Parents of eastern culture emphasize good grades for their kids this is often mistaken as racism when they do better than other groups
Yes. Not every Utah Jazz fan is an evil being. It's rotten and evil. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/12/richard-dawkins-slams-islam-as-most-evil-religion-/
I value your opinions, and it is true that I try to be objective or at least straight forward in my views and the basis for them. Yes - something can be evil and have practitioners that are not evil. History is flooded with examples of people that abide or believe in something or support some belief system that is "evil" or "bad". So IMO there really isn't a disconnect on that point. This is especially true when people are born into the particular belief system and/or when the belief system is so invasive that it becomes part of the culture. Religion isn't set in stone? No - in the case of Abrahamic religions, and especially Islam, rules are set and stone and they are literal. There are numerous examples where they state and present the rules as literal. Now - someone can have a conflict between what modern society tells them, or wider morals say and what the "books" say, and a person can CHOOSE to not take some parts as literal or decide to dismiss them - but that is a compromise, which is against what many of the explicit rules in the "books" say. People choose not to "throw the baby out with the bath water", because it would invalidate the "books" or upset their cultural norms.... but lets be clear, it is an compromise. This is where you and I disagree - in many of the "books" of the Abrahamic faith, especially in Islam, there is no wiggle room and it isn't a matter of interpretation as it is black and white. After the fact, people (many of them good hearted) attempt to justify what is in the "books" by going out of their way to interpret what the books actually say. While that is certainly better than blindly following what the book says and killing people or burning witches etc., it is also again not valid. No - Islam is evil. As are the Abrahamic faiths. If EVERYTHING in them evil? No, but they are thousands of years old in the case of Judaism and Christianity and close to that in the case of Islam. They were written in a barbaric time period and written by barbaric people, by soldiers and warriors and people that honestly did not have access to the last 1-2,5000 years of human ethical advancements or understanding. If one takes any of the "books" of the Abrahamic faith and practiced as proscribed, they would end up in prison or worse. They would be sociopathic. We like to sugar coat everything because we want to be "welcoming" and "inclusive" - but we should not do that at the cost of the truth. The reality is that Islam and the other Abrahamic faiths are awful and violent and terrible. There are people that are born into faiths and cultures and will do anything to make their faith "right" or not "terrible" - but it isn't the truth, and it requires an extreme level of contortion to do so. Especially for "books" that claim that they are infallible. I do not doubt they were better than the standard quo thousands of years ago, but that is no longer the case. [/QUOTE]
You are right that Abrahamic faiths are outdated moral systems created by mostly ancient men who try to maintain the patriarchal dominance status quo. It's the comparison to Trumpism where I have the biggest issue because of the concept of an "opt in" vs "opt out" ideology where Trumpism is an "opt in" ideology that is adopted by people who are politically and socially responsible for their views and sincerely believe in them because they adopted those views voluntarily. Islam like any other mainstream religion is an "opt out" ideology in that most who say they are Muslim were born into it meaning it isn't something they chose for themselves and therefore there is just a wide variance of adherence to the religion. Hence the phenomenon of religious converts being the most zealous and fundamentalist with their religion because they opted in to it.
I think your point on Trump is valid. I suppose if I have any push back it would be that many people at this point are basically born into their political party and blindly follow it - but really the point I was trying to make is that sometimes good people follow or believe in terrible or awful things .... because sometimes people do not really question.
"Globalize the intifada" This is the crap Israel has been dealing with for decades. This is what leftists support.
The attacker was known to police. They have said it was not related to terrorism. Allegedly, an ice junkie known as Jimmy the junkie. He was also jewish. Bondi's not a "jewish area". It's predominately white anglo
What do you consider leftists? You seem to use that term broadly about a lot of situations. I don't know anyone who supports terrorists and extremists wishing death upon anyone for their beliefs. I think extremists are dangerous, no matter what religion or political affiliation they believe in. The same goes for extremist leaders who direct the slaughter of innocent civilians for their own personal, political, and religious beliefs, and turn a blind eye to their soldiers raping and torturing women and children. The same goes for leaders who execute, poison, or torture those who speak out against them. They are evil. We need more women as leaders in the world. Women are wired differently. Women cult leaders, mass shooters, and evil world leaders committing genocide and war crimes against innocent people are rare.
ATW is getting old. All the supposed jet setting around the world and too much Foxnews and Twitter fried his brain. No going back now. It’s all communists this communist that until he croaks.
I see you are gobbling up the propaganda by the Muslims on Twitter calling this guy "Benjamin Cohen".
I wanted to reply on this specific point. We live in a plural country and a plural world. This idea that we tolerant just because we’re “woke” and want inclusiveness misses that in order to have a functioning and peaceful society we need to. As I’ve stated many times that I live in a neighborhood with a lot of Muslims. I live in a country with a lot of Christians. I am neither Muslim or Christian. If I spend most of my time distrusting and fearing them I’m not going to have much of a life. In fact in this very thread the OP acknowledges that he almost never openly criticizes Muslims in person. Instead he seems to just spend much of his time doing so online. I have no desire for a war of civilizations and most Muslims don’t either. I’ve brought this up many times before, the PLO recognizes Israel and several Islamic countries either have fully recognized Israel or are willing to negotiate for recognition of Israel. That even the country that is the keeper of Islams most holy sites is willing to so hardly seems like Islam is then invariably opposed to Jews.
I don’t believe people that identify as Islamic, Christian or Jewish are necessarily impossible to get along with or love. Indeed I come from a family that is Christian. I was educated by Jesuits and they were some of the best men I have ever been associated with. My favorite region of the globe is the Middle East, and I have colleagues and friends that are Middle Eastern and many of them are Muslim by practice or culture. Same with Jews. However - all of these people have made exceptions or rationalizations to excuse the parts of the doctrine they find offensive. This shouldn’t be a surprise as these books that claim to be infallible and divine are very old. The problem is that too many people take these books as literal. Excuses are made in the name of inclusivity- but many of the things written in the books is sheer foolishness and very destructive and incongruent with secularism. Also these books are used to control people. I am not saying to look for conflict but I don’t believe we have to walk on egg shells either or humor and lie.
