Welcome, 'New'

Submitted by Sword of Islam (United Kingdom), Feb 23, 2006 at 19:14

Thank you for your comments and your understanding, 'New'. Regrettably, it is sometimes necessary to be provocative in such situations. As a tactic, it has the one benefit of eventually driving away the idiots and occasionally provoking an intelligent response (whether it be of agreement or disagreement) rather than 'slogans' which is all that many people seem able to use to describe this complicated situation.

I genuinely regard all religions as being equal. (I regard them ALL as being equally naive but I do not question the fact that they can ALL be a force for good in the world) The problem has less to do with religion than it does with the crimes and manipulation that happen in the name of religion. The lack of education in many parts of the world makes it especially dangerous because in the absence of an inability to learn and understand the meaning of a religious text for oneself, the 'message' can easily be twisted and the innocent manipulated into acts of evil by 'interpreters' who are only interested in greater personal power and prestige for their own benefit. These people are generally a greater enemy to us that the enemy that they claim to be defending us against!

At the end of the day, my message is that the Truth has to be guarded and broadcast. Too much of this fiasco has been driven by outright lies, false rumours, and misinterpretation of the facts. Rather than defending our own respective beliefs or arguing against others the most important thing that we can do is strive to make sure that if we hear, or see anything that can be proven to be untrue or misleading, we take a stand against it rather than sit back and hope that it will resolve itself. It can save lives. Approximately 100 Muslims were killed in Nigeria today in retaliation for an attack on Christians earlier in the week. That's just one incident, many days after this violence began. I may be simplifying matters somewhat but as far as I'm concerned there are at least two Danish imams with a lot of blood on their hands!

Thank you 'another one' and 'new' for introducing some 'shades of grey' into what had previously been a very polarised debate!

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