Hi Billyd,

To repeat, ".... So, no, not all Muslims, and really, only a tiny proportion of all Muslims. But Muslims nevertheless. Give credit where credit's due."

Yes, Christians have done dreadful things, to each other mostly. Probably as recently as the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, in which they seemed to have reserved their worst brutality for the Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo. I'm not saying they carried out those atrocities merely because, incidentally, they were Christians, but because they did so explicitly in the name of their god, that their vile cause was a holy Christian cause.

Yes, tu quoque, God. But currently, the Serb Chetniks are back in their box and it appears that, on the whole (apart from some Buddhist terrorism in Burma against Muslims), the random terrorist atrocities being carried out around the world in the name of Allah are people who have a belief in Allah. A tiny, tiny proportion of Muslims, but after all, that's the nature of terrorism, to use a tiny number to terrorise a bigger number.

And just as it was incumbent of people around the world, most certainly including Christians, to condemn Serb Orthodox atrocities, so it is incumbent on Muslims to condemn the actions of people claiming to be Muslims and bringing such shame and dishonour on their belief systems.

Incidentally, the left doesn't get off so easy either. Their gutlessness during the wars in ex-Yugoslavia, their silence over the brutal invasion of East Timor, will be a blot on their claims to some sort of superior morality forever. And that's an ex-socialist talking.

Joe

Joe,

No good trying to talk to anyone who drags up what Christians might have done 2,000 years ago as a defence for what Musims are doing NOW from 1400 years ago. No good trying to talk to anyone who declares that all religion is "crap", either. Anybody has the right to reject religion - through strong conviction or, as in Dillybag's case, pig-ignorance - just as others have the right to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, formally or informally without the interference of priests.

To link any religion with Islam (no more a religion than Nazism, vodoo or paganism) must be seen as towering ignorance. Save yourself for meaningful conversations, mate. Dillybag is just a trolling blow in who will crawl away like the dung beetle he is before much longer.

Hi Joe.

Just a few Christian terrorism cases for you; Central African Republic, Anti-balaka groups; Tripura, India, NLFT; Nagaland, India, NSCN, these Christian groups are active, and definitely killing on behalf of Christianity.

Then you had the Maronite Christian militias in Lebanon during the civil war there, which is why OZ got many of its Muslim Lebanese refugees. And the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, a Christian group whose leader claims to be the messiah.

Did Christians demonstrate in the streets to protest? Are they doing so now? So why is it incumbent on Muslims to do so? When was the last time Australian Jews demonstrated against Israel's treatment of the Palestinians? And where were these demonstrations in the streets protesting Serb Orthodox atrocities? I must have missed that.

As to silly boy's argument, if you can call it that .... for a start, Christianity is 1700 years old, not 2,000, it was put together after 325AD. My point, way over silly boy's head obviously, is that laws and dogma laid down in antiquity, from Christianity, Judaism and Islam, are still being preached today, they are all totally irrelevant, and have their roots in a fairy story used to scare kids into being good. It didn't work on tt-BS, obviously.

As I said before, we have a shocking history of oppressing Muslims, going back hundreds of years, and still going on today, why should they forget and forgive?

We are still backing Israel, no better than Nazis in my opinion, if Israelis were Muslims, oppressing Jewish Palestinians in the same way, whose side would we be on?

The problem with Billyd's post is it is all cut and paste. The Christian terrorism details come from Wikipedia which seems to think that if someone calls themselves a Christian and practices terrorism, then that constitutes Christian terrorism. (Note the neutrality of the Wiki entry is disputed).

Islamic terrorism can be justified by a fairly orthodox reading of Islamic root texts. It is an orthodox expression of the religion. There is no justification in Christian teaching for terrorism. Any person claiming to be a Christian could not also be a terrorist. The fact would rebut the claim.

"We", whoever "we" is supposed to be, do not have a history of oppressing Muslims. We've been in wars against Islamic countries, just as we have against communist and capitalist countries. But as far as I can think the wars have never been because they were Islamic. The Middle East was invaded as part of World War I, and because the Ottoman Empire had allied with Germany, not because it was Islamic.

The worst oppressors in these areas are generally other Muslims.

Graham. So when Christian terrorists kill people it's because they are terrorists, but when Muslim terrorists kill people it's because they are Muslim? Right, got it!

So being in wars against Islamic countries has nothing to do with the fact they are Muslim, that's just a coincidence? Why does that matter? Muslims see it as hundreds of years of crimes against Muslims, which is why they react the way they do.

If the Palestinians were Christian would the reaction of the US and other supporting countries be the same?

If the Kurds were Christian would Churchill still have ordered a gas attack on them?

If Iran was a Christian country would the CIA still have conspired with Iraq to invade them? In fact, would they still have engineered the coup that overthrew their democratically elected government in 1953 to steal their oil, which is the root of their animosity, if they were Christian?

Would there now be an ISIS if George W Bush hadn't rid the Iraqi government of Sunnis?

Maybe when we stop considering other countries' oil to be our oil, and their politics to follow ours, (except China of course), maybe we can have some sort of peace, until then the oppressed are going to react.