Christmas is a good time to think about what we believe in.
It’s about 700 years since our lot went charging over to save Jerusalem from the Muslims, but the basic concept hasn’t changed much – just the cast of characters.
A crew of loonies of Bangladeshi origin has been arrested for planning to slaughter a lot of people in the name of Allah.
And the lovely Afshan Azad who played Padma Patil (a Hindu-sounding name if ever there was one) in Harry Potter was beaten, called a slag and prostitute and threatened with death by her loving family after she met a young man who was not a Muslim.
She was too frightened to come to Manchester Crown Court for the trial of her father and brother who pretty much got away with it as a result.
People who feel that strongly about the joys of paradise should be sent to their spiritual homes, in this case I guess Bangladesh and Pakistan. Sudan sounds like fun, though – they have a permanent policy of slaughtering Christians, flogging women who wear trousers and so on.
Or maybe we could have a reciprocal arrangement whereby those who believe can experience the joys of Sharia – perhaps with Saudi Arabia, which is where most of the money to finance terror comes from.
Instead of being bound over the keep the peace in the silly old English way they could experience the bliss of something appropriately medieval that respects their beliefs.
Stoning to death? Public beheading? A hand or two amputated? A few hundred lashes in front of Manchester Town Hall? No doubt some of the preachers living here who egg these people on know the appropriate treatment.
Serioulsy, Drayton, I figured you'd be the last person to make judgement without research.
The acts of the minority do not represent the majority.
1. “A crew of loonies of Bangladeshi origin has been arrested for planning to slaughter a lot of people in the name of Allah.”
Where's the 'innocent till prvoen guilty' gone? It's happened before (only earlier this year in Manchester where they had to let them go due to insufficient evidence).
2. “And the lovely Afshan Azad who played Padma Patil (a Hindu-sounding name if ever there was one) in Harry Potter was beaten, called a slag and prostitute and threatened with death by her loving family after she met a young man who was not a Muslim. “
These people have not acted according to Islam. There are rules to everything. You can't label Islam because of individual acts.
3. “…they have a permanent policy of slaughtering Christians, flogging women who wear trousers and so on.”
Again, not an Islamic thing. Just because they do it doesn't make it right. And it certainly does not mean that's what Islam preaches.
4. “…perhaps with Saudi Arabia, which is where most of the money to finance terror comes from.”
Proof? Last I heard, the Saudi government are fighting on the side of the West. Why do you think so many Muslims are against them now.
5. “Instead of being bound over the keep the peace in the silly old English way they could experience the bliss of something appropriately medieval that respects their beliefs.”
Really? Not what I see in practice, especially now the way things are going. Water cannons anyone?
6. “Stoning to death? Public beheading? A hand or two amputated? A few hundred lashes in front of Manchester Town Hall? No doubt some of the preachers living here who egg these people on know the appropriate treatment.”
Everything here is done in secret. Torture, murder, you name it. In the US, they use ga and lethal injection, amongst others. Very painless, I would presume… not.
It's far more barbaric here. What they're doing to the private who leaked the wikileaks files would be termed barbaric torture if any country in the middle east did it.
I respect your views, Rezbi, but I did not invent the financial support from Saudis, nor the stonings in Nigeria, nor the flogging in Sudan.
Unfortunately it is the extremists who make the news and cause the trouble – be they mad clergymen in Florida or crazy clerics in Iran.
And I do not equate water cannon, which have yet to be used against the students, with clitorectomy which remains prevalent in sub-Saharan countries or flogging for just being with a male who is not a relative, let alone beheading which remains common.
“clitorectomy” is not an Islamic thing. Please don't believe everything you read in the news.
There was a time when people would say, “You don't believe everything you read in the news, do you?”
Now it's, “Don't believe anything… unless it's negative about Islam”.
It's down to the zionist press.
If you ever get the chance, dig into Judaism and you'll find there's a heck of a lot in common between the two religions. There are even things they advocate – such as against homosexuality, amongst others – that they will have you believe only exists in Islam.
However, the truth is that ANYTHING against Islam has to go through the proper legal proceedings. Not the way the media portrays it.
“flogging for just being with a male who is not a relative”
This applies to both females and males. And it has to be proven without doubt, which is very difficult to do as the requirements are that four – not three or two or one – adults have to have witnessed it. If any less, the the accuser is the one who is punished.
“let alone beheading which remains common”
How common? As common as execution by lethal injection, or eletrocution, or… or… ?
Again, the rules are very strict. You can only say it's 'common' if you go there and see it yourself whether or not it is. NOT based on what they say in media.
“mad clergymen in Florida or crazy clerics in Iran”
A lot of the “mad clergymen in Florida” are fabricated. I know this for a fact. Again, it's the media and the so-called 'war on terror'.
As far as Iran goes, they'd sooner have us (Sunnis) dead than side with us. Despite what they say. They are Shia – not all real Muslims.
The abuses Drayton refers to may not stem from the Koran. They are probably rooted in what seemed socially useful to a bunch of nomadic tribesmen who lived in the desert somewhere. But sadly, arab culture is dominant in islamic life. For example, what language is the Koran taught in to everybody? In my experience, countries where arab influence is reduced such as Malaysia, are far more tolerant and relaxed in their islamic religous observance.
This close relationship between islam and arabic, medieval and oppressive views means that there will always be a concern amongst westerners that even the most moderate, westernised islamic community could at some point in the future be motivated into disrespect for alternative views, oppression and violence by a surge of fundamentalism.
Islam is dogmatic and certain of its own correctness – much like the extreme fringes of any religous faith – that's what makes it too dangerous to have in the midst of a society that aims for tolerance, personal liberty and healthy scepticism.
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It is interesting that Islam has the same divisions as Christianity. Reszbi, the most peaceable person you could meet, refers to the Shia as not the real deal. Just as for hundreds of years one bloc of Christians slew the other (heretics) in the name of God, so do the Muslims today in Pakistan and Iraq. Folly!
You're right in that there are divisions. The problem is, that's not a reason to go around killing each other.
But it happens due to man's faults, not the religion's.