Extremism isn’t limited to Islam
By 
Shan-ul-Hai •
April 20, 2008
I came across an interesting article today; you should check it out before you read this post.
People often tell me that Muslims deserve the treatment they get because we tend to produce more extremists than other religions. Let’s disregard all other factors (for example, the fact that Christian extremists have been common in the past, just not today) and take a look at one of the many incidences where a Jewish rabbi calls for extremist action. I don’t have a problem with every Israeli just because a few of them call for atrocities… so why do people have a problem with all Arabs just because a few of them do the same?
Islam does not promote the murder of innocent
civilians. I think it’s the Middle East environment that leads to the development of violent ideals at times. You hear about Muslims “terrorists” more often than their Jewish counterparts because the world’s Muslim population is 100 times the world’s Jewish population. Just think about the watershed events in the history of the Holy Land:
- -Egyptians killed lots of Hebrews (around the time of Moses)
- -Romans killed lots of Christians (around the time of Jesus)
- -Christians (under Constantine) kick out the Jews, who were banned from Jerusalem until the Muslims allowed them back in (in 638 AD)
- -Christians killed lots of Muslims (during the Crusades)
- -Muslims and Jews killed each other (after the Crusades, until now)
I’m sure I’ll get plenty of unrelated comments… keep in mind that this is not a post about Israel and Palestine; my only purpose is to establish that Islam isn’t the only philosophical system that occasionally (in very rare cases) breeds extremism.
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And I though terrorism = islam. Good ther’s genius like you out there. Try to find a job and leave the puter alone.
I don’t understand the problem… are you saying that this stuff is too obvious? If that’s what you’re suggesting, then I agree… but I’ve still had many people tell me that they think Islam directly breeds terrorism.
And thanks, but I have a full-time job. Great insult.
You’re right, extremism certainly isn’t limited to Islam, but in the past decade, what other ideology has committed similarly widespread atrocities (attacks on Britain, US, India, Egypt, Spain, Israel, Russia, several African nations…..) ? This is why Muslims are most commonly associated with terrorism. You don’t see Jewish or Christian militants carrying out these kinds of widespread attacks today.
Well, I’m not denying that Muslims tend to have a higher frequency of violent extremists than Christians do these days… the point is that I don’t think it’s the religion’s fault. We just happen to live in a time when the extremists happen to be Muslim. There are a decent number of Jewish extremists too, but you don’t see them often because there aren’t really all that many Jews in the world.
Mama seems to be ignoring the fact that the Israeli army and the illegal settlers “as is declared by the United Nations” are continuously attacking Palestinian villages, mowing their houses down, shooting innocent people walking down the streets, etc. Also, “so called” Christian leaders of America are ordering the bombing and military attacks upon much weaker countries, obviously because of the large oil supplies and strategic areas for military dominance. It’s not military defense for the United States. It’s pure military offense for Corporate greed! Has Mama ever listened to Robertson or Falwell? These “so called” religious leaders promote violence and hatred. Yes, there are a few psychotic Muslims in the world who do horrible things. But, look at who has more money and who’s doing the most acts of violence against the innocent. Military attacks upon residential areas and cities where people work in non-military establishments are WAR CRIMES. There’s a lot of leaders who are self-described as being Israeli Jewish and American Christians who are committing these WAR CRIMES!
Huntington said that it’s “end of ideology” and presented an ideology about “civilizational clash.” The way he presented the idea was actually a prediction but now it has really become an ideology for many politicians who need enemies in their ways. The great game is still on…
response to peter–
s I stated in my first sentence, extremism certainly isn’t limited to Islam. Many governments have condoned or promoted these tactics. My point was that Islamic terrorism has resulted in many attacks all over the world targeting different peoples whereas war crimes by Israel/America/etc have been rather limited geographically. Certainly Falwell/Robertson have promoted some nefarious beliefs, but they have not directly resulted in suicide bombings or airplane hijackings leading to mass murder.
In recent years and the for the forseable future, Islamists will be at war committing war crimes, whereas the US is likely to pull out of the war in Iraq in the next decade. Furthermore, many US soldiers do not espouse these heinous tactics, but war leads to a lower standard of human rights in many cases. Many of them would prefer to be back at home in the US leaving the rest of the world to its own, whereas most suicide bombers want nothing more than to destroy the spirit and instill fear into its perceived opponent.
response to shan–
I was simply providing an alternate hypothesis to your claim, “You hear about Muslims “terrorists” more often than their Jewish counterparts because the world’s Muslim population is 100 times the world’s Jewish population.”
I think to understand why there is “terrorism” we need to look at the root causes of it. We need to ask ourselves why does such a thing exist? Some would argue that the people who you call terrorist are freedom fighters. lets look at the Iraq War. The reason for going to Iraq was that they have Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and guess what? oops, they don’t have WMD. So a war that is fought for the wrong reason, would not you think that the thousands of kids who are orphans now would hate the people for waging a war that is fought for the wrong reason?