Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Give me one example. When has someone committed a violent act (killed someone, attacked an abortion clinic for example) and explicitly said that they did it for religious reasons based on their Christian beliefs, and then had everyone react with protestations of, "that's not really what motivated this person"? I can't think of a single one.
Now, you can point to many crimes committed by people who happened to be Christians where their Christianity wasn't brought to the fore. But that's different. Christians (and Muslims, and Jews, etc) can commit atrocities without being motivated by their religion. But it only seems to be Muslims who can unequivocally tell everyone, "I'm doing this for religious reasons", and in many cases cite scripture supposedly justifying their actions, and yet have their religion denied as being the motivating factor.
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Part of the problem here is sample size. It seems like Islamic violence is in the news every day. Whether it be ISIS doing the stuff they do or something like this guy shooting up a nightclub, it's nearly impossible to go a week without being bombarded by this stuff. And its been going on for decades(centuries), like a sad, crazy drum... we're just waiting for the next beat. Christians blowing up abortion clinics or killing in the name of Jesus is just not as common of an occurance. Personally, I hear more about priests molesting boys (and it being joked about), probably ten times more, than any one killing in the name of Jesus. That's horrible enough, but it's not in the name of Jesus, they are just sick pedophiles. My point is, why are you trying to compare the reaction of westerners to Christian killers to Muslim ones? There's a slew of reasons why they would react differently, and you are clearly a smart guy, I'm not sure why you're so focused on this.
Jihadists are more like the Crusaders, they can't be compared to the modern era and how the west views these things. Christianity (as much as I despise it too) has evolved, while Islam is is a 6th-14th century religion trying to exist in the 21st century. It's ####ed up. Trying to compare it to modern Christianity is insane. Especially through the eyes of a westerner. Of course some people think they are nothing more than depraved psychopaths, from their frame of reference it's difficult to rationalize it any other way. Most of these scared people don't even realize that both religions worship the same god. Good luck convincing them that they're wrong on how they try to understand the motives of a group of people they don't understand, fueled by their own bias and ignorance. Not that it is a bad thing, it just is.
PS I admire your writing ability. I write too much like I talk, and I am too old to change now. When I read your stuff, while I may disagree and become bored sometimes, I come away constantly impressed with how well you put your thoughts together. You clearly have a knack for academic writing, and you know it. Not meaning this as an insult, I'm just five ryes in and yeah...