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Originally Posted by photon
That Christianity has had its violent and reprehensible eras when viewed with modern viewpoints suggests to me that there's more to it than the name applied to the religion.
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Of course there is. Religions have a range of dogmatic severity within them, and evolve over time. But there's no doubt that Islam today is far more conservative than Christianity today. Which isn't to say that Islam is terrible and Christianity is awesome. But
right now one is more hostile to liberal values than the other. And as some of us keep pointing out, the people who suffer the most from this are moderate or secular-minded Muslims.
Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
And if the base religion was swapped out but the rest of the socioeconimic and geopolitical factors remained the same, I'm not convinced that the outcomes would be different. It's difficult (impossible?) to compare Islam and Christianity in the apples to apples comparison necessary to call one vastly more evil than another IMO.
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But even when we do factor in other socioeconomic factors, Muslim communities are dramatically more socially conservative than Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist communities. When we look at mixed religion countries like Indonesia, Muslims are more conservative than non-Muslims. India is socially conservative compared to Europe, but not as conservative as neighbouring Bangladesh or Pakistan. The Philippines and Malaysia are both poor countries in SE Asia with a history of colonialism. 26 per cent of Filipinos believe society should not accept homosexuality; 86 per cent of Malaysians.
Doesn't mean Islam is evil. But it's remarkable how people who don't hesitate to call out misogynist religious conservatives in Kansas or Missouri fail to show the same enthusiasm for calling out far more oppressive religious mores in Pakistan, Libya, and some Muslim communities in Europe.