Fist and Faith wrote:There have been big wars between the Christian and Muslim worlds in the distant past, and pretty good ones recently against IS. As well as IS against other Muslim groups. And Muslims vs Isreal. And, and, and... I'm sure all this will continue.
You can always cast aside your false idols and worship the One True God, a-Jeroth of the Seven Hells;
moksha Raver is his Prophet.
I'm not trying to stir the pot too much, but I will just say that Islam itself is a troubling religion. It definitely isn't a religion of peace, unless you mean a different kind of peace... I have personally known some well-educated former Muslims (turned atheists) and they are absolutely terrified to go back to their home countries, which includes Turkey. They point out that in the Quran and Hadiths that there is a certain penalty for leaving their faith... It isn't too hard to find ex-Muslim atheist (or converts to another religion or whatever) sites where they pull up these scriptures. You really can't interpret them any other way. You can choose to ignore troublesome scripture, of course, but I seriously doubt that Islam will reform itself in that way because they believe the scripture was written by god and has words of their prophet.
As a socially liberal person, I find many of the laws and beliefs in Muslim-majority countries to be appalling. Such as the death penalty for blasphemy (or making it illegal, period). Pakistan is a prime example. If you said, for example, "Game of Thrones season 8 is gonna be better than GOD!" in a crowded area in Pakistan, you better run for your life because you just committed blasphemy. (I guess God is too weak to take care of himself, huh?
IMO that's the ultimate blasphemy...how ironic.) No religion can rightfully be immune to criticism and satire. Blasphemy is a natural right because it falls under the right to free speech. It's ridiculous that there are Western nations that still have blasphemy laws on the books (even if 'dead letter'); it's even worse when you can get into legal trouble for it in certain parts of Europe. For societies where the majority proudly say they are Liberal, that
sure is awfully Conservative of them.
Anyone who values liberal forms of government (and not liberal as in Progressive, but the term as it relates to how many Western nations are run where they value freedom and democratic process) needs to stop apologizing for Islam. If you are going to criticize Christianity, you might as well criticize Islam, too. Islam has a lot of things to criticize, especially since the Islamic world is in a similar spot currently as Christian Europe was during the Middle Ages.
Also, atheists (especially ex-Muslims in general) are being murdered in the Middle East, and we (supposedly liberal society) don't do enough to speak up for them. Apologizing for Islam while ignoring the plight of the atheists and converts is wrong, and we should be ashamed.
Of course, I couldn't give a toss,
per se, how culture evolves over time, what religion people practice, etc. But I have some serious hangups with common Muslim beliefs and what their scriptures say. I just hope that if secularism doesn't replace Christianity that at least the Mormons will come in and save the day with all their missionary work. After all, you do get your own planet, and the Mormons bake great muffins (so I've heard).
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In the spirit of free speech, I just wrote a joke. It's kind of rough but I hope you like it.
Jesus, Mohammed and Thor walk into a gay bar. Jesus orders a glass of water and then miraculously transforms it into wine, which he then offers Mohammed. Mohammed tells Jesus "I don't drink for it is haram!" He then slaps Jesus and walks off. Thor, who is wearing a wedding gown, orders two pints of mead and walks over to the Jotun hottie he spotted earlier. The Jotun accepts the drink and both of them race each other to see who can drink their mead the quickest. Thor, confident of his imminent victory, says "Whoever finishes first gets to pitch!" The Jotun, using some trickery of his own, keeps refilling Thor's glass so that he finishes last. Thor says "What in Asgard did you do that for?" to which the Jotun coyly replies "Baby, I got some more where that came from."