For most Americans, Islam was a religion that lived on the periphery of their lives, a culture they caught glimpses of in movies and television shows. Then came the tragic events of 9/11, and suddenly the Western world was desperately grasping to understand a religion they knew precious little about. With all the questions swirling around the true nature of Islam, none has been asked more than this: Does Islam promote violence?
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Does Islam Promote Violence?
The Religion of Peace?????
Not all Muslims are terrorists; but all the terrorists are Muslim.
Everyday, somewhere in the world, there is an act of terrorism being committed by a Muslim.
If you wish to see a list of the murder and mayhem "the religion of peace" is contributing to the world every single day, log onto the website "thereligionofpeace".
- Sivan
July 24, 2008 6:45AM
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All terrorists are Muslim?
Please check your statement. It is not factual. What do you call Timothy McVeigh, if not a terrorist?
- deenybeeny
September 24, 2008 8:35AM
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Sivan
Timothy McVeigh was not an institutionalized religion. He was a single individual who was a radical lunatic and a mass murderer. And, if you're going to blame Chrisianity, please name the Christians who are currently blowing up hotels and driving bulldozers into groups of civilians in order to murder innocent people?
To repeat, not all Muslims are terrorists. But all of the terrorism, all over the world, is commited by Muslims. Most recently Pakistan and Israel.
Yes, the U.S. has supported some bad regimes in the past...sometimes it is a necessary evil in order to combat an even worse evil. For example, we became allies with Russia in order to fight a worse evil - Nazism.
Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world and we have to do the best we can. But lying about the evil done by Radical Islam is a fool's paradise.
I stand by my original statement!
Sivan
- Sivan
September 24, 2008 12:09PM
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Speaking of Israel
... they terrorise Palestinians everyday. But no one says a word about it because it's Israel, and if you did, you'd be called an anti-semite (in case you didn't know, Israel isn't Muslim... they're Jewish. You appear not to know this). Or maybe it wasn't Israel that just bombed civilians. Or maybe it wasn't Israel who put landmines outside of play areas of children.
The guards who terrorized the prisoners at Abu Ghraid weren't Muslim and yes, it was terrorizing.
Black Water isn't Muslim, yet they shot innocent civilians and terrorized the citizens of Iraq.
Simply because we're on one side and "they" are on the other doesn't make invading Iraq any less of a terrorist act perpetrated by a government. We invaded a sovereign country and lied about the reasons for doing so. We bombed buildings and killed innocent people. The reasoning behind it was false. Yet somehow it's okay, because it's the U.S.. Because we would never do anything that's wrong, and it's okay if we did because we're a democracy.
You can stand by your original statement all you want to but you'll still be standing by the words of a fool.
In the same way that guns don't kill people, but people kill people - Islam doesn't kill people, people kill people. Using religion as a reason to kill has worked for many Christians (Crusades), and continues to work for them. It doesn't mean Christianity promotes violence anymore than Islam does. It means misguided people will listen false purveyors of truth (in regards to religion).
- SocialistBetty
December 30, 2008 9:56AM
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ISLAMO-FACISM
The following is a quote from the speech of Geert Wilders, a Dutch Parliamentarian and chairman of the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands.
"In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.
In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear "whore, whore".
In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin.
The history of the Holocaust can in many cases no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.
Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels,because he was drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II.
I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
Allow me to give you a brief Islam 101. The first thing you need to know
about Islam is the importance of the book of the Quran. The Quran is Allah's personal word, revealed by an angel to Mohammed, the prophet. This is where the trouble starts.
Every word in the Quran is Allah's word and therefore not open to discussion or interpretation. It is valid for every Muslim and
for all times. Therefore, there is no such a thing as moderate Islam. Sure, there are a lot of moderate Muslims. But a moderate Islam is non-existent.
The Quran calls for hatred, violence, submission, murder, and terrorism. The Quran calls for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, to terrorize non-Muslims and to fulfil their duty to wage war: violent jihad.
Jihad is a duty for every Muslim, Islam is to rule the world - by the sword."
And these are the words of a government official from a country that welcomed Islamic imigrants with open arms and tried to help them get established in their country.
If you go online, you can get the complete text of Mr. Wilders speech.
Sivan
- Sivan
December 30, 2008 3:34PM
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YOU are the fascist.
And you're unreasonable, and you're racist against an entire group of people. Classic case of "It's okay if I do it, but horrible if you do it."
No amount of reasoning with you will ever work because you don't hear it. You have it in your head that only Muslims are terrorists and they're all out to get you. Nothing anyone can say will convince you otherwise.
