Sharia Law & Muslims
Sharia Law--it's not just for Muslims, anymore!
As a long-time student of Comparative World Religions, I have made every attempt I can to be open-minded about people's beLIEfs and cultures. I've embraced (and often, practiced and/or tried) a great many Paths that most Humies would find utterly repugnant, disgusting, &/or perverse. But I have never been able to appreciate Islam. It's not that I've not tried--I have. It's not just that it goes against everything I personally believe (lots of other Paths do that too, that I don't have nearly the problems with). "Islam" means "Submission," which rubs me the wrong way, but it's the Practices and the Cultures that support Islam.
So once again, I find myself disliking the followers of a religion even more than the religion itself ("God, save me from your Followers"). Things like suicide bombers, airplane hijackers (all the way back to the early 80's, at least), crazy things like Sharia Law, etc. I know that there are crazy Fun-duh-Mentalists in every religion, but whereas the Christians only bomb the occasional abortion clinic and the Jews are relegated to only invading the West Bank, we've got crazy Muslims affecting entire planetary regions with their nonsense.
As I was just discussing with someone a few days ago, one of the biggest problems with Religions is their strict adherence to Traditions which--frankly--are irrelevant in 2009 (at best--if not outright backwards and harmful). The more a society, culture, religion clings to beLIEfs from over a century ago, the less grounded in REALity they are. Think about the changes our world has undergone since 1909 (computers? TVs? planes? A/C? etc. ad infinitum). Yeah. Kinda really puts things into perspective, yeah.?! Yet more proof of the vaaaaaaaaast chasm betwixt the Theory of ideas, morals, customs, etc., and how to put them into Practice in the really REAL world, which BTW includes other people who don't buy into your bullshit Theologies. In America, that equates to having people quoting irrelevant Bible verses and getting glared at if you ignore them. In many parts of the world, they can and will literally do anything they want to you, up to and including KILL YOU (suicide bomb much, Muslims?). The lashings at the link above are relatively tame compared to suicide bombings, but still grossly unacceptable to anyone who lives in the postmodern civilized world in 2009.
I've had it with these idiots, and until their fellow Muslims can rein in their fellow freaks, I'm afraid my inclination to "call a Spade a Spade" trumps my desire to be empathetic to diverse cultures and beLIEf systems, at least in this one arena. The Muslims are the Exception that proves my Rule of giving Religions (for all their other faults) the benefit of the doubt.
As a long-time student of Comparative World Religions, I have made every attempt I can to be open-minded about people's beLIEfs and cultures. I've embraced (and often, practiced and/or tried) a great many Paths that most Humies would find utterly repugnant, disgusting, &/or perverse. But I have never been able to appreciate Islam. It's not that I've not tried--I have. It's not just that it goes against everything I personally believe (lots of other Paths do that too, that I don't have nearly the problems with). "Islam" means "Submission," which rubs me the wrong way, but it's the Practices and the Cultures that support Islam.
So once again, I find myself disliking the followers of a religion even more than the religion itself ("God, save me from your Followers"). Things like suicide bombers, airplane hijackers (all the way back to the early 80's, at least), crazy things like Sharia Law, etc. I know that there are crazy Fun-duh-Mentalists in every religion, but whereas the Christians only bomb the occasional abortion clinic and the Jews are relegated to only invading the West Bank, we've got crazy Muslims affecting entire planetary regions with their nonsense.
As I was just discussing with someone a few days ago, one of the biggest problems with Religions is their strict adherence to Traditions which--frankly--are irrelevant in 2009 (at best--if not outright backwards and harmful). The more a society, culture, religion clings to beLIEfs from over a century ago, the less grounded in REALity they are. Think about the changes our world has undergone since 1909 (computers? TVs? planes? A/C? etc. ad infinitum). Yeah. Kinda really puts things into perspective, yeah.?! Yet more proof of the vaaaaaaaaast chasm betwixt the Theory of ideas, morals, customs, etc., and how to put them into Practice in the really REAL world, which BTW includes other people who don't buy into your bullshit Theologies. In America, that equates to having people quoting irrelevant Bible verses and getting glared at if you ignore them. In many parts of the world, they can and will literally do anything they want to you, up to and including KILL YOU (suicide bomb much, Muslims?). The lashings at the link above are relatively tame compared to suicide bombings, but still grossly unacceptable to anyone who lives in the postmodern civilized world in 2009.
I've had it with these idiots, and until their fellow Muslims can rein in their fellow freaks, I'm afraid my inclination to "call a Spade a Spade" trumps my desire to be empathetic to diverse cultures and beLIEf systems, at least in this one arena. The Muslims are the Exception that proves my Rule of giving Religions (for all their other faults) the benefit of the doubt.