Christian extremists exist and have existed in quantity also. I don't even want to go into the shit caused by christianity. But when I meet someone who is christian I don't hold any kind of judgement, especially because such a large percentage of the world is some form of christianity. Extremists do not represent a group. They represent a certain view of a group.
Interesting, what do you mean by Christian extremists? To me it sounds as if the extremists of Christianity aren't actually living a "christian" life.
It is always a problem when you have a government based on religion. If you want an excuse to do otherwise inexcusable acts then religion is it really. Women getting stoned to death for showing their ankles in public, perfectly civilised people being lined up and shot for believing differently to whichever asshole is in charge, these are all acts in which religion is the unfortunate scapegoat.
Because almost any religion isn't derived from any logical process of thought (at least not by today's standards) and since it is something dependant on faith and hence cannot be proven one way or another, religious views are always going to differ. So you are never going to take everyone's needs into account if you have a government based on one particular religion rather than an impartial government open to everyones needs. That and the fact that a religious based government is practically a breeding ground for corruption.
Since the government in sudan is muslim, they either fail to see both sides of the arguement or (more likely) they simply ignore one side of the arguement. If they condemn this woman for a silly mistake such as this, but then let her off lightly after a bit of encouragement from the outside world, it shows compassion so maybe its possible the sudanese government milked this whole thing. I can't seriously believe for a moment that they would have made so much fuss about it if they didn't think there was something in it for them. An act of unforgiviable heresy? Yeah, right. I mean you can only take offence at something so much within reason...
EDIT: Just in reply to that world map of democracy post, I think its pretty preposterous to say that we're democratic because we are all christians. There are many other factors that all come in to it as a proper study would show, not just what particular god (if any) you choose to believe in.
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Stuckboy
JC Denton: "I know your UNATCO killphrase: Laputan Machine."
Gunther Hermann: "I - am - not - a - machi --"
JC Denton: "Sticks and stones..."
Whoa, whoa. First of all, I'm Muslim and I don't see half the things you guys mention about syaria'h law. Syaria'h law covers a lot of things and is much easier than most laws in a lot of things, namely divorces. Rape is dealt with very harshly and only in the less intelligent countries do they punish the victim. The lashes punishment was intended for adultery/fornication *in front of other people*.
Sorry to say, but the chopping off hands bit is part of it and something I support, because stastistics shows that it has cut down theft to almost 0%. Chopping off someone's hand is certainly better than an innocent being injured in a mugging. And the punishment is not meted out as lightly as people suggest, there is a long list of conditions for it, including that the theft wasn't done out of force or hunger, the object stolen wasn't too tempting (stealing a laptop left on a bench doesn't get your hand chopped off), the hand isn't crucial for survival, and a lot more that I forgot. But most Muslim countries don't include it, because of its apparent barbarism.
Of course, there are a lot of countries that that have a lot of stupid laws and blame it on religion. But it's more of culture/tradition rather than religion.. most people confuse Arabian culture with Islam, including here, where they brand Arabian architecture as Islamic architecture. And there are quite a few sects which do have those stupid laws.. but they're heretics as far as I'm concerned.
That religion map is pretty damn inaccurate. I don't think a "Chinese religion" exists. Chinese people mainly follow Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam. Yes, plenty of Christian Chinese in undemocratic China too, believe it or not. And I'm pretty sure that Malaysia and Indonesia do not follow Sunni or Shi'ite Islam. And I'll argue that Malaysia is not as democratic as the map says.. so far only one political party has won elections in the history of the nation and they've branded any protestors as 'terrorists', so we can't protest on that either. But I won't go too far with that, I'm sure some people would argue otherwise
But there is nothing wrong with an Islamic government. It's a philosophy and a science. The original Islamic Arabians governed very well. It's only when they tossed aside the worldly part of the religion that the empire collapsed.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Don't agree with you there Muz, Islam is borne of Arabic culture. Its laws, its teachings are all based on stuff practised many, many years before Mohammed made an appearance - same as any religion. You cannot split Islamic and Arabic culture, they are the same thing.
I also agree that those maps are terribly misleading. For example, Ireland is decreed more democratic than the UK - seems very arbitrary. Also, so what if the over-riding Islamic/Arabian government form is not democracy? Why do we have this fixation on forcing democracy on places that clearly don't want it? You can have a perfectly civilised nation without having democratic elections.
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