Gunmen attack Satirical French Magazine office

[Doram]

Well, technically, yeah. They've done something. They've gone and gotten their eye. They hunt down the terrorists and they kill them/imprison them. Eye for an Eye? Check. That's one more blind person. Well on our way to a world full of blind people. Good job, everybody.

So, ultimately, No. The status quo is treating the symptom, and not the disease. I have not seen ANYBODY talking about the real problems behind all this, including what I mentioned in my last post. (And also including related topics like the average living conditions of poor people around the world, which is in turn related to how people think about, mishandle, and otherwise abuse as a tool of oppression, money, education, and a host of other things. This falls squarely into the "Ills of Society" rant...)

EDIT:
And all this talk has been another inspiration of mine recently, in that I realized that I have never actually written down the full "Ills of Society" rant, in its full complexity, as I have come to understand it. So, I'm working on that. You guys will know when it's done.

[Doram]

This post by Bogdan was thumbed up by:

Doram (January 21st, 2015, 8:16 am)

[Supershroom]

I guess most violent Islamic extremists don't really know much about their religion and Koran. They only know a few phrases which aren't supposed to be literally understood (see above). As well as modern right-wing extremists often hardly know anything about the nazi past and left-wing extremists hardly know anything about Karl Marx.

[Bogdan]

As far as I know, muslims are supposed to know the Qur'an by heart (unlike christians where reading is pretty much optional). The problem with extremists is that they may simply fail to understand or interpret the Bible/Torah/Qur'an or whatever "resource" they are using. Misinterpretation is what leads to extremism. I previously mentioned that my history teacher (who claims to have read the Qur'an) heard something about the "jihad" or the "holy war" and instead of thinking "Ah, this holy war is something about ideology and how we must show to people why they should (and not must) choose our way" they instead take it as an actual war like "Kill infidels, let only pure people leave".

[MessengerOfDreams]

Extremists interpret scripture much like Drax the Destroyer interprets sarcasm.

[Harmless]

As far as I know, muslims are supposed to know the Qur'an by heart (unlike christians where reading is pretty much optional). The problem with extremists is that they may simply fail to understand or interpret the Bible/Torah/Qur'an or whatever "resource" they are using. Misinterpretation is what leads to extremism. I previously mentioned that my history teacher (who claims to have read the Qur'an) heard something about the "jihad" or the "holy war" and instead of thinking "Ah, this holy war is something about ideology and how we must show to people why they should (and not must) choose our way" they instead take it as an actual war like "Kill infidels, let only pure people leave".

So true. Lots of people today still often don't know what Jihad really means.

[Kimonio]

I guess most violent Islamic extremists don't really know much about their religion and Koran. They only know a few phrases which aren't supposed to be literally understood (see above). As well as modern right-wing extremists often hardly know anything about the nazi past and left-wing extremists hardly know anything about Karl Marx.

I pay visits to my church to please my parents, and a missionary from Africa once came by. They told us and showed us images of children in the Muslim attire being made to read a clay tablet of the Qur'an. They didn't know what it said, because it wasn't their native language. But they were made to memorize it anyway. That's how the extremism partially plays out in the Middle East. It's also similar to Hitler's Naziology. You don't know what the leader is saying, but he has a carrot, so you'll trot after him.

[Bogdan]

I have to admit that I did hear that muslims are pretty radical with their religion. Learning the Qur'an by heart? Well I hardly learn a poem, let alone a book. Killing someone just because they abandoned their religion? ♥♥♥♥ (but I think it depends on country tbh). Declaring in public that you believe in Allah and Mohamed? Well that's sorta ok, but still.

But anyway like there are christians that will make you swallow the Bible and their teachings to be "saved" (from what God is going to do with you if you don't let him save you) and christians that simply share that they appreciate their religion, there are also muslims doing so. There was a page on FB I saw a while ago called "Spread Salaam (peace)" or so that seemed pretty inocent. As I said, background is a huge factor.

Also related to what Stoneheart said, several churches or religious institutes(?) may have some interest in manipulating the mass or having more people on their side. If any of you bother to check some of my posts (especially the Religion Teacher discussion) you may notice that at least in Romania, the christian orthodox church has a lot of interest in our politics and economy (well more politics). We need to educate religious groups that this is not Middle Ages anymore and people want a decent society, with decent laws and politics that don't discriminate anyone religiously, racially, sexually, ageically and so on. You may say that this kind of society is "against" Charlie Hebdo, but tell you what. Sometimes the only way to escape from a ♥♥♥♥ situation, is to poke fun at it. People should be intelligent enough to recognize when someone is discriminating or targeting them and when someone simply want to laugh a bit and make some jokes on them (be them offensive or not).