Antitheist Ex-Marine To Hold Draw Muhammad Rally in AZ Friday

[Thumpalumpacus]

Like I said, I don't think it's the radicals that are the bulk of the problem. How do you define mainstream Islam? Is the government of Saudi Arabia mainstream? It's the religious center of Islam and they are a far bigger problem then the occasional shooting in the west (not that I would defend that in any way.) I don't think that a few westernized Muslims at all represent Islam. Quite to the contrary, we see what happens when there is a Muslim majority in almost any country, and that's a repression of free speech.

As has been pointed out many times on this forum, the difference between Islam and Christianity is not a matter of what the leaders of each faith would like to do, but rather, what political strictures have been emplaced around each faith. Thanks to the 30 Years' War, Christianity in Europe was largely defanged as a political force, and just as thankfully, we Americans carried that attitude forward, in our own fashion.

There has been no political opposition to the political implications of the Islamic faith, but that doesn't mean that the KSA defines moderate Islam better than does the average Muslim on the street. Islam is splintered as well, but the real issue is that the political structures in Muslim countries aren't strong enough to keep religion out of politics, and when the vast majority of Muslims are at the socioeconomic bottom, they're more worried about day-today needs than changing the world's (mis)perceptions of their religion.

It's very enticing to focus on one target at the expense of others -- I'm guilty of it when I castigate Catholics for supporting a hierarchy which protected molesters -- but in cases where entire societies are being analyzed, focusing on one and only one aspect is a sure way to arrive at a faulty conclusion. The world is much more complex, and there are multivarious reasons why people hold given religious views with varying intensity.

But judging an entire swathe of people by one sliver of their pie-chart is silly. Do you demand that moderate Republicans disavow fascism before you vote for them? Do you require libertarians to disavow Ted Kaczinsky? Do you require atheists to disavow Mao?

Likewise, there are many strains of Islam ranging from Islam-in-name-only to beheaders. Broad brushes are useless for filling in detail ... but in this case, the details are human beings. Be careful making broad pronouncements, lest you head down the road to dehumanization.

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I don't doubt there are moderates speaking out that the West filters out, but you'd think with hundereds of millions of moderates out there having their religion abused like that, it would be hard to silence them all.  

From what we've seen here, the moderates are more interested in blaming Western media Islam's image than they are on condemning the radicals.

I'd imagine most of those moderates are far too busy working for a living to worry about seeking out a Western microphone to ease Western fears.

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I don't know if it's the same in America but in England it's pretty much the exact opposite of what you said.  After every terrorist attack every person in Authority, starting with the prime minister has to say that the terrorist attack wasn't done by Muslims practicing the real Islam and all the major newspapers have to print according to that storyline.  That along with articles dedicated to what the moderate Muslims say about the attack.

Well, here in America, our President will hurry to the podium to explain that the latest attackers don't represent the real Islam -- whatever that might be -- but as for Muslims themselves, their words are reported only very rarely in the broader media.

Personally the way I see it is if someone wants to attack one religion and wear a T shirt telling to to fuck off then that's good.  Especially if this one religion right now seems to be the one trying to cause limitations on freedom of expression.

This isn't an even game at all in terms of allowances of freedom to express yourself against all religions.  We've had the Jesus is a cunt T shirts, Jesus has appeared on south park as a main character, the life of Brian, the passion of the christ and so on and so on.  I think it's about time someone wore a fuck Islam T shirt and told Muhammad to fuck off, nothing personal against him it's just all the people who follow him who are still acting like it is the dark ages.

And that's great. I think narrow-minded ideologies which preach death ought to be challenged in public debate and discussion, and subject to a healthy "fuck off."

What irks me, and what I see happen so often, is this acceptance of a tiny fringe as representative of an entire group of people, and too often such stereotyping is based only on media exposure -- such stereotyping is held by folks who haven't met Muslims and take their impressions only from a media that is dedicated to ratings, rather than accuracy.