RE: Politics of Boston Bombing Thread

Before you parse words and use semantics again, let me restate that: Show me ONE law in a so-called Christian nation that makes apostasy of Christianity a capital offense. Of course, you can't. This debate is over.

Concerned Citizen wrote:

So an actual part of Ireland being under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom is the same thing as a few US troops in Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the Saudi government?

I don't think it's a simple as a physical presence. There are a lot of moving parts, from Israel to America's involvement in the Iraq-Iran War and with the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan that's provided material for manipulative individuals seeking power to use a mix of religious fundamentalism and nationalism to radicalize people and convince them that western powers are the source for their lot in life and that acts of terrorism are a divinely ordained way to fix the problems in the world.

It's not an easy problem to fix.

Charlie Freak wrote:

I never said anyone had been executed. I said they were jailed and "threatened with death". This is a form of extreme discrimination and human rights violations unseen in any so-called Christian nation.

I will ask again: Show me ONE example of this kind of hateful religious discrimination in a so-called Christian nation. Show me ONE law in a so-called Christian nation that makes practicing Islam a capital offense. Of course, you can't. This debate is over.

It's happened before. You will recall that Croatia's fascist government during the Second World War, the government set the goal of expelling one-third of the Serbs, forcibly converting another third to Catholicism and exterminating the remaining third. By 1942, I believe they had killed over 300,000 Serbs.

You might say that, "that was then, this is now" but what's changed in Christianity that it was okay then but now is not okay? Like me, I think you'll agree that it was never okay and isn't representative of religion as a whole. But will you also agree that Christians are not by virtue of their nature any more or less capable of evil based on examples such as these?

Now, it is a gross understatement to say that it's terrible that it's still a majority of Muslim scholars we believe apostasy should be capital crime. That's backwards and barbaric to say the least. However, I will note that it is far from a universal view:

"W. Heffening states that in Qur'an "the apostate is threatened with punishment in the next world only," adding that Shafi'is interpret verse [Quran 2:217] as adducing the main evidence for the death penalty in the Qur'an. Wael Hallaq holds that "nothing in the law governing apostate and apostasy derives from the letter of the holy text." The late dissenting Shia juristGrand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, a significant Shi'a religious authority, stated that the Quranic verses do not prescribe an earthly penalty for apostasy.

Islamist author Sayyid Abul Ala Maududiargued that verses [Quran 9:11] of the Qur'an sanction death for apostasy. However, scholars such as S. A. Rahmanreject Mawdudi's interpretation, concluding "that not only is there no punishment for apostasy provided in the Book but that the Word of God clearly envisages the natural death of the apostate. He will be punished only in the Hereafter…" He continues and says that there is no reference to the death penalty in any of the 20 instances of apostasy mentioned in the Qur'an.

In his book on Punishment of Apostasy in Islam, Rahman declares the verse[Quran 2:256] which contains the explicit language, "Let there be no compulsion in religion...", to be "one of the most important verses of the Qur'an, containing a charter of freedom of conscience unparalleled in the religious annals of mankind…". He goes on to criticize the attempts by Muslim scholars over the ages to narrow its broad humanistic meaning and impose limits on its scope in their attempts to reconcile it with their interpretations of Muhammad's Sunna."

Augusto E. Perez wrote:

Concerned Citizen wrote:

So an actual part of Ireland being under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom is the same thing as a few US troops in Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the Saudi government?

I don't think it's a simple as a physical presence. There are a lot of moving parts, from Israel to America's involvement in the Iraq-Iran War and with the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan that's provided material for manipulative individuals seeking power to use a mix of religious fundamentalism and nationalism to radicalize people and convince them that western powers are the source for their lot in life and that acts of terrorism are a divinely ordained way to fix the problems in the world.

It's not an easy problem to fix.

I guess my point was that I feel that the IRA and Sinn Fein had a legitimate grievance against the UK (no comment on whether they went about resolving it in the right way or not), whereas the folks in Al Qaeda are/were just a bunch of nihilistic murderers.

You know these shooters are a product of an American environment, don't you? They grew up here.

Or should these libtards should try watching Fox a bit more often to get the indoctrination program started. GO NASCAR! Kill Muslims! Anger, Righteousness. Loudest, Quickest, most Vengeful person wins.

(I always thought it was strange how the bible says "thou shalt not kill" but then it's the "liberals" who oppose the death penalty and the "conservatives/Christians", who are first to scream for the chair.)

Such hypocritical right wingers.

.Glenn Beck Gives Obama Till Monday to Admit Boston Bombing was an Inside Job .

It is evident that religious fundamentalism is the root of an inordinate amount of violence in human history. I think that is a given. Everything else on this thread is just varying levels of bewilderment, frustration, and hate over the staunch opinions of agenda-driven people.

It's been fun, but there is just too much negative energy here and too many new a-holes who post BS and lots of great people who used to post all the time who have left or gone underground. I'm out. Life is too short. I'll be in kona. Hope to see some of you there. Paulo knows how to find me.

Instead of flooding the board with new threads, lets keep all the politics stuff here.