Is the west kidding itself about the good intentions of Islam worldwide?

In My Humble Opinion
1

On one hand you have a number of followers of Islam, especially in the west, who claim that Islam is a religion of live and let live and peace, on the other when you get out in the field and in the home country populations where Islam is the majority belief there are huge chunks of the Islamic population from the top to the bottom class levels who are all about going to holy war with the west and striking as many deadly blows toward the west as possible. The antipathy toward the west is palpable.

What’s the actual opinion of the Muslim man on the street in these areas? Are we fooling ourselves about the peaceful nature of Islam if this focus on Jihad is at it’s philosophical core?

2

Western culture completely overran the planet from the late 19th century with a gradual decline beginning after WW2. Resentment of western hegemony and disdain for non-traditional values is hardly limited to the Islamic world.

3

But they’re the only ones who’ve done anything about it, killing thousands of innocent civilians in the process.

4

That isn’t true at all; Russia became an implacable enemy of the Western world for most of the last century and cheerily started or participated in any number of proxy wars killing far, far more people than the West. China fought the West in Korea, killing thousands more. We had a bit of a spat with Japan you might have heard about. It’s rather trivially easy to cite examples of violent conflict against the “West” that are not Islamic in origin.

5

Islam comprises well over a billion people and, like all people, each one’s a little different. Are Christians more like Quakers, Catholics, or Baptists?

6

Well, to give it some traction in my mind, the Russians used the government to teach hate just because we say so. They had no side notes saying it was OK to like the West.

Islam uses religion to teach hate just because it says so. It seems to have a longer & stronger hold on it’s peoples minds.

During the time of taught hate, the Russians that disagreed or came here stopped using the Russian text books. Also, Russians allowed some religions to continue even though they did not toe a perfect line.

Those in Islam who do not believe in hating the West or move here still use the text that teaches the hate, the ideas that the rest of the world pretty much says are not OK even if it is claimed that it is just cultural differences.

IME, a majority of the Islamic ones here in the West still practice & support many of the near universally condemned acts that are considered as basic rights of humans. They are not trying to change, they want to make others accept all of their beliefs & yet support the refusal of allowing a Westerner ( mostly women ) the same consideration in their countries, enclaves or marriages, even in this country.

Why can’t we just get along? Because no one wants to give up their language, customs, or any thing that will actually work towards world unification.

A world wide language that all must be taught in school…? Bawahahaha
A world wide government? Bawahahaha
Uniform laws & enforcement? Bawahahaha

Our children’s children’s children will not live to see an 10% gain in world unification in their lifetime.

Looking at what we are allowing the US government to do indicates that in 20 years or less, the US will be controlled by Islam and many alive today get to reap the rewards of that life style. Their grand kids will just think it is normal for slavery & female abuse because that is all they will have ever know.

Cuba proved you could rewrite history and make it so to the young in a very short time. Who thinks Islam won’t do that just as soon as they get control?

The West does not have just one religion nor does individual freedom for all only exist in the USA.

In all the Islamic areas, there is just Islam, nothing else is tolerated.

I hope to be proved wrong. I am not betting my life on it because I have seen what they are doing now.

YMMV

7

Islam is a billion different people. The vast majority of them are non-hostile. A small minority, and very, very small minority, are violent. Kind of like every other world religion’s adherents.

8

I don’t see how you can follow that first sentence up there with those next two.

9

If I were afraid that Muslims were going to take over our government I’d advocate throwing open the southern border to get a bunch of good, Christian Mexicans to counter-balance them.

10

I’d appreciate it greatly if you would explain how a group that at best makes up 1% of the total US population will somehow accomplish this in a country where there is a constitutional separation of church and state.

You will, guaranteed.

11

How do you think Islam is going to take over the world, Gus? I see it as at the start of a gradual decline that will turn into a precipitous decline as fossil fuels are 1) found elsewhere than the middle east (think Canadian shales) and 2) replaced by more sustainable fuels. All the Middle Eastern Muslims have going for them, basically, is oil. The Indonesians, where the majority of the world’s Muslims live, are not nearly as violence prone as the Middle Eastern Muslims.

12

You can’t attribute unified intentions to a huge religion without a central authority. It’s not like Sunnis and Shia are working together across the globe.

13

Perhaps, but they aren’t strangers to terrorism either. See Jemaah Islamiyah, and in particular the 2002 Bali Bombings, which killed 202 people (including 88 Australians).

14

I don’t think a rational person can ever understand or underestimate the intentions of any person that is driven by religious fervor no matter what that religion is.

It’s just that due to a changing world, the dictatorial political systems, and the economic inequality in the Arab world, that there is a very large number of Islamists who have bought into religious fervor to give meaning to their lives.

Christian fundamentalism appeals to the same mentality. It’s not the religion, its the teaching of a religion that get manipulated in order to give people who feel powerless a sense of worth.

The religion itself isn’t a problem, its the fervor of fundamentalist that manipulate ancient teaching that don’t apply to the modern world that is the source of the problem.

Leviticus. There is no better example?

15

“Islam” personified? You have some people wanting to influence the majority of adherents (like in all religious groups, I hazard to guess.) And of those, some mean the “west” harm. Lastly, I guess the vast majority of ‘Islam’ just want to get on with life.

16

Uh, all of those ended 40+ years ago.

17

Just so I’m clear, are you saying the above items are a good thing and should be what we’re working toward?

Please explain what you mean by this. How is the US government in the process of handing over control to any religious group, specifically Islam in this case.

18

Well, I’ve been seeing this nonsense (and the associated “we’ll all be on Sharia Law!” nonsense) since 9/11. We’re about 2/3 of the way through that 20 year window now, and Christians still make up 85% or so of the country, and Muslims less than 2%. The nuttier side of the far right seems to be seriously afraid of the Islamification of the west (and the US in particular), but they haven’t proposed any mechanism by which it can happen. They give the same sort of horror stories about the UN imposing foreign laws in the US, which is about equally likely.

I think our womenfolk are safe for now, and the movement to repeal the 13th amendment must be a really, really quiet one.

19

Someone has clearly given you some very effective lessons in hate. What a mass of bigoted garbage!

20

njtt- If he’s wrong, prove it!