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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAttacks On Mosques And Harassment Of Muslims Skyrocketing In America
December 12, 2015
Marc Belisle
Attacks On Mosques In The U.S. Have Tripled Since 2014.
We are living in one of the most intense and violent periods of anti-Muslim sentiment in U.S. history. That is what CNN concludes in their analysis of a map of attacks on mosques in 2015, which was produced by the the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR identified 63 individual incidents of attacks on mosques in the U.S. so far in 2015. That is the highest number on record, and it is three times as many as the number recorded in 2014.
There was a huge spike in Nov., which indicates that some Americans are being radicalized and inspired to violence by the increasingly heated rhetoric coming from far-right politicians like Donald Trump in response to events like the attacks in Paris and the mass shooting in San Bernardino. A recent poll showed that Republicans who believed the idiotic lie that President Obama is a Muslim are more likely to support Donald Trump. It also showed that those supporters are less likely to agree with the statement that most Muslims don’t support DAESH (formerly known as ISIS).
The attacks on mosques have included a wave of arson events, as well as offensive gestures like the head of a pig left in front of a mosque in Philadelphia. The map and the statistics about attacks on mosques show a compelling general picture of increasing violence. Meanwhile, Muslims across the U.S. provide anecdotal evidence of a growing wave of frightening harassment, intimidation and violence. There have been 19 reported hate crimes against Muslims in the past week alone.
Recently, Muslim women are bearing the brunt of the current wave of harassment, since women wearing a hijab headscarf are easy to identify as devout Muslims. The Los Angeles Times reported on a young Muslim woman in Austin, Texas, who was told by an older white man to “go back to Saudi Arabia.” The man seemed unaware of the irony that he happened to be eating at a Middle Eastern restaurant at the time. The Times also noted other incidents: In Cincinnati, a driver tried to run down a young Muslim woman. In New York City, a customer called a female pharmacist wearing a headscarf a terrorist and told her to “get out of his country.” In San Diego, a man shoved a pregnant Muslim mother’s stroller into her belly and a San Diego State student reported a man tugged at her headscarf while yelling at her in a parking lot.
read more: http://reverbpress.com/news/us/attacks-on-mosques-skyrocket-us/
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napkinz
(17,199 posts)December 13, 2015
A seventh-grade Ohio boy is accused of threatening to shoot and kill a fifth-grade Muslim classmate, calling him a “terrorist” and “son of ISIS,” according to a police report.
While the boys were on a school bus on Dec.7, the victim was called derogatory remarks, including a “towel head” and was told he was responsible for bringing down the Twin Towers because he is a Muslim, WHIO reports. A student who overheard the incident and reported it to the bus driver and spoke with the police, said the older boy said he would bring a .40 caliber gun to school the next day to shoot and kill the Muslim boy.
The police report states that the threats made by the older boy were recorded on surveillance video with audio of the incident.
The older boy was later called in to the police station where he admitted using racial slurs during the argument because the younger boy never wants to sit down on the bus and plays his music too loud. The boy further told police that he did not make threats regarding a gun, but admitted that he must have made them if it was recorded.
The older boy told police that he’s familiar with firearms and he hunts with his dad, according to the report.
read more: http://freakoutnation.com/2015/12/ohio-boy-threatens-to-bring-gun-to-school-to-shoot-muslim-boy-he-called-a-terrorist/
maxsolomon
(38,108 posts)Nothing like a little hyperbole to grab the eye.
The "saving grace" is that no one has actually been attacked/injured. Vandalism and verbal abuse. Yes, that lady in SF threw coffee on a guy. But the backlash from the San Bernadino attack has been surprisingly mild, considering the vast seas of the angry, ignorant and armed that exist in this misbegotten land.
What is a "Zoning" Incident?
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Triple the average number of incidences after mere weeks does indeed appear to fit well within the colloquial parameters of "skyrocket."
