Global Jihad vs Islam Enlightenment
A religion is to a great extent a construct of its adherents. It consists of the beliefs, values, priorities, assumptions, and expectations shared by those adherents and reinforced by their culture and institutions. Academics arguing that particular acts of violence and repression are not condoned by the Koran do not negate the fact that millions of Muslims still believe they are.
When this does not happen, when, for instance, fundamentalist Christians quote chapter and verse against evolution, then you have the same phenomenon in Christianity as you do in Islam: the replacement of rationality by rote. For example: The Catholic Church as supported the theory of evolution since 1950. You would think that maybe they would have a clue as to what Christianity means? This does not hinder the sects of Fundamental Christians from excoriating Evolution. These Christians prefer the security of their rote learnings to the peril of an uncertain and always changing universe.
I do not think that there is a problem with Islam per se. It is quite possible for me to imagine an enlightened Islamic society. Indeed: such a society existed in the 10th century. I think the problem is a mega-inferiority complex: the fanatic Islamists of today are aware that their primitive tribal social structure will be swallowed by Western civilization unless they implement a policy of unreasoned unrelenting hatred. I think that the best thing to do is to make their hatred 'without profit' and kill the people who are trying to kill us and others. The Muslims who are just trying to run their shops and raise their families will get a very Darwinian message: if you take arms to commit aggression, you die. We cannot be victims, but I think that many Muslims want to go kill people about as much as I do. If we give them a chance to survive without being forced to kill, we may get 10th C Islam back again.
Jan
The lynch mobs and stoning crowds should back off the 'group think' mentality, park their nukes back in the shed, and Think about how to target force at Individuals initiating it.
The Abrogation Principle--that the passage more recently written takes precedence--is the key. The Koran affirms that Principle.
Guess what? The Fighting Words of the Koran are the more-recently written words. They therefore take precedence and remain in full force and effect.
there is a way to end this muslim problem. when you want to get ride of rodents you destroy the nest. the nest in this case is saui Arabia, iran, iraq, and all the rest of those countries.
talking heads say all muslims are not at fault, really who has stepped up to attack the bad guys, no answer. if the women get pregnant and she gives birth to a boy that boy is a future warrior so to keep that from happening guess what. the bottom line is very visible; they will not go away they must be eradicated.
At best it's a negative learning experience about ideas that *don't* work in the modern world. I agree; it's not something for a 7th grade field trip.
I can think of a lot more constructive field trips to spend money on, like to a natural history museum, a factory... Good grief, the choices are abundant.
I understand we are all angry here and I am not against force. you cannot kill everyone who practices Islam.. pitchforks down please and reasoned debate and ideas first!
Don't you think that by now all Muslims can be considered suspect of irrational hatred of non-Muslims, unless they convince you by their actions and convincing communications that they oppose the jihadists? It is certainly un-American to think that anybody is guilty until proven innocent. But Islam is un-American at its core. Have you read the Koran? I did. In my considered opinion it is an evil book. So, the Muslims who wish to disassociate themselves from fundamental Islam will have to deny parts of Koran. Just as Christians did keep only selections from the Bible. As we know, that took centuries. The need to prevent massacres by Muslims is urgent, needed right now. What do we choose.?
You did not answer my question: what actions we choose right now to prevent massacres?
Friends as always.
But those 'broad-brushers', "you know how they all look alike." ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9puHtVc...
That's because they have big lobbying groups backed by lots of money, lots of politicians, and a biased media. It's still an ideological battle, but those doing the reporting aren't going to out themselves.
I worked with some Iranians in Cyprus who were seeking asylum. The woman one day had gone out her doors with makeup on. Some boys - not even teens - rode by on bicycles and slashed her face with razor blades held between their knuckles as a "punishment". The family said that they wanted to abandon Islam because of this and many other things. So I still hold out hope that there are some who live in Muslim nations who - if given the opportunity - would abandon it.
I, too, have read the Qu'ran and I agree with you - it is an evil book. It can not be reconciled with freedom because it openly calls for slavery of many kinds. I would like to seek out and provide asylum for those who wish to embrace freedom, but I freely admit that this means abandoning Islam. I can not reconcile the Islamic faith with a support for the Constitution of the principles of liberty.
As to how to prevent these massacres? Unless we are willing to call a spade a spade and stop pandering to Islam in general, the killings will not stop. Bullies don't stop until you bloody their proverbial noses with a resolved response. But I do not see that happening anywhere in the world, and until the world wakes up and is willing to confront the demon before them, they will continue to lose their lunch money.
I think the underlying premise in your comments is that I am asserting that emotions are bad or undesirable. I do not wish to assert any such thing. Emotions are helpful - to a point. Force of conviction arises from emotion and spurs us to greater acts of service and heroism than we might have otherwise entertained. Emotional connections to friends, spouse, or children can all be very positive things. But we must beware of the power of negative emotions such as anger and hate, because those lead to detrimental consequences.
