...and pumpking comes along and quotes the koran to explain the evilness of the terrorist, to blame it on islam.
this is stupid and playing directly into the hands of the terrorist. this is what we need the least. this is right-wing hate speech. this is blaming religion again, without looking at oneself...
The Koran is full of such quotes. Have you ever read it? I recommend that everyone should read it in full. I have: cover to cover thrice. Whether you like it or not, Islamic terrorist groups often take the Koran word-for-word to justify their actions. Where would they be otherwise? What would justify their actions? What is directly playing into the hands of such organisations is thinking that there is no correlation between the two.
By the way, you need to understand that it has always been the left that dislikes religion and criticises it. I can clearly remember a time when the left often rightly spoke out against religion, but we all know that the left has since entered a self-imposed ‘blind spot’ when it comes to objectivity against Islam in particular. You do realise "Islam" means submission, don’t you? As a religion, it has nothing to do with what you claim about religion, i.e “finding a way back to yourself, to humanity, to conciousness in an unexplainable universe”. It is clear what it stands for throughout. The great Arab mathematicians and astronomers, who were once world leaders in the study of such fields, were quickly silenced under Islam which removed their freedom of inquiry, something sacred to the pursuit of science itself and often obstructed by religion. How long did the Vatican maintain the world was flat?
To echo what ldopas said, cthulhu, are you not being very subjective? You’re annoyed I criticise Islam, yet you fail to recognise the subtleties of political Islam and Muslims. You then proceed to claim to “have a problem with believers who are not open to thinking”, and yet you refer to Christianity as “Christ-instanity”, without a single admission of the rather ‘uncomfortable’ truth of violence in Islam, current or otherwise. You want equality in faith...yes? Yet you debase Christianity right off the bat. Speaking of looking at oneself...
You do realise that you can afford to be an Atheist in the comfort of your own country, Germany, simply because of the success over the past few centuries in gradually removing the Christian Church from people’s everyday lives in Europe. In fact, Luther laid the foundations in the 1510s for the ability to question the Vatican. I still applaud this in 2015. The Treaty of Augsburg progressed towards secularism...eventually. Can we not now choose our religion or whether we even want to be arsed with any, simply because of the success of secularism throughout much of Western Europe. It came at a hell of a price though, didn't it? Now, do you think people in Islamic states have that same freedom of choice as we do? Do you think if you’re born a Muslim, you actually have the right to change your religion in an Islamic state? How easy do you think it is for an Arab to be a Christian? I would look in to it.
The Bible has plenty of vile in it, but we can talk freely about it without persecution. We need to be able to do likewise with The Koran, which must be open to questioning and criticism in our secular societies. Just because it is the religion of a minority makes little difference about the need to question its tenets and premises. Doing so is not a hate crime; Doing so does not equate to racism.
We also need to recognise where these jihadists get justification for their actions. If we stifle debate, we will pay a huge price.
I greatly value secularism and I’m not prepared to sacrifice it for any religion. I’m not prepared to ‘submit’ to anyone’s god.
I can quite clearly think for myself, but I’m grateful for your concern.