Thus you, and people like you, will continue this idiocy into the future without recognizing problems for they really are and the wars and fighting and dying continue. Bravo.
- SocialistBetty
December 31, 2008 10:10AM
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Thank You So Much
Thank you for your rational and eloquent response (and personal attack on me).
Your ability to quickly sift through all the facts in my previous email and come to the conclusion that the problem is that I’m prejudiced against an entire group of people is a credit to your critical-thinking skills.
Thank you so much for clarifying the whole issue. No more discussion is needed.
Respectfully,
Sivan
- Sivan
December 31, 2008 3:14PM
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Wrong question
Islam certainly is the religion of the vast majority of terrorists, to blame Islam is completely missing the point. It is easy for the West to blame terrorism on radical Islam rather than look closely at the situation and understand WHY they hate the west. You don’t have to agree but it is imperative that we look through their eyes to understand terrorism. You will see why a war on terror is unwinnable. I also feel the good Muslim people, which represent the vast majority, should do more to denounce and educate against their radical counterparts.
Our CIA armed and trained resistance fighters in Afghanistan on the premise of being the good guys, helping them stave off the Soviet invasion. When the Russians left, we did nothing to help them rebuild their country making it clear we were only fighting against Russia, not for the Afghan people.
We left Afghanistan in ruin, broke from years at war and with a massive political vacuum, filled by the Taliban and resentment towards the USA. One of the men the CIA trained and abandoned was Osama Bin Laden. This is why leaving Iraq in a fragile state could have dire consequences. Imagine the terror breeding ground of the Taliban fueled by billions in oil revenues. You can make a strong case about not going into Iraq in the first place but we are there now, and leaving too soon could be a disaster of epic proportions.
Our foreign policy claims to be about promoting democracy for humanitarian reasons yet when it benefits us, we turn a blind eye to excessive humanitarian abuses of our “allies” like Saudi Arabia.
Syria was our ally in the first gulf war. They had troops on the ground that fought alongside us and sent missiles into Baghdad from locations East of Damascus. Was there something Syria did to move from ally to enemy? No. We made them an ally because we wanted Arab support for the first gulf war then determined they were evil when we no longer needed them. This is not to say that Syria isn’t guilty of supporting terrorism, only to say that they were just as guilty of that before but we ignored that then.
While a generalization, poverty often breeds hatred as people are susceptible to blaming another group for their problems. The Nazi movement predating World War II was in part fueled by the poverty in Germany brought on by economic sanctions leveled after World War I. Look carefully at the places where radical Islam is preaching against the West: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, etc. In each of these countries you find massive poverty. Yet countries that redistribute oil wealth like Qatar, Kuwait and Dubai/UAE are not breeding grounds for terrorism. Not to say that there are no terrorists there but to say they aren’t breeding grounds of radical Islam as found in impoverished nations.
We overthrew Saddam Hussein because he was an “evil dictator” yet we ignore the entire continent of Africa which is ripe with evil dictators and mass genocide.
Remember that there is a fine line between terrorist and freedom fighter. PLEASE try to read what I am about to say, not as support of terrorism in any way, but rather an explanation of how terrorists view themselves. For decades, the USA and other countries viewed the ANC (African National Congress) as a terrorist organization and they bombed various targets in South Africa. The leader of the radical arm of the ANC was named Nelson Mandela. Later, public perception changed as the world viewed apartheid as morally wrong and the ANC were no longer thought of as terrorists but as freedom fighters and Mandela a world hero. So while we view groups like Hamas and Hezbollah as terror organizations, and rightfully so, much of the Islamic world sees them as freedom fighters.
I have nothing but respect for the Jewish faith yet I don’t see criticizing Israel when appropriate as having anything to do with the Jewish faith. We criticize the UK and France when appropriate but have a different stance towards Israel, backing them 100% without question as if criticism of Israel somehow makes us anti-Semitic. When it comes to the Palestinian occupied territories or Southern Lebanon, there are no innocent victims. Each side carries some culpability and the solution to peace lies with respect, understanding and compromise from both sides.
At the end of the day, you cannot hold a gun to the head of a member of the Klan and tell him to like black people. And while fighting against terrorism on the battle field is important, you will never win that war because you are not fighting an army, you are fighting an ideology. Failure to understand an enemy surely makes any unwinnable in the long run.
Some of you will certainly read the above and feel my comments are unpatriotic; nothing could be further from the truth. I feel it essential to understand one’s enemy. To win the “war on terror” we must fight both on the battle field and in the hearts and minds of Muslims.
- Pliskin
October 3, 2008 10:10AM
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