Coyote what is your fascination with Islam and these migrants?
It seems you desperately want to make every known excuse in the book for them.
One. I'm not making excuses. Name one excuse I've given for rape, or any other violent behavior. I want the truth. What is the truth? What are the facts when you strip emotional hype and fear?
Fear drives us to unspeakable things to our fellow people.
My fascination is less with Islam then it is with scapegoating and broadbrushing an entire group of people and right now, it's acceptable to scapegoat Muslims broadly and completely, with out regard to whether it's conspiracy theory, the actions of a few, or hype over fact. Seems to be me any right thinking person should be concerned when a group gets scapegoated. We don't tolerate it when it's Jews or Blacks do we? How do our resident racists/anti-semites get treated? Not with respect. But when it comes to Muslims, it's the broad brush and if you question it, ask for facts, you are labeled.
I'll give an example. Why do I press Dogma on the issue of a poll? Because, in a thread on American Muslims, he wanted to show that American Muslims are just as violent, extremist, intolerant, etc as he views Muslims in other countries. Previously he had used Pew, a well respected non-partisan source for views of Muslims around the world towards Sharia, apostacy, homosexuality and women's rights. So did he use Pew in this thread? No. He chose a poll that who's methodology is roundly criticized and debunked, from a site widely considered way out there by many, and a hate site, who's results purported to show something like over 50% suppported religous violence and Sharia as law of the land, or something. This completely contradicted Pew, which showed American Muslims are largely the same as other demographic groups in America in their opinions towards seperation of religion and state, violence, homosexuality, and women's rights. So, Pew is "good enough" for worldwide opinion but suddenly not "good enough" for American Muslim opinion? When a person deliberately chooses to use something from a disreputable site over something from a reputable site - I think it's reasonable to ask "why" and what are the motivations?
My "fascination" with migrants and refugees is because they are PEOPLE, living, breathing people who have gone through horrendous experiences in an attempt to escape what are often desperate situations. It takes a particular desperation and courage to do that, and the death toll in those sea voyages and at the hands of traffickers is very high. We tend to forget they are human beings.
1. This entire thread is about a conspiracy against Muslims. This is an excuse to the media reports of them rapefugees.
Conspiracy theories aren't backed by data or facts. My thread's OP is backed by crime statistics over a period of time. The same sort of crime statistics, I might add, that are perfectly acceptable under other circumstances. The fact that you refer to refugees/migrants as whole as "rapefugees" pretty much supports my position.
2. On broad stroking a group of people.... If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck... It's a duck.
Muslims worldwide share the belief in oppression of women and children. Not all rape away in praise to Allah. But they do support wearing oppressive garmets.
This is my biggest issue with Islam. Their constant oppression, which has no place in western society. Which is why I would shut the borders to them. Until they had a reformation to remove these beliefs and teachings . My wife is Russian orthodox and wears a scarf in church but only wears it in church. She doesn't wear it everywhere .... She still believes in God and isn't any less of an orthodox because of this .... How is this any different than a Muslim?
There I disagree with you, because it assumes two things - that all Muslims adhere to the most conservative aspects of Islam, that they all believe in oppressing women, and that Islam is unchangeable. Attitudes towards women vary according to the culture of the people who practice that faith. For example - look at FGM. It's most prevalent in N. Africa, and in the countries where it is still practiced, it is done by Christian, Animaist and Muslims alike. Yet, in other Muslim majority countries it is unheard of. There is nothing in Islam itself that demands it - it's a cultural legacy.
Opinions of Muslims towards the role of women around the world may lag behind those of western countries, but within Western countries, like the US, Muslim opinions are in line with that of other demographic groups.
Muslims and Islam: Key findings in the U.S. and around the world
What do American Muslims believe?
Our 2011 survey of Muslim Americans found that roughly half of U.S. Muslims (48%) say their own religious leaders have not done enough to speak out against Islamic extremists.
Living in a religiously pluralistic society, Muslim Americans are more likely than Muslims in many other nations to have many non-Muslim friends. Only about half (48%) of U.S. Muslims say all or most of their close friends are also Muslims, compared with a global median of 95% in the 39 countries we surveyed.
