The “Ask The Moslem Guy” thread has grown so huge it’s daunting so I’ve chosen to start another one. My questions are of a slightly different type anyway, being less about theology and more about current events.
What is the Islamic fundamentalist opinion of Richard Bransen’s Virgin airways? The name, the colour theme and the meaning behind them would have been considered quite risque, almost lewd as recently as the 1950s and 60s.
What would be written on Osama Bin Laden’s “ransom note” should he ever present one? Would he demand total American troop withdrawal from Saudi Arabia? Complete cessation of the bombing of Iraq? In an extreme situation (nuclear threat) what might America be forced to do?
Are Islamic suicide bombers really driven by faith in an afterlife? They seem to have been very much exposed to western lifestyles, don’t seem to have known poverty and must have been reasonably intelligent. Don’t those things imbue faith with a tiny bit of doubt somewhere along the line?
Thank you very much if someone takes the time to answer.
Mangetout: In the 1980s the Pope visited my country. It was the only time he has ever been here. He gave a speech at an outdoor sports arena which was packed with devout Catholics and, I suppose, religious enthusiasts of other demoninations. It was November (summer in the Southern Hemisphere) and the weather was quite warm. During the Pope’s speech it began to rain. All the faithful got up and ran away, desperate to avoid a few light raindrops on their heads. Remember Woodstock? Ever seen film footage of the Glastonbury rock festival in England? Rock fans don’t mind rain and mud. Unlike the Pope, Jimi Hendrix never had to endure the ignominy of a rain-phobic audience. The wet Catholics presented an example of faith to me that I’ll never forget. Now you see it, now you don’t.
Huh? There are so many things going on in the world, why would Muslims or anyone else make an issue out of one airline’s color scheme? If this question has any relation to Islam, I don’t see it.
He apparently has a huge bee in his bonnet over the US troops in Saudi. Apart from that, I don’t think he cares about specific issues so much as just gaining power for himself by taking on the biggest bully in the neighborhood and proving himself the meanest SOB of all. In my personal opinion this is a puerile adolescent show of aggression.
You talk about faith? If their faith were genuine they would never think of committing suicide or violating Islamic law by harming innocent people. Their idea of religion is drastically screwed up and unrecognizable to any traditional Muslim. I hope people don’t get the wrong impression and think that these crimes have anything at all to do with real Islam. Real Muslims are regular folks like anyone anywhere. They just want to get married, take care of their kids and get through life peacefully, and behave with righteousness toward their neighbors.
That ‘whoosh’ sound you just heard was this going completely over the top of my head without me understanding a bit of it… one example of a group of people who hurried out of the rain compared to another group who didn’t is supposed to convince me of exactly what? Are the people who stayed out in the rain the stupid or smart ones and was this because of their poverty?
Muslim Guy: Re: Virgin airways. Women of Afghanistan and Iran are required to cover their faces. Middle-eastern women are conspicuous by their absence in all television news film and always have been. However, Richard Bransen (symbolically) puts female bodily secretions on display and that’s ok with fundamentalists? That’s not offensive? It’s not like hijackers are drawn to him? Maybe it keeps them away, I don’t know.
What if feminists had a “Lorena Bobbitt” airline with a pair of scissors painted on the outside? It’s not completely illogical in regard to Virgin Airlines. I think I’ve said enough anyway. I’d rather leave it there.
Mangetout: People who don’t like rain are surely in possession of a questionable spirituality. A good subject for a thread: Great moments of irreligiousness. When religious people go bad.