The Danger of Christianity
April 14, 2007 at 03:18 by Mike McQuaid
People lately seem to like talking about “religion” being really dangerous, pointing to September the 11th as an example, then painting Christianity with the same brush and going “ooo, remember the Crusades!”.
It’s a bit ridiculous. The current anti-religion movement headed by people like Dawkins is basically anti-Islam but without the balls to say it.
Recently I read a GREAT comment on Slashdot about this very issue, so I’ll quote it.
Martin Scorsese releases a film that was mildly heretical to Christianity. Some Christians stand around with placards protesting. Some boycott his movie. Most yawned and flip the newspaper to page two.
The very same year Salman Rushdie publishes a book that is mildly heretical to Islam. He received death threats and had to go into hiding. Noted peace activist turned Mulsim, Cat “Peace Train” Stevens, affirms that Rushdie should be killed. A fatwah was issued against booksellers (I was one) selling the tome. To this day, Rushdie remains in hiding.
Over a decade later another movie was released that was mildly heretical to Christianity. A bunch of Christians boycotted it. A few sermons were preached from a few pulpits. That was it. Dale Brown and Tom Hanks made a lot of money.
Near the same time, a Danish newspaper publishes some cartoons, a few of which were mildly heretical to Islam. The Islamic world threw a shit fit, and engaged in violent protest for weeks. People died. Newpapers around the world tossed out principles held since the dawn of the Enlightenment and refused to print the cartoons.
An opera that is planning to portray the severed heads of religious leaders is cancelled out of fear of violence… not because of the head of Jesus, but because of the head of Mohammed.
Are you beginning to see the picture? Certainly Christianity has a checkered past, but it embraced the Enlightenment and Reformation. It has moved past its sins. But Islam remains rooted in a violent medieval mindset.
I used to think it was just a small group of fanatic extremist Muslims that were the problem. But then I started to realise that mainstream Islam was not condemning the fanatics. They were being awfully quiet. Where was the outcry from mainstream Islam over suicide bombings? Where was the outcry from mainstream Islam over Hamas and PLO thuggery? Where was the outcry from mainstream Islam over Wahabism? Over female genital mutilation? Over “honor” killings? Over the torture and murder of homosexuals?
Western Civilization needs to STOP pretending that Islam is a religion of peace. It needs to stop sheltering Islam in the blanket of political correctness. It needs to stop pretending that the camel isn’t in the tent. It needs to take a break from bashing Christianity and recognize where the real danger lies.
(by BrandyBruck)
Now, the latter paragraph I think is going a bit far.
I wouldn’t say Islam is a danger but instead I do agree the focus should be taken off Christianity. If people want to accuse world religions of being dangerous they should instead talk specifically about events of the last 10-20 years rather than ancient history and lumping other all faiths into the basket of terrorism. Modern Islamic terrorists seem to be more politically and racially motivated rather than religiously, the religion is just the tool used to brainwash them into suicide attacks. Without religion they’d still be killing innocent people they might just be less likely to sacrifice their own lives in doing so.
Posted in Christianity
I disagree. The focus needs to stay on Christianity as well. Was it not the Bible toting Bush administration that invaded in Iraq? Is it not in Christian America where Bush gets most of his support? He’s abusing religion on a scale very much the same as Islamist fundamentalists are known to do. But in a far more convincing way (given that he’s the leader of the Free World).
Christianity wasn’t just a pretext in the Crusades, it has the same potency today.
I disagree. The war in Iraq has nothing to do with Christianity. Just because some Christians are involved doesn’t make it to do with Christianity. And, as much as I think it’s terrible, lets not compare the war in Iraq to a deliberate terrorist attack on innocent civilians.
I knew some Christians who were for the war in Iraq to remove Saddam for the atrocities he committed against his people.
The war in Iraq was about oil and securing the American economy. I don’t think this is a valid reason to go to war, but it’s unrelated to religion. What was the reason to attack the World Trade Centre or the suicide bombers in Iraq?
My point was discussing terrorism. How many Christian suicide bombers have you seen recently?
Couldn’t agree more. So many people group religions together by saying “religions did this”, “look what happened in the name of religion”, but that makes about as much sense as saying “humans did this”, “atheists did this”.
I think people have a difficulty talking about Islam, because they’re afraid they’ll be called a racist, or that they will be threatened. But there are no two ways about it that the Qu’ran is very violent, and although most Muslims choose to ignore the Jihad and ‘punish the non-believers’ parts, they still exists in their holy book which is the basis for their religion. There is nothing in the Bible which instructs modern day Christians to do anything similar to that, the bible is more full of “love thy neighbour” and ‘forgiveness’ type of philosophies.
Yet the same people who would have a go at you for saying anything critical about Islam have no problem in treating Christians like a punchbag. For example there is no way in which the students union, newspaper, and societies would have made such of an attack on the pure course if it was run by the Islamic society, no doubt they would have embraced it and held it up as a emblem of multi-culturalism in the University.
With regard to the quoted quote, I only know one practitioner of Islam personally, and he certainly is no fanatic. He is, in fact, very unimpressed with the fanatics and is not afraid to say so. I also seem to recall the local mosque publicly condemned the action in your post. Therefore, I am not sure I agree so much with his/her statement.
Come to think of it, I also know several Iranians as well, and they are not crazy, or even religious for that matter. I would have to say my personal experience runs quite contrary to how I believe I would likely feel if all my exposure had been due to the media.
This leaves me wondering, for all the talking out there, how many people actually have any personal experience at all?
PS: For completeness, I also know several Christians, and none of them are particularly violent either… : )
Northern Ireland