Fmeh

If the Holocaust was happening right now, should I have compassion towards those carrying it out, since they don't really have a choice in the matter because they'd be killed if they disagreed?

Why is this any different? The people living in those countries are FORCED to have those beliefs, or pretend they have those beliefs, and NOTHING we do as a country can help that, nothing anyone can do as an individual can help that--the only thing that can help that is maybe 500 years or so to catch up with Christianity which used to be really awful at one time too. I'm sure there are many kind-hearted people living in Sharia Law countries, just as I'm sure there were many kind-hearted Nazi's back in WW2.

Conform or die is what the name of the game is in those countries, just like if you lived in Germany in WW2, conform or die--become a Nazi or die.

The people in those countries are raised to hate, raised to believe that people who convert to other religions than Islam must be killed. Raised to believe that if your children go against you, you should kill them. Raised to believe that gay people should be hanged. Raised to believe that women should be beaten if they are found out to have been raped. Raised to believe that western civilization is the bane of the world.

Maybe I should have compassion for Phelps and his followers--after all, he's just being honest about his strong beliefs.

I think the only way we can feasibly do anything about the situation is if we no longer were reliant on oil from those countries. Once we no longer rely on oil from those countries, I think we should completely cut them off--no flights in or out through our airlines, no trade, nothing from us, and those who are living here from those countries that don't want to integrate into our culture who want to threaten people for drawing cartoons of Mohammad should be deported back to their originating country.

It's hard to have compassion for a country in which I would be killed for being myself if I visited there. You know, hanged or something like that.

The simple fact is--there is NOTHING that can be done about the strong beliefs in those countries except time, like hundreds of years, for them to see what things are really like. The problem is technology--if we were living back in the times when we didn't have the technological advances we have now, this sort of thing wouldn't be a big deal--it's just time, but in THESE times of high technology, it becomes a very dangerous situation--we don't have 500 years to wait around for them to come to their senses like we did with Christianity.

If the Spanish inquisition was happening RIGHT NOW, I would be just as harsh towards Spain. If the Salem Witch Trials were going on right now, I would be just as harsh towards people in Salem. When countries are practicing HORRIBLE things on an everyday basis, when women are treated like DIRT, lower than animals, when women are beaten because they got raped, when the type of atrocities that happen every day in those countries happen every day, it's really hard for me to have compassion.

When the spiritual and political leaders of those Sharia law countries are basically declaring war on the rest of civilization in the name of Allah and the people are all behind those leaders (mainly because if they're not behind those leaders, they'll most likely be killed at some point in time), it's really hard for me to have compassion. When those countries have HUGE billboards that put suicide bomber's faces on them and declare those people martyrs/heroes, it's really hard for me to have compassion.

It's hard for me to have compassion.

Is it hate? I don't know. Maybe it is, but it certainly isn't LOVE, it certainly isn't acceptance of their anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-anything-but-Islam beliefs.

I don't think that most of the muslims OUTSIDE those Sharia Law countries are like this. It's when they're forced into this kind of crap. We can't go to war with them--it will be as useful as the war in Iraq. We can't change them, we just have to stay away from them and make sure they are able to have as little affect on our country as possible.

Again--the sad truth is that there's nothing we can do--there's nothing that can suddenly make people who have such extreme beliefs change their minds--they are willing to die for their beliefs, they're willing to KILL for their beliefs--they're even willing to kill their own wives and their own children for their beliefs. If that's something I'm supposed to respect somehow, I just don't know what to say.

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