Nothing like a little minimization to allow the daft to feel clever.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)From sea to shining sea, Muslim Americans are coming under attack.
In New York City, a shop owner was savagely beaten Saturday by a stranger promising to “kill Muslims.” In California, a man was playing volleyball and praying in a park on Sunday when a woman accused of him of being a terrorist, struck him and splashed him in the face with coffee. And in Philadelphia, a severed pig’s head was tossed outside of a mosque on Monday.
On Wednesday, a Muslim American congressman linked the “rise in Islamophobia” — including a death threat he received on Monday — to the “demagoguery” of Donald Trump.
read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/10/attacks-on-muslims-across-the-country-as-trump-rhetoric-puts-them-in-the-line-of-fire-congressman-says/
maxsolomon
(38,108 posts)I don't count the coffee splashing as assault.
I'm still surprised there hasn't been more.
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)M Kitt
(208 posts)Generating a radicalized segment of Islamic fundamentalists seems to have been part of the agenda driving our invasion of Iraq.
Those same hawks are calling for current actions against Iran today, right wing TeaHadists are intentionally conflating Isis with Al Qaida with Iran with Iraq (with the entire Muslim religion of course). For purposes of rationalizing actions against any Middle Eastern nation with a Muslim constituency.
And throw in the bigotry of Anti-Islam racism, while you're at it. Which draws support from the White Supremacist USA faction.
So the the combined USA/International Corporate war machine has great plans for the Middle East, as many of us have been aware since before 9-11 (project for a new American Century, anyone?)
The drums of war are again being heard within our borders, a "Keynote" that's clearly heard across the spectrum of Corporate War supporters in the USA.
Thanks again for these posts, Napkinz.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)"You don't get to hit people."
"That's an ASSAULT."
maxsolomon
(38,108 posts)my point is that it's surprising there isn't more, and worse, not that Low Blood Sugar Coffee Lady didn't happen.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)change the fact that it meets the definition of assault.
From lawyers.com
An assault is an intentional act that causes an apprehension or fear of imminent harmful or offensive contact based on a defendant's present ability to do so. The defendant must have the apparent ability to commit the assault, even if he or she is not actually capable of causing an injury. An assault is committed even if the contact never occurs.
http://assault.lawyers.com/assault-and-battery.html
If you want to test your legal theory go up to a cop and throw some coffee in his face. Let us know how that works out, OK.
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)A state Corrections Department employee was formally charged with battery in connection with the confrontation earlier this month with two Muslim men who were praying in a Castro Valley park.
see http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027455823 (posted by n2doc)
The Velveteen Ocelot
(128,785 posts)The victim's face was badly cut and the perp is being charged with a felony. That serious enough for you?
ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)You don't say...
...and I'm sure this waste of space is anti-abortion.
pampango
(24,692 posts)members of that group. It is not rocket science.
maxsolomon
(38,108 posts)You can't lay this all on RW Demagogues. San Bernadino has a part in this - and probably was deliberately designed to provoke a backlash against Muslims.
Not a part that justifies the reaction, of course, but to paraphrase, a backlash is not rocket science.
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)So poor, ignorant people are led by their noses by manipulative politicians?
Why not accept the obvious fact folks are scared by the rise of worldwide religious terrorism?
napkinz
(17,199 posts)ever hear of THE TEA PARTY?
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)The world isn't just a Democrat/Republican opposition.
There are other groups far more scary than the Tea party.
ISIS comes to mind.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)1- Worldwide, terrorism is the province of islamic extremists
2- in the US, the share of radical Islam in home terrorism is growing.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)They refuse to acknowledge acts of terror carried out by followers of radical Christianity (because it's their own people who are carrying out those acts).
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)See stats in post #14
treestar
(82,383 posts)Daesh are Muslims, so you attack any given Muslim with the excuse you are afraid of Daesh, that's the very definition of bigotry.
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)I attack an ideology, Islam, on ideological grounds.
