A Matter of Semantics?

Submitted by Alex (United States), Nov 8, 2005 at 03:38

To say that Islam is or is not evil is beside the main point which is the fact that throughout its history it has inspired many of its most devoted followers, those who know it best, to vicious violence against complete innocents whose only crime is that they didn't sign up and join when the invitation/ultimatum was issued (with a sword dangling overhead). Actually, it goes beyond "inspiration" to actual written instruction in the Koran on how to deal murderously with non-believers. Of course there is a lot of wonderful stuff in there too, but, for 'members only'.

It's this vicious xenophobia which is at issue, at least for me. Does any other major or minor religion in the world even come close to such disdain and hatred for 'the other'? Not that I've seen.

So when we look at the epidemic of terroristic behavior by fanatical Muslims in the world today (and not just today by a long shot), hard questions must be asked about why it is that Muslims are behind almost all of it. Apologists come up with all kinds of excuses (poverty, colonialism, frustration, repression, etc) but nothing even comes close to explaining it except that there is something about Islam, intrinsically within Islam, that produces such large numbers of hateful, murderous souls.

I'm no scholar, but... to me, evil is as evil does, and there's a whole lot of organized evil-doing in the name of --and given explicit sanction by-- the Koran and other dominant sources within Islam.

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