richlind33: Maher is a Zionist, however, and Zionism is inherently and blatantly racist.
GreasyDogMeat: Didn't know. I don't really watch Bill Maher much other than for commentary on specific issues like that.
richlind33: Islam is no worse than any other religion. The problem is that a great many Muslims live in places that remain mired in tribalism, resulting in a social incompatibility that is difficult to remediate. This could and should have been addressed decades ago but, unfortunately, the powers that be in this world were too busy robbing them of their wealth and what not.
GreasyDogMeat: This is where I disagree. Islam hasn't really received reformations and is still a very fundamentalist religion that promotes acts like jihad.
An example would be the phenomenon of Islamic vehicle attack. These are usually falsely reported on about how the attacker 'wasn't a true Muslim'. What they either fail to grasp or are deliberately misleading on is that Islam can be a very scary religion. Not even the best of Muslims, Muhammad for example, were guaranteed a place in heaven. Imagine you haven't been the best adherent to your religion. You've partied, drunk, and fornicated. As you get older you start reflecting on your actions. Many religions have 'outs' for bad behavior. Confessing sins and so on. With Islam "When it comes to being assured of entering paradise, it's the Super Lotto. We have no guarantee of winning, we just hedge our bets by buying a lot of tickets.". One of the only guaranteed tickets to paradise is death as a martyr.
Again... NOT ALL MUSLIMS... but the religion has SERIOUS issues that need to be addressed. Until they are it would be wise for western nations to be more cautious when allowing Islamic immigration. Again, not because they're freaking brown, but because of the religion.
Islam hasn't seen that kind of major reformation the way Christianity has.
But the whole "being accepted into paradise" thing is basicly the same in all 3 Religions based on the same origin-teachings.
The concept of being "absolved of your sins" through confession and/or indulgences was only introduced through the catholic church to gain followers and money selling said indulgences.
According to the raw Christian text itself, an absolute guarantee is only provided to martyrs.
But Christians in historic events tended to interpret that word differently then the 21th century fundamentalist would.
The problem is not with the act of martyrdom, the problem lies within the interpretation of it.
To die for once's beliefs does not mean to do drag alot of innocent bystanders with you.
Martyrdom is historicly spoken more the act of "getting executed because the religion isn't the main thing in the state right now and the old world didn't exactly liked the idea of monotheism and the preaching of it"
Islam in the Middle ages was way more liberal and progressive then Christianity back then.
Now things look like they have turned around but that does not mean that the religion itself is to blame.
pathanreynn: You can simply name the devils, the cold war superpowers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Afghan_War [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Civil_War_(1989%E2%80%9392)]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Civil_War_(1989%E2%80%9392)[/url]
Afghanistan was on his way to be a Democratic Republic but alas things like proxy wars happened.
Iran had a similiar faith, but there the Democratic leader was overthrown because he wanted to tax the British for the Oil they stole from the iranian people after screwing them over after the World Wars.
The whole "Muslim-World" is still in tribal-structures because everytime they wanted to become "legit" and democratic, either communist or capitalist superpowers came in and basicly ruined the whole party for everyone, leading people into the hands of religious extremisits who fed on all the chaos and made a profit
richlind33: This is true, but I was referring to the establishment of the British and French Mandates by The League Of Nations, hence "world powers".
Indeed, "Jihad" has proven to be a very useful proxy for those sitting at the Grand Chessboard.
Yeah the British and French Mandates kinda set the stage for a lot of trouble the world has today.
It's the same in Africa although a few more nations were involved there (including Nations that rarely do anything at all like the Belgians)
