Islam?

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Here are some pictures a friend of mine sent me recently. I'm not sure if this belongs here or AoLS, but here goes. Apparently this is from England:
Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 Photo 8 Photo 9

I basically just want some reactions here. Have you heard of/seen this in the news? I'm sure it will never make it to American news, but Europe may see more of it, considering. I'm well aware that this isn't an accurate representation of Islam in general, but it does seem to be a large portion of the worldwide Islamic community, and that's troubling.

 

Nut jobs. Fruitcakes. Wack jobs.

(I would have used stronger words but I didnt want to incite the wrath of the mighty red dragon )

I am sure that, like me, the majority of the European population doesnt not have anything against the Islamic faith. But we do have something against the fanatics that think that their way is the only way and that anyone who thinks otherwise should be culled. Its these extremists and the extremists of the Western faiths that are having the war and are dragging the innocent population into it as well.

 

The muslims in those pictures are comparable to the Christians of the middle ages.

 

I'm hoping nobody is too surprised.

And who says poetry is a dead art form...

 

Yeh. Those photos are very old news...most stemming from demonstrations conducted in response to the political cartoons depicting Mohammad wearing a bomb for a turban and the subsequent refusal of the Danish government to speak to several Muslim ambassadors about them. (My contention is that the protesting was actually had more to do with the Danish government's refusal to speak to several Muslim ambassadors about the cartoons than it did with the Newspaper's decision to publish them. While I doubt that was why the individual protesters were protesting, I'm convinced that the perceived political snub was the reason that the protests were actually incited.)

 

The only thing surprising is the magnitude of the threats on the cards. I think it may be a matter of time before some government goes back 18 years to China's Play book and goes Tiennanmein Square on them. They are declaring war on the world. How long before the horrors of war come right to the protesters?

 

Most Europeans, I am sure, remember this... incident.

I dont know what has me more worried: To witness this vehement, disjointed hatred amongst people we took in or see them threaten mass murder on us all in plain sight of police forces.

Surreal.

This had nothing to do with caricatures of their prophet. Those were merely a welcome alibi.

Good luck to the Brits and their ongoing "War Within", as CNN put it.

 

Well think about it. When Europe was full of Christian zeal they did comparable things when something they held as being sacred was defiled. Remember that Mohamed is to Islam what Moses is to Judaism and what Paul is to Christianity (face it, its not 'Christianity', its 'Paulianity').

Christian Europe has lost its zeal, but there are places in the world were Christian zeal is still alive. Im sure that in the Deep South if something comparable was done by Muslims the Christians would be in an uproar.

Keep things in context, Muslims who hate Europe for disrespecting their beliefs are justified in what they did. How? Well, Christians, Jews, Hindus...they would all do the same thing in a reversed situation.

 

NOG - What evidence have you that these people are a 'large portion' of a religion that has around 1.4 BILLION followers. These people are just not right in the top box and don't represent Islam in any way, shape, or form. The Islamic people I know, if they acknowledge these people at all, just shake their head at this behaviour.

 

I live in a quarter with some 20% muslims I guess, I don't have a census at hand. I don't see any of that. I've seen the occasional nutcase writing at the wall, but that's it. I do not think it is representative.

 

The UK is currently prosecuting those people it has been able to identify as carrying placards designed to incite violence. One has just been found guilty of "Solicting Murder"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6427419.stm

 

Oh yes, in Germany they would also been prosecuted for 'hate speech'. Historical sensibilities.

Amusingly they would also be prosecuted for disguising themselves on a demonstration with scarves and the like, something that lady on one picture would probably find incomprehensible. But then, with that shield she'd wielding she's need to 'un-disguise' for the mugshot anyway.

 

Well, 'large portion' is a rather undefined term. Here I ment it in a strictly numerical sense, not a percentage one. Between the protesters here and all across Europe that I've heard of, organized extremist groups like Hamas and Alqaeda (sp?), and the fighting going on in Iraq and Afghanistan right now (btw, that's mostly between Suni and Shi'ite Muslims, not between Muslims and Americans), I think that constitutes a large portion. I haven't a clue what percentage that may be, but the number of people is large.

@Nataraja:

Oh really? Are you serious? Have you watched American TV lately? Do you realize how much Jesus is made fun of these days? I don't see any Christians threatening to kill the producers of The Simpsons or South Park, and I guarantee you THAT would make it onto American news.

 

As I just had a test about islam, having read a lot about it and the Qu'ran:

The Qu'ran preaches non-violence first and foremost, although there are a few passages in it (or was it some hadith's?) that speak of killing the unbelievers. Islam is in it's foundation a peacefull religion, but people interpet passages differently, so that's a reason as to why some muslims behave violently towards non-muslims.

 

Any religion which leaves any room for doubt at all over the acceptability of killing people strikes me as a very bad one.

 

I am a Muslim. These people are in no way the majority voice of the Islamic world. Extremists exist in every religion, and these people belong in that group. It is unfortunate that some Muslims are backwards-thinking and have to do these things.

However, I do not blame them for their reaction to the publication of the Prophet Muhammad's caricature. What most of the world fail to realise is that any depiction of the Prophet is strictly prohibited. It is one of the fundamental things in Islam. The Muslims hold the Prophet very dear and have the utmost respect for him even after so many years since the founding of the religion. Christians nowadays can make fun of Jesus because I feel that the respect some Christians have for Jesus have eroded somewhat throughout the years since the founding of Christianity. Try to imagine someone making fun of Jesus during the early days of Christianity. Would the Christians have reacted any differently? Heads would have rolled. It is as Nataraja said, anybody would have reacted the same way if they still had held the same respect for their religious symbol as the Muslims still have for the Prophet Muhammad.

The Islamic way of life is all about peace and understanding. It is true that some passages of the Quran speak of killing the non-believers but this is a recording of a time ages ago. Did the Christians not kill heretics and non-believers in the Middle Ages?

It is as Bahir said, different people interpret passages differently.

 

Err, no. No, really, I do not intend to 'think about it'. Unlike those who've taken leave of their senses, I have no business examining the finer points of lowlifes enchanted by beheadings or genocide. Instead, I choose to reject them out of hand. Yah, I'm funny like that.

 

Sim, I don't disagree with your statement, but would argue that all religions are bad. God ordered or committed Genocide at least 7 times in the old testament. He killed David's firstborn son because of David's Sin with Bathsheba. When his chosen people worshiped an idol, the Lord ordered that they kill their brothers and neighbors as punishment. Some 3,000 died according to the old testament. The bible speaks against murder, but apparently genocide and stoning adulterers fall into some sort of grey area.

On other (non-Judeo-Christian) religious fronts, some belief systems within Hinduism allow for (and glorify) burning a man's (living) wife along with his body so they will be together in the afterlife. Some religions in the third world still call for human sacrifice. Any religion that requires you to live by its precepts without questioning them is a bad religion. The problem is that few religions allow for the questioning of their precepts.

 

The thing is, in the middle ages, the Europeans had weapons that at the most, could kill a few people at once. It's now possible for one deranged man with a nuke in a suitcase to kill tens of thousands of people. One jihadi mama to release a biological agent.

 

@NOG: Speaking as a Muslim, I disagree that the individuals shown in the photos you provided form a majority of Muslims all over the world. Believe it or not, most of us are normal people!

However, I will say this. The one's you've shown are the infamous "vocal minority" who are part of any major group you would care to single out. Sort of like the PETA of animal rights activists...and just to make my position clear, I think these guys are nutjobs...them being Muslims is kind of incidental. They'd have made excellent Nazis too if they'd been born a few decades ago as Germans.

Don't blame the religion. Blame the people.