US Moslems disavow terrorism

[unixronin]

(Oops.  I just accidentally blew away the original of this post.)

The Council on American Islamic Relations, a leading US Islamic advocacy group, has issued a petition titled "Not In Our Name", intended to "demonstrate once and for all that Muslims in America and throughout the Islamic world reject violence committed in the name of Islam."  The petition uses quotes from the Koran to show that Islam prohibits the killing of anyone in captivity, and says Islam should not "be held accountable for the un-Islamic and barbaric deeds of a minuscule minority."

Comments

Fair enough...

[iphy.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, but does this mean we should not hold Catholicism responsible for Inquisitions? I can point to many quotes from the Good News which prohibit the sort of behavior that went on; so those were clearly unCatholic acts done by a small set of people who happened to be in power in the Catholic Church at the time.

My point, I guess, is that labelling militant Islam as not-Islam is a big rhetorical game. With something so slippery as religion, I think you generally have to accept that people are the religion they say they are.

I recognize that it is probably a necessary one because it is much shorter and uses smaller words than pointing out that you should never paint a large population of people who happen to share FOO in common with the same tarred brush you use to paint the few of them that are doing nasty things in the name of FOO. I just think the latter is a lot more salient point.

Re: Fair enough...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, but does this mean we should not hold Catholicism responsible for Inquisitions?

I think the Inquisition was entirely consistent with the historical behavior of the Catholic Church. What's more a question is whether the Catholic Church in any significant way reflects the teachings of Christ -- I've heard some very cogent arguments that Christianity and Catholicism are, in fact, two different religions. Viewed in that light, one could suggest that things like the Albigensian Crusade were not a case of the true core of Christianlty suppressing heresies, but one of a usurping religion exterminating faiths that were still true to the spirit of Christianity in order to take over and subvert Christianity for its own enrichment.

That said, I don't think ordinary Catholics should be blamed for the Inquisition and the Crusades, any more than we should go around our neighborhoods dragging out all the Moslems from their homes and lynching them for 9/11.

My point, I guess, is that labelling militant Islam as not-Islam is a big rhetorical game. With something so slippery as religion, I think you generally have to accept that people are the religion they say they are.

So it would be alright for me to violate, on a daily basis, eight of the ten commandments; work all through the weekend, with a ham-and-Swiss sandwich for lunch; and then call myself a Jew?

Claiming to be a member of any religion is easy. The claim only holds water if you make some visible effort to at least follow that religion's major strictures and laws, which most of the senior-level jihadists don't. They follow the rituals and go through the motions, but they violate Islam's most central proscriptions without a second thought and revel in it. They act under the color of Islam the way our current goverment acts under the color of Constitutional authority, despite most of their actions violating the fundamental tenets of Islam just as many of our government's actions violate the Constitution.