we do, too. but not from islamic rule. islamic rule has the capability to change.
it's named second-type laws. you can change the islamic rules according to the era you live in. we should match our rules with the era we live in. we've done much so far, we need to do much to gain that level, and enshallah we will. I appreciate your sympathy and solicitude, but I believe that you don't know the whole truth about us. take a tour to middle east. it's not that bad as you think.

agreed about the war. war is hell. our culture is so different with western people though. we have some traditions from 2500 years ago, they can not be faded away. fortunately, our third generation of revolution, is well informed about many issues. the young people in iran are very smart and sensitive on international issues. there is a good variety of different philosophical ideas among the youth here and we are full of hope for the future. we should stay and see what time will bring.

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Thanks for speaking the truth, exactly as I have been saying. islam is incompatible with the West, incompatible with freedom, and incompatible with peace. It is an ideology from the middle ages whose time has come and gone, and was never peaceful. You must abandon muhammed as a prophet and hero and recognize that he was utterly evil. You must abandon the evil of the quran and recognize that belief in God is fine, enforcing it on others is not.

In short, your culture must stop being muslim in order to become peaceful.

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Qur'an:8:39 Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.
Qur'an:8:67 It is not fitting for any prophet to have prisoners until he has made a great slaughter in the land.
Qur'an 8:12 I will terrorize the unbelievers...Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes.
Qur'an 9:5 Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, torture them, and lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.

You need to read a text book and stop giving people advice when you don't know what you're talking about. The middle ages were about 500 years ago, and they took place in europe.

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So your logic is that if we are not there, the number will go down... That makes perfect sense... not.

[continue to raharu's post] and I was talking about Iranian traditions not islamic ones. like nowruz, chaharshanbe suri, .... these are more than 4000 years old. some are about 2500 years old and the prophet was 1400 years ago.

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That's ridiculous.

They are using Islam as a marching cry. If we took all the Christians or Jews and swapped them with where Muslims were, you'd find the exact same results. You'd find a people that are undereducated, repressed under dictators (propped up by foreign nations), and given little other than religion in terms of self development.

Then there grows an animosity for the dictators (look at Al Qaeda's motivations -- it was to destroy Saudi Arabia rulers, not the US), and their proxies. They use religion as a rallying cry to motivate their base, and use it to justify their actions. They appease their base by helping them on different levels like with food, social services and healthcare. They become a sympathetic figure to those people in that region because of what they do for those people.

And the people support them, and their actions get justified.

I don't care what religion it is, it would all happen the same way, because there are people that can twist and mold words in a book to represent what they want to say. And that's also why I am agnostic, because I don't care for organized religion, and it has more to do with molding of minds than it does of humanity or anything like it.

LOL. I wasn't placing muhammed on a timeline, just placing the ideology where it best "belonged." But, it was the most evil ideology of any time so it is a little insulting to people of the middle ages, I agree.

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Qur'an:8:39 Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.
Qur'an:8:67 It is not fitting for any prophet to have prisoners until he has made a great slaughter in the land.
Qur'an 8:12 I will terrorize the unbelievers...Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes.
Qur'an 9:5 Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, torture them, and lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.

This thread is ridiculous! Why are Americans, who have never been to Iran, telling Perham what his own country and religion are like? This is precisely the reason that terrorists hate America; because we are so ignorant and offensive. Rather than lecturing Perham on all of the things that are wrong with his country/culture/religion, we should be asking him what it's really like to live there. We should ask him why people kill others in the name of Islam and if that is a mainstream practice or not. Stop making assumptions about something that you have no idea about. We should take this opportunity to get an inside look at this country and region from someone who lives it every day.

Personally, I am ashamed to live in the same country that some of these opinions are coming from.

Perham,
I deeply apologize for any offensive language that has been directed at you because of stereotypes that are fed by Fox News. These opinions are not representative of all Americans.

Please tell us your opinions from your point of views and hopefully, some of us will take this opportunity to learn something. Why do you think that people have used your religion to promote violence? What to most people in Iran think about America and the West? What do you think is the best way to resolve our differences?

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"Masters of War" by Bob Dylan
"When a man assumes public trust, he should consider himself as public property"
-Thomas Jefferson
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
-Albert Einstein
"One man with courage is a majority"
-Thomas Jefferson

Right, how DARE Americans judge muslims by their words and actions! Thats not politically correct at all! You must be tolerant of evil!

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Qur'an:8:39 Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.
Qur'an:8:67 It is not fitting for any prophet to have prisoners until he has made a great slaughter in the land.
Qur'an 8:12 I will terrorize the unbelievers...Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes.
Qur'an 9:5 Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, torture them, and lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.

If you had stopped right there, your post would have seemed credible, but then you said this:

Also note that each religion has their dark times. Christianity experienced it during the middle ages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition