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Joshua Nightshade

Fmeh I don't think you're a bigot. I think you're talking about a subject that you don't know very much about, and I extend that 'you' to most people in the western world. Most Americans know nothing about the Middle East, or Islam, and didn't care about it being anything other than "that country with the bombs that's on the news a lot" before 9/11. So when you take a subject you don't know a whole lot about and are shown some superficially compelling negative video it's easy to believe 'OMG THEY'RE COMING TO KILL US ALL.'

It's like Fade said. You can easily find just as many horrific passages in the Old (and even New) Testament that would seem to support terrible atrocities against enemies of Christianity. I could just as easily make my own Youtube video out of that with some creepy soundtrack and splice it with clips of this guy who sits on the corner of 42nd and 6th avenue every day with a megaphone and photos of dead fetuses crying about how homosexuals and abortions are ruining the country.

But Sharia and Islam no more supports the kinds of things in this video as saying mainstream Christianity does. Yes, some evangelicals in Islam have attempted to use a corrupted version to legitimize themselves. The same thing has happened with Christianity. It just seems worse because there's a huge anti-American sentiment to it because they feel like we're trying to invade their countries and destroy their way of life. Because we are.

So I think you should really research this a bit more. You're forgiven for seeing a video that looks genuine and assuming it's representative of a belief system. But it's an edited attempt by a bigot to rationalize hatred of Islam and is no more fair a representation than claiming mainstream Christianity supports killing non-Christians as well.

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Richie Waves

Sharia is to the Koran as that looney on 42nd and 6th is to the Bible.

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My lastfm

It's not trouble until its wreaked something

Fmeh

Like I've said, that video has a lot of things wrong with it, particularly the parts that try to equate ALL of Islam into that category. One can't get any more peaceful than the Sufis.

The main element "I'm" talking about are the Sharia law countries, and there are quite a few of them. It's even possible to have a democracy but still have Sharia law.Pat Robertson types have made those passages rather clear at times. If there were countries that were ran by Pat Robertson types, it can be assured that many of those horridities would be actually practiced. Luckily, there are no longer any countries (at least none that are known about) that are so strong in "Biblical law", for a lack of a better term, that those things are happening.Not really. Those people are usually homeless and have no serious significance or weight to our society. In some of the countries which have implemented Sharia law, the LEADERS of those countries, and the spiritual leaders are the ones saying some of these things.So all the media reports on women getting beat BECAUSE they were raped, or women getting beaten or imprisoned because they DARED to sit by a man they didn't know, and the pictures of homosexuals getting beaten and hung, they're all staged and false? That doesn't happen in Saudi Arabia? That doesn't happen in Iran? All those hundreds of stories we hear in mainstream media are lies? You mean to say that the government of Saudi Arabia is against people doing that and people go to trial there for doing those kinds of horrible things to people? Wow, and all this time I thought it was their government supporting those actions.
Yes, we are, which is why I feel so strongly in us getting out of their business and leaving them alone.I've said over and over again now--I don't think it's representative of a whole belief system. It DOES, however, represent the countries in which Sharia Law is enforced.
There are NO "Christian" countries in which the leaders or people in high positions of government are stating that we should kill non-Christians. If someone did, they'd be kicked out of office in a heartbeat. In the Sharia law countries, their politicians say that sort of thing on a regular basis.

Sharia law would be like letting that crazy guy on 42nd and 6th avenue run the country.

You should know as well as I do, unless you really are too young to remember it (I'm 35), there have been many attempts by the religious "right" in this country to completely utterly squash gay rights. Look up Measure 9 in Oregon (there were several attempted in other states--there was one here in Washington, but I can't remember the number it had, but one passed in Colorado for a short period of time). The list of things that would have done to gay people is HUGE--it would have eventually thrown most out-of-the-closet gay people on the street to die. It was horrible. If enough people in those states believed strongly in those things, and those measures passed, they'd probably be kept in place and the next push for bigotry and backwardsness would start. The key phrase is: IF ENOUGH PEOPLE BELIEVED STRONGLY IN THOSE THINGS. Luckily, in this country, there is enough diversity of belief. In countries that have almost NO diversity, a very different outcome to legislating morality comes into place.

I WISH there was something we could do, but there isn't other than trying to be vigilant in making sure that we don't let our OWN rights slip away in THIS country.

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Brenda Archer

Thank you. I have a tactical point of view, in that I want to be supportive of progressive Muslims. So I get the optimism by borrowing it from them.

I can't agree with this. You seem to be assuming the "real" Islam is the extremist type. I'm not a moral relativist, and I don't think basic human rights are negotiable in any culture. But this is still no problem, since moderate and progressive Muslims also support those same basic human rights. The tendency to secularism, when countries are evolving, comes from within as much as from without, and America doesn't have to force anything on anyone, just be supportive.

I agree with you about the extremists, but I want to be sure America supports pro-democracy people instead of undermining them with drastic punitive measures against their countries. Embargoes are like shooting into a crowd with a shotgun when you only wanted to stop one person.