2016-03-23, 05:17 AM
To respond to your previous post, I didn't mean to imply that "Islam" is a victim. I was stating that Islamic people have suffered more at the hands of violent Islamic extremism than most Westerners. Why did Christians start the Crusades with their (intermittently) friendly trading partners in the Middle East despite adhering to religion which preaches "love thy neighbor" as one of it's founding tenants? Why didn't other Christians stop the Popes which blessed such actions? This line of reasoning isn't particularly productive, but who knows? We may see an equivalent to the Protestants arise from the moderate Islamic factions. I'd merely suggest that many Middle Eastern Muslims are not in a viable position to fight militant groups be they government sanctioned or otherwise without significant military aid in some situations. It's difficult to have a modern day revolution a la the American colonies when you're facing F-15s and tanks with small arms like in Syria.
Saying it doesn't make it so. You're completely ignoring Turkey, Jordan, Egypt (treatment has varied widely in recent years), and India (significant but not majority Muslims) which are all involved in the region and don't fit the Islamic picture you paint with such broad strokes. You'll also find that there's an incredibly wide gap between the Iranian government which is controlled by the clerics and the Iranian people. Ahmadinejad would actually be a fair parallel to Trump becoming president. Both were considered unrealistic candidates due to their extremist positions which represent reactionary views not held by a majority of the population and feature a strong vein of nationalism. Both based their electoral support on religious conservatives and low income workers.
Derimed Wrote:False distinction. In the example you cited me making, Iran is a Muslim country ruled by Muslim laws. More broadly, Islam and the Middle East are almost totally inseparable because the overwhelming majority of the governments are either Muslim and/or their constituents are mostly Muslims. Muslims and Islam have the real power.
Saying it doesn't make it so. You're completely ignoring Turkey, Jordan, Egypt (treatment has varied widely in recent years), and India (significant but not majority Muslims) which are all involved in the region and don't fit the Islamic picture you paint with such broad strokes. You'll also find that there's an incredibly wide gap between the Iranian government which is controlled by the clerics and the Iranian people. Ahmadinejad would actually be a fair parallel to Trump becoming president. Both were considered unrealistic candidates due to their extremist positions which represent reactionary views not held by a majority of the population and feature a strong vein of nationalism. Both based their electoral support on religious conservatives and low income workers.