That the 9/11 hijackers believed the bullshit that’s spewed by Westerners with regard to the 72 virgins. Do you really need a definition of the word condescending?
Were the 9/11 hijackers and other Muslim suicide bombers not promised any sort of reward in the afterlife as a result of becoming “martyrs in defense of Islam”?
Do I really need to ask the question a second time so you’ll actually answer it? TO WHOM is it condescending? And exactly how?
We actually have provincial health care and are only three-quarters (0.75) metric, so we only mostly suck.
You don’t actually spend them?
No. And it’s not difficult to find the answer to this question. The Qur’an specifically forbids suicide. Even if they considered themselves martyrs for their cause, their cause was not sexual gratification in the afterlife.
It’s just as likely they did it because they simply hated the U.S. for meddling in ME affairs or for being a comparitively hedonistic society.
It is condescending to Muslims to reduce their faith to sexual gratification. Furthermore, it’s offensive to me as an American that perpetuation of this condescending myth belittles the real difficulties that exist between our two cultures.
If I need my money to remind me that I trust/believe in God - I have bigger issues to resolve with regaurds to my faith.
If I need things to announce my faith/trust/belief in God - I’ve missed the point entirely.
It’s condescending to Islam to state that all of them believe the same things.
As a Canadian of a certain age, I have two observations in review of this thread:
I recall the ubiquity of manky one- and two-dollar bills, and having coins of these denominations is vastly more practical.
I also recall being an eighteen year old, snot-nosed, posturing “anarchist,” and as I have matured I have come to see the appeal of certain fascist ideas, such as the joy of forcing certain specimens (such as my former self and my compatriot SmashTheState) to consume an entire bottle of castor oil, just for shits and giggles.
I can scarcely fathom how I was ever surprised that it ever entered anyone’s head to commit such acts of brutality. Thanks, SmashTheState, for being such an educational douchebag. It all makes perfect sense now.
So what? Islam is not defined accordnig to how one interprets the Qur’an, it’s defined by what Muslims believe. If a significant number of Muslims believe something–as Muslims or in the name of Islam–then it’s part of the Islamic religion.
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No, the sexual gratification is the reward for sacrificing yourself for the cause.
Meddling in the Muslim world, therefore attacking Islam, therefore attacking God. And a hedonistic society is bad because God dispproves.
It’s my understanding that part of the rationale for the strict sexual repression in Islamic society is the promise of sexual gratfication in the afterlife.
Sex aside, however, you can’t seriously deny that jihadists or would-be Islamic martyrs are often promised rewards in “Paradise” for sacrifices made in defending Islam against the “enemies of God”.
My overall point is that one religious belief is just as valid as another. It’s just as true that the United States of America can “trust” in God as it is that Muslims can gain the keys to Paradise by becoming martyrs while waging jihad against the enemies of Islam. If it’s someone’s “faith” then you can’t “condescend” it.
Are you sure shits and giggles were all that ensued?
The question in that case, though, is WHOSE shits and WHOSE giggles are we talking about?
Around here, most all the automated devices that accept bills over $5 can return paper change, so that’s not a problem for me.
When I go to a store, any paper money I get in change goes back in my wallet, and coins goes into my pocket. When I get home, I have to put in a jar, because it’s bound fall out of my pocket at some point. It’s not that I don’t want to spend change, or I don’t think of it as money, I just don’t have any on me, because it’s a pain to carry around.
I can’t not carry $1 units of currency with me, so if dollar coins take off I’ll have to start carrying around a little change purse.
May you live long and prosper.
I think you’ll find that little change purses are a relative rarity in places with $1 (or even $2) coins.
Most of my pants have an innovative feature: a coin pocket.
I sometimes keep a dollar or two in my billfold for convenience, if I’m wearing pants without an appropriate pocket. (I hate having loose change of any denomination in my front pockets.)
One of the things that I hate about travelling in the U.S. is the dollar bills. Some of those are about as nice to receive in your change as a used tissue.
I think that if the change (heh) were to come to you, it wouldn’t be very long before you wondered how you ever thought it would be a bad idea.