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
- Yoda
With all due deference to the wise and noble Yoda, fear is only the path to the dark side if you allow it to be. It is how you react to the fear which is the path, not the fear itself.
As the great philosopher, Queen Latifah has said: "Fear can be good when you're walking past an alley at night or when you need to check the locks on your doors before you go to bed, but it's not good when you have a goal and you're fearful of obstacles. We often get trapped by our fears, but anyone who has had success has failed before."
I have two problems with what you say.
On my moral scale, hate and envy are bad and love and courage are good (e.g.). These things used to be called vices and virtues. Of course political correctness police will not let you utter them in reference to anybody. "We are all equal!" Yah, I heard that before. The virtues and vices, in my opinion, are "emotions" based on "feelings" and by definition not products of Reason. How you judge and act, presumably based on Reason, is the only thing that counts in the end.
Queen Latifah may be a great philosopher, I do not know. Never heard of her, to be truthful. But, " ... anyone who has had success has failed before." is a preposterous overgeneralization and, in fact, false. Years ago, on my first try, I started a business (technical services to manufacturers and users of very high reliability equipment). In 20 years, it grew about 9-fold in revenue. I call that a success. There was no failure before. I was employed. At the same time, you can look at any mistake as a "failure". All my adult life, I called it a good day if I made less than 100 mistakes.
Do you now see why that is a preposterous overgeneralization?
By the way, I call fear a debilitating poison of the human mind.
I cannot agree that emotions are good or bad, like facts they are. As you say, and I agree with, what you do based on them is what counts (and is the basic point from the QL quote - it is rational to feel fear when walking past a dark alley, particularly in NYC and similar, and so you should swing wide around them instead of walking near the opening - that is rational action based on the feeling of fear).
As to the success of your business (congratulations, by the way), your failures were not necessarily in creating a business, but in areas like negotiating, interpersonal interactions, vendor selection, etc. I firmly believe that if you've never failed, then you've never really pushed yourself and played things too safe.
Lastly, fear is only debilitating if you let it be. As a soldier, I was more encouraged by a fellow soldier who was afraid, but harnessed that fear and overcame. Much better than those who were "fearless" as they often were also careless, not having a rational sense of fear to keep them cognizant of the danger and therefore to prepare appropriately. Having gone to jump school, there's a reason that they make the chute packers jump with a randomly chosen chute on a regular basis. If you have a reasonable fear of a bad outcome, you pay closer attention to what you do. I wouldn't let a chute packer who said they weren't afraid to die to continue packing.
The "10s of thousands of persecuted people" you mention are slowly being eliminated by the practitioners of Islam. If this continues, there will be no persecuted people left in the geographic areas considered to be Muslim.
Read the Koran, K. See what you find. Or, better yet, see the comment by "Temlakos" below.
Seems to be a path to the stone age
1. Educate - That's always a good thing.
2. Stop the PC BS - I first heard this phrase in a magazine around 1990, and I still do not understand what it means, beyond that thing with bizarre euphemisms like calling the disabled "differently-abled" or mistakes "improvement opportunities".
3. Get people talking - Like education, talking and listening are good.
4. Paris should enforce its laws well. - Yes.
All of this can be done without group identity politics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXAho8vl...
5. let people own firearms and equip police with firearms, including traffic cops.
7- never let any of the new or old back into the country
8- EVERY country in the world should do the same.
What about people being individuals?
If you want to advocate the Barbary pirates solution, then you have an argument. This solution starts from a principled place and argument but then says our people will not suffer violence without overwhelming retaliatory force. However, this is not annihilation.
as for Reagan and the ussr it was collapsing anyway and he happened to be the pres at the time so he gets credit because he said they are an evil empire, big deal. he also increased the welfare state of the usa which was more destructive to us.
wiggys, your first hand perspective would be an interesting post. consider it.
I have not followed the news and did not know this basic fact.
"let people own firearms"
Yes, not only for the obvious benefit law-abiding citizens deterring the bad guys but also for the mindset of people as grownup agents who can act to build a just world safe from crime.
Where can I read about the French gov't telling Jewish people to close their businesses and declaring Martial law?
women like they do, is wrong. -- j
to exploit sex like capitalism exploits self-interest (or
avarice) -- muslims exploit sex-related-things to
take over the world by extravagant reproduction, as
capitalism exploits self-interest to take over the
world by physical advancements ... if there were
an example of capitalism to watch....... -- j
To me, it is the generational institutionalization of their way of life that is what needs to be overcome. They won't embrace capitalism or Western ideas until they realize that they are free to think for themselves. To them, the mullahs are the ultimate authority which can not be challenged, regardless the lack of logic, decency, etc. displayed. There needs to be some event that completely undermines the authority of the mullahs in order for large-scale change to be effected.
patterns of behavior between one group exploiting
sex and another group exploiting avarice. . I agree
completely with your analysis. -- j
Salman Rushdie and Carly Fiorina go at it with Bill Maher and another guy... Fun discussion!