Your posts seem to indicate something else entirely.I have no real enemies.
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Your posts seem to indicate something else entirely.I have no real enemies.
Not now, no but they certainly did in a similar time as Islam is in right now. Go to Hawaii and visit the Bishop Museum or go to Phoenix and that art museum and see the photos of NA's that were forced by Christians to abandon their culture and faith by alleged well meaning "Christians", or how about the other atrocities that have been mentioned, such as the Crusades?Good point.
Still most Christians don't plant bombs or execute innocent people for perceived
"evil" behavior.
There are plenty of radical Christians however.
Want to pass around a basket of rattlesnakes to prove faith?
Westboro Baptist Church?
Not now, no but they certainly did in a similar time as Islam is in right now. Go to Hawaii and visit the Bishop Museum or go to Phoenix and that art museum and see the photos of NA's that were forced by Christians to abandon their culture and faith by alleged well meaning "Christians", or how about the other atrocities that have been mentioned, such as the Crusades?
to some degree, yes, this still occurs. However, that said, there is a very large resurgence of interest in reconnecting with the Native American's roots. Most of the language of many tribes has been lost but even that is being researched to bring it back to the tribes. Here in Maine, my tribe is very much involved in our roots and in politics to protect the lands proscribed to us by the 'white man', who took so much from us. They still have much that they owe.The worst part is that was happening as recently as last century. It's probably still going on right now with Native children being pressured or forced into Christian schools and being robbed of their native culture.
Just the facts.Your posts seem to indicate something else entirely.
I use to think this as well, but now I am not so sure. I once thought that young Muslims, born and raised in the West, would secularize. What is happening instead is that young Muslim men and women are becoming very conservative and large numbers are radicalizing. In many cases they are becoming more conservative than their parents.Agreed but don't you think that Islam is still at the same stage in its growth as Christianity was about 500 years ago? The Inquisition. The Burning Times. Etc. How is that any different from what Islam is going through right now?
I will have to answer the remainder later, it is past my bedtime, but I want to make clear that I don't hate Muslims. Why just today I got a hug from a young Muslim woman, and I reciprocated. I consider her a friend. As the evangelical Christians say, "Hate the sin, not the sinner." It is Islam I am worried about, not individual Muslims, many of whom I have great respect for.Do you not see the obvious corrolations here? Or do you simply wish to continue to hate one group and one faith?
Mohammad was a warlord
Koran reflects that violence
Historically - the above is untrue.I use to think this as well, but now I am not so sure. I once thought that young Muslims, born and raised in the West, would secularize. What is happening instead is that young Muslim men and women are becoming very conservative and large numbers are radicalizing. In many cases they are becoming more conservative than their parents.
A major difference between Christianity and Islam are the holy books themselves. Mohammad was a warlord and the Koran reflects that violence. You can find a handful of peaceful passages, the rest ... not so good. Jesus, on the other hand, was crucified. The Jews fought a number of bloody rebellions against the Romans, and the early Christians went to great lengths to distance themselves from Judaism -- in the eyes of the Romans. As a result most of the New Testament is very subservient. Totally unlike the Koran. There are maybe two passages in the Gospels were Jesus says things that are warlike (reflecting the historical Jesus before the Christian writers redacted his words).
The thing to keep in mind is that the actions of ISIS are very close to the historical actions of Mohammad himself, that is once he got on a roll with his conquests. That is why the Koran is so dangerous. It is the handbook for ISIS and all the other Islamist groups.
You are completely incorrect about Mohammed. He was not a warlord at all. He was perhaps, if we are to believe the tales, a pedophile, but mostly he sat in judgment of others. Comparing the Bible to the Koran, one can find just as many violent laden verses in the Bible as in the Koran. It boils down to a matter of interpretation. Look at the Westboro Church. Look at the man in Florida who wanted to burn Korans., etc. Muslims, as a whole, are no more violent than Christians. It is the media and the few who make it look as if the entire faith is to blame.I use to think this as well, but now I am not so sure. I once thought that young Muslims, born and raised in the West, would secularize. What is happening instead is that young Muslim men and women are becoming very conservative and large numbers are radicalizing. In many cases they are becoming more conservative than their parents.
A major difference between Christianity and Islam are the holy books themselves. Mohammad was a warlord and the Koran reflects that violence. You can find a handful of peaceful passages, the rest ... not so good. Jesus, on the other hand, was crucified. The Jews fought a number of bloody rebellions against the Romans, and the early Christians went to great lengths to distance themselves from Judaism -- in the eyes of the Romans. As a result most of the New Testament is very subservient. Totally unlike the Koran. There are maybe two passages in the Gospels were Jesus says things that are warlike (reflecting the historical Jesus before the Christian writers redacted his words).
The thing to keep in mind is that the actions of ISIS are very close to the historical actions of Mohammad himself, that is once he got on a roll with his conquests. That is why the Koran is so dangerous. It is the handbook for ISIS and all the other Islamist groups.
Muslims, as a whole, are no more violent that Christians, as a whole, WERE, up until about 100 to 200 years ago.You are completely incorrect about Mohammed. He was not a warlord at all. He was perhaps, if we are to believe the tales, a pedophile, but mostly he sat in judgment of others. Comparing the Bible to the Koran, one can find just as many violent laden verses in the Bible as in the Koran. It boils down to a matter of interpretation. Look at the Westboro Church. Look at the man in Florida who wanted to burn Korans., etc. Muslims, as a whole, are no more violent than Christians. It is the media and the few who make it look as if the entire faith is to blame.
