Quote: religion is to be absolved from any responsibility for religious violence, for fear that we will paint moderates and ordinary adherents with the same brush we use to depict hard liners and terrorists.
I'm still waiting for those alleged "moderates and ordinary adherents" to demonstrate that they are willing to denounce the ones who have the guts to act. Mostly they seem to admire them.
http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2014/...e-muslims/
Quote:Mark Durie in Islam, Human rights and Public Policy (2009) refers to a poll taken in 2006 which found that 58% of Indonesians believed adulterers should be stoned to death; up from 39% in 2001. Apparently the polled respondents in this “moderate” Muslim nation were not asked whether adulterers should simply get a damn good thrashing. I assume there would have been even greater support for that. In 2010, the Pew Research Centre found that 84% of Egyptians, 86% of Jordanians and 76% of Pakistanis favoured death for apostasy.
In early 2011, the governor of the Punjab province in Pakistan, Salmaan Taseer, was assassinated. He was killed for opposing blasphemy laws which had resulted in a Christian woman facing execution. Pope Benedict publicly opposed the laws. A number of Pakistan’s political leaders, including then-Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, made it clear that the Pope had no business interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs and that the blasphemy laws would remain in place. Thousands were reported to have showered the alleged assassin with rose petals.
Quote:Ok DeistPaladin. Why not just blame belief in God and spirituality.
I agree with you completely. Several centuries back xtians were every bit as big a bunch of bloodthirsty bastards as ISIS.
Quote:“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
― Blaise Pascal
