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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.

Let's also consider there are a few factors that cause extremism and terrorism.

First, I want to say that I see the Palestine-Israel conflict political, even if some religious alliances are in the middle. As far as I know Israel became a state in 1947, the UN simply taking away Palestine, which was an actual country till then and giving it to someone else. Kind of country-robbery, no?

Anyway moving on. As Nin said, it's more the Middle East that is unstable, rather than islamic religion itself. For example look at Turkey. Once upon a time, Ottoman Empire would conquer whatever they put their eyes on and would force people to convert to islam (Note: at least half of romanian history is about fighting with them, so yeah). Now although 99.8% of Turkey's population is muslim, it has no official state and furthermore unlike in other muslim countries, women are not forced to wear burquas/hijab/whatever. Now true, Turkey has it's bad parts too, but honestly I think it's a good example for many countries (not only muslim ones). On the opposite pole, I would like to point out Iran, that became really extremist and a lot of people try to limit visiting it, let alone start bussiness/trades/whatever.

I think the factors that should be included when talking to an extremist is the social background and the individual itself. Being rised in a closed-minded environment will almost surely make you closed-minded too, because that's what you learn at your school, from everyday people, from your family and the invidual should be pretty weak for it to take it word-by-word. An individual with common sense and at least some thinking will try to analyse if this teachings are good or not for him, if they are good or not to be applied and may reconsider. However another invidiual may just simple listen, say "I agree" and take everything word-by-word without second doubts. I previously gave an example of a girl from my class. She had a good indoctrination as whenever there is a religious discussion she parrots everything that we are being tought at churches or religion classes (which should be banned, IMHO) and denies any counter argument. Whenever, in a debate or just a deep-discussion more people are against her side she begins to cry and scream how we are too blind to understand and we need to "leave our logic behind and open our hearts". This kind of people are open to extremism and if they have an aggressive nature, they will go to the point of killing people for their ideas.

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.

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".

Extremists interpret scripture much like Drax the Destroyer interprets sarcasm.

Arturia wrote: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.

Supershroom wrote: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.

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).