Do you really perceive that, on the whole, Muslims on the SDMB are “likely to suffer persecution”?
I don’t think there’s anything anyone could possibly do on a message board which would count as “persecution”, short of giving out personal information maliciously. Being an asshole, sure, but persecution has stronger connotations for me.
Yes, the whiny ones.
Still don’t think anyone in that thread said that Christians are persecuted on the Dope. I certainly don’t think so. Therefore the whole, “Oh, yeah! they definitely are/are not persecuted!” thing kind of loses steam. Saying someone probably isn’t going to get a lot of help, and that they’ll probably get responses regarding Christianity’s problems with sex- well, I didn’t think that constituted a martyr-toned accusation of persecution. I suppose it could be read that way, but it seems to me to be a bit of a stretch.
Well, it worked for cosmology from Ptolemy to Brahe, didn’t it?
The point being that given inadequate information very smart people over a span of centuries can get it very wrong.
I don’t think anyone did either. It was a poorly-chosen, off-handed thread title that was supposed to reference much more inflammatory discussions here, and I regret picking it because it turns this into a “are Christians persecuted on the Dope” thread, which was not at all my intent, nor did I mean to imply that anyone was claiming that in the linked thread. sigh
A few years ago Dan Rather used to host a show after Nightline. It was very long and they went for hours sometimes. Once they had a discussion board with the Grey Panthers, Blacks, Jews, and other groups discussing how the media treated each party. At the end one thing was clear. Evey group thought that their group was getting an unfair deal from the media. They all felt other groups were represented fairly. That viewpoint never dies. It is live and well on this board. Whatever thread is started ,it will be attacked from all angles. Christians are not being singled out.It is just a common thread right now.
In follow up to my post noting the similarities between Christians and conservatives in their cries of persecution, just by happenstance Atrios has these two stories on the front page of his blog right now:
Tony Snow and the War on God (link goes to Think Progress);
Princeton conservative student who claimed he was beaten unconscious by two assailants because of his efforts to instill conservative moral values on campus turns out to have faked the attack. He also sent fake death threats to himself, three other students and a conservative professor (link goes to the NY Sun).
If there isn’t actually any persecution going on, you can always fake some up.
I suppose I might should weigh in, since somebody quoted one of my posts in the linked thread as being one of the possibly persecutorial ones.
I said:
I don’t mean to denigrate your religion, but IMHO, the Catholic Church is just about the worst source of information regarding sex on which to rely. Not to say that sex shouldn’t be informed by morality at all, just that denial and guilt don’t help matters.
OK, I reckon that’s not a nice thing to say to a devoted Catholic. However, I was not in fact denigrating Christianity as a whole or saying that Christianity shopuldn’t be an influence on your sexual decision-making. I was merely pointing out that Catholicism, in particular, isn’t what I consider a very good source of info regarding sex due to:
- Priests/Nuns are supposedly celibate. What do they know?
- Anybody that tells people in poor, overpopulated places to keep on having kids and take no precautions against STDs because it’s a sin is not pious, but cruel.
- That whole buggering priest thing and the attendant official under-the-rug-sweeping.
Most other Christian churches don’t have these problems.
I realize it’s not nice to bring that stuff up, but neither is the Catholic Church, in many regards. Fair game.
Now, as far as Christians being persecuted, that’s a load of baloney if it’s coming from someone in the West. There are places in the world where Christianity is a tiny minority and the folks who get persecuted there have a right to bitch. But on a US-based message board? Get real, you ridiculous fucking whiny pussies!
I think the persecution complex is just a natural result of building a religion around a martyr.
In the Catholic Wants An Ear To Have-Sex With thread, I talked about some of the unpleasant parts of the Catholic Church. I did not persecute anybody. I didn’t tell Autolycus to ditch the Pope, nor leave his church. I never said, “Don’t hire Catholics,” or "They won’t let you marry their Sisters, so don’t let them marry yours. 
"
I do not persecute them on the Dope,
I do not persecute them for their Pope.
I do not yell and call them fatuous,
I do not scold them for their statues.
Upon their souls, I have not picked,
Why mess with my laws, O Benedict?
My sense of rhyme just got persecuted.
Working as an Administration speech writer now, are you? A worthy task for someone with your name.
Yeah. It’s not as if anyone ever really says anything with the intention of insulting.
[/quote]
It’s really not a matter of atheists vs Christians or liberals vs. Christians either here or outside the SD. I’m a liberal and a Christian. I’m in agreement with most of the atheists here on most political and social issues, I think. It’s the ones who want to control my thinking who are annoying – just as annoying as Christians who want to control my thinking. Of course, as long as their desire is confined to a message board, that’s not persecution. And there is a bit of irony.
I forgot the part that says, “Apologies to Dr. Suess.” Sorry, Ted.
…which says something about the person and/or their interpretation of and manner of holding their beliefs that they’be so preemptively defensive. I agree.
Come off of…their views about religion? He believes religion is akin to an infectious disease. Some views can’t be expressed without insult, as I’ve been instructed so there we are.
Good to know that any time someone compains about being oppressed, one can just handwave them away as being “whiny”.
I laughed until I choked. 
While people have been nasty to me because of my religion, I’ve never felt particularly persecuted – not when I was a pagan, nor an agnostic, nor a Christian. I get that I believe some patently silly things, but in general that’s not why people are nasty to Christians as far as I can tell.
Der Trihs, in the spirit of brotherhood and a new day dawning, I wish you a M – a H – a… an awfully nice day and a sparkly new year. 
(Incidentally, as far as the whole ignorance thing goes… do religious people count as ignorant even if they believe the theory of evolution and go with scientific knowledge over the contents of dusty old books? I’m just wondering.)
I generally quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail in an extra sarcastic tone. (Sometimes I have to change the words to match the whiny complaint.)
Is anyone else really pissed off when people complain about “persecution”, because people might disagree, or argue with them about their faith or even act snotty and snarky?
I’m thinking of the REAL Christian persecution out there. The early Christians were fed to lions, for crissakes. I believe Christians in China are treated like shit for their beliefs. The Crusades-the fights between the Catholics and the Protestants, etc.
I’m thinking it’s an insult and a disgrace to the memory of these people when people nowadays whine about “the war on Christmas”, or whatever.
(I will agree, though, that Der Trihs is an “infectious disease” himself)
When they’re American Christians talking about being oppressed, especially on a message board, they are being whiny. In fact, I’d go so far as to say they’re being whiny little bitches. Show me an example of Christians being persecuted in this country any time in the past 40 years and maybe I’ll retract my statement.
Everything goes better with butter,
Woody