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Originally Posted by BillyBob
How many "Westboro Baptist Church nutjobs" have killed people and how many people have they killed?
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That's not the point. The point is that you don't hold Christians to the "denounce them or you agree with them" standard.
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You don't consider killing 3000 innocent people in a morning 'mass murder'?
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Sure do. I just don't blame an entire religion for the actions of a few fundamentalist nutjobs from benighted regions of the planet.
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Which faith have I professed?
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Sorry. Irrelevant to my point anyway.
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Tell me again how many Christians are engaged in killing non Christians simply because they are not Christians?
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Hmm. Are you claiming that the 9/11 terrorists attacked us simply because we are not Muslim? I think you'd be wrong. And I *further* think you can't use that to explain why they're killing Iraqis and Afghanis. And Jordanians, Algerians, Pakistanis....
I notice, too, that you're simply ignoring my links to examples of Christian violence, and my point that nobody expected Christians to take to the streets to denounce such.
Just admit it: You have a double standard when it comes to Islam.
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Muslims quote the koran and use it as the justification for the relentless and continued murder of non muslims.
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*Some* Muslims do that. Just like *some* Christians (Army of God) use the Bible to justify murder, while others (WBC) use it to justify hatred of homosexuals.
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It isn't just a few misguided radical extremists
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Yes it is.
What is that number, pray tell? And how do you arrive at it? And how is it "staggering" when set against a backdrop of a billion Muslims worldwide?
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and your comparison of islam with Christianity is a banal attempt to deflect the true evil of islam as well as attempt to excuse it.
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To be clear, I'm not comparing Christianity to Islam. I'm simply noting that you have a double standard, expecting Muslims to do things that you do not require of Christians.
As with any religion, there is a range of interpretation and practice within Islam. There are the relatively peaceful interpretations of Western Muslims and various Islamic sects, and there are the more medieval interpretations of other areas and in particular certain fundamentalist sects.
Islam is actually even more diverse, which is both a strength and a problem. It does not have a strong central church handing down dogma, like Christianity does. It does not have a tradition of talking issues to death, like Jews do. Instead, every street-corner scholar can issue his own interpretations and fatwas. Certain interpretations become mainstream by being accepted by large groups of Muslims. But you can pretty much always find a fatwa to suit whatever your purpose is.
I think the Middle Eastern branch of the family is badly in need of a Reformation, and is roughly where the Christian church was 600 years ago. Christians tamed the more violent chapters of their holy book and learned not to wage war for religion, but it took centuries of religious warfare to learn that lesson.
At this point in history, far more violence is being done by Muslims than by Christians. But the Western practice of Islam shows that Islam is not inherently violent, and I think in time there will be a Reformation, driven by those Western interpretations. Islam as a whole will shed its medieval origins and emerge as a fully modern religion.
It's simply our misfortune to be living through its adolescence.