Kurieuo wrote:As the type of "liberal" valued Atheist you are, I'm sorry, but I don't think you truly understand the gravity of such a belief system like Islam, and if they truly believe in Allah like I do Christ, the absolute impossibility of talking any sense of Christ-centred or modern Humanist values and ideals into such.
I don't think that most Muslims (or most Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc) believe in their gods like you believe in Christ. I think that the vast majority of religious people are more culturally religious than anything else. I know lots of Christians, and almost none of them take their faith anywhere near as seriously as the people here do. They believe, or at least they claim to, but their faith isn't central to their lives. I think that most people, regardless of which box they check on a census form, are more interested in stability, safety, and prosperity than in anything else. They want to live their lives, raise their kids, and relax in their old age.
Kurieuo wrote:So no, the answer isn't that people are being mean and should be nice and more accepting of Islamic beliefs, such is direct contradiction of and affrontation to true Liberalism. As rich as it sounds, since we hear it said so vacantly, we need to love the Muslim but reject their beliefs that are a threat to freedom, values and ideals we otherwise share.
Let's be clear here - terrorism isn't caused by Westerners being mean to Muslims, and no amount of being polite is going to stop ISIS from murdering people and trying to destabilize the world. This is a war, ISIS is the enemy of all that is just and decent, and they need to be destroyed. And they
are being destroyed. Their leaders are dropping like flies and they're steadily losing people and territory. We won't see the end of terrorism in the world any time soon, but ISIS is living on borrowed time.
My concern is that inflammatory rhetoric and draconian policies are being aimed at the 1.6ish billion Muslims who aren't at war with the West. They're not our enemies, but if we push them far enough them more of them will be.