Radicals: Christian or Islamic

[unclepercy]

What way do they act?

That is interesting.

They are not barbarians the majority 99% of them. They live in modernized cities and live rich lives so what is the way they act?

If Methodists were bombing Baptists - this is so absurd, I can't even comprehend it - but if they were, you have a somewhat equal comparison to what is going on in the ME. The point is that it would not happen here/we would work it out in court.

The Muslim radicals act in a violent, incomprehensible way. That' s they way they act. And it is not acceptable in the 21st century - not in the name of religion, not in the name of Allah, not in the name of anything at all. And you do not see the non-radicals doing one friggin' thing about it. Why not? Islam must purge itself of the violators in an acceptable way. No rewards. No encouragement. A zero-tolerance policy for violence of any kind. And PUNISHMENT for killing - through a legal system. Don't you get it?

Uncle

 

[Daz_Hockey]

RE: Radicals: Christian o

But if the radicals in no way act in the name of god........did the religous zealots who attempted to wipe out many native american societys?

where do you draw the line....only the none whites?

you can deny it has anything to do with race, and I'll accept it, but frankly it has, middle eastern people are generally not thought of as much in the western world...and from what I've seen, even less in the states, but as I say, I'm not making this racial....even though it clearly is

 

[Colpy]

In my opinion, extremism in any religion is dangerous.

:arrow: Islamic Extremism
In terms of Islamic extremism, we have, of course, seen examples thereof brought to the forefront in recent years; the World Trace Center bombings are likely the most prominent examples of terrorism exercised by an extremist sect of what should be quite a peace-advocating religion, according to the texts and more moderate interpretations exercised in North America.

The danger posed by Islamic extremism tends to be obvious and overt; physical manifestations of violence are the prime source of fear of Islamic extremism as being "dangerous", and rightly so. There is definite cause for concern abroad; however, we are lucky to have Muslims living in Canada and the United States of America who choose to exercise their religions within the framework of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the relevent American legislation.

:!: Christian Extremism

This type of extremism is of particular concern to me; it is more covert and systematic, in my opinion, then the extremism of other religions. Extremist Christians are known for attempting to force their religion upon others, systematically; passages from religious texts are often, in my opinion, manipulated to serve the agenda of the Religious Right¹.

This type of extremism is, in my opinion, extremely dangerous. For example, take Fred Phelps; he manipulated the Bible to make it seem as though Christians had a religious obligation to be in favour of the murder of Matthew Shepard, running about cities advocating slogans such as "Matt Shepard Rots in Hell", "AIDS Kills Fags Dead", and "God Hates Fags". They even had the audacity to picket the man's funeral services with their hateful messages. Or perhaps Heather Stilwell who, in Canada, attempted to have books that disagreed with fundamentalist Christianity removed from schools (those dealing with Hallowe'en, the Wicca religion, or native-Indian spirituality — I cannot believe this one; she attempted to ban another form of spirituality from schools because it wasn't Christian).

I find that type of extremist particularly disturbing and dangerous; but perhaps on these points I am biased. I have my own personal reasons to be concerned about how Christian extremism could affect my life on a legal level and, therefore, I find both forms of extremism to be equally dangerous — however, in very different ways.

:!: Revision : Footnote
¹ By the "Religious Right" in this opinion, I refer exclusively to Christians on the "extremist" side of the spectrum — not a majority of Christians, just as I would suggest that not a majority of Muslims are extremist.

Five, I agree with most of what you say here. The anti-gay loonies that would resort to such slogans are scum. They are, IMHO, the farthestthing from Christian you can image. "Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone"

Unfortunately, the same can not be said for Islam. The Koran encourages the murder of unbelievers.

The comparison can be broken down to its simpliest form. Mohammed conquered the Arab Peninsula, putting pagans who refused to convert to the sword.

Christ conquered no territory, fought no war, put no one to the sword.

And there it is.

 

[Colpy]

These are PhD's and well educated men so I think you calling them idiots basically is insulting.

Ever known any PhDs?

I've known a bunch. One of my very good friends is a professor of history at UNB-SJ. Now he is a brilliant guy.

Believe me, a PhD is not indicative of a good mind. I'm sure the last two remaining Marxists in Canada teach at UNB. A lot of these people are flaky as hell.

 

[Colpy]

Re: RE: Radicals: Christian o

Funny, I hadn't noticed Christians rioting and burning, and killing because someone criticized the war in Iraq. Did I miss something?

Oh Yeah, Ann Coulter is as far to the looney right fringe as you can find. There simply is no one to her right. I have yet to hear her advocate murder of artists because of the "Piss Christ"

And as I've mentioned before, Christians don't have to kill because they can lobby their government for attention.

