Being an uneducated westerner and not wanting to anger the Muslim population, can anyone explain to me why most of the conflicts in the world are with the Muslim populations?
I am a Catholic and I was raised to believe that killing is bad.
It seems that thay are always fighting for their religion and it is OK to kill innocents for it. Suicide bombers, car bombs, bombs on airplanes etc.
I shouldn’t think ALLA would be happy with what they have made this religion today.
That’s “Allah”, Lamsai. Remember, girls won’t get intimate with boys who’re illiterate, to quote the Great One 
As for your question, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot revival tent pole. One doesn’t toy with religious terrorists.
CartooniverseI’m nowhere near an expert in this but I think you should look to history before casting aspersions on Muslims.
Can you say The Crusades? The Inquisition? Catholics have hardly been saints in this regard.
As far as current conflicts go with Muslim countries that has more to do with good ol politics than anything else. That leaders of Muslim countries use their coutrymen’s religion as a way to motivate them is beside the point. I do not think being Muslim makes anyone intrinsically violent. What it does allow for is a way to motivate people to die for a cause. If you die in a just cause as a Muslim your place in heaven (or their equivalent) is assured. Try getting someone to blow themself up for your cause in the US and you’d most likely be laughed at.
I don’t know if you’re looking at the big picture: Christians, especially Catholics, practiced some of the greatest violence in history (see the Crusades, the Inquisition). There is also violence in the Middle East caused by Christians and Jews. Not all Muslims believe in what the extremists are doing, just as not all Christians agree with bombing abortion clinics or starting paramilitary white supremacist groups ‘in God’s name’…
This is largely due to recent history. The middle-east is currently a very volitale region these days, but go back back to the days when Europe was in the dark ages, the muslim world was a modern civilized center with the world’s best minds and universities.
Of course, Islam has a bloody past. Mohammed, as the ruler and prophet of the movement moved armies across the Arabian Peninsula consolidating the Arab people by the sword.
But the greatest push in islam came by peaceful means, during the golden age of Islam. For a good 500 to 700 years Islam spread through trade routes to the non-Arab world. I don’t believe Indonesia needed to be brutally conqured to convert to Islam. A female friend of mine is from Cairo, and she emphasizes the passages of peace.
From the 18th century until WWII, Europe got entangled in very bloody “world” wars at about a rate of one every 20 years. Before the emergence of most of the nation states, Christian Europe was rife with wars all over. Remember the Crusades? That was the Christians. Of course they had no problem sacking Byzantium along the way, weakening them enough for the Turks to move in (a great simplification of course).
Of course there is now. Let me bring up the Branch Davidians or abortion clinic bombings.
All faiths have their share of nuts, as well as realonable folk. Most predominantly Islamic countries do not require their women to be totally covered, although these days they do often seem to be a little behind in terms of personal liberty.
umm, what Jeff_42 said…
Freakin’ simulposts…
It’s been a while since my Intro to Islam class, but…
According to the Q’uran (sp?), the only acceptable violence is defense of the faith. Not defense of a country, nor offense on behalf of the faith, only defense of the faith. The term jihad, as used in the Q’uran, refers to an internal struggle, whereby a person attempts to defeat that which is not holy in himself or herself, not to a Holy War against unbelievers. Further, Muslims are explicitly prohibited to persecute the other Peoples of the Book (Christians and Jews) in any way for their religious beliefs.
The problem is not with Muslims, it’s with folks who claim they’re Muslim, but aren’t.
Well said. You could say the same for a lot of Christians, too, btw. There’s an awful lot o’ killin’ in the name o’ god.
And the IRA does what exactly… oh that’s right market place bombs and stuff, much different.
Lamsai:
Your post made me want to scream. However, we will assume that you are being honest in your inquiry, and I will try and answer it for you.
Forst of all, Islamic religions make up the third largest religion in the world. And that is if you include atheism as a “religion.” If you do not, it puts Islam #2 right behind Christianity.
I assure you, with so many practitioners sharing this faith, if the religion dictated that they all kill, skyjack and bomb anything they don’t dig, we would all be dead.
Now, you claim that “I am a Catholic and I was raised to believe that killing is bad.” Well, what about abortion doctor murderers? How about the situation in Ireland? How about the Crusades? Do you not know about your own religion and what has gone on in the name of God?
In a nutshell: Just as those who murder abortionists in the name of God are in a vast minority, so to are the Muslims who use terror as a tenent of their spiritual views. And having a media which is prevalent and bound to spend more time on extremists of any religion, it makes sense that that is often the picture we see of :fundies."
If you really want to know about Islam, pick up the Koran. You would be surprised, perhaps, that all the major players in the Christian and Jewish Bible are present and that the message is not a lot different in general either.
Yer pal,
Satan - Commissioner, The Teeming Minions
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Satan (and others) got it right:
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the violence associated with Muslims is in fact the work of a small minority of extremists
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violence sells newspapers (and attracts viewers) so it gets a lot more play in the media
A couple other issues:
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poverty. Big, wealthy nations don’t have as much internal unrest (most people are satisfied), and don’t go to war with one another as often (too much to lose). Most predominantly-Muslim countries today are poor, and would likely have a higher rate of violence regardless of their religion.
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in Islam the community, or ummah, is considered sacred. Threats, real or perceived, against the community can spark a reaction which might seem out-of-line to our Western perspective, but which are understandable within an Islamic context.
Now, aren’t you sorry you asked your question? 