Er?
Religious extremists make no sense. Period.
The statement above is very broad, and with good reason. Extremism is exremism, no matter which book you read. So I'm equally annoyed with the christian fundamentalists as I am with the islamic extremists, and while I don't hear much of other extremist religious sects I'll make an assumption that they'd annoy me too.
Today's random rant brought to you by some choice quotes from a news article following the anger inspiring words from the Pope.
If you want to read the full article here it is.
My favorite bits:
"On Sunday, Benedict said he was "deeply sorry" over any hurt caused by his comments made in a speech last week, in which he quoted a medieval text characterizing some of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman" and calling Islam a religion spread by the sword."
Ok. So the moderates said that it wasn't enough, but also advocated peaceful demonstrations as protest.
The extremists just decided to prove that the spread by the sword part was true with...
"Al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies issued a statement addressing the pope as "a cross-worshipper" and warning, "You and the West are doomed, as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere.
"You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq."
and...
"Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged "sleeping Muslims" to prove their manhood by doing something other than "issuing statements or holding demonstrations."
"If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house," the group said in a Web statement, referring to the pope, "then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome.""
Hmm, I see. So to prove that your religion doesn't do what was said, you're going to do exactly what was said. I fail to see how words such as these can help to prove that the religion was cast in a bad light.
I'll admit upon reading the full text of the speech, that the words can easily be taken out of context. But I still see no reason to lend truth to the words so hated by acting in exact accordance to the offending part.
I guess I'll never understand.
The statement above is very broad, and with good reason. Extremism is exremism, no matter which book you read. So I'm equally annoyed with the christian fundamentalists as I am with the islamic extremists, and while I don't hear much of other extremist religious sects I'll make an assumption that they'd annoy me too.
Today's random rant brought to you by some choice quotes from a news article following the anger inspiring words from the Pope.
If you want to read the full article here it is.
My favorite bits:
"On Sunday, Benedict said he was "deeply sorry" over any hurt caused by his comments made in a speech last week, in which he quoted a medieval text characterizing some of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman" and calling Islam a religion spread by the sword."
Ok. So the moderates said that it wasn't enough, but also advocated peaceful demonstrations as protest.
The extremists just decided to prove that the spread by the sword part was true with...
"Al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies issued a statement addressing the pope as "a cross-worshipper" and warning, "You and the West are doomed, as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere.
"You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq."
and...
"Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged "sleeping Muslims" to prove their manhood by doing something other than "issuing statements or holding demonstrations."
"If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house," the group said in a Web statement, referring to the pope, "then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome.""
Hmm, I see. So to prove that your religion doesn't do what was said, you're going to do exactly what was said. I fail to see how words such as these can help to prove that the religion was cast in a bad light.
I'll admit upon reading the full text of the speech, that the words can easily be taken out of context. But I still see no reason to lend truth to the words so hated by acting in exact accordance to the offending part.
I guess I'll never understand.
posted by Phoenixwaller | 2:06 PM
2 Comments:
I have lived in India for the first 20 yrs of my life. Now I live in NYC. I am a Hindu by birth, but in India, I have witnessed Hindu extremism also (which is kinda not that well known in the world, probably since its more on a national level).
I can tell you definitively that extremism, be it Islamic, Christian or Hindu, and on any level, is an ugly thing. It is a thing of narrow and small minds and has no place in the new world.
What is to be seen is when it will dwindle away.
I think that we all hope that it will dwindle sooner than later. But, unfortunately, I think that we need to find the root cause and eliminate that before we can ever see the extinction of extremism.
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