The "religion of peace"...you think??

This whole discussion reminds me of growing up and hearing about the IRA attacks in the U.K. It seemed like every other week some pub or other public venue was blown up by the IRA. I'm not saying that the IRA was as vicious as the variety of terrorists we are dealing with today but many innocent civilians were killed by them none the less. Some might argue that they were pretty ruthless but, one difference really stands out in my mind between those times and the terrorism we have today.

I don't remember anyone condemning ALL Irish people as terrorists. Nobody sarcastically called Irish Catholics the religion of peace or terrorists. Nobody suggested killing all the Irish to solve the problem. I wonder when it was that we descended into mass generalizations of mostly peaceful groups of specific religions. I guess it started happening when they stopped looking like us.

Muslims are deeply spiritual individuals which is both their gift and their curse. It can guide them to fantastic heights of achievement and cultural innovation and can also destroy them from within by allowing the more radical elements of their society to take control of their cultural direction.

It is clear that the Islamic culture is at a crossroads and the opportunity for all elements of their society to assert themselves is wide open. Our culture has been forced into this up evil by recent events such as 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq, just to name a few. If we are smart and view this situation in the wider context, we can influence the course of events in our favor and maybe, just maybe, find a lasting solution instead of a prolonged conflict that will not benefit either culture. However, if we get caught up in the same old prejudice, emotional reactions, and chest pounding, we will both play into the radical Muslim element's hand and lengthen our own involvement in a struggle in which we have very little to gain and much to lose.

 

I would like to suggest that the main difference is that the IRA was involved in all this over in the UK, while the Muslims are flying airplains into our buildings and killing our solders overseas.
I would be wiling to bet that if you had been a member of the Church of England living in Ireland, you would have been more aware of the sameness in this insanity. It's all because it's happening to us now that makes the difference.
Would you not agree?

 

I am referring to the lack of tolerence that some people (and by the way, I have not said you or anyone else on here, please keep that in mind) display seems to me to be highly ignorant of the fact that the mass stereotyping of members of aforementioned groups of people is just as wrong as the killing of anyone's soldiers/civilians/etc. And I also am referring to the references to committing acts of what I deem to be genocide in the killings of groups of people holding differences in lifestyle from the members of this forum.

I apologize Dan, but you seem to not have noticed that there is a direct correlation in previous comments between being a member of a political philosophy and being in a religious group. (Republican = Christian, as an example.) I find fault with this, and I have expressed myself as such, providing an explanation for my way of thinking about this. My comment stems not from the political philosophy part of the discussion, but from the direct correlation made between RELIGION and said philosophy.

I had nothing to do with making a homosexual a bishop, and I do not have the same prejudices with the group of people fitting that description as you do. This does not mean I am not a "good Episcopalian" - rather it means I see nothing wrong with letting "all men" be "created equal" regardless of sexual orientation.

I have as much right to that as you do to imply that I am not a "good Episcopalian." Especially seeing as how you know nothing about how religion plays in my life.

Hm. I wonder what happened to that cease-fire?

I by no means meant you when I wrote this, unless you want to take it as such. And name-calling to me does not mean calling someone ignorant. I consider that a factual statement. If I were to call you a donkey's rear end, that would be name-calling. The murderous cutthroats comment was derived from statements made by various people (none of them you) who are essentially calling people of the Islamic faith such. Therefore, this is a term taken out of context, and not name-calling. Neither is calling commentary insane. Using a term like that to describe someone's choice of wording and/or idea is in no way related to giving that person/persons a "name" as is the case with name-calling, as described in my example above.

So, Dan, please don't mistake me here. I was merely expressing my opinion about this topic, and I believe that I did a very good job at not implying or referring to any one person when making any of the statements above. If you are recognizing where I got the ideas for those comments, that is up to your individual interpretation.

By the way, my grades are fine, thank you for asking. I hope that your continual education as you travel along in life is also as helpful as my education is to me.

~AJ

 

The IRA while for the most part confined it's activities to the UK and Ireland did take part in attacks on UK targets overseas it was and until very recently involved in training terrorist bomb making techniques overseas as this was one of there specialities.

De Orc

 

Danr if you believe that Islam is a religion of love or not a threat, why don't you take a plane ride over to Saudi land, guardians of Islam, wearing a big exposed cross around your neck and carrying a bible. Or why don't you walk the Gaza Strip and ask the first person you see if they love Jesus. But I am losing my head thinking that you would do something that would make you "lose your head".

Moen, since Mohammad the muslims have been killing non-muslims just for being non-muslims. After all this time, what makes you think they would change. Even in Turkey the military has to make mass arrests to keep eastern Turkey from killing non-muslims in western Turkey and the largest muslim nation in the world, Indonesia has been killing christians for the last twenty years of so Island by Island.

 

Ahhh.... Religion -the leading cause of death since the age of man.

 

Honestly Andy (and I know that you know a bit about history) don't you see some danger in this intense anti-Muslim vibe?

 

You're probably right but, the larger point was that instead of generalizing the actions of some to include everyone in the group, as has happened in past conflicts, why don't we just take the short cut this time and stop the Muslim bashing before we have to live through the repercussions of National self-examination once more? Will we ever learn from our past mistakes? Well, some of do anyway.

 

...and you don't see any danger in their anti-infidel ACTIONS (forget the vibe) of islamic people?

If you don't think that those muslims that preach anti-infidel are NOT 100 times more dangerous than people like myself that wants nothing to do with their hate religion...obviously, we know who you support. Go ahead and reach out to these animals as your hand gets cut off!!

 

Andy, do you see any reality in their grievances (things like mistreatment of Palestinians)?
Old Dan, as you can see I did not say that USA are the culprits. You ass-u-me(d) that.

 

By who, and in what manner? Try and be more specific, please!:whistle:

 

I guess the same post applies to everything relating to Islam. This is such a one-sided matter, I just don't understand how some of you want to sit and talk with these Muslims. No matter how much money we throw at them, no matter how long we subject them to therapy lessons, they will always hate infidels. They will always want to kill infidels. There is no treaty, no middle ground, either they are going to die or we ( I am referring to we as the civilized world) are going to die.
As for mistreatment of Palestinians, maybe we should really give them "mistreatment" in our "holding facilities."

 

I know that you hate links but this should be an eye opener

http://www.jatonyc.org/UNresolutions.html

the UN has many many resolutions (remember those are the things that brought us into a war with Iraq) that show the abuses that the Palestinains have suffered.

 

You drank the Kool aid

 

I like Kool-Aid. Especially the fruit punch flavor. But not if it's too clumpy. Then it's just nasty.

 

The poisonous hateful beliefs that are floating around here are worse than Jim Jones flavored Kool aid

 

How did I know you would post a web site? Just lucky I guess.

Are you implying that the USA abused the Palestinains? Just a Yes or No will be fine. Please no more web sites. Thank you.:whistle:

 

Danr, please don't tell me you're from the USA.

 

Scary that there are still people who can think left in the USA. It is a shame that so many in our country are falling for this we have to kill all the Muslims cr*p.

 

If you look back you will see that I never said that. If you are asking about our support for Isreal I would say that it may be a bit to exten$ive and that is a major reason for the perception that we are to blame. The context of my reference to the oppression of the Palestinians was a question to Andy (I was trying to see if he would acknowledge that they are an oppressed people). I never implied that USA are the oppressors.