Relevance?

Submitted by Sword of Islam (United Kingdom), Feb 14, 2006 at 17:37

I'm not entirely sure what relevance the size or growth rate actually has in this debate. It appears to me that Christianity is only factored into these debates by Muslims who clearly feel the need to see a competition between religions rather than the clear fact that Islam and it's followers seems to have a global incompatibility with every other religion on the Earth rather than with one in particular. Europeans don't generally see it in those terms. We regard movement AWAY from religion as a step toward cultural enlightenment.

This debate has never been about Christianity v Islam - it has been about Islam and it's incompatibility with SECULAR Europe - the point being that religion itself is separate to the state and a matter of personal lifestyle choice. Europeans may have a moral compass that is informed by Christianity but turning this debate into a Christian v Muslim issue or Judaism v Muslim issue only serves to confuse the issue and reinforce the inability of the ignorant to understand that the whole point of this conflict has been about the fact that all religions are respected but can expect to be satirically lampooned if it's rules or creeds interfere with the secular nature of a European State - something that every other religious group is able to understand.

On the subject of the size of a religious following does the fact that one religion is 'growing' in membership faster than another make it better than one than is bigger than the other? Either measurement of validity seems a pretty stupid way of determining a religions worth.

Regardless of the above, it is reasonably clear to any rational student of history that religious belief is strongest amongst the poor, the wealthier and more advanced a population becomes the further away from religion it goes. Therefore the fact that Islam is growing is hardly surprising - the poorest populations in the world tend to live under Muslim influenced governments.

The more pertinent question is whether these peoples follow Islam because they are poor, or whether they are poor because Islamic governments are the most inept and backward societies in the world.

I suspect that it must be the latter, Why else would the only appropriate form of satirical 'retaliation' from the Muslim world lampoon a European tragedy, ie the Holocaust. This clearly suggests the The Prophet is perceived by Muslims as being an Islamic tragedy.................

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