Radical Islam

I have a lot of thoughts on this, but the way I've rationalized it in my head to a small point: This to me feels like the Crusades moment for the Muslim religion. Christianity has its faults today (I'm vaguely Christian) but hundreds of years ago the violent aspects of the religion were mostly expunged as people realized how poorly they were interpreting the words from their holy scriptures. Now this is that moment for the Muslim faith. I have plenty of Muslim friends that are tremendous people, honest, hard working, and nicer than I am most of the time. It's come time to step up loudly, start a movement, and condemn the holy hell out of the extremists that are twisting words of peace into hate that they can use for their own machinations. It's time to start social movements, organize walks, create a dialogue that separates yourself from what the extremists are doing and in that way revolutionize your belief structure. It's also time for them to weed out the more sexist aspects of the religion, but I guess that can be saved for after people stop dying.

It does shock me though that so many people in the world are dying so much and nobody is stepping up to make a difference. We can help Muslims in need as well as destroy those that are a threat to the world. Everyone just needs to reach out to one another, but nobody is. It's a strange state the world is in right now.

 

I actually encourage you to look closer at the Crusades. They were not actually a bunch of blood thirsty Christians trying to overtake the Middle East. Rather, it was the Turks who were threatening to take Constantinople. So the Byzantine Empire came to the Pope and asked for help. (This is to say nothing of the strategic advantage having a city like Constantinople/Istanbul would have provided the Turks had they wanted to continue their march into Europe) Granted there were a--holes that used it as an opportunity to get land and resources, but the actual reasoning was not just Christians thinking they should kill Muslims. And for those who used the Crusades for financial gain, they were not doing so under any instruction from the Bible. That's the main difference between the current radical jihadists and the Crusades. Any evil from the Crusades was not a result of following the Bible. On the other hand, the Quran DOES speak of these things. Don't let any of these pundits on TV who have never even touched a Quran tell you otherwise.

 

I was talking on a macro level: killing in the name of your religion. It's unacceptable and Christianity has moved mostly beyond that realm of thinking.

There are plenty of Old Testament ideologies that encourage violence. There are always ways to interpret words to your personal needs and that's what is happening with the Quran. There are messages of peace and prosperity that most Muslims take to heart and others that talk about violence that extremists are using for their own means.

This to me is not a religious war. It shouldn't be. I know I invoked the Crusades so it's sort of my fault that it went that direction, but this is not a "Muslims vs. other religions" problem to me. It is a sect of terrorism that is manipulating their religious scriptures to suit their evil desires. This idea that Muslims are trying to take over the world to me is false. There are plenty of perfectly agreeable Muslims in the world content to live their lives separate from yours with their own belief patterns and their own ideologies. The only thing I meant to take from the Crusades was the idea that Islam can move past violence for the sake of their religion, especially on this sort of scale. I know it's impossible to expunge all violent and hateful people and those people will use religion at times to spread their violence and hatred, but Islam can expunge a lot of the antiquated ideologies that are associated with their religion.

I'm probably going to recuse myself though. I truly don't want to make this a Christian vs. Muslim debate. It's not in my opinion and that line of thinking just leads to more anger, distrust, and unrest. Let people of whatever religion they are be that religion as long as it doesn't affect anybody else's lives.

 

Not all Muslims are terrorist. I hope everyone knows this. Our government puts the number of radicals at 20 to 25% of Muslims. That's a couple hundred million people worldwide.

We can put our heads in the sand. We can sympathize. We can be angry. No matter your choice in how to react, they want to kill you. And if you're a Muslim and don't agree with their brand (Sharia) you are an infidel too. They kill more Muslims than any other group.

If you're surprised by the attacks in France you haven't been paying attention. If you think their won't be more attacks across Europe you're living in a fantasy land.

And they'll become more frequent in the US.

What's the answer? I have ideas. But killing an ideology isn't the answer. Killing over 200 million people isn't either. Appeasing and hoping it'll go away isn't either.

 

Exactly right.

Isis is killing other Muslims with impunity ,because this isn't Islam vs. other religions, this is Isis/Isil version of Islam vs. the world... including any Muslims who's beliefs don't align with Isis, which fortunately, accounts for the great majority of Muslims.

I have a lot more to say (of course), but can't get to it right now

 

I'm not trying to make it Christian vs Muslim. You just brought up the Crusades and I get tired of hearing the Christians attacked to wipe out people because they were Muslim argument. Its not true.

 

I've never made such an argument. I know the Christians weren't out to to kill Muslims but they did wage a war waving the flag of Christianity. I know the intentions were different from the history we're given, but they still killed in the name of their religion and I find that wrong regardless of the circumstances that lead to that.

Again though, I'm trying to get away from that conversation. It's not what I intended.

 

I had this fight with my father the other day: there's room for two sides of the coin.

We can accept people in desperate need of a home (Syrian refugees) by vetting them all and making sure we're safe at home. If they're innocent refugees they'll accept the vetting process because it's better than their war/poverty torn homelands. Once we're convinced they are no threat, we allow them to stay in the US under temporary supervision. If that's not acceptable terms, then I'm sorry but you will have to find a new home. Innocent and earnest people will have no problem with this arrangement as it provides safety for everybody.

Meanwhile we can still take an aggressive stance against ISIS. I'm still not sure why the world hasn't yet? They've claimed responsibility now (or at least endorsed) the attacks of Nice, San Bernadino, Belgium, Paris, Orlando, all those lives in Iraq and Instanbul. How many more attacks are needed before we take a stand? We know who is responsible and we're doing nothing about it.

 

I think catching Isis is like trying to catch a greased up deaf guy.

Aside from the visual, I don't think it's so easy to catch and beat an enemy that doesn't seem to have one leader, one country, or a standing military. This is a very different enemy than we've ever faced, so it's taking time to figure out what to do without starting an international war, or worse innocent deaths/human rights violations than what we already do with drone strikes.

 

IMO, you work with the stable Middle Eastern countries. Why we're taking in Syrian refugees and Saudi Arabia isn't taking in a single one blows my mind. We help them help themselves. I'm not trying to sound cold-hearted, but the "refugees" look to be in their mid-20s. Why aren't they fighting? Women, children, and the elderly are free to come on over. The able bodied men? I don't get it.

Also, I'm not particularly against drone strikes, but every time we drop a bomb, they have 1000 new recruits.

In the words of a soldier who served 4 deployments: "everyone goes to bed at night thinking they're the good guy." Everyone hates ISIS, but the US isn't far behind on the world stage.

 

Fight is also a figurative term. Stand our ground and work together to weed out these individuals. ISIS is attacking everyone, so why isn't everyone else working together to fight back? You know what I mean? We are allowing these people to infect and spread their hatred without any sort of resistance or organized defense. I don't understand it.

 

But that's madness to me. You can be mindful of differences and still recognize that they're different right?

This whole culture and subsequent anti-culture is so foreign to me that I can't even comprehend their points.

 

Girl Power?

 

Can't really help the body we're born in

 

Most things in this world are led by men. You can pick pretty much any topic, positive or negative, and men are leading and executing it since most modern societies are patriarchal.