Was the Pope's criticism of Islam unfair?

[spidergoat]

Not really, especially the women. But that's besides the point. I would have the same criticism for a nation that claims to be free but arrests communists.

I don't care really what their culture is if it didn't effect ours. The fact is the US is being portrayed as a demonic power in popular Islamic culture, with the implication that any means necessary to fight it is within reason. There is a difference between fighting an enemy you know to be a human being like you, and fighting a holy war against supernatural forces, where your reward is eternal.

 

[S.A.M.]

Not really, especially the women. But that's besides the point. I would have the same criticism for a nation that claims to be free but arrests communists.

I don't care really what their culture is if it didn't effect ours. The fact is the US is being portrayed as a demonic power in popular Islamic culture, with the implication that any means necessary to fight it is within reason. There is a difference between fighting an enemy you know to be a human being like you, and fighting a holy war against supernatural forces, where your reward is eternal.

I never heard any Muslim terrorist say he was doing it for supernatural forces.

And I haven't seen the US treat the Arabs like human beings either.

 

[Oniw17]

Not really, especially the women. But that's besides the point. I would have the same criticism for a nation that claims to be free but arrests communists.

I don't care really what their culture is if it didn't effect ours. The fact is the US is being portrayed as a demonic power in popular Islamic culture, with the implication that any means necessary to fight it is within reason. There is a difference between fighting an enemy you know to be a human being like you, and fighting a holy war against supernatural forces, where your reward is eternal.

haha you took his avatar.

 

[Clockwood]

I never heard any Muslim terrorist say he was doing it for supernatural forces.

You have never heard of a muslim terrorist doing his thing in 'the name of Allah'?

 

[S.A.M.]

You have never heard of a muslim terrorist doing his thing in 'the name of Allah'?

Nope, they all have down to earth reasons.

If they say Allaho-Akbar.

Guess what? It's a cultural thing.

In Iran when you are frustrated with someone that you are talking to you say la ilaha illallah. Here in Australia they show Iranian movies rather frequently on a foreign language channel called SBS. In these movies they always translate this literally and I do love it when I am watching a movie with an Australian and he/she turns to me puzzled wondering why that man just spontaneously said 'there is no god but God' in the middle of a heated argument :

http://akramsrazor.typepad.com/islam_america/2006/08/the_limitations.html

 

[(Q)]

Nope, they all have down to earth reasons.

And it's true because sam says so.

If they say Allaho-Akbar.

Guess what? It's a cultural thing.

And if they call for a day of anger due to a criticism of their religion, guess what? It's intolerance.

 

[Godless]

It is up to us Muslims to change that, no one else can do it.

This is true Sam, and unfortuenately there not doing very much of it. Silently there are many Islamic that favor the "rapture" just as there are many Christians who want the same bs.

What is truly wrong here Sam, is to take religion as a whole, so damn literal. It's been what? Few milliniums now, havent we evolved passed this shit yet? We are not moving forward, fact is religion is keeping us stagnant, and the proof of that stagnation is Islamic countries, and our Western idiotic policies.

As for the one who laughed at this Irag war being an illegal war. Yes it is and it's no laughing matter.

click

click

**Two facts are absolutely clear:


• The invasion was launched without official sanction, let alone encouragement, from the United Nations. Thus it has not been waged in accordance with accepted standards of international law.

• The invasion was launched, and the occupation has continued, without an official declaration of war by the U.S. Congress. Thus it has not been waged in accordance with accepted standards of U.S. constitutional law.**
click

Yea! that qualifies as a fucking illegal war! :bugeye:

 

[S.A.M.]

And it's true because sam says so.

And if they call for a day of anger due to a criticism of their religion, guess what? It's intolerance.

http://akramsrazor.typepad.com/islam_america/2006/05/understanding_t.html

 

[wesmorris]

"fair game" implies that both sides are playing by a common set of rules.

 

[Michael]

Pope Benedict XVI quoted a Byzantine Emperor as condemning Mohammed "with startling brusqueness". Though, the Pope said, the Emperor Michael Paleologos II must have known the Koranic injunction that there should be no compulsion in matters of religion, the Emperor also told a Muslim general, "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The first question I’d ask is: Was Islam spread by killing other people during Mohammad’s life time or wasn’t it?

Then I'd say it doesn't matter. Xianianity’s missionaries have destroyed more civilizations than one could count. And while the Pope is acting like a hypocrite, he’s not stupid, he knew the reaction he’d get from Muslims and he got it. It’s probably part of the larger marketing campaign to sew up China - the last significant market left to tap.


I wonder? Do most Catholics think that Muslims, who obviously know something of “Jesus”, are going to go to heaven? How can a Xian (or a Muslim) sit there and say that they completely respect anothers belief when they clearly believe that the other persons belief is incorrect? When the stated goal is to convert them from their incorrect belief to ones own correct belief. How many Xians would be happy to see their wife, husband, parents, children, ect.. convert to Islam or how many Muslims would happy if their wife, husband, parents, children, ect.. converted to Xianity? Not many I’d wager.

Not to mention if a monotheist were to convert to Atheism or Polytheism!?!? Heaven forbid!

I wonder: Can the beliefs of Monotheists or Polytheists or Atheists or Taoists …. be accommodated within the world view of Buddhism? If so, then a Buddhist could honestly be accepting of those beliefs. I do not think the same can not be said of monotheists. As such, while I would be accepting of the Dali Lama coming out to say we should respect another’s belief, whenever I hear the same from the Pope or an Ayatollah it almost makes me want to laugh or puke.

Michael

 

[S.A.M.]

"fair game" implies that both sides are playing by a common set of rules.

They seem to be.

Kill innocents and prove a point. (whatever that is)

 

[wesmorris]

They seem to be.

Kill innocents and prove a point. (whatever that is)

Well then you answered your own question, however sad the answer may be.

 

[euphrosene]

Don't want to take this thread off track but this comment misses the point of why JC died.

Mohammed was living during a time period where you had to be aggressive like that just to survive. Jesus believed in the same ideas, but Jesus was so passive that he got slaughtered

It was for the reincarnation of the soul (ie life everlasting).

 

[Baron Max]

They seem to be.

Kill innocents and prove a point. (whatever that is)

No, Sam, I don't think that's the rules exactly. I believe it's "The side who kills the MOST innocent people is declared the winner!"

Hell, anyone can kill a bunch of innocent people, but it takes a real winner to kill thousands or millions of 'em!

"Kill one person, it's a horrible crime; kill millions, it's a only statistic."

Baron Max

 

[Godless]

Hell, anyone can kill a bunch of innocent people, but it takes a real winner to kill thousands or millions of 'em!

Hiroshima, Nagasaki

BTW why is the US so worried that others posses nuclear weapons?, when they are the only ones who have ever used them against humanity