Well, the Muslims I know constantly remind me of how perfect their book and prophet is. Even those who I consider "integrated" and "moderate".
I don't have numbers, but I'm very surprised at your experience.
How do they reconcile the imperfection of their book with the apparent belief that the Quoran contains the unfalsified word of Allah?
Kind of sad, but then again I don't see "denying the ToE" to be as big of a threat to my own personal security as I see someone who believes he needs to kill me because I don't happen to believe his version of belief.
Internet death threats are a painful reality of our contemporary world. I'm pretty sure you'll find similar threats from the entire spectrum of political and religious beliefs in similar numbers.
What would interest me, however, is how many of those threats are actually acted upon - I'd be surprised if that really were a substantial amount.
Hmm, I've heard about that before. This is a valid point, although I'm not sure how many abortion clinic bombings/murders there have been.
Then again, even as a "pro-Lifer" I have never quite understood what the Christian faith has to do with abortion.
Is this really a widespread problem in the US?
First off, I am hard pressed to believe that Americans thought "murdering innocent Iraqis should be revered". Do you have any source to back that up? I mean, I'm sure the Westboro Baptists might be as nutty, but to claim that a majority of Americans enjoys the slaughter of innocents is a pretty far fetched claim.
Secondly, and it is important to stress this point, the Iraq invasion was never conducted "because of Christianity" or "in the name of Jesus" or "to please God" or the sorts.
US soldiers didn't run into schools shooting up children saying "Jesusu akbar!" or thought they were doing God's will when summarily executing prisoners of war.
GWB didn't enter Iraq or Afghanistan because he believed he would usher in the End Times.
Lockheed Martin doesn't produce airplanes in exchange for prayer services.
Christians can be murderers, but to see a Christian being a murderer
because of his faith is something I only rarely hear these days.
Meh, I was trying to point out that Atheists are absolutely cool people if they don't believe that genocide is cool or that barbaric warlords are cool.
Same goes for Christians, Buddhists or Muslims.
The problem is that the Muslim faith inherently reveres Mohammad as a "perfect being" and the Quo'ran as the infallible word of God - and that these sentiments are seen projected into modern day politics.
Any Muslim who tells me that Mohammad was wrong to decapitate POWs, was wrong to have sex with a nine-year-old, was wrong to call for the killing of apostates and unbelievers and was wrong to call for the killing of homosexuals might be a nice person.
Same goes for any Christian who will agree that killing homosexuals is wrong.
I think we'll both agree on that point.
Our disagreement is more along the lines of me thinking that most Christians will agree to the aforementioned points, whereas I believe that most Muslims would consider that inreconcilable (does this word exist? >_<) to the central tenets of their faith.
At the risk of a "no true scotsman", I do have to point out that, even for a very liberal interpretation of the Bible, I would have trouble in understanding how they came to that conclusion.
I personally do not associate with this thinking.
I have been an opponent of abortion long before I found to religion.
A lot of my colleagues, even in gynecology, are also opponents of this practice - in
Augsburg, no physician offers to provide the procedure.
That said, Germany is about the most liberal-leftist country you will find in Europe. Most of my colleagues are Atheist or Agnostics. As such, I would hardly consider this a matter of "woman's rights" and most certainly not a matter of faith.
I don't believe that immoral behavior can be reduced to the existence of religion. All societies seem to contain their fair history of violence, genocide, barbarism, crime and injustice. To solely blame this on religion is too easy.
The problem arises not due to religion, but when that religion does not tolerate differing opinions (like in Islam, or in the Christianity of the past centuries) and most importantly when that religion merely serves as a disguise for a political ideology (like in Islam, or in Church rule before separation of Church and State).
I consider today's Christianity to have a positive regulatory effect on society. Same goes for other tolerant beliefs and their cultural components (Buddhism and meditation, for example).
Ultimately, religion plays a very important role in the lives of many individuals. I find that even those who call themselves Atheist oftentimes resort to what I consider "surrogate religions" such as a belief in alternative medicine, astrology, homeopathy, conspiracy theories or other unfounded belief systems.
As such, there will never be a society "free" of religion or irrational belief. It should be our duty as humans to ensure that these irrational beliefs do not stand in the way of human cooperation, dignity and mutual respect.
I'll agree that some individuals calling themselves Christian are guilty of carrying out what you said. The same goes for individuals calling themselves Atheist, Buddhist or Hindu.
I'll also agree that there are most certainly individuals calling themselves Muslim that are absolutely wonderful people, provided they don't believe that their holy book is infallible and that their prophet is a perfect human being.
I think we can both agree, however, that the contemporary manifestation of political Islam is a cause of major instability, violence and death in many parts of the world, and that - as Democrats (in the system, not the party sense), we should be doing all we can to criticise ideologies that call for the killing of apostates, unbelievers and homosexuals.
I don't really see what's "racist" in criticising individuals for identifying with an ideology that causes so much carnage.
I have no problem in denouncing Christians who condone violence against abortion doctors.
I also have no problem in denouncing Muslims who believe that Mohammad was a perfect being.
I think you'll find that we have more in common than you may want to believer.
