originally posted by: tetra50
a reply to: Gianfar
Hey Gianfar. I welcome your perspective, for one.
Often I am reminded of a scene in a movie called Reds with Warren Beatty about a journalist in the early nineteen hundreds, who got involved with the
Bolshevik revolution in Russia, and was a truly believer in communist ideology for all the best reasons…..
Anyway, he ends up traveling by train throughout Russian and the ME, speaking in support of communism. And during one of his speeches, the
interpreter is supposed to be translating his speech in Farsi, and the crowd begins shouting.."Jihad." And with that, he realizes that what he is
saying isn't being interpreted…….
I often think this is the case with Islam. I can't read the Quuran. I don't really know what it says. I have to rely upon what I'm told, and I
don't really trust that. Same with Sharia law.
There is always a reality to a situation. And then the politics of what is made of it. And those two things may be severely divergent.
I hope you will remain on this site to educate, as things can and are going south daily, as to this issue. And I begrudge no one their particular
faith. If you have faith, and it gets you through the day and helps you be a better person, more power to you and your faith. However, I don't think
faith requires that we kill anyone to uphold our beliefs and worthiness, and I hope sincerely, that this stops, before the whole idea of faith is
destroyed, forever…..because that's what it will come to, eventually, I'm afraid.
Peace to you and yours, this holiday season……
tetra50
I think that we are all in the same bubble of locality, where we are victimized by intellectual inertia with the low quality of information force-fed
to us daily. Information through normal media channels does not distinguish between harmful ideological agendas and the truth which frees us from
manipulation. Its kind of ironic that we are here on this forum where the motto is to 'deny ignorance', yet it is nevertheless the medium of opinions.
Statistically, Americans who preach hate and racism are also against gun control. Let's not forget that Sandy Hook was perpetrated by a Caucasian male
within a middle class, Christian oriented community. Over 500 children under the age of 12 have been killed (by Americans) by guns since that
incident.
We need to remind ourselves not forget that there were 81 casualties in the mass killing in a theater in Aurora, Colorado in 2012, and the Charleston
Church mass killing, also by a white Christian.
So, when anyone, especially white Americans spread hate and racism by demoralizing decent Muslims living by Islamic principles of good ethics, their
opinions merely illustrate the misguided moral priorities of their generation. If faith ends, as you fear, it will be the result of Christians weak in
their sense of moral judgment, much like some Muslims who murder in God's name.
Now, I am not religious nor am I a person of faith necessarily, but I believe in a higher power. I believe in making the right decisions and that's
why I go to the sources for my answers. I studied religions through the conversion process so that I could learn the organized ideological frames as
one of the congregation. One might say I was a spy, but for no nefarious purposes other then to know.
I have been both Christian and Muslim and have understood that there is very little difference between the two. Religions teach us to see ourselves as
uniquely accepted by God, and to reject the others. Yet, having been there, there is nothing unique at all. We all have the same belief elements,
which can all be traced back to paganism evolving from paleolithic times.
When white Christians slaughter their own children in their class rooms, we call it gun violence, mental illness, anything other than what it is. We
give them excuses, even though their malice and methodology is an act of terrorism. Arab Jihadists are also mentally ill, but it's politicized by the
words, 'organized international terrorism'. Its something of foreign origin under alleged religious contexts and thus a greater evil than the
unorganized terrorism perpetrated within our own communities.
And one has to be intellectually honest when asking the question, which in fact is the greater threat to one's sovereignty? History clearly
illustrates that civilizations evolved and crumbled upon the decisions and choices of many individuals.
So, we have to ask ourselves, do we follow the thinking of our time or do we seek the truth. Do we build upon the ethos of our liberties and wealth or
provocate injustice and destruction in the world? There is nothing more important than true knowledge (in the proper context) to which we acquiesce
our collective destiny.
We see that Donald Trump is dominating the polls using fear and hate agendas to rally his cause. The Greeks had a democracy that lasted about 40 years
based on the will of the people through voting. Their freedom and wealth were compromised because of morally corrupt leaders and uninformed voters.
The people, under a proposal to attack the Spartans, voted 'yes' even though the war was unwindable. The Spartans responded by invading and destroying
everything in their path.
Here now, we have a horrible widespread conflict in the Middle East, which the US and UK are primarily responsible for exasperating, and we have a
Trump and a GOP that wants to go back to an unwindable war, while treating Muslims as criminals, torturing suspects and doing other things that go
against our national democratic theme. We have voters who are willing (by all polls) to support such an agenda and thus history already defines this
tragedy in plain detail.
edit on 16-12-2015 by Gianfar because: (typo)