10 insane right-wing reactions to the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Correlation is not causation. If you can show me these assholes would be less assholish if raised with a different faith, we’re in business.
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Ok, police confirmed, the two brothers are killed, the hostage-taker at the supermarket is dead too, police are leading hostages out of the supermarket, unknown if any were killed.
There are lots of Christian Arabs who have immigrated to Western countries (there are even some Jewish Arabs who have). How much terrorism has been linked to them? There are also lots of Christian Arabs living in the Middle East. One can ask, for instance, if Christian women have it better than Muslim women there (I honestly don’t know).
Just wondering out loud here, is there the slightest possibility that the versions of Islam that have arisen in thoses places came about because of the shitty conditions and inequalities, rather than being the cause of them? Likewise, is it impossible that Islam has been co-opted in those locations to lend legitimacy to barbaric practices that already existed?
It’s certainly not a universal quality of Islam to carry out such practices. I do hope we can at least agree on that.
Notes: a) I’m a solid atheist; b) IMO all religions, including Islam, are based on ignorant superstition; c) I do not think all religions are equivalent in degree of harm, or lack of it, except perhaps for all of them being based on deep misunderstandings of how the world works.
Yah, I don’t know either. I’m not about to try to answer those questions, because the numbers are awfully hard to come by, and deeply tainted by all sorts of cultural and socioeconomic factors.
Also, I’m certainly not arguing that religion has no role in behavior. Now, certainly, it’s very much a chicken-and-egg situation.
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Looks like the hostages are ok.
Good job the French cops. I hope it hurt before they slipped away.
Give me a break. Why are so many of these ‘assholes’ Muslim? Did I miss the Christians and Buddhists flying planes into buildings and killing over cartoons? Did I miss the other countries whose governments are based upon a backwards ass religion, that has these types of retributions and fucked up thinking contrary to western democracy, as basic tenets?
Eventually 2+2 is put together and a light comes on. I see you are not there yet. Good luck.
Good to hear, if they got 'em with no further harm to hostages.
Can I ask, what are you personally doing to roll back the scourge of Islam? I mean, as strongly as you clearly feel, you must be doing something, right?
There’s already been a large number of random assaults (particularly on lone women, because courage I suppose), even shots fired. So far no lasting or permanent injury though, IIRC the worst so far is a high school kid who got badly pummelled by his classmates.
And of course mosques across the country have been attacked, grenaded, firebombed, spray-painted, one even got a hog’s head nailed to the doors which I thought was a nice blend of medieval innovation and terminally assholish ignorance.
On a more positive note one of the hostage-takers was black, thus we’ll likely be equal-opportunity cunts to minorities over the coming months. Wheee.
Speaking of terminal ignorance, a couple of the CNN talking heads have referred to him as “the one of African descent.”
Look, asshole. Fuck your condescension. I’m not an imbecile.
In my first post in this thread I largely agreed with Malthus that “the change was based on factors having nothing to do with religion at all”.
I never asserted your retarded “premise” in the first place. I’m not a Christian or follower of any organized religion; I think they’re all stupid and unnecessary. My objection was to the extreme forms of cultural relativism I see on this board, and specifically in this thread, on a regular basis.
No duh, “bro”.
I strongly feel what I know is the problem, the discussion of which is thwarted by this PC BS. Like the sasrcasm you spew here about ‘scourge’ that closes your eyes and mind.
So WTF kind of question are you asking, and in all your wisdom what would you do? This is not an issue that individuals can solve.
Oh! My humblest apologies. I didn’t realize we were discussing how you feel. Of course, it’s terribly important how you feel. By all means, let’s talk about that, instead of what you think you know. Which, clearly, is deeply flawed.
May have spoke too soon.
Fuck!
Well, it could have been worse; they could have nailed a cow’s head to the door.
I’ve looked at the relevant opinion surveys a bit. The brief answer is that Christians are somewhat more liberal on sex/gender issues than Muslims, but the differences between countries are as significant as the differences between religions. In Lebanon, for example, all the major religious groups (Shia, Sunni, Catholic and Orthodox) are relatively tolerant; in Egypt, Christians as well as Muslims are very traditionalist. Lebanon, Syria and Egypt are really the only countries with large Christian populations anymore, and for obvious reasons they aren’t doing opinion polling in Syria.
If you think there’s just one kind of sharia law, then you’re wrong. Some countries base their government on a specific interpretation of sharia, but that’s not the same sharia that other countries and other Muslims follow. What you’re describing includes certain aspects and sects of Islam, but not Islam as a whole. Islam as a whole is very diverse, and the fanatics are not somehow better Muslims than the liberal ones.
I’m curious: how would someone show this, in your opinion?