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Subject: 
Re: "France is not a Western Country anymore"
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Sat, 19 Apr 2003 05:02:45 GMT
Viewed: 
594 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal writes:

Thank you.  But really, I haven't a problem with Islam per se.  There are many
peaceful Muslims.  What I *do* have a problem with are extremist Muslims who
tend to comprise a shockingly high percentage of the Muslim population, and the
seemingly indifference or even support of them by general Muslim population,

  It might be useful to have a clear, legitimate tally of extremists relative
to the whole sample population.  We can't use the US media or Arab-state-run
media, since both of these sources are tainted.  There are over a billion
Muslims in the world; how many of that number would qualify as a "shockingly
high percentage" in your view?

and the overall desire of the Muslim population for the destruction of the
State of Israel.

  I'm not qualified to get into a large Israel/Palestine debate, other than to
say that neither side should cast the first stone.

If you're going to use the term "enlightenment" as litmus test to determine
whether a group is worthy of respect, then you need to throw out groups that
work to foster pseudoscience in education or which try do eliminate the
division between church and state--both of these are contrary to
post-enlightenment thinking but are rampant among some groups here in the US.

I would say only if those beliefs led their followers to violence.

  But then what?  Do you deride the whole of the belief system because of the
actions of a few non-representative extremists?  That appears to be what you're
suggesting re: Islam.
  And even if it doesn't lead to violence--what if it leads to a generation of
ill-informed students or a large segment of the population marginalized by a de
facto theocracy?  We can even overlook the current theocracy and speak instead
of a hypothetical religious ruling body in the US.  Would you support such a
system even if it was non-violent?  Even if it destroyed church/state
separation?

     Dave!



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: "France is not a Western Country anymore"
 
(...) Well, say we compared it to the percentage of extremist Christians for example. I don't know what that number is, but judging from reported Christian terrorist attacks I'd say that it is pretty low. Even if the percentage of extremist Muslims (...) (21 years ago, 19-Apr-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
  Re: "France is not a Western Country anymore"
 
(...) What if the belief system itself is flawed? As I understand it, to be a good muslim, one has to follow sharia (religious law). Sharia is used as civil law in many countries and in many others, it's being pushed as something that SHOULD be used (...) (21 years ago, 19-Apr-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: "France is not a Western Country anymore"
 
(...) Thank you. But really, I haven't a problem with Islam per se. There are many peaceful Muslims. What I *do* have a problem with are extremist Muslims who tend to comprise a shockingly high percentage of the Muslim population, and the seemingly (...) (21 years ago, 19-Apr-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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