Originally posted by Karlhungis
I am curious how this happens. I am not a big fan of either religion to be perfectly honest. With the worldwide media exposure to "Radical Islam"
showing beheadings, riots, suicide bombers...etc, how is it that they continue to gain in numbers? Is the worlds view of the Catholic sexual abuse
scandals that much worse than the view of "Radical" Islam?
I realize that they are both eye sores that don't accurately represent the religions as a whole, but they are still what the world gets exposed to
and I would imagine it would have to affect recruiting efforts.
Unless of course large numbers are simply flocking to Islam in an effort to bring down the west.
I agree with a lot of your sentiments. I've known some of the sweetest people in my past who were Muslim. I went to a Catholic school for high
school, so I knew a lot more who were Catholic. Catholicism, being so prevalent in America and the west, is seen as a local faith--and people don't
think twice talking about the scandals in their own neighborhood. Islam is still largely seen as a foreign faith in the west, and people don't like
to appear to be judging foreigners lest they be called bigots or xenophobes--this extends (to some extent) to Radical Islam as well. So where is the
growth coming from for Islam? I don't know either! I doubt it is the West. I suspect that the theocratic nations of the Middle East skew the
demographics in Islam's favor. Anyone remember when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, spoke at Columbia (I think?) University in NY and
proclaimed that Iran does not have homosexuals? Well, I imagine as far as governments and census bureaus are concerned in countries like Iran
Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. do not exist either...further bolstering the numbers of Muslims in the region. Hell, if someone from
the census bureau came to my house asking who my God was in Iran; I'd say Allah too.