@Pinochet73,
Quote:I know you didn't, and the sentence wasn't directed solely at you.
I was under the impression it was, seeing as I was the only one making such comments as far as I could see.
Quote:So, there are muslims worth saving, and it is worth fighting in Iraq to save them, even though they are all inherently evil because of their religion? Fighting a cause that you see is lost from the start is pretty dumb, don't you think?
People cannot be inherently evil. I would say all people lean inherently good, if only slightly. However, societies and religions can be and are inherently "evil." And if you are raised in an "evil" society, you are likely to have "evil" tendencies. However, in various places, Islam has not made society "evil", though it is the religion. This is usually because of ignorance whether through not reading or not speaking Arabic. Would you really say that Islam is less likely to draw people to extremism than other religions.
Quote:And what it has to do with is reading it in context. You can take sample text from ANY religious book and turn it into what you want.
Dozens and dozens of samples with all being out of context? Doesn't matter anyway:
Quote:The Quran contains dozens of verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers, and kill the infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.
These verses are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not embedded within historical context (as are nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence). They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Qur'an.
Unfortunately, there are few, if any, verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. This proclivity toward violence and Muhammad's own martial tradition have resulted in a trail of blood and bodies across world history.
If you have complaints against these verses, it is your duty to put them in what you see as proper context, not mine, until you have diminished them enough so that my argument is not valid anymore, which in this case would mean disproving the site's premise on almost all of the verses, not just one or two. That is the nature of debate. I present an argument, and you present a counterargument, not I present a counterargument against my own argument.
Frankly, I have no idea what context they are to be put into.