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"WTF is Radical Islam?"


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Here's a great little blog post I found online regarding the stupidity of talking about "Radical Islam" as if it were a single thing, or as if it were an integral part of all Islam somehow:

http://moronwatch.net/2012/06/wtf-is-radical-islam.html

I also think it's very important that the author noticed the similarities between the view of Muslims in the West today and the view of Jews in the 1920s and 30s. Prejudice against people from the Middle East and South Asia - often covered up in anti-Muslim rhetoric - is well on its way to becoming the new dominant form of racism in the West.

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Recession hit hard and the West needs scapegoats. As France cannot legally yell against people from their former colonies they turned towards eastern europeans. UK, the same. Still, all the world is bombarded by news from the chaotic Middle East. War in Iraq, Afghanistan, Islamic Terrorists bombing and killing... Somalia with its insurgency, Azawad beign diverted from a (legitimate) struggle for independance for the Tuareg into a crazy Shari'a land and so on.

The West needs a credible common enemy. Eastern Europe, Balkans, Russia is competition, not enemy anymore. So you have US, Europe, Russia and China having Muslim scapegoats. The thing is that in order to have stability the scapegoat must live. Like Osama bin Laden. It took 11 years for him te be caught. Really?

So Radical Islam is just the current enemy. Next one will be Asian as China climb up the ladder to challenge the US economically. And that will be easy to work with also. US scars run deep with Japan in WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War.

What can I say? I have faith in the Arab Spring. I was reading on BBC how Egypt is changing. Even pious people question the clerics now. Tunisia is ok, it chose secularism, Libya quite the same. And Syria now fights for its life. And Iran, as much as it is demonised in the west... it's a modern country. With modern people. They just have to live under a repressive and violent regime that based its doctrine on religion.

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Yes, the West needs scapegoats, and if it is true that we are heading for decades of stagnation, the need to blame it all on some evil foreigners will be greater than ever. So I expect to see increasing attacks against Muslims, both verbal and physical. Muslims in Europe seem to be a minority at just about the perfect size for a scapegoat: large enough for people to be scared of them, but small enough that they cannot hope to defend themselves by forming political parties or organizations to defend their interests (in general, a minority group needs to be at least 5% of the population in order to become a political force with its own party and so on).

If that happens as expected - if the ruling class increasingly tries to make us afraid of Muslims so that we don't complain about our own wages, pensions, and costs of living, then it's important to be prepared to argue against that propaganda.

That's why it is important to remember that there is no such thing as "Radical Islam." Instead, there are a number of different fundamentalist groups within Islam, many of whom hate each other (for example the Salafis and the Shia fundamentalists who control Iran). Just like every other religion, Islam has a crazy fringe. If that fringe happens to be gaining power, it is for economic reasons (let's remember which country provides the money for the Salafi movement: Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil state).

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There has been an arab national awakening since the '20s. That turned into a religious revival as a means of restoring national identity and to bridge the whole expanse of muslim countries. It so just happens that in this moment of history, when "christian" europe is on the downfall, the middle east muslims are very active. they lack education of the masses, they're underdeveloped, unemployed and have a baby-boom. great recipies for expansion. and if they look towards religion for identity then yes, it will be a clash. and it dosen't matter it's not ALL muslims like that. if there are enough to make the headlines, it's enough for the West to have its scapegoats.

The West learned its lessons partly. It seemed to have stopped to look for scapegoats within their own society and neighbors. That is good. The bad thing is it switched to new-commers and 3rd world countries too weak to ppose them by conventional means. Somehow the violence is averted. The terrorists don't have enough money to wage all out war on western soil and the west dosen't have to kill (or be killed) too much in warzones. Precision bombing rather than carpet bombing. Drones rather than mass armies. It's less bloody. But more mentally dangerous.

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Religion was just invented to control people, but now it's all out war as religions got divided between nations. The worst was from the nazi in the ww2 scenario thinkin jews are plain shit compared to them. Then comes this new terrorist uprisings and blame it on the muslims. This i guess was to bring a fear of muslims into the hearts of many. But while doin this killin many. Even muslim is not a clear word. It's consisting of another few groups. This all leads to conflicts them to wars. In the medieval age instead of religion being called religion was called serving the god who protects the kingdom. Many kingdoms existed hence many sects in same religion.

