Muslims

[Kaiser]

Something interesting discussed on Al Jazeera. She has some interesting points but too bad she's probably dead for speaking her mind now.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2703896?htv=12

[sayoku]

[dracula17]

Even though what was published in that newspaper was bad and caused a lot of uprising, it is there freedom to speak there mind, they should know that it would offend a lot of people. I haven't seen the article but from what I've hear i is really bad. If you were to censure what people say then you will be censoring there freedom of speech and press. Just like what some countries have done before. If something was wrong or going wrong inside the government they may stop you from saying that. There should be a common ground where people can agree on what is right and wrong and govern them selves. For it is up to them and us to change the world from a gale of darkness and to help people that need a helping hand. People who don't have food get beaten for their race or religion etc, people who are bullied by the government. All these things shouldn't happen but with these there are good people are born but people die. Houses are built to house those who are in need and those who are rich and they get burnt down. There is bad and good and they even out hopefully. People should be able to live in peace.

[Unlucky_Sevyn]

Can't say that I believe the base of Human Nature is evil. Without conciousness of actions, there would be no good or evil anyway. Since we've deemed things evil, they are seen as evil. In terms of animal or primal instincts, all these actions would be seen as instincts for survival. No matter how you look at it, we are taught what is right or wrong as we grow. We then determine what paths we are going to take, this is choice, it's not nature. That's just how I see things.

Conditions determine how people act. It's not right to kill. When you're growing up with killing around you everyday, you're not going to believe that. You'll believe that killing is right to get what you want. Obviously everyone around you is doing it, so why shouldn't you? To make it better, let's say that God wants you to do this, and if you don't, this should happen. If you grew up in that enviroment, you would most likely do what you were taught from the time you were born. It makes it hard for someone who never grew up in those conditions to tell you, "That's wrong" when it's happened all your life. You normally have to find out for yourself that it's wrong.

It's not hard to tell, that even most of the Muslim's that have resorted to these type of acts have done so because they were raised on it being what they HAVE to do. This is an example of just how influentual religion is obviously. Since alot of people just simply overlook all of the wrong done in the Crusades. This is a modern day example of that.

Muslim's aren't evil. Just like the Bible, the Muslim scriptures can be interpereted in different ways. Some people just take extreme views on things, anyone read about the Calvinists in the early America's? How about Manifest Destiny, that had religous implications as well. There will always be extremes. That does not mean everyone associated with the religion believes in it the same way. Taking lives, almost every religion will tell you that. However if you can justify it through religion, you will get the most dedicated soliders possible.

You can't punish a group, for what only some do. It's not their fault that other people are... Well... Wrong. If you could punish a group for what some did, and then for what some did in the past, there'd be alot of hate swirlin around. I myself, prefer love.
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Running from your problems only wastes time... They always catch up either way.

[kelvintjy]

[KayVee]

You don't mind having another member of the boards bump in the discussion? No? Good. Yes, I have answered my own question.

Here's all I have to say about this whole topic:

A more or less precise quote from Karl Marx:
"Religion is the opium of the masses."

I would agree with this statement, except for a little thing, here's my version of the truth: "Organized religion is the opium of the masses."

We have all been filled with doubt in some moment of our lives, haven't we? In the old days, make that ancient days, people witnesses hundreds of different natural phenomenons and needed explanations about the oddities occuring around them. The elders (or wiseguys, as I like to call them) who had to answer to these doubts made up stories and legends. This habit gave root to the ancient religious and spiritual traditions of the Greeks and Romans of Antiquity as well as most of Aboriginal spiritualism.

After that, when man managed to answer a couple of scientific questions on his own, the masses had other types of doubts: moral dillemas. The whole 'should I or should I not do this?' scenario. They needed teachers, not the type that told them how to read and count, but those who would instill in them moral principles and values. This is the case of all modern religions, be it the three major monotheist ones (Christianism, Islam and Judaism) or the polytheist ones (Hinduism - I won't name any others because I think I am going to do a mistake or two) as well as a few others (that I do not know where to classify them, pardon my cultural ignorance), such as Buddhism, Taoism and Sikhism. Many of these modern religions strongly reccomend (read: obligate) to their fateful to follow a few guidelines and many of these religions also offer sacred texts as words of wisdom. In the hands of a leader of an organized religious group, the words in the texts can be interpreted like the leader (be it the imam, the priest or the rabbi) wants it to be. So whatever the leader says will be 'the word of God' to the ears of the (usually blind) followers. This type of practice can be related to the medieval Crusades (I see some Christians look in the other direction), to the radical actions of a minority of Muslims, (I've been in a few of them, I toured them a bit, not everybody is running around the streets shouting 'jihad', most of them are trying to live a comfortable, troubleless life like you and me. It is just that what the news shows on TV isn't the life of John Smith's Muslim equivalent, so one might get the wrong message.)(I see some muslims whistling in false innocence) or the major disdain that some Israelis have toward their Arab neighbors (I feel like I'm about to get flamed for this, badly).

In any case, religion can be used as a tool to guide the people in a path of righteousness and an easy conscience, or it can make the masses go in a bloody riots. That is why I am sceptic in front of organized religion: it can be used in the right way, but can also be used in hundreds of wrong ways as well. I am not saying that atheists rock the house, I am saying that religion, and spirituality in general, should be approached on a cautious, personal basis and that it should be related to one's personal life instead of influencing national and international politics (You hear me out there, Mr. and Mrs. Extremist, whatever your nationality and faith is?).

On a side note, I am an agnostic descending from non-practicing Iranian Chi'ite Muslims, and religion is the least of my priorities. I have a 'do what you want, as long as it doesn't hurt or bother others' approach to spirituality in general. As for my faith in one or many divinities, I hesitate most of the time, so I am pretty much in a grey zone.

Thank you for taking your time to read this post.

[KayVee]

[ultimasome]

WOW guys your amazing it was really touching to know your way of accepting everyone. Im proud of you.
For this topic i think muslims are human like us but with different religon but to be honest i wanted to know more about islam and thier holy quran but there is no one i can take information from.I heared many things about islam but never get to know it more...i dont know but i feel something about islam and muslims maybe iam intersting about it or maybe the way islam spread all over the world.Its really intersting to know about others religons and their believes.I wanted to talk arabic and make more friends from differeng countries but what can you do.
sorry if i said more but i wanted to tell you and share information with you.
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"Blogger"

[Doomsought]

They are just as stupid as we (maybe a little more) are but only show it in another way.


I think it can be fixed with a few things:
fast food
mindnumbing corporate jobs
television
microraves
vidiogames.
Get tham on level with america and they'll be too lazy to riot.