Islam is not progressive (see women's rights, gay rights, free speech, etc)
Progressives should defend individuals unjustly harassed, but tackle reactionary ideologies.
treestar
(82,383 posts)There are over 2 billion Muslims, most of whom have nothing to do with the violent ideologues. They live in various states of progress; they are not all Saudi Arabia where everything is very strict. They live in many different countries.
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)'Progressive' Muslims are the minority.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)for calling it what it is ... bigotry
marmar
(79,115 posts)So those Muslims brought this on themselves, right?
napkinz
(17,199 posts)it sounds like what I'd expect from Trump supporters
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)Do you want ad slogans or a more elaborate analysis?
December 7, 2015 by Daniel Fincke
Below is a guest article by Suraiya Simi Rahman, MD, reprinted from her Facebook page with her permission. She is a doctor and an ex-Muslim who has lived in Bangladesh, the UAE and Pakistan. She practices pediatrics in Los Angeles. Facebook has improperly removed her original posting of this article for allegedly violating their community standards. Before being censored her post was shared over 2,000 times on Facebook.
How do you tell a radical homicidal Muslim from a moderate peace loving one?
Every Muslim humanist is asking themselves this question I first asked myself in September 2001.
And here is my train of thought.
The 9/11 hijackers reminded me of boys I had gone to school with in Dubai in the 80s and 90s. They were the same age, background, and modern enough to have listened to 80s pop and chased girls. Meaning that just like most young people in the Muslim world, we weren’t that religious.
So, I thought, maybe I could locate the differences between them and me, and at some point I would identify a breakaway point. Something they would do that I never would. And it took me a while to realize this, and now with the California shootings, it has reaffirmed for me, that indeed, when it comes to being able to tell a moderate from a radical in Islam, you can’t.
You really can’t tell until the moment before they pull the trigger, who is moderate and who is jihadi. Tashfeen has broken our moderate backbone, by revealing that she lived among us, unnoticed, normal, experiencing motherhood, enveloped in our secure community and yet, had radicalized.
And that’s the problem, that there are many others like her with exactly the same beliefs, who may not have been ignited yet by a radical cleric, but if the opportunity presented itself, they would follow. They’re like a dormant stick of dynamite, waiting for the fuse to be lit. The TNT is already in there.
What’s it made of? Not the 5 pillars, belief, charity, prayer, fasting and pilgrimage. Not the sayings of the prophet as to how to lead a good and just life. Not the celebration of Eid ul Fitr.
It possibly glimmers through in the fealty that Allah demands during the Eid ul Adha, when Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son as a sign of his superior faith is commemorated in a sacrifice and celebration very much like the American Thanksgiving, with family and food. But without the football. And oh yes, the fratricide.
It is there in the silence one must maintain during prayer, brooking no interruptions, because it would make the prayer invalid. It is there in the severity of the hijab when it is followed to a tee. Not a hair can show. It is there in the forced separation of men and women at social gatherings.
It is present in every act that is performed that excludes us from the mainstream. It is present in the very concept of Us and Them. Because the only way we remain Us is to reject Them. The only way to be an exemplary Us is to reject westernization at every turn. Halal only is a sham, constructed out of this notion of meat that has been cut a certain way. It’s the same meat. And yet there is a magical difference that people will attest to in all seriousness.
I went deep into the Midwest, wore a hijab for a year and lived there for 8 years. In that time, I attended ISNA gatherings, met with educated, professional people like myself who were also asking the same questions. They were looking to their faith for answers. And sure, there were efforts made to modernize Islam, but they were only superficial. We couldn’t do it. We couldn’t do it because there is a logical dilemma at the core of Islam. And that is, that the Quran is the last word of God, that it is perfect and unchangeable. And to even suggest such a thing is blasphemy and apostasy.