Roughly seven-in-ten U.S. Muslims (69%) say religion is very important in their lives. Virtually all (96%) say they believe in God, nearly two-thirds (65%) report praying at least daily and nearly half (47%) say they attend religious services at least weekly. By all of these traditional measures, Muslims in the U.S. are roughly as religious as U.S. Christians, although they are less religious than Muslims in many other nations.
When it comes to political and social views, Muslims are far more likely to identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (70%) than the Republican Party (11%) and to say they prefer a bigger government providing more services (68%) over a smaller government providing fewer services (21%). As of 2011, U.S. Muslims were somewhat split between those who said homosexuality should be accepted by society (39%) and those who said it should be discouraged (45%), although the group had grown considerably more accepting of homosexuality since a similar survey was conducted in 2007.
Section 5: Political Opinions and Social Values
Muslim Americans show strong support for allowing women to join the workforce. Nine-in-ten either completely (72%) or mostly agree (18%) that women should be able to work outside the home. Among the U.S. general public, almost all either completely (81%) or mostly (16%) agree with this.
Attitudes among Muslim Americans are similar to attitudes among Muslims in Lebanon and Turkey. But support for women working outside the home is considerably smaller in many other Muslim nations. For example, in Egypt, only about six-in-ten say they either completely agree (23%) or mostly agree (39%) that women should be allowed to work outside the home. About four-in-ten (39%) disagree.
Nearly seven-in-ten U.S. Muslims (68%) say gender makes no difference in the quality of political leaders. Still, about a quarter (27%) say men make better political leaders. Very few (4%) say women make better leaders. There are only slight differences in views on this between men and women and among various age groups. Among the U.S. public, 72% say gender does not determine who will be the better political leader. About one-in-ten each say men (12%) or women (13%) make better lead
3. How you treat other posters is of no concern to me in this discussion. That is between you and them. I am more concerned with the topic and not a side argument over past threads.
4. So you would be willing to take on any people as long as they can make it here?
This type of belief is just not feasible in our society. If we didn't have any social benefits then possibly.... But we just can afford adding people from the 3rd world. Not to mention the harm it would do our culture to be flooded with 3rd worlders.
No, I would not be willing to take on any people. I would not take those convicted of violent crimes for example. I'm not "open borders". I think there should be a good vetting process for people from certain countries and we do need to have limits. I don't think it's because of our social benefits system, since few tend to utilize them, and when they do it's not for long. Most want to work.
The question I have though, is that your argument - " the harm it would do our culture to be flooded with 3rd worlders" - is the same argument that has been applied to many other immigrant groups over successive waves of immigration: Irish, Chinese, East European Jews, Italians etc. and the sky never fell.
And it's not courageous for fighting aged men to flee the fight to go to the west. Were you also cheering on the guy in titanic who got on the lifeboat ahead of women and children? Was he courageous?
I don't think it is that black and white. Many of those "fighting age men" are not - they're just men, and there is no breakdown in ages in the data. There is also considerable differences in the different groups. For migrants and refugees t
rying to make it to Europe, 53% are men, with no age breakdown.
That number includes all migrants. However, the number of Syrian refugees overall,
is dominated by women and children, most of whom are in the camps.
I don't consider it comparable to the life boat situation because I can see why men would go first. The journey is tremendously dangerous, with a high mortality rate and an uncertain future. The family is usually left in relative safety by comparison. While the conditions are bad in the refugee camps, at least they aren't being straffed by barrel bombs or sold as sex slaves by ISIS. I would think it would be the men who would take the risks to try and establish themselves and bring their families over.
I've heard the argument before that these men are cowardly and should stay and fight. My response is this - who are we to judge them when we do not walk in their shoes? Listening to interviews with refugees from the Syrian conflict - what they and their families have been through is horrendous. It's a war with no clear sides and horrible atrocities perpetrated on civilians. It's not a new argument. In fact, the same arguments were made in taking Jewish refugees during the holocaust. Some countries that were willing to take them, would only take the children. So desperate parents sent their children to try and save them. And of course, the parents died. In a conflict like Syria - I wouldn't judge the men. That's different than the migrants though, but even then - they are fleeing different things so you can't just broadly judge it, it's case by case.
As for being human beings.... If they are brought up to believe In oppression and rape of women and children.... Just how human are they? Sounds more like how animals believe....
Just how human are they? Very.
You assume they are all rapists and abusers regardless of background, education, culture and individuality. I disagree with that assumption.