And actually, Anne Coulter has said things along the lines of going over to the east and converting them all to Christianity and carpet bombing the region. On her tv show she also insisted that Canada went to war with the U.S in Vietnam. She kept insisting this. Thus, she is an idiot. If you want to read the actual article were she said these things it's in a 2005 Time's issue. (Canadian Issue.) I can't remember the month.

I sure as hell didn't say I was a fan of Ann Coulter. Her defense of Joe McCarthy would put any sane person off her.

She does occassionally, say what needs to be said. Usually, she is just offensive.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Re: RE: Radicals: Christian o

Funny, I hadn't noticed Christians rioting and burning, and killing because someone criticized the war in Iraq. Did I miss something?

Oh Yeah, Ann Coulter is as far to the looney right fringe as you can find. There simply is no one to her right. I have yet to hear her advocate murder of artists because of the "Piss Christ"

And as I've mentioned before, Christians don't have to kill because they can lobby their government for attention.

And actually, Anne Coulter has said things along the lines of going over to the east and converting them all to Christianity and carpet bombing the region. On her tv show she also insisted that Canada went to war with the U.S in Vietnam. She kept insisting this. Thus, she is an idiot. If you want to read the actual article were she said these things it's in a 2005 Time's issue. (Canadian Issue.) I can't remember the month.

I sure as hell didn't say I was a fan of Ann Coulter. Her defense of Joe McCarthy would put any sane person off her.

She does occassionally, say what needs to be said. Usually, she is just offensive.

Ann Coulter sure can duck a pie being thrown at her. :lol:
Yes she does say what needs to be said when no one else will say anything because they don't want to offend anyone. As for her converting to Christianity comment that was over the line.

 

[Finder]

Why do we have to fight over which radicals are worse. They all are bad, and they all use the same means of getting what they want. It all depends on the situation they are in, inside the nation they are acting in.

I think instead of dividing us by throwing blame at who is worse, we should be resolved by fighting against all extrmeism, if it be Islamic, Christian, Catholic, Jewish or Communist, Socialist, Conservative, nationalist capitalist or whatever. Extremists around the world are the problem and it is not what they profess but to the levels they are willing to us it by subverting government and policy to using violance or bombs. This isn't a numbers game as you can see all you can do with numbers is add them up. 3 thousand innocent americans killed by islamic extremists in the wtc attack, over 20 thousand innocent iraqi's killed by the american invasion and occupation of iraq. 1 innocent person dieing in the name of extremism is one too many in my books.

 

[jimmoyer]

Finder, your fight against extremism of any stripe
is admirable.

But it's still a conundrum that some examples of history
show us how the extremists were agents for good
change, as well as bad.

It's a riddle for us moderates who by their nature
will revolutionize nothing when incremental change
is not working.

Incremental change is the least injurious to
the greater population ----sometimes.

Extreme change is most injurious in the short term
but perhaps saves many in the long term.

These are unsolvable riddles.

The trick is to know when, and what to divine.

 

[Finder]

Re: RE: Radicals: Christian or Islamic

Finder, your fight against extremism of any stripe
is admirable.

But it's still a conundrum that some examples of history
show us how the extremists were agents for good
change, as well as bad.

It's a riddle for us moderates who by their nature
will revolutionize nothing when incremental change
is not working.

Incremental change is the least injurious to
the greater population ----sometimes.

Extreme change is most injurious in the short term
but perhaps saves many in the long term.

These are unsolvable riddles.

The trick is to know when, and what to divine.

I would have to disagree with you. I know you will point out the American revolution, a revolution which at the time was not very populer and perhaps that of the French revolution to a lesser extent. But I would agree these cases where extremists won the day and perhaps only in the case of the American revolution they were able to moderate themselves afterwards. But this usually is not the case. Such as in the French Revolution where the Jabobins the extremists of the day won out over the moderates. At this time almost every faction became extreme, royalists and even moderates, to which only lead to death destruction and world wide war.

Plus extremists tend to think in a black and white terms too. If you don't see it my way then you are the enemy. I think the best movie out right now which touches this and I know republicans may not like it thinking it's anti republican when it's not, is "Good night and good luck" This was an amazing movie and the best lines uttered in it, and don't mind me messing them up by paraphrazing was, "I can talk to my socialist friend, not because I agree with him but because we can disagree and still be friendly. People like J,Mc would like you to believe you can some how become tainted by just talking to a communist but by having open... blah blah blah." I think this period in american history where one form of extremism was stamped out is something we never really talk about, but is immportent to see how fear and misunderstanding can change a democratic nation fast into one which is undemocratic and restrictive.