And so, to understand the moderate mind, you have to envision it on a continuum from radical to middle, but the closer you get to liberal, there is a wall. It creeps up on you, in the condemnation of homosexuality, in the unequal treatment and subjugation of women, but it’s there. Beyond that wall that they are afraid to look over, for fear of eternal hell fire and damnation, is where the answer lies though. So being a Muslim moderate these days is like running a race with a ball and chain attached to your feet. A handicap. Unless you can imagine what the world beyond that wall looks like, you can’t really navigate it. If you’re so terrified of blasphemy that you refuse to look over, you’re forever stuck. Right here. And behind you is the jihadi horde, laying claim to real Islam, practicing it to perfection, as it is laid out in the Quran. A veritable rock and a hard place. I feel your pain. I’ve been there. And it was untenable.
I read, discussed, debated alongside many good Muslim young people from all over the world, in Internet forums, trying to argue our way to a solution, much like we are doing on social media right now. I knew I rejected the homophobia, I knew I rejected the subjugation of women. And it all remained a theory until I saw it in practice. In the drawing rooms of the Midwestern professional moderate Muslim.
There was the discussion of whether the verse that allows a man to strike his wife instead actually means that he should strike her with a feather. As a doctor, I am a humanist first, and so the blatant homophobia was irrational, dangerous and something I stopped tolerating politely. I attended presentations at the mosque of videos from the Palestinian Territories, played to rouse the outrage of the gathered congregation. And that’s when the absurdity started to really hit home.
What in the world were we doing? We were training our children to kowtow without questioning an authority that we believed would keep them safe from evil western ways. And so the community’s children went to Sunday school, wore hijab, prayed and fasted. They were enveloped in a Muslim identity that was unlike any that I had experienced before.
I was raised in a Muslim country in the Middle East and religion was something we kept in its place, somewhere after school, soccer and cartoons. Here was a more distilled, pure and, most dangerously, a context-free Islam. There were no grandmothers here to sagely tell us which parts of the Quran to turn a blind eye to. There were no older cousins here who skipped Friday prayers and goofed off with their friends instead. Oh no. This was Islam simmered in a sauce of Midwestern sincerity, and boiled down to its dark, concentrated core. This was dangerous.
As my children grew older, I grew more afraid. I had tolerated their father’s insistence on sending them to Sunday school, where mostly they played and learned a few surahs. But as they grew older I knew it would change. A sincerity would creep in to their gaze, teenage rebellion would find just cause in judging your less religious parents as wanting and inferior. Bad Muslims. How many teenagers have started to wear hijab before their own mothers? I’ve lost count. Mothers who found themselves in this dilemma would choose to join their child on this journey. They would cover too, and as such offered a layer of protection from the ideology by offering perspective.
I worried though, about the Internet, about radical recruiters posing as friends, finding willing and malleable clay in our unformed children. For we would keep them unformed. We would shield them from western influences in order to protect them, only to create a rift that could be exploited as an entry point. We would in essence be leaving our children vulnerable to radicalization.
And that is exactly what has been happening. The young girls from Europe and the US who have traveled to Syria to join ISIS, have done so because they’re looking for what all teenagers are looking for, a sense of identity, to differentiate themselves from their parents and find a separate identity, the thrill of rebellion, adventure. They can’t date, drink or dance, so they might as well Daesh.
This thought is what drove me to scale that wall. I dropped prayer, stopped feeling guilty for not praying. I drank alcohol, in moderation like most people do in the west, and I didn’t instantly turn into an alcoholic. I dropped the need to cover to my ankles and wrists, and wore regular clothes. Bacon. I mean, seriously, it’s bacon, I don’t have to explain how good it was. I turned to look back at the wall from the other side, and it was…a relief. A relief to lose that fear of apostasy. To realize there was no such thing, it was purely in my mind. The ideas that had worn a groove in my mind, the guilt, the anxiety, the self flagellation for being a bad Muslim, all were gone.
