One thing that surprises me is that I read almost no criticism of the Muslim world view toward females. Until recently I had a friendship with a Muslim guy from a tribal region of Pakistan. At age 12 he volunteered to join Afghanistan forces and fought the Russians. In our discussions he defended this world view of women over and over. I told him that he was full of shit. We are no longer friends.
My point of view is fairly irrelevant. The truth about Islam isn't really open for much debate by those who are informed. What you have noted above is the difference between something that is true - and the truth.Originally Posted by RevolverRob
The only thing worse than arrogance is false humility.
There is no monolithic "worldview" and you aren't looking in the right places. It's an ongoing debate. Witness Saudi Arabia changing rules. They didn't just flip a coin and decide to let women drive, etc.
The whole "they hate us for our freedoms" isn't entirely untrue. Western culture is infiltrating, and as always urban areas first, backwaters last. Hell, I saw people walking pet dogs in Jordan last time I was there. That would be like keeping cows in your house the first time I was there.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
Dunno about you, but I'd enjoy a few more MOAB drops on the appropriate people/places/things.
I'm both informed and experienced, and I disagree. I've had the debate here before and don't feel like rehashing it, though you are free to search those out. You are, of course, also free to assume I'm ignorant or deluded as you see fit.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
BBI... so in other words, much like there is Catholic-lite, Jewish-in-name-only, there's Muslims that don't want to blow everyone up. I can believe that the militant arm(s) of Islam is(are) really a tiny portion of the total population.
I would say the Muslim-in-name-only is the one who's willing to kill non-combatants (specifically forbidden), kill themselves in suicide attacks (specifically forbidden), convert by force (specifically forbidden), etc. and definitely make up a small minority. Read up on who's recruited in Europe and the like and you'll find they recruit from the same pool as street gangs do, and for the same reasons. The ignorant and vulnerable are much easier to convince then the learned who have a place in the world.
Even most of the "religious wars" were territorial/empire building wars. Nobody phrases the US expansion into Indian territory as a religious war. It's a fact that it was a majority Christian force pushing a majority non-Christian population out and that the US gov't forced Indian children into Christian schools, etc. We all get that wasn't the underlying reason for the war and that even if religion played a role, that conflict would have inevitably occurred anyway as the US expanded. Empire building is what the gov't of the world have been about throughout the majority of recorded history. If you want to find Muslim V Christian, you'll have no trouble finding it. Nor will you have any trouble finding Muslim V Muslim, Christian V Christian, Christian V Pagan/Indigenous, Pagan V Pagan, Christian V Athiest, etc. etc. It's easy to build a narrative with bird's eye view facts either way.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
I personally believe you are incorrect about this. There are sects within Islam that advocate for lots of different things, not all of them do. Much like all of Christendom doesn't believe or advocate the Westboro Baptist church philosophy.
While I do not have the experience that BBI does, I did seriously consider/investigate conversion while in college and I was fairly serious with an absolutely beautiful and incredibly sweet young lady that almost convinced me to convert, marry her, and move to Malaysia to work for her father's company. To this day I have never met anyone that smiled as beautifully at me as she did.
I spent a lot of time talking with her and her brother about it as all the "dating" that we did was with him as a chaperone.
I can state emphatically that what you state was not their belief system at all.
I believe it was in his book "Peace Kills" that PJ O'Rourke noted that many of the so called religious warriors weren't especially religious. You have Muslims who don't go to mosque fighting Catholics who don't go to mass, and so on.
People like to pick and choose, and most often use religion as a mask and justification for whatever nasty thing they were planning on doing anyway.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
" La rose est sans pourquoi, elle fleurit parce qu’elle fleurit ; Elle n’a souci d’elle-même, ne demande pas si on la voit. » Angelus Silesius
"There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers." Paul Muad'dib
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