DEBATE What are your thoughts on Celebrities Defending Islam?

Is this guy still going? Seriously......

 

Same here. Several years ago, a group of us had dinner together at a local restaurant that wasn't that cheap. There were several Christians and an Athiest gathered. At the end of the dinner, my Muslim friend surprised all of us and paid for our dinner. He was just happy to see all of us again and reminisce about our days in school. In school, my Muslim friends (from diff parts of Middle East) helped all of us when we needed it. They were more moderate (we all spent some time at the local strip club and drank). They were hilarious too. End of the day, we took time to get to know each other and knew we were different and respected it. Unfortunately, that is a growing problem in America these days - lack of respect despite differences. Too many people are more interested in being right about own beliefs than understanding and respecting the beliefs of others.

 

my only post on this....
MY issue with Muslims In the US or around the world for that matter is simple...
as pointed out in the thread many are nice, peaceful muslims who are good people... Muslims around the world say extremists only make up a handful... ok, so why are they not doing something about them??? They allow a so called "Handful" of extremist to control their narrative, commit atrocities, etc... If just the "Good Muslims" in the world would actually do something about the terrorists, Isil, hamas, they taliban, the syrian wack job president etc.. would be ended.
Yet you never hear a peep... they ALLOW it to continue...
I can guarantee that if a christian group rose up, and in the name of God was slaughtering people, beheading people, mutilating women for indiscretions, killing their daughters for becoming to Americanized(yes that REALLY happened a couple years ago IN the US).. it wouldn't be a day later that the rest of Christianity would , to borrow a biblical term, smite them out of existence.
So I have a very hard time having any respect for muslims who preach their faith is peaceful but yet allow those things to go on in the name of their faith. 1.8 BILLION muslims in the world, if the radicals are only a handful, shear numbers alone shows they could take care of their problems by themselves without much incident.

 

I wonder what your "moderate" Muslim friends think about the idea of implementing Sharia Law in western nations, maybe you should ask them next time you have dinner with them yeah?

 

We've already had that conversation years ago. They respect the Constitution. They are American citizens. They moved here for the opportunities that America brings. With that, they respect the beliefs of others. If they didn't, then they would have moved back to their respective countries after they received their degrees. If they did practice the extremes of Sharia Law, some of them would have been subject to some harsh punishments themselves.

You can ask Muslims what they believe. Many won't get offended as long as you don't come across as an a-hole on Twitter. Key thing about a conversation with someone with beliefs that differ from yours is the respect factor. You can question people about their beliefs just as long as you are respectful and not acting like you are telling them what they personally believe. That approach doesn't work in most cases - religion, politics, etc.

 

I find that its young males here fresh out of education that end up in danger groups that are easy to recruit for the cells. No one wants to hite them for various reasons and they feel detached left out of society. The cells offers something meaningful for them to do with their lifes. Meaningful in their eyes off course. I share scribes thought otherwise mostly normal folks as far as my experience goes.

 

It's worth noting that you don't see the same kind of extremism among Muslims in the US that you do in Europe.

 

That's because for the most part, Muslims in Europe are allowed to keep on living like they did in country where they came from... hell, until recently you had immigrants from their former colonies who are born and living in France that don't speak a word of French! When you live in what is essentially a ghetto without any contact with anyone outside your community it's not hard to became a victim of extremists. Extremists who mostly came to EU over last 10-15 years...

Recent wars in former Yugoslavia also caused an issue since a lot of extremists came to Bosnia to fight against Serbs and Croats and then they stayed there radicalizing Bosnian Muslims in the process...

 

Muslims in the US are allowed to live however the fuck they please. How they are "allowed" to live has nothing to do with anything.

You're probably closer to the truth in your second comment, though.

 

What about if you don't respect their belief? Should you be honest?

 

There are Muslims attempting to reform the faith as we speak. But it's difficult for reformists like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Maajid Nawaz, whom the SPLC labels as anti-Muslim extremists, when you can't raise an issue without being called a bigot.

Muslim groups the world over condemn each and every instance of violent extremism. They condemn Islamism. They call publicly for moderate interpretations (which they rightly call "correct interpretations") of the Koran. There's not much else they can do. It isn't strictly a religious problem; it's also a geopolitical one, and it isn't just Muslims who are involved.

 

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks/attacks.aspx?Yr=Last30

 

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks/attacks.aspx?Yr=Last30

 

If you are having an intelligent and respectful conversation, you can tell anyone that you don't agree with their belief. The respect factor is as such:
-This person believes differently than I do.
-They wish to continue to do so.
-I can't change that no matter how long we may argue about things.
-We can agree to disagree.

My Athiest friend has told us that he didn't believe in Islam or Christianity. We respected his belief and we are still friends. That is because we agree to disagree on some things, but we also have conversations about things we do agree about. The problem arises when a person decides to be confrontational to force their belief onto someone else. That goes for any discussion about religion, politics, race, etc.

 

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks/attacks.aspx?Yr=Last30

 

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks/attacks.aspx?Yr=Last30

 

ppl are really trying to bring me back in this trash thread. I'm not saying Islam is perfect but list all the crimes of christians too.

 

I am not interested. They could all harbor extremist views, but it's only the psychopaths among them that need worrying about. And psychopaths can be found in all walks of life. Believing something and carrying that belief out to its extreme are two different things. Ideology itself does not breed insanity, there must be other factors in play. Like a sociopathic disorder. Or being vulnerable to the guile of others' influence (ever notice how the real assholes never strap the bomb vests on themselves?). People are sheep, but not quite lemmings. They may believe strongly in their religion, but that doesn't mean they all want to get their hands dirty in defense of it. The vast majority do not, because it would interfere with their "me" time.

I couldn't agree more.

 

Not yet. It will come, though. If you don't do something about

I think the problem I have with it is as follows. Those who believe in certain aspects of religion, and this is certainly true of Islam - seem to think it's fair, perhaps even a good thing, that atheists like me will suffer an eternity of torture for simply not believing in their fairytale. You talk about differences of opinion - that seems to me to be someone who is morally bankrupt if they genuinely think that. And not someone who ought to be considered a friend.

 

Moderrate interpretations of the Quran? That''s impossible. Many of the clearly immoral teachings are explicit. They are not metaphorical, but direct orders.