Muslims, as a whole, are no more violent that Christians, as a whole, WERE, up until about 100 to 200 years ago.
Muslims, as a whole, are currently the most violent religious sects on Earth.
Christians today, as a whole, are not violent at all.
I responded rather thoroughly on this point on the previous page - post #191. If you can blow it up to read it, it would explain better than this brief rebuttal.True enough but keep in mind that Islam is still in its collective infancy compared with Christianity. As you note, from about 500 to as little ago as 100 years, Christians were as violent, if not more, than Muslims are today. So do we excuse what the Christians did in the name of their God and blame the Muslims for their views? Seems a bit unfair to me.
As for your "differences," Christianity was a persecuted sect of a wierd confluence Judaism and Roman messianism until Constantine, the Roman Emperor, declared it the official religion of Rome.
Without Constantine and the Roman Empire, there would have been no Christianity.
Similarly, the Bible has its own share of who will be sent to hell through fire, etc, in the book Revelations as well as other books of the NT. Are you trying to say that just the one book leads to a group that seeks world domination? The Bible states that only their faithful with survive and enter the Kingdom of heaven and all others just to enjoy the Lake of Fire. Do you not see the obvious corrolations here?
In the immortal words of Princess Leia, if the Muslims don't stop, "...you're gonna get us all killed!"
You ever met a Muslim in your life?
No, please answer that. You ever actually talked to one and worked with one? I have. I have known good Muslims, ones that cannot stand such acts. People over in the middle east have been dying, Muslim and non-Muslim alike by ISIS and other terrorist groups. I guess you never saw any of the Muslims that have been fighting and condemning these acts overseas, but I guess they don't count right?
Right?
Because they all believe in the exact same thing because they read the Quran. Yeah, I guess that's why there's different branches as well as different texts... There's over a billion and hundreds of millions of them don't force convert everyone. The Muslims I know have never done that to me or others. But instead, you read 2 pages of the Quran and come to the conclusion that these Muslim radicals represent every single Muslim and every Muslim must be supporting them. You never heard of governments using people to fulfill their needs? Think it's a coincidence that every time a mass shooting like this takes place, the powers that be speak out against guns, and try to stir to the people up. That's never happened before in history right?
THIS is the kind of ignorance that prevents us from evolving and moving forward. You don't take the time to know others like I have. You live in fear, you read and hear so much information and instead of getting experience, you let the powers that be spoon feed you information because that's the easy way out. And you have the gall to lump Muslims in with these terrorists and call them Mohammed's followers is disgusting. Yeah I guess all of the Quran speaks of violence, even though there's verses that specifically mention that force conversion is wrong but I guess you skipped that part and didn't read the history behind these verses. All of us have something to worry about. ISIS is just the beginning. They are a danger and a threat but if you seriously think about it, they are not even close to being the real threat.
I appreciate your sentiments.
This is my concern as well. Antisemitism was so prevalent in Christianity over the centuries precisely because parts of the New Testament are antisemitic. The NT does not teach persecution of Jews, but it lends itself to antisemitism. Christians must, therefore, be aware of the problem and guard themselves against it. The Koran, however, is explicitly antisemitic and the Prophet himself beheads Jewish men, orders the beheading of hundreds, and carries off hundreds of Jewish women and children into slavery. Nothing of the sort happens in the New Testament. The Hadith tells us that in the end times even the rocks will call out: "I heard Allah's Apostle [Muhammad] saying, "The Jews will fight with you, and you will be given victory over them so that a stone will say, 'O Muslim! There is a Jew behind me; kill him!' " (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 56, Number 791).
We all are familiar with the explicit violence directed against non-Muslims in the Koran. The New Testament simply is not violent. Violence arose in Christian times when the Church gained political power. Once it lost that power, and once political leaders secularized, and the legal system secularized, persecution by religious elements in society gradually diminished. The violence arising within Islam, directed against other Muslims and non-Muslims, by both Sunni and Shia, will not end until the entire faith secularizes. The problem is that most Muslims, not all, reject secularism as a Western vice. I cringe at the prospect of millions entering our society who are not secular and who will not secularize. They will bring persecution, in all its forms, with them.
I would say that Muslims ought to create denominations. The most parsimonious examination of Islamic history and Islamic doctrine leads to the conclusion that Islam is a theocratic, supremacist, conquest-oriented, misogynistic, homophobic, anti-semitic ideology. Now I understand that many Muslims reject those ideas. But they put the burden on the rest of us to sort out which Muslims largely believe what their ideology instructs them to believe, and which Muslims do mental gymnastics to transmogrify the ideology to a peaceful one. Again, I understand that many Muslims do indeed perform this transmogrification into peacefulness, and I'm glad they do.
But if peaceful Muslims want to be respected and included in modern society, they need to declare themselves openly and clearly, and saying "Islam is a religion of peace" doesn't cut the mustard. If such a denomination already exists, please share with us what it's called!
Muslims have openly declared it, condemned it and are fighting against it.