I have a long-standing, healthy scepticism about religion. I see all religions as fundamentally wrong in the simple way they prioritise faith over reason. I have little time for the Bible either. Criticism of Christianity is long-standing and secularism is much more secure in the West. The same needs to be done with Islam. We
must be able to question it; we
must be able to criticise it. We fought long and hard in Europe to get the grip of the Vatican out of everyday life and I, with many others, do not want to lose such secularism to an even worse alternative.
Actually it is against Islam to kill innocent people. Even at times of war, they have certain standards.
There are 1 and a half billion muslims on earth, if they were all as you described then we would all be dead already.
What I do find unusual is that you would use a source to justify your claim on the Old Testament in which the author of the research describes his own work in the following manner: "I must also reemphasize that this analysis is superficial and the findings are by no means intended to be conclusive.”
Have you read the Bible and the Koran yourself, Amandistan?
Why does the Koran and Hadith state the following then?
* Make war on the infidels who dwell around you (Sura 9:123, 66:9).
* Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day (Sura 9:29).
* Strike off the heads of infidels in battle (Sura 47:4).
* If someone stops believing in Allah, kill him (al-Bukhari 9:84:57).
* Take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends (Sura 5:51, 60:13).
* No Muslim should be killed for killing an infidel (al-Bukhari 1:3:111).
So, does ISIL and its various off-shoots really have nothing to do with this muck? When Boko Harem razes a Christian neighbourhood to the ground in Nigeria, does it have nothing to do with Mohammed’s teachings? When Sunni and Shia clerics preach open hatred towards Jews, is it unfounded in the holy books? When Palestinian telly programmes for children talk about Jews as pigs, is it all unrelated? When ISIL cleave the heads off of Yazidi and Kurdish men and rape their women and use them as slaves, does it not have justification in the Koran and Hadith? Take particular note of the last point from al-Bukhari 1:3:111.
I’m not describing all Muslims: I’m talking about the faith of Islam (submission). There is a difference. I have worked in Turkey and Saudi Arabia and I have also been in Iran, UAE and Oman. I have met individual Muslims who are fine: it is the faith that disgusts me. I know many who are also disgusted by it, but simply cannot open their mouths on the subject. The penalties are obvious for such behaviour.
The Sunni and Shia conflict is actually more political than religious. It is about territory as is the Turkish war on the Kurds. I think you are getting politics mixed up with religion.
Actually, it isn’t. It is a deep theological split on the grounds of doctrine, ritual, laws and even
religious organisation. The Sunni-Shia sectarian split in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and beyond is vicious. The fault line is Iraq. Neither Iraq, nor Shia Iran nor ‘secular’ Turkey want to grant one grain of sand to the Kurds, themselves an ethnically diverse group with many religions.
"The muslims are prime victims of their own bitter sectarian hatred surprises me not in the slightest"
What a hatful comment. It is not their hatred. The people killed were innocent. The people bombed in Syria did nothing wrong but live. The people killed and hurt in Turkey did nothing wrong. They do not deserve this. I don't even want to discuss anymore. The muslims I know would never say this about Brussels or Paris. Even after being bombed post-Paris attacks.
You are misquoting and clearly misinterpreting what I'm saying here. The fact that such a bitter split exists in Islam and is driven by fanatical hatred of opposing schools, one claiming to be more pure to Mohammed’s interpretation and sayings than another, would guarantee that the ‘infidels’ within Islam would be amongst the first victims. The Koran clearly advocates dislike for Jews and Christians, so that conflict hardly surprises me either.
I simply do not want to live under the absurdity of Islamic doctrine. In fact, I sympathise with anyone forced to live under it, especially those who clearly would rather be apostates. No wonder then that Islam sanctions the killing of such people:
'They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them, until they emigrate in the way of God; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and
slay them wherever you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them as friend or helper.' (Koran 4:89)
'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.' (Bukari 84:57)
Everyone should read the Koran and the Hadith. Combined with an understanding of Wahhabism, you really will get the picture behind Islamic terrorism and the role played by the House of al-Saud.
