Obama's address at Countering Violent Extremism summit

[Mudhammam]

Anyone who thinks it isn't all just politics with Obama must be forgetting this hilarious episode:

Osama bin Laden received a Muslim ceremony as he was buried at sea, a senior defense official said in Washington, D.C., May 2.

The religious rites were performed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the North Arabian Sea and occurred within 24 hours of the terrorist leader's death, said the official.

"Preparations for at-sea [burial] began at 1:10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and were completed at 2 a.m.," said the official.

The burial followed traditional Muslim burial customs, and bin Laden's body was washed and placed in a white sheet, said the official.

"The body was placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker," the official added.

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=60124

[FatAndFaithless]

I agree, on reflection, he's most likely being pragmatic. I think this is a carefully concocted strategic move rather than a cowardly dodge.

I hope so anyway.

There's no way he's really religious anyhow.

*Bold added

I don't know why people seem to think this. He attended church for 20 years, going back to his early twenties when he was only vaguely involved in politics. He says he's religious, leads prayers, makes many references to his own Christianity. At best I think you could say that you can't know because he's a politician and being pragmatic. I think it's a real stretch to say that there is 'no way' Obama is religious. This just seems to be wishful thinking on the part of Atheists who support Obama.

Yeah, and his lukewarm-to-disappointing responses to things like gay marriage and faith-based initiatives makes it even more of a stretch for me. I don't know when people suddenly got mind reading powers, but I'd like to learn them.

[JesusHChrist]

Not quite: they represent a specific, fundamentalist interpretation of Islam based around the 'Prophetic Methodology' (i.e. they behave like Muhammad), the restoration of the Caliphate, and fulfilling Qur'anic prophecies of armageddon.

And since Mohamed is the perfect man, who can complain when his ways are followed? Beheadings, amputations, sex slavery, marriage of 12 year olds to 50 year old men, just as the perfect man would have done it.

[robvalue]

I dunno. I'm just making that up, I admit it. I guess I get fooled sometimes by what I see in people and forget the power of the dark dissidence.

I have a highly intelligent uncle who is an accomplished scientist, yet christian. So I shouldn't be surprised anymore. Part of me still is though.

[abaris]

I'm always amazed at how proudly uninformed some people are. Especially those, who post Fox and Friends as talking points. They're usually talking out of their butts and this is no exception to the rule.

According to Europol statistics, religious terrorism makes up a gigantic 2 - TWO - percent of all terrorist attacks in Europe. I posted the statistics in another thread and can't be arsed to post them again, since they're obviously not read. The numbers are in the public domain and can be easily looked up by doing a google.

In the USA, about 3 percent of terrorist attacks are religiously motivated. According to FBI statistics. Again, certainly a gigantic number to make any sane person very afraid.