Would it be helpful to call radical, violent anti-homosexuality what it is, [View all]
rather than blaming a religion?
This is meant as an "honest question", meaning it's an idea that occurred to me but I'm not sure how valid it is. I'm hoping for a rational, civil discussion.
This is motivated by the discussion of last night's nightclub shooting, but of course we don't actually know the shooter's motivation yet. But a speculation on another thread that he might have had "radical Islamic ties" got me to thinking, does it really matter what religion is driving the hate and the belief that murder is an appropriate action? Doesn't it hinder the ability for the core adherents of the religion to progress away from these harmful root beliefs, if their religion is constantly being tied to it based on the actions of extremists? No one thought Timothy McVeigh represented Christianity. He wasn't described as a "radical Christian terrorist". He was described as being "radical anti-government" or something like that.
We know that Islam isn't the only religion that includes subgroups who interpret their holy texts as saying that homosexuality is "against God's law". We know that Islam isn't the only religion that includes subgroups who believe they have a right to impose their beliefs on other people, including by violence. Islam may be the one that's most in the news for Americans at this time. But doesn't it perpetuate a vicious cycle to continue to link being anti-gay with Islam?
What if we (and the media) dropped the reference to religion and just called out the hateful belief?
What do you all think?
= new reply since forum marked as read