When will other religious groups start hitting back?

”In the meantime Christians and other religious groups simply just allow Islamic fanatics to do their thing.”
I guess you slept through the so called war on terror.

Hit back? At furst I wasn’t thinking in terms if Islam when I saw your question andbI was going to answer: some Christians group have been proactive at pushing their religion, and if anything they are getting hit back or push back from other groups.

Since you are talking about Muslim fanatics, we already do hit back. We, and several other nations went after Bin Laden and work to try to find these groups of extremists and get rud if them, ir at minimum foil their attempts to harm people. Christians prosthelytize all over Africa and other countries, which one could argue tries or helps prevent the citizenry from become Muslim or converts them from Islam. I doubt the Buddhists will fight back with any extreme physical force, I think of them as beung more pacifists.

Western countries where many Muslims have immigrated often do take measures to address Arab and Muslim customs that don’t sync or are illegal with the new country’s laws.

It is upsetting to me that in some Middle Eastern countries Christians are being treated very badly and are in danger. I hope something is done about that.

Probably never.

Islam (and particularly the various strains of Islam that do the bombings) gives tacit rewards to those who kill non-Moslems. You can argue over the exact translation and interpretation, but the Koran does indeed allow, even encourage, the murder of non-believers. And there is the much cited rewarding (72 virgins in paradise – again, subject to interpretation).

Because of these implicit and explicit encouragements, Islam has self-defined to be a religion that doesn’t care about life in THIS world, only in the next – and that is the basis of their practice of mass killing of others. You can argue that it’s not ALL Moslems, just some, but the fact remains . . .. that the Koran-motivated terrorist acts continue daily.

[Let’s be clear here = Islam is not alone here. The Talmud has some verses which espouse similar non-Jewish activity.]

The moslem difference is that there are active groups (palestinians, fatah, al qaeda, etc.) that have taken these Koranic verses and built a killing machine from it.

So why don’t other religions take on the moslems? Or at least copy their tactics? Largely because other religions tend to emphasize living for NOW, not exclusively for the orld after death.

Other judaeo-christian religions generally pay more heed to the “Do unto others” and “Thou shall not kill” tenets than do Islam.

My view is that for Judaism and Christianity to “fight back” would mean lowering themselves- diminishing themselves – to the level of militant Islam. And Judaism and Christianity are not going to do so because of their moral values.

I find the Shia vs. Sunni bombings interesting. They are different sects of Islam yet even they can’t get along.
They “hit back” every day, targeting the other’s funerals. Peace and brotherly love indeed.
Boom!

@elbanditoroso
The reason that christianity is not doing another round of overt crusades (as opposed to the stealth crusades under the banner of the “war on terror”), openly targeting muslims to be killed for their religion, is because Secularism has put the religion in chains, at least in the west.
Christianity simply does not have the power anymore that it once had.

You may have a good point @ragingloli I never thought about the War on Terror.

@antimatter That seems like a very big thing to overlook. What exactly are you thinking there should be? A big religious war? I really prefer we fight radical Islam through secular means than rallying up a bunch of Christians and other religions.

@JLeslie I don’t wish for a “Religious war”, I asked this question not because I am arrogant against religions, for me it feels like the whole world is powerless against these people. Last week a brilliant school teacher was kidnapped from his home by some Islamic terrorist group and the South African government said that they will not get involved, they claim it’s a private matter. Face it the last time Christians tried to take on the Islamic followers during the Crusades it did not work out to well for them.

I didn’t feel you were being arrogant. I was just wondering what you thought might happen or what you think might work to stop this extreme, violent behavior.

@ragingloli , you’re right that’s a part of it. Not the whole story, however.

I wonder how all these “sects” treat people who have no religion?
I include the US in this as well.

In the US Islam is being embraced and Christianity is being demonized. It’s not politically correct to say anything against Islam but it’s seemingly fine to go after Christianity. I think it’s the press focusing on liberalism instead of the news. Ironically the Islamic worldview is the antithesis of liberalism.

@JLeslie ” I doubt the Buddhists will fight back with any extreme physical force, I think of them as beung more pacifists.”

Oh dear, save us from the myth of the non-violent Buddhist….

You’re obviously not familiar with countries like Myanmar, where Buddhists have instigated much violence, even acts of terror, against Muslims. Or, for that matter, you’re evidently not familiar with Buddhist nations like Cambodia, Vietnam or Japan, which historically have been anything but pacifist.

@Darth_Algar Do you think present day they would be so aggressive? You might be right. Plus, I don’t think we can look at Buddhists as one solid homogenous group. Same with Muslims, Christians, every religion has sects and the country they live in makes huge cultural differences. We can drag out Christians in history trying to take over the world, or at least a country, but overall Christians now are fairly peaceful. Sort of. If you don’t count the US going to war in Iraq as a Christian thing. Which I don’t. But, I guess it could be viewed that way since Bush was Christian, and the majority of America is Christian.