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Mozaism (jewish/hebrew) - christian - muslim = different ways of interpretation of the same dogma (as far as I can see it). all Abrahamic religions, right? we might all bragg about being atheist, non-religious, whatever, but that religious background has modeled us all.

I also agree organised religion is the heart of all evil. But people LOVE to fight and argue and whatever. Violence is within the nature of ALL abrahamic religions. The Hebrew God of vengeance. The Christian Crusades. The Islamic/Muslim Jihad.

For me, as a Christian Eastern Orthodox (technically), it is easy to see this. Even if my fellow romanians are not rioting trying to kill the unbelievers, the programming is in there. Ready for 1-2 thousand years. Sometimes it resurfaces... Sad thing. Might have something to do with the church saying whatever is not orthodox is HEATHEN. Including "ze west". every now and then. and JEWS KILLED CHRIST.

As you can see, unprobed evience is the basis for the main thesis... of christans against the world.

utterly wrong

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My opinion is that religious differences are just an excuse for aggressive, xenophobic behaviour that is, sadly, part of human nature. Other excuses fit here just as well - nationalist supremacist ideas, a quest for justice, whatever.

The the best of my knowledge, no world religion teaches violence or declares it a necessary element in attaining salvation or other values it holds important. True, history knows numerous examples when proponents and/or adepts of a particular religion, including figures of religious authority, have called for violence against members of other group(s), but each and every instant of that can only be analysed and understood within the historical, social, economic and cultural context that created such a situation. Therefore religion, as well as any other type of ideology, is just one of the many factors that may contribute to the escalation of violence.

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Indeed. Violence is within the nature of abrahamic religions even though we 're such a peace-loving species?

Jews have drawn hate from other people throughout the centuries and it's not been just because they 're of different faith and certainly not just because "they killed Christ".

I don't see this being that similar to the current situation with muslims; the afgans and pakistanis and whoever else is coming from the east are known to turn areas into ghettos filled with criminals, not bankers.

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The "ghetto" thing is because the mobility map changed in the past 50 years. Before only rich people could travel. Now everyone can. So it's normal that poor people move around, going to better economic places, look for jobs. But poor people are uneducated. They keep their traditions, clothes, ways of life. Of course Pakistanis coming from some traditional village will choose to mingle with their own when immigrating to UK. And being poor will mean they won't be able to maintain their homes and stuff...

Another thing is that the conservative uneducated foreigner is easier to see on the street. It attracts more attention. You wouldn't notice a young arab in a suit with a briefcase and short-trimmed hair and clean shaved face. But if he's dressed different... he's a "bloody paki".

And if rich people immigrate to some country you won't see them. It'll be a manor for them where they can dress as they want. They won't stand out because you'll never see them. So you're only left to see the uneducated poor people.

Most of them don't speak the language or won't get a job because they look different so they'll turn to crime. So they're even stuck, cannot go back. And some still hope to make it in the adoptive country's system. I wouldn't blame a whole population. You just can't do that. That way German will always be Nazis, French would always be cowards, Americans would always be bullies, Russians drunks, Romanians/Bulgarians/Polish thieves, Greeks lazy, etc.

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Indeed. Violence is within the nature of abrahamic religions even though we 're such a peace-loving species?

What? I didn't say anything like that. Or was is supposed to be sarcastic (I mean the part about the "peace-loving species")?

Jews have drawn hate from other people throughout the centuries and it's not been just because they 're of different faith and certainly not just because "they killed Christ".

Anti-Semitism in Europe certainly has some very concrete historical and social causes. Let us not forget that the attempts of Christian thinkers to explain the ties between Judaism and Christianity, and establish the latter as the successor of the former played a role in that too.

Take, for example, the allegory of the Church and the Synagogue, which is depicted in the Strasbourg Cathedral (ornamental figures dated ca. 1230):

strasbourg_church-114x300.jpg synagogue_church-100x300.jpg

More photos of the statues. The imagery is rather self-explanatory, right?

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Well... Christianity and Islam had the Crusades and Jihads... so, no matter what the religion 'per se' is saying, the organized system of religion has constructed a way to wage war on other religious groups. Religious intolerance is one (see Hindus vs. Buddhists or Muslims) but only the Abrahamic religions had a lawul system for that.

Oh the hypocrisy of it all ...

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