Iraqi Christians more afraid than ever

90%? Care to share where you got that number from?

 

No, of course not. The responsibility begins and ends with the perpetrators, not the philosophy/belief system/doctrine.

And I hope that 90% figure you're using was a hypothetical.

 

90% is hypothetical, yes, although I would bet it is a majority in reality.

Does a religion not ultimately stand for what its followers say it stands for?

 

I'll take that bet.

A scripture-based religion stands on what the text says, not on what its followers want it to say. This is true in Christianity and in Judaism. Why would it be any different in Islam?

 

If "christians" fail to follow the bible and start murdering people then "christians" are the problem. Maybe Christianity is not the problem in that scenerio but "christians" certainly are. I think this is the case for a great number of muslims.

 

Disagree. If "Christians" fail to follow the Bible and start murdering innocent people, then THOSE Christians are the problem, not Christians as a whole, and certainly not Christianity as a whole.

 

If a majority of christians do it or atleast condone it then are christians then not the problem? Part are blamed for actively doing it, part for condoning it and the final part for failing to do anything about it.

I think Christians are in some part responsible for what is done in the name of christianity. We are obligated to speak out when someone does something evil in the name of christianity. Muslims should be held to the same standard.

 

Thelt, you seem to throw majority and 90% etc. around quite a bit. Do you have factual proof of these figures? Are your arguments hypothetical? Are they rendered invalid if the number drops below 50.1%?

 

One would have to ask the question that if "christians" fail to follow the bible and start murdering people... are they really Christians at all. I think that is the starting point for the question of Islamic fundamentalism. If a Muslim fails to follow the precepts of the Quran, then I would question whether he is really a Muslim at all. You cannot judge a religion by people who fail to follow its tenets. Someone who fails to follow the Bible is not a bad Christian, they are a NON-Christian, in the same way that someone who fails to adhere to the Quran is not a bad Muslim he is a NON-Muslim.

There are a great number of groups that will happily use a religion to increase their power or influence. I think that bin Laden is one of them as are most governments that use religion to control its populace, i.e Iran. These people are not religious people, they simply pervert religion to their own devices.

 

I do not have any proof as to what percentage of Mulsims hate us but it would logically have to be pretty high. Look at how many countries there are in the world that are muslim and are enemies. Look at how many are supposed to be our allies, Saudi Arabia, that do not do a whole lot to stop terrorism.

There are a whole lot of people in the world who call themselves muslims but hate the United States and Israel and would be happy to see both nations destroyed. Enough people support that version of Islam for it to be considered a major portion of the religion as a whole. What they really need are denominations. That way we could go to war with the "methodist" muslims and not the "presbyterian" muslims.