SummerMadness

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Treat Far-Right Terror as the Threat It Is
The deadly attacks on two New Zealand mosques should draw attention to an obvious fact: Terrorists linked to the far right are no less murderous than the Islamist groups that get more headlines and attention from politicians.

Western governments shouldn’t be fooled by the skewed headline count; watching white supremacists should be a priority — alongside preventing the radicalization of Muslim minorities. This is not just a moment to grieve the 49 dead in Christchurch. It’s time to review the data and make a conscious policy shift.
 

Shemjaza

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What are Muslims? Are they Christian? Just curious.
No... it's a different religion who's members think the God of Abraham doesn't have a son, but Jesus was a prophet, except Christians have misreported or misunderstood his teachings. Muslims also believe in another more recent prophet called Mohammad who's teachings they most closely follow as they think they are accurate.

How have you not heard of Muslims or Islam (the name of the religion)?
 
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timewerx

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What are Muslims? Are they Christian? Just curious.

Islam is also an "Abrahamic Religion" just like Judaism and Christianity.

There are many Biblical characters common to the three relgions as a result.

However, there is much more going on "behind the scenes". The original proliferation of Islamic religion in the Arabian peninsula also spread in the same fashion as ISIS today.

I suspect people behind the original spread of Islam centuries ago and ISIS today are working with a non-religious agenda... They aren't doing it for Islam nor for Allah but purely for political reasons and possibly global conquest and control of their subjects. Religion is simply their tool to deceive and and manipulate the masses with fears that doesn't exist.

The Saudi Arabian royalty pays absolutely no respect to the Islamic religion in privacy.... It just goes to show they're actually above it. A legacy of "made up beliefs" to deceive and control their subjects.
 
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Dave-W

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Zoii

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Its an interesting thing that in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, Domestic Terrorism is considered the greatest threat. So its homegrown extremists, usually far right - hoping for some sort of social revolution.

As a cohort of spiritually minded people, we shouldn't tolerate any type of hate-speech on this site and call it out when it occurs.
 
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SarahsKnight

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So, it can't be assigned: left=satan, right=God?

It shouldn't be assumed that way, nor the other way around. I doubt when you get down to it that either "side" has God's backing more or less than the other.
 
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Shemjaza

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Islam is also an "Abrahamic Religion" just like Judaism and Christianity.

There are many Biblical characters common to the three relgions as a result.

However, there is much more going on "behind the scenes". The original proliferation of Islamic religion in the Arabian peninsula also spread in the same fashion as ISIS today.

I suspect people behind the original spread of Islam centuries ago and ISIS today are working with a non-religious agenda... They aren't doing it for Islam nor for Allah but purely for political reasons and possibly global conquest and control of their subjects. Religion is simply their tool to deceive and and manipulate the masses with fears that doesn't exist.

The Saudi Arabian royalty pays absolutely no respect to the Islamic religion in privacy.... It just goes to show they're actually above it. A legacy of "made up beliefs" to deceive and control their subjects.
I think this is sadly true of most outwardly pious kingdoms and governments of all religions over the centuries.

(Before someone butwhatabouts that statement, atheist Communist leaders have often been just as hypocritical and cynical in private about beliefs and systems they enforced at the point of the gun on their "comrades".)
 
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SarahsKnight

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God says over and over to turn to neither the left nor the right.

Actually that's a good point. I remember it being insinuated a couple of times around here from a conservative member(s) that Republicans are the godly or at least godlier party - and thus Democrats' agenda and thinking must be of Satan, of course - via use of the proverb in Ecclesiastes that a wise man's heart inclines to the right and the fool's to the left or something like that. If that saying by Solomon was indeed a foretelling of politics in society nearly three thousand years later (and I seriously doubt it), then what you say also about turning neither to the right nor the left, being a proverb in the Bible, should also be a fair argument concerning political leaning, in that God would have us be neither Republican nor Democrat.
 