And now, looking in the rear view mirror, I cannot recall what that felt like. I can’t recall what believing used to feel like, because it’s not as if there’s an absence. It’s not like I miss it. No, in its place has come a more robust understanding of humanity, philosophy, history, human nature and yes, even of religion. A realization that the future is everything.
That there is no heaven or hell. Or rather, we no longer need a heaven and a hell to curb us into moral behavior. We have evolved. We know more of the universe, too much to be afraid of it anymore. We know more of this earth, and we know that every human being is made of exactly the same material. There is no Us, no Them. There is only We. We need to move on. We need to break free. We need to scale the wall so we can push back against the forces that seek to snatch our children’s minds and bodies. We need to protect them, we need to inhabit our own intelligence instead of surrender it in the service of an archaic structure of beliefs that make absolutely no sense to follow in this day and age.
We have to break the chains in our own minds in order to do any of this. And it is scary. Especially when you’ve believed your whole life in the concept of blasphemy. Especially when you know that to openly come out and reject these beliefs would be to risk alienation, to be ostracized and maligned, rejected and alone. And in many cases, dangerous to your own person.
So maybe that is where we should start. By encouraging Muslims to create safe spaces to challenge the logical fallacies and inconsistencies, not between translation to translation, but between Islam and the modern world.
Peter Janecki, who created a machine that converts sewage into clean drinkable water and energy, noted in his TEDMED talk recently that he had to zoom out and look at it not as a garbage problem, but as an energy problem. He had to make the problem bigger in order to come up with a solution.
And I think it’s the same with Islam. We have to make the problem bigger. Instead of minimizing, we need to blow it up big and examine it and let go of this idea that a sacred text is unchangeable. Or unquestionable. We have to look at it instead as a humanism problem. Is Islam, in the way it is practiced and preached, humanistic enough? In that does it respect the personhood of a human being enough, and if it doesn’t, then what can we do about it.
We have to make it ok to walk away. We have to come out of this closet and into the light. Because none of us are safe anymore. And none of the old bandages will hold much longer before it becomes a full on carnage that we only have ourselves to blame for.
- See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/camelswithhammers/2015/12/moderate-muslims-have-hit-their-wall/?ref_widget=popular&ref_blog=friendlyatheist&ref_post=acts-of-terrorism-rose-60-percent-in-one-year-and-youll-never-guess-what-the-main-cause-is#sthash.ulIpout3.dpuf
jwirr
(39,215 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)I can't believe some are trying to justify these attacks. 
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)Shameful is a good word
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)We all know Islam is the religion of Peace. There have been no antics that could have provoked this sort of mischief.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)because of the tragedy in San Bernardino? 
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Wasn't there just a major one in Palm Springs?
malaise
(292,117 posts)and don't forget to single out Trump and Cruz
add Trump to the list
M Kitt
(208 posts)They're engaging in media "blackout" related to shootings that are not aligned with their Anti-Islamic agenda.
Excerpt of Recent post
What isn’t being covered, what’s intentionally excluded from our media?
To answer that question, let’s look at what other political interests are engaged in support of the right wing national agenda. If you control the media, you control the message. So instead of a “feeding frenzy”, we can demonstrate a policy of national exclusion regarding coverage of the following, with these exceptions.
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/25/eyewitness_recalls_shooting_by_alleged_white
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/charleston-shooting-confederate-flag-debate-renewed/
The White Supremacist movement in the USA is much more of a threat than many of us realize.
Those of us who are not black may have difficulty understanding the scale of that threat, and national news media blackout on that topic is the reason. Can’t have organized dissent, now, can we?
End Excerpt
Since media coverage is amplifying this supposed looming national threat, we’re assured that this trend will (Stochastic Terrorism) continue in the USA, supporting the right wing Anti-Islam agenda we’ve come to recognize as prominent in that segment of our national political ambitions, thru ongoing biased media coverage.
951-Riverside
(7,234 posts)I do not understand why such a wonderful, peaceful and vibrant people are now facing such hate.
