OMG!
How long must I endure the apologists,
the secular liars, trying to compare the horrific murderers and savages, the Islamists, to other groups, usually Christians?
When will Liberals run out of lies?
Tracinski does his usual masterful job in explaining the .....dichotomy.
1. "The Charlie Hebdo massacre once again has politicians and the media dancing around the question of whether
there might be something a little bit special about this one particular religion, Islam, that causes its adherents to go around killing people.
2. It is not considered acceptable in polite company to entertain this possibility. Instead, it is necessary to insist, as a
New York Times article does, that “Islam is no more inherently violent than other religions.”
3. .... all major religions have had violent periods, or periods in which the religion has coexisted with violence. Even those mellow pacifist Buddhists. ...
...
. But in today’s context, it’s absurd to equate Islam and Christianity.
4. Pointing to the Spanish Inquisition tends to undermine the point rather than confirm it:
if you have to look back three hundred years to find atrocities, it’s because there are so few of them today. The mass crimes committed under the name of Islam, by contrast, are fresh and openly boasted about.
5. As an
atheist, I have no god in this fight, so to speak. I don’t think the differences between religions make one more valid than another. But as the Charlie Hedbo attack reminds us, there is a big practical difference between them.
6.....
the best argument against the equivalence of Christianity and Islam is that no one acts even remotely as if this were true. We feel free to criticize and offend Christians without a second thought....but antagonizing Muslims takes courage.
More courage than a lot of secular types in the West
can usually muster.
7. What are its
root causes?
... the main danger posed by any religion to its dissenters and unbelievers lies in
the rejection of reason, which cuts off the possibility of discussion and debate, leaving coercion as an acceptable substitute.... But all religions are different and have different doctrines which are shaped over their history—and as we shall see, that includes different views on precisely such core issues as
the role of reason and persuasion.
8.....there are a number of big, widely
documented differences between Christianity and Islam that can be seen in the traditions established by their history and in the actual content of their religious doctrines.
9. The life of Christ versus the life of Mohammed.
Mohammed was a conqueror who gained worldly political power in his lifetime and used it to
persecute opponents and impose his religion. He also fully enjoyed the worldly perks of being a tyrant, including multiple wives.
Jesus, by contrast, was basically a pacifist whose whole purpose on earth was to allow himself to be tortured to death.
10. He even explicitly
forbade his followers to use force to defend him. Here’s John,
Chapter 18: “Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear…. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”
Why Islam Is More Violent Than Christianity
Don't think this makes us friends.