Well, Bush literally called the war on terror a crusade.
”We need to go back to work tomorrow and we will. But we need to be alert to the fact that these evil-doers still exist. We haven’t seen this kind of barbarism in a long period of time. No one could have conceivably imagined suicide bombers burrowing into our society and then emerging all in the same day to fly their aircraft — fly U.S. aircraft into buildings full of innocent people — and show no remorse. This is a new kind of — a new kind of evil. And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while.”

@JLeslie “Do you think present day they would be so aggressive?”

They are. They Indochina Wars, even World War II were not that long ago. And the acts of violence perpetrated by Buddhists against Muslims in Myanmar is currently ongoing.

“Plus, I don’t think we can look at Buddhists as one solid homogenous group.”

That is, however, essentially what you did in your post.

Islam is not our enemy, only radicals. I’m sure the govt has as much interest in that for all Americans after 9\11.

Islam may be particularly bad, but just about every religious category has its violent outcasts.

Even Buddhism. Sure, you can say they aren’t real Buddhists. But you can say Timothy McVeigh was not a real Christian. Gandhi was killed by a Hindu nationalist. And Judaism? Meet Baruch Goldstein.

Fundy Christians are out of their minds. They are not just Americans. They kill witch children in Africa – Missionaries did a great job there. Right now we just focused on the Islamic extremists.

When you talk about “hitting back”, what does that mean in practical terms? Say you wanted to “hit” Islam; what do you attack, exactly?

Another Crusade?

Fundamentalism of all religions is the enemy, and it is slowly dying out, even among Muslims. The current military regime in Egypt has labeled fundamentalists as terrorists. In Tunisia and Turkey there have been protests against fundamentalism. In Syria, the rebels are fighting against the fundamentalists among them. Iran elected a religious moderate for president.

@LostInParadise Fundamentalism is not dieing out. It’s getting worse and it’s not just Muslims.

Try living down here and say that.

Buddhists and Hindu radicals have bloody clashes in India. Who will the Amish take up arms against? There will always be fundamentalists of every faith, and a fraction form a faction of violent reactionaries. Because this minority has a different grasp of reality, their behavior is difficult to predict.

There will always be those with egos so possessed they will do anything to further their purpose. Add a touch of charisma and evil has a living form. There will always be those with egos so wounded that they will love the master that beats them.

We’ve had this longstanding rule that a person’s religious beliefs are beyond scrutiny. Unless they subscribe to some satanic death cult that requires human sacrifices, we can’t even discuss the faith they hold. We certainly can’t question whether it is rational, or it might be dangerous. Here’s a brief video that illustrates the problem. The problem with Islam isn’t a few radicals. It is that the fundamentalists are doing exactly what the body of the work they deem the perfect word of God tells them to do.

Imagine what would happen if Christians (as they did for way over 1000 years, and as some still do) took Matthew 5:17 seriously and acted as if they really believed that their God dictated the Bible (old and new testament) and every word in it is true. They would be out taking slaves, stoning adulteresses and homosexuals to death, burning witches, and even killing people for eating at Red Lobster. And if your imagination isn’t up to the task, just look at Westboro Baptist Church.

This question misses the point. Since Christians are not likely to reply with their own army of suicide bombers, it would appear that Muslim fanatics will always have the initiative. It’s interesting to note how easy it is to forget that it is ALWAYS the have nots that are recruited to inflict terror on the affluent. Religion is a perpetual motivation for mischief on the part of those whose dismal existence renders them without viable hope. And if you think this a trait exclusive to Muslims, think back to the decades of carnage in Ireland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks

@stanleybmanly “It’s interesting to note how easy it is to forget that it is ALWAYS the have nots that are recruited to inflict terror on the affluent. Religion is a perpetual motivation for mischief on the part of those whose dismal existence renders them without viable hope. And if you think this a trait exclusive to Muslims, think back to the decades of carnage in Ireland.”

This is true. Poverty breeds desperation, desperation breeds violence.

And @Darth_Algar, it is very profitable for a few.

@Darth_Algar Religion has been used by haves to control the have nots throughout history.

@MadMadMax

Yes.

Hi all thank you for your insightful answers!

@antimatter I don’t think theists are likely to ever fight back for many reasons, one of which being that ‘thou shalt not kill’ is a primary directive in the ten commandments.

@KNOWITALL A primary directive which humans love to ignore. Christians too. You know that.

@longgone Hey, I haven’t killed anyone, lol.

Wouldn’t it be an interesting experiment to put one or two people from each religious group, even sects of the same like theists, in a house like Big Brother, and see what happens? People tend to be their real selves in that kind of situation so I think it would be a great televised event!!!

@KNOWITALL “I don’t think theists are likely to ever fight back for many reasons, one of which being that ‘thou shalt not kill’ is a primary directive in the ten commandments.”

As history has proven, time and time again.

@KNOWITALL I can’t imagine you will, either – not if your Fluther persona is anything like your real one. I’m just saying…that argument is false.

I think this television show might escalate pretty soon. Interesting idea, though.

@longgone It is, hit me up on fb if you want. :)

Thanks, I will, though I’m hardly ever on there :)

@KNOWITALL that’s a brilliant idea the big brother thing! But something just came to mind and it’s in my opinion a possible answer to my question…“Turn the other cheek” “Father forgive those for they not know what they doing”