It makes me sick, I weep for my country 
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)
napkinz
(17,199 posts)A Muslim store owner was attacked in Queens in what police are investigating as a bias crime, authorities say.
A man walked into the Fatima Food Mart on 21st Avenue in Astoria on Saturday and yelled that he wanted to "kill Muslims," then repeatedly punched the owner, according to police and the owner.
read more: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Muslim-Store-Owner-Assault-Queens-New-York-City-Bias-Attack-361354111.html
M Kitt
(208 posts)Thanks Napkinz. Have to say I'm somewhat overcome by the sheer volume of our projectile "vomiting" of hate speech since 9-11 here in the USA.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/shocking-list-anti-muslim-bigotry-and-hate-crimes-paris-attacks-one-month-ago
Short excerpt from the 1st post:
What else is NOT being covered in our national media?
Our Federal agencies can easily track this trend, have been documenting it for more than a decade.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/anti-muslim-hate-crimes-are-still-five-times-more-common-today-than-before-911/
http://time.com/3934980/right-wing-extremists-white-terrorism-islamist-jihadi-dangerous/
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/fbi-bias-crimes-against-muslims-remain-high-levels
Right wing media is intentionally rationalizing the Anti-Muslim rhetoric we’ve become familiar with over the last 1.5 decades since 9-11, while concurrently contributing to and encouraging the “defamation” of our national/international Islamic community.
While not a Muslim/Islamic, I'd have to be blind to not see these National trends. I'm a proud agnostic and abhor Fundamentalists on both sides of this divide, looks like the Christian coalition of them are beating the drums of war yet again.
Thanks.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)Dear Media: Stop Using the Term 'Radicalized' Unless You Apply It to White Christian Extremists, Too
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/dear-media-stop-using-the-term-radicalized-unless-you-apply-it-to-white-christian-extremists-too_b_8771512.html
The Real Threat To America Is Right Wing Republican Terrorists
http://americannewsx.com/politics/the-real-threat-to-america-is-right-wing-republican-terrorists-video/
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)If I understand you correctly, islamic terrorism is not a real threat then?
'The' -> no other threat is real. Or of significance.
Did I get your point correctly?
napkinz
(17,199 posts)than by ISIS.
I travel a lot.
M Kitt
(208 posts)Not to mention the other edge of that political spectrum, militant white supremacists.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7463035
Point being, Al Qaida (or Isis/Isil) didn't drag us into the occupation of Iraq, that was our own GOP administration of NeoCons.
Which applies currently, of course. Reicht Wingnuts are stirring up hatred against Muslims for that same purpose, they'd like to start further conflict, taking US troops into the combustible tinderbox represented by the Middle East. For purposes of igniting a much larger (full-blown) conflagration, I'm supposing.
But the first target is more likely to be Iran, this time, before moving on to several others.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7463272
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)GW's Iraq War was a clusterfuck of gigantic magnitude,
but radical islamism grew from 30 years of Saudi funding of radicalism worldwide.
M Kitt
(208 posts)But you'll be less than successful describing the "radicalized" Muslims of Isis/Daesh currently driving military operations in Syria or Iraq as a "Worldwide Movement". Linking them to Saudi Fundamentalism is a pretty obscure proposal.
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/29910-the-rise-of-islamic-state-offers-policy-lessons-for-us-hawks
Generating a radicalized segment of Islamic fundamentalists seems to have been part of the agenda driving our invasion of Iraq.
The argument can be made, of course, that "Radicalized Fundamentalism" stems from Saudi Wahhabism or factions of that movement, but you'd be hard pressed to trace that back across 30 years of those developing religious trends.
Most likely, tho, the threat posed by current Isis/Daesh radicals is largely a result (blow-back) of our occupation of Iraq, as described by the above link.
Speaking of the results of our invasion/occupation of Iraq
Those same hawks are calling for current actions against Iran today, right wing TeaHadists are intentionally conflating Isis with Al Qaida with Iran with Iraq (with the entire Muslim religion of course). For purposes of rationalizing actions against any Middle Eastern nation with a Muslim constituency.
