Why do Atheists defend Islam?

[Mechaghostman2]

Why is it that when one criticizes Islam, and criticizes the extremists of Islam and points to their religion as being, in part, responsible for such behavior, that it is Atheists who will come in rushing to defend the religion? 

Many Atheists will be the first to point out the ills of Christianity, what it is doing to American culture and who it is oppressing. However, when someone points to Islam and the oppression that happens under Sharia Law, or the behaviors of those who follow the religion, the statistics saying close to 80% of western Muslims support putting you in prison for drawing a picture, many Atheists will call you a racist, a bigot, an Islamaphobe, and basically just shut down the conversation by spouting those accusations rather than actually addressing, or even acknowledging the criticisms. There's a massive double standard in much of the Atheist community about this right now, and I think it's time Atheists start to address them.

Inb4 not all Muslims, that is an irrelevant statement. There are enough Muslims behaving this way to cause a real problem, and just downplaying it or ignoring it won't make these problems go away. Yes there are millions of Muslims that just want to be left alone to subjugate their women in peace. There are even moderates that speak out against Terrorists, some even political leaders. This much is true.

Let us take a look at a rather moderate Muslim country, Turkey. It's technically secular and has many of the freedoms western countries have, technically. However, if you drink on Ramadan, you're likely to get the snot beaten out of you, as one of my friends from Turkey was along with his friends. The country in recent years has also started to be more religious in its policies. Banning cigarettes, taking away rights for gays, etc. If this is the greatest country that Muslims are capable of creating, I'm not impressed. Only about 30% of the country voted for a more secular leader. The majority support Sharia Law. The 30% that don't are the people in cities, educated by English schools. 

This is all information from a friend that was born and raised in Turkey. He's agnostic, doesn't like the word atheist (yeah, one of those) and so this might be all hearsay and anecdotal, but I tend to take experiences of people from such countries with as much credibility as statistics and etc., especially one as levelheaded and logical about the issue as this guy.

Inb4 you're a racist islamaphobe bigot, Islam isn't a race, it's an ideology. Something you can convert to is not a race, and stating objective facts is not bigotry. Islamaphobia is a word made by fascists used by cowards to manipulate morons.

[Longhorn]

Um...When has this happened exactly?
And when has anybody defended ex. ISIS, on this forum?

[Minimalist]

Fuck Islam.  Fuck Allah.  Fuck Mohammed.

Does that make you feel better?

[abaris]

And there you have it. Like so many, you make no distinction between muslim and Islam. The first are people, the latter a religion. I'm certainly not defending Islam. I don't defend christianity or judaism either. But I certainly don't bash everyone belonging to a religious group, just because of their believes. That's why I always say my piece if someone makes blanket statements about any group.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Turkey at the moment is under the grip of a pro-islamist dictator. Erdrogan has been slowly eroding Ataturk's secular Turkey for years.

Most of my Turkish friends are dismayed at what is happening there. All bar one are Muslim.

[Cyberman]

Have you got any examples of atheists defending Islam that we can examine? Or are we to take your word for it?

[Simon Moon]

I don't defend Islam.

I believe it is currently the most dangerous dogma on the planet.

The Koran is loaded with bad ideas, that if followed, lead to bad actions.

[Iroscato]

Hate the game, not the player.

[Minimalist]

That depends on what the player is doing.

[Dystopia]

And there you have it. Like so many, you make no distinction between muslim and Islam. The first are people, the latter a religion. I'm certainly not defending Islam. I don't defend christianity or judaism either. But I certainly don't bash everyone belonging to a religious group, just because of their believes. That's why I always say my piece if someone makes blanket statements about any group.

That's like saying that there's a distinction between America and Americans. Yes, America is the abstract concept of nation state situated in north America with X territory, but it is made up by Americans and without them there would be no USA like we know today. Saying that we need to distinguish between Islam and Muslims is like saying we should distinguish between Hitler and Nazism.