Re: Re: A little something I heard
Originally posted by Quarto
Personally, I think that anybody who is incapable of spelling a simple word like Muslim correctly (Moslem would be right too, but Musilum isn't), has no right to joke about them.
I kan't spel. Shout me.
Originally posted by Quarto
Your post, however, Preacher, is indeed a great joke. At least it would be, if you didn't actually think you're telling the truth. Feel free to continue this discussion, but be warned - people spouting nonsense about religions they apparently know nothing about is one of my pet peeves, so it won't take much for this thread to die.
If that's the case, I'll put up what I was going to leave tomorrow. And I happen to have an idea or two as to the Muslim (there, spelt correctly. Happy now?) religion and way of thinking, as I hope to prove to your satisfaction below.
Okay, just forgetting for a moment that this is a humorous rip on Muslim countries, let's have a closer look at what you said below.
Originally posted by Preacher
There *are* sports, though, but not as great a variety as most of the rest of the world enjoys.
You're right. Countries like Iran, Iraq and Israel even have international soccer teams, and could give a few countries a run for their money. Iraq could have even had a good chance against the elite like France, Italy and Brazil.
Originally posted by Preacher
And the stuff about sand would only apply to those living in desert climates, of course (which is a great proportion of those in the Middle East, admittedly), and of those, only the ones who're too poor to afford better living conditions.
True enough. Most cities are fairly modern. Even in "third world countries" such as Bangledesh and Rwanda.
Originally posted by Preacher
The sad fact is, (even mainstream) Islam offers no guarantee of heaven of any kind unless the faithful should happen to die in "jihad", or "holy war" against infidels.
Cue those incidents in America and Bali. Allow me to put part of another, serious, recording I heard below:
As she flew over the planet, there were scars upon the land. There were scars upon the people, it was hard to understand. But the deepest scars of all, which to humans were unseen. The Angel could see clearly the scars upon their dreams. And in gardens where the children played, now soldiers only trod. And stranger still, she heard some say that they were killing for their God. Now the Angel had heard God speak many times, and she'd always paid attention. But this killing of one's neighbours is something The Lord had never mentioned.
Originally posted by Preacher
If there's no guarantee of heaven aside from martyrdom in a jihad, and life down here is just one long string of deprivations, it's no wonder that so many misguided souls opt for this. That's what's so scary.
Yes, I can understand where you're coming from, and I believe in some cases you are right. Let me show you another point of view, from the mind of an Islamic sympathyiser. These are in no way my words, I couldn't make it up if I tried, and yes, Quarto, I specifically made sure that Muslim is spelt correctly.
"These 'terrorists' you paint with such a broad brush are really decent souls, despite their actions. It's just that they've been pushed beyond the limit by (the West). They are tired of the West's anti Islamic racism-based on caricature, predjudice and ignorance. They're tired of being poor and ill-educated and taken advantage of. They're tired of being killed by others while you-in the West-just stand by. You may not like their methods, in killing innocent people, but those methods are understandable after so many hundreds of years of humiliation. It's their way of getting attention foo their plight-of making the rest of the world wake up. The view that they are terrorists is typical of an uneducated, Western military assassin. Just for a minute, look at things from another perspective. Take the Gulf War for example. In the West it was seen as a great alliance. To the disenfranchised Muslim it was seen as a modern crusade-Christiandom and it's currupt Arab allies versus the purity of Islam. That is the lesson preached in mosques from Fez to Kabul. Perhaps to a Westerner this view is wrong, to a non-Muslim. You must walk the proverbial mile in their shoes. Look at events as they are seen from the Muslim point of view. The attacks on New York and Washington, for example, I can certainly deny that these were terrorists acts, if, from my perspective, I am waging war against the West. In that case, I can define it as a series of small but significant battles won by my side. Islam's soldiers in the great war against nonbelievers being the perpetrators. Most Muslims who live in the West feel disriminated by them. They see these lethal activists the same was as the peasents living around Nottingham once saw Robin Hood. Muslims have faith-unshakeable faith. We have faith in the Koran; we have faith in ourselves; we have faith that we will persevere. We have to. History and religion are the two great cornerstones of Islam. Each teaches us to have faith. So, Muslims are great students of history. Indeed, I have come to see Muslims as history's orphans-cast out, rediculed, persecuted and poor. All the oil money in the Gulf, those riches mean nothing. I mean poor in the spiritual sense. Riches are but a means to an end-the restoration of multinational Islam. The West has abandoned us in Yugoslavia. If we truely mattered, if we were a force to be reckoned with, the genocide would not have been allowed. The West see us as caracitures. We are not. The West see us as 'fundamentalists' who martyr ourselves. We are more than that. You may find this hard to comprehend, but there is a whole society that believes that the West is immoral, decadent and currupt. To those who follow Islam, which means
'submission,' there is but one way-the way of the Jihad. The Muslim word for holy war is one definition of it, and the most common one. But there is another translation. Jihad also means a total, supreme, unlimited, immesureable, all-out effort. The kind of effort the Afghanistanis summoned up to turn back the Soviet invasion and defeat the Red Army. To our way of thinking, in Afghanistan one of the two world's superpowers were defeated with intense faith. The seven billion dollars in aid from the United States did not matter. The most important statistic is that there were three million martyrs in our holy war, and if Jihad demands it, we are willing to provide three, four, five million more-any number to achieve the goal our Jihad requires. Those who wage Jihad are diffirent to the Americans and the Russians. They are willing to pay any price. Death means nothing. You nonbelievers cannot fathom the depths of our passion."
I'll leave it up to you to make comments on this, because honestly I don't know where to start.