Essentially the Reicht Wing Fundamentalist version of what they'd call "Jihad" if proposed by Muslim religious fanatics.
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)GW's war just made things much, much worse.
Adding fuel to the fire, if you will.
M Kitt
(208 posts)We can easily tie Christianity to the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany. The Catholic church in Germany, more specifically.
Not to mention involvement of that same church in KKK activities that peaked in the mid 1960s, and related killings connected to lynchings, etc.
But Back to WW2/Hitler
Does that connect Hitler to responsibility for purges associated with the Crusades, or the Inquisitions? Not likely.
Conversely, are Christians accountable for those actions of "final solution" carried out by the Nazis against Jews?
Do these (guilt by association) examples of "Christian" behavior mean that it's a religion of complete violence, prone to Genocide and World War?
More Recently
If you're that intent on conflating muslim activities in Aghanistan or Algeria with current Isil/Daesh threats in Iraq or Syria, why not blame all Christians for the Genocides on both sides of the Boznia/Herzogovina conflicts in 1992? Hundreds of bodies (mass graves) discovered on both sides of that conflict.
So when you roll out numbers like "Half a Million" killed in Algeria, you're not really bringing the historical perspective into it, Christianity has been involved with nearly every major war across the last several hundred years, and often on both sides of those conflicts.
Which is the flaw in the argument of "Global Jihad" against Muslims, they're not historically prone to War/Genocide on the scale of Christianity. Period.
As Stated in my last remark
Speaking of the results of our invasion/occupation of Iraq
Those same hawks are calling for current actions against Iran today, right wing TeaHadists are intentionally conflating Isis with Al Qaida with Iran with Iraq (with the entire Muslim religion of course). For purposes of rationalizing actions against any Middle Eastern nation with a Muslim constituency.
Essentially the Reicht Wing Fundamentalist version of what they'd call "Jihad" if proposed by Muslim religious fanatics.
TeaHadist Fundamentalist Christians are apparently intent on carrying out the same ambitions/agenda they accuse Muslims of.
In support of an "End Times" holy war in the middle east.
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)I do not hold Christianity in high regard either.
But the wars waged in the name of Christianity were mostly between brands of Christianity: Catholics vs Protestants, mainly. There were not wars waged to propagate Christianity. The Crusades were belated defensive wars in reaction to the Muslim/Arab onslaught. And colonialism was mostly about resources, Christian ministers just following on the coattails of invading forces.
But back to the point: in today's world, the main danger to world peace is Islam*, far ahead of anything else. In the not too distant future, it could become Chinese assertiveness if China doesn't become a democracy.
(*even if GW did manage to make the US the main offender vs world peace for a few years)
M Kitt
(208 posts)"US was made the main offender VS world peace for a few years"
As the result of GW/Cheney administration's NeoCon war ambitions.
We're at least in complete agreement about that, except for the scale. The United States is still held accountable for those actions within Middle East nation states, NOW, today. Global memory of our actions isn't likely to go away any time soon.
Continuing to generate more of those "Radicalized Fundamentalists" we previously discussed.
And since we still have ground troops in Afghanistan and Iraq (among other locations), duration of those military involvements has actually been across about 15 years, continues to this day. Not "for a few years" as you remarked above.
Accuracy is important.
Yorktown
(2,884 posts)The troops in Afghanistan are there at the Afghan government's request.
M Kitt
(208 posts)Last edited Mon Dec 21, 2015, 08:26 AM - Edit history (1)
You might check out the previous threads, my conversation with Yorktown 
Interesting personality, persistent without apparent intention of offending anyone. Not many Militant Anti-Muslims are so polite, in my experience
Wrong, but polite.
DashOneBravo
(2,679 posts)Had been in the south, this thread would be 150 posts by now.
(I'm kidding)