. The actual combatants are tiny, but the entire effort support them, in action or spirit, or by the implied consent of their silence.
There's is no organized Islamic mass though. It's not even like Catholicism where you have a central governing body or authority. It's as disorganized a mess as the Catholic/Protestant/Orthodox divide in 17th Century Europe.
You're claiming what, that we are(we're meaning what, the US? Europeans? Christians?) at war with Islam because they seek to conquer and convert to Islam-is that what your analogy is claiming? So by that same rationale since in the last two hundred years it's mainly been western(Christian) nations conquering much of the Islamic world(along with most of the rest of the world) would it be fair for people in those regions to say "the West" is at war with them? Maybe the reasons these days aren't for converting by the sword to the cross--maybe the reasons are economic or supposedly for humanitarian reasons or diplomatic ones--though often in reality for control of resources--but for much of recent history it's been western powers that have been the agressors... I don't trust Muslims in the Middle East, but I wouldn't trust the Russians or the Chinese either. In terms of who is the greater threat to the US imperial legacy--it's really the Russians and Chinese who you might want to be more worried about.
The Islamic world came by conquoring other worldss. It spread like the malignancy it is. The Cursaaders were predominantly retaking conquored terrotiry taken by the armies of islam.
Understand this islam is to humanity whan cancer is to the body. I find nothing about it that is good, from its unending war of extermination against all others, to its neanderthal, or worse treatment of women, to is meglamaniacal criminal "justice" system, it is evil of steroids.iIt is the swamp that sends out the vipers that threaten all of humanity.
No matter what part of the world you are in, there are Muslims fighting someone. They are killing Christians in Nigeria, Hindus in India, Buddhists in Myanmar, and EACH OTHER in Iraq. Is there something in the Koran that encourages this?
Most of these areas are tribal areas where the loyalty is to the tribe FIRST and the religion second. A good majority of these tribal groups have been fighting so long I don't doubt even they've forgotten what started it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
