Foxy,

Straw man argument ?

No, I don't believe that the vast majority of Muslims would go out and enact any of the brutalities demanded of them in the Koran, any more than Christians or Jews would go out and put three-thousand-year-old barbaric measures exhorted on them in the Bible, especially the obsolete three- and four-thousand-year-old Old Testament, into practice. I don't see even the most observant Jews in Israel enslaving anybody or executing adulterers, etc., they're vastly more civilized than that now.

In fact, I have enough faith in the goodness of people, Muslim, Jews, Christians, atheists, that they may wear their beliefs lightly and have no particular ill-will against any of their neighbours.

And you know that. Please stop trying to pigeon-hole people.

Joe

Belly's ideal world has no religion. Well that has been tried. Try USSR and China and North Korea, all religions banned. Belly look above to how many murdered because of their religion in the last 100 years by Communism.

The only hope is to have a society of zombies, no opinions, no philosophy, no world view. That would even exclude Belly, although perhaps a zombie world view would come close. Belly give up! you have a strong world view that causes conflict with other atheists. It takes more than a religion to make society. Australia is a diverse society of opinion, and we can live together; it is just those that want to murder those of differing opinion we have trouble with.

Well, Foxy you may have read the article but it does not seem to have sunk in.
True they were convicted criminals he was interviewing but that was
the point; he was looking for the reason muslims commit more crimes
than other people commit. eg
He explained why they over react to perceived insults.
They do it on the large scale as well as the small scale.
ie countries over react as well as individuals.
It is meaningless to say that they all do not attack, but it doesn't
have to be all of them, just enough of them.
What was the figure up to end July this year ?
34,000 terrorist killings ! or was it 84,000, I have forgotten.
Doesn't matter it was damn large.

Josephus been around the block and never expected anything different from you
What if I am right? no God ever existed
We then are in part governed by rule they set down
The very same people who produced pedophiles in their Gods Church
Again not every one of faith is bad but some Muslims act on behalf of a God that never existed in a murderous insane way

Josephus,

Where does it say in the Bible about the cutting off
of hands?

Try Mathew 5.29-30

Jesus recommends that to avoid sin we cut off our hands
and pluck out our eyes. This advice is given after he says
that anyone who looks with lust at any woman commits
adultery.

There's also other awful passages in not only Matthew,
Mark Luke and John but the rest of the Bible as well.

Joe,

When you stop putting people into pigeon-holes yourself
you'll be in a better position to give advice to others.

Bazz,

Fundamentalism has erupted in the Islamic world in
general and in the Middle East in particular.
However the West needs to take responsibility for this as well.
fundamentalist revivals, in whatever religion, take
place in times when social changes have led to turmoil,
uncertainty, and the erosion of familiar values.

When people find themselves confused, threatened or even
appalled at changing conditions. They may see a " return to
basics" as a solution.

It is not surprising therefore that Islamic
fundamentalism has
surged in societies like Iran,
which has experienced wrenching social
change as a result of their oil wealth. Some of these
societies had previously remained culturally fairly static
for generations - in some cases, for centuries. Then in less
than the space of a single life span, they were thrust into a
world of airports and highways schools and television factories
and power plants - flooded with foreign advisors officials,
and entrepreneurs. These new comers behaved in a variety
of ways that deeply offend the locals.

The principal foreign enemy of the fundamentalists in the
" Great Satan" the United States. Their own governments they
claim are often used as mere pawns in America's geopolitical
strategy - a strategy in which the interests of ordinary Muslims
count for nothing.

Despite their antipathy to the US the
fundamentalists are concerned mainly with conditions
in their own countries.

Islamic fundamentalism, like the Protestant ethic, arises out
of specific social and cultural conditions - that is
something that needs to be understood - before blaming
the religion.

Foxy, you show ignorance of who is doing the action. It is hyperbole referring to the extremities one could go to stop sexual acts and sexual lust. These are extreme acts on oneself. In other words it is self discipline, it has nothing to do with taking violent action on another person. Obviously you do not understand hyperbole.