I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or if you're serious. I'm leaning toward sarcastic, but I just can never be sure these days... Because so many people are actually making that exact claim, even in this very topic.

Ironically, last night in France, a cop and his wife just got murdered by a "terrorist" (dedicated his crime to Daesh, Daesh later endorsed it and he was previously condemned 3 years ago for supplying djihadi fighters to Pakistan). Weapon of crime: just a knife.

You want madness? Madness IS gun control. When I think gun control I think Chicago, schools, movie theaters, recruiting stations (honestly, fuck ANY shit-for-brains politician that thinks an active member of our military should not be allowed to wear a sidearm as part of his uniform), Paris, Brussels, and other gun-free zones which are chose for their sitting prey.

I'll ask you to perform a morbid though process... picture the last time you went to a club. Now ask yourself who do you think the first victim of the sorry sack of shit in Orlando was. My money is on the security at the door, whose job it is to pass the wand over entrants to make sure that they are not armed. How did gun control work out for him? Or the 300 siting ducks inside the club?

For the record, the shooter had been investigated by the FBI twice prior to the incident -- the guns however, had not. The guns did not drive over a hundred miles to appease a savage deity. A hateful whackjob did that. Explosive devices are EXTREMELY regulated in the US and yet it didn't prevent the Tsarnaev brothers from wreaking carnage at the Boston Marathon.

When I was growing up, it seems like everyone had gunracks in their vehicles and many people open carried. Hell, I remember a good friend of my father's carried a .45 acp on his hip everywhere he went, including, believe it or not, the bank. What I don't remember growing up is shootings once a month or more.

Should we work to improve our background checks? We could certainly improve in mental evaluations. But it would also help if we weren't painting targets on the backs of civilians.

The plot thickens. It's transpiring that Omar Mateen was himself likely to have been gay - he frequented Pulse on a regular basis and frequently got drunk and rowdy while in the club, used gay dating apps, and a classmate is claiming that Mateen asked him out at one point.

Mateen was almost certainly radicalised by online Islamist propaganda, but his own ex-wife has said that he was massively paranoid even before that.

You couldn't make this shit up.

I must admit I lol'd, even though I shouldn't have.

Until you can point to an article going like: "Crazy person walks into London nightclub, uses a knife to kill 49 people and injure 50." I don't think those two problems are even remotely in the same league.

Yes you are much of a conspiracy theorist and your claim that congress is trying to destroy the 2nd amendment proves it.

You actually have a bigger chance of being struck by lightning twice than you and your family getting killed by a random guy who goes around random neighbourhoods breaking into random houses to kill random people he doesn't know. That's Hollywood reality. Most of the times people are found dead in their homes, they got killed during a domestic dispute, often with the very weapons that are meant as a safeguard against random-people-murder-burglars.

Your solution to jihadist terrorism is to become the very thing their worst propaganda says you are? Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.

What good is worrying about a completely fictional apocalyptic scenario that has no basis in reality. You might as well fantasize about what happens when ants spontanously develop sentience, mutate into man-sized abominations and take over as our new insect overlords.

I, for one, welcome them. I heard that one too. The guy, in addition to apparantly being self-hating closet-case, had a history of mental instability long before ISIS was even a thing.

I'm sorry to brake it to you, but in this thread there is already so many sick assholes saying the most idiotic or outright horrible things that your jokes don't even register.

You beat me to it. I was going to mention that the proposed solution to Islamist terrorism was apparently to basically become the Western equivalent of ISIS. But then, I pointed out the astonishing similarities between right-wing and Islamic fundamentalists here.

Vicious cunts like infinite9 and tort1234 and Islamic extremists are basically two faces of the same evil that we all need to be fighting against.

I don't want to write an essay but I'll keep it brief: To understand the Abrahamic religions you need to keep two things in mind. One, the reader is a person who believes in an omnipotent creator who asks you to try your best to live in a certain way and will reward or punish you for your intentions and efforts in an eternal afterlife. This informs the second point: the wordly life is brief and we are not necessarily supposed to treat it like it is all that we will ever have. It isn't an arena where people are supposed to accomplish the most success and take the most personal freedoms. All three religions treat this life as a test to see who can stay a believer and be rewarded, and who will fall for other temptations and reject the creator.

A perfect "islamic" society isn't a blissful paradise where all of mankind's ills have been solved. Far from it, the world is a miserable and injust place filled with suffering and temptation. Islam isn't supposed to fix this (or conquer the world for that matter). A perfect islamic society only serves to make the individual more likely to do the things that will reward him in the next life, by eliminating unrepentant hedonistic elements from society if need be (in those few instances where execution is legal). Important point to remember: through all the scary verses you must remember that forgiveness and mercy are core islamic ideals, it always applies to how we deal with sinners.

Now, there are no actual islamic societies in the world today. Daesh/ISIS claims to be one, but they are really just a criminal empire that uses Islamic iconography to frame their selfish atrocities as worship. It is besides the point anyhow. Without an actual recognised islamic society, a caliphate, much of what is in the Qur'an is irrelevant, especially as it relates to crime and punishment. Individual muslims can not judge adulterers, apostates, idolaters and so on. What is relevant however are everything that pertains to the individual:

- Perform your prayers, perform your fasting, perform your alms giving, perform your pilgrimage, be generous, be kind, be patient, protect and stand up for the weak, help safe guard your personal belief in God, don't hurt, don't slander, don't steal, don't lie, don't kill others, don't kill yourself, marry only those that are permited as per the Qur'an, follow the examples for daily conduct as set by the Prophet. I could go on, but you get the idea, it is about the believer and not society or even the world.

Basically, "Try your best to live up to islamic ideals, every day of your life". It is also recognised in the Qur'an that we WILL FAIL because humans are flawed creatures, but fret not, you can always repent and try and do better tomorrow. Every muslim hopes that in the end they will die at a time where they have done more good than bad and that God will be merciful in judging them.

This is why I am personally convinced that 'being a good neighbour', 'respecting the law of the land' and 'standing up for the oppressed' means defending LGBTQ and womens' rights to a life in peace in this day and age. I am male, "white", straight and married. My personal interests are not threatened by the hetero-normative, secular and patriarchal society that I live in, so I can lend my support to other people's fights.

I don't agree with everything that people are doing, but if God is the most merciful and forgiving, I as a muslim believer must give them a chance as well. NO ONE is better off if we hate and kill each other.

Nurse!
More medication for patient 3

I think I have the perfect cure against violence :o)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI7-Cu-9wWM

Interesting. This has probably been one of the most accurate - if not superficial - descriptions of Islam I've seen on this forum to date, at least to me as an atheist who has studied up on Islam for no other reason than to understand other people.

Are you a Muslim or are you just speculating from a Muslim point of view? Would be interesting to see what infinite9 and tort1234 would have to say to you (of course, I bet they don't have the bollocks to actually insult someone directly).
Must...kill...kittens....must...kill...kittens...must...cuddle....I mean "kill"...kittens.

Nope, it's not working.

Kittens are evil. There - I said it. I've insulted the internet's pinups.

Uhm...