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SkyWriting

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Its an interesting thing that in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, Domestic Terrorism is considered the greatest threat. So its homegrown extremists, usually far right - hoping for some sort of social revolution.

As a cohort of spiritually minded people, we shouldn't tolerate any type of hate-speech on this site and call it out when it occurs.

We should suppress the voice of your neighbors?

What happened to treating others the way you'd like them to treat you?
 
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SkyWriting

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Or more scripturally:

Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Luke 6:31
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Ephesians 4:29-32
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

John 15:12
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Matthew 7:12
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
 
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devin553344

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No... it's a different religion who's members think the God of Abraham doesn't have a son, but Jesus was a prophet, except Christians have misreported or misunderstood his teachings. Muslims also believe in another more recent prophet called Mohammad who's teachings they most closely follow as they think they are accurate.

How have you not heard of Muslims or Islam (the name of the religion)?

I read the wiki on Muslim, but for some reason it was unclear what they believe. They weren't very clear as to whether or not they believed Jesus was God and more importantly the Savior. They did indicate that Muslim believed He was a prophet. But it simply stopped there. Maybe I missed it in the wiki perhaps.
 
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FireDragon76

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No argument here. The US government focuses alot on Islamic extremism, but most actual law enforcement groups believe that right wing domestic terrorism is a bigger threat.

In 2009, physician George Tiller was shot in one of our churches because he was an abortion provider. His killer identified with many right-wing causes, and was a self-identified sovereign citizen as well. It was not treated as domestic terrorism as it should have been. This habit of ignoring right wing terrorist activity is a pattern in our society, and it's harder for some people to understand that these are extremist movements and not merely the acts of isolated individuals. But the same types of people are more than willing to understand an act of Islamic extremism as a movement. Something doesn't seem consistent about that.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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Its an interesting thing that in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, Domestic Terrorism is considered the greatest threat. So its homegrown extremists, usually far right - hoping for some sort of social revolution.

As a cohort of spiritually minded people, we shouldn't tolerate any type of hate-speech on this site and call it out when it occurs.

Extremists are just criminals who cloak themselves in political or religious ideology to effect the illusion of legitimacy to their violence. A naked example of this is the thug who uses robbery as a pretense for killing someone.
 
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Handmaid for Jesus

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I read the wiki on Muslim, but for some reason it was unclear what they believe. They weren't very clear as to whether or not they believed Jesus was God and more importantly the Savior. They did indicate that Muslim believed He was a prophet. But it simply stopped there. Maybe I missed it in the wiki perhaps.
The problem is our invisible enemy Satan who has sown deception in the world and in the hearts of mankind. The Bible says that God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
 
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Archaeopteryx

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The problem is our invisible enemy Satan who has sown deception in the world and in the hearts of mankind. The Bible says that God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
I'm sorry, but I do not see how that is helpful at all. There are people who believe in God—Christians even—who do some very horrible things. There are people who do not believe who also do horrible things. Pointing to an "invisible enemy" who is not evident and cannot be in any way held accountable seems to distract from the real issue, which is that some people do horrible things and we need to find ways of dealing with that in the real world.
 
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devin553344

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Extremists are just criminals who cloak themselves in political or religious ideology to effect the illusion of legitimacy to their violence. A naked example of this is the thug who uses robbery as a pretense for killing someone.

I think more importantly for a Christian is that killing peaceful Muslims is evil because they haven't accepted the Savior yet, and perhaps would have one day. What does that mean? Unsure as I'm not God, but it appears evil.

An extremist may have some other crime they commit, even killing of Christians. And they have :(
 
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OldWiseGuy

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I'm sorry, but I do not see how that is helpful at all. There are people who believe in God—Christians even—who do some very horrible things. There are people who do not believe who also do horrible things. Pointing to an "invisible enemy" who is not evident and cannot be in any way held accountable seems to distract from the real issue, which is that some people do horrible things and we need to find ways of dealing with that in the real world.

An expedited death penalty would help. And, teaching kids right from wrong would be helpful as well.
 
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