We can discuss conspiracy theories all day, but its not productive and theres no proof on either side so what is the point. It sounds like you're assuming that it has something to do with violence? But really there's not much to support that theory. It can also be said that crusaders spread christianity early on by slaughtering the people that were not feeling up to converting. There are radicals in every religion, christianity as well. I don't know how this thread went from "historical artifact discovered"--> "trying to convert non muslims is the DMV area"--> "global conspiracy theories"....somebody please let this thread die, my brain hurts. |
Several of us found the way Muslima presented it to be provocative ("unparalleled"). I'm not actually personally offended by that. I am offended by the disengenous references to jizhya and Muslim marital customs, both of which were demonstrably untrue with even the most basic readings of the Quran. Those statements were posted by either Muslima or another Muslim poster (or maybe these are the same person), who should be expected to know these basic facts about their own religion, but chose to present them otherwise. It's that pattern that offends me. |
I don't mind letting this thread die, just don't state these are simply conspiracy theories. While Christianity has had it's fair share of historical religious killings mixed in with conversion efforts, those things are not occurring today, in current events, thus incorporating into the conversations of today are perfectly valid. You can falsely accuse me of conspiracy theories, but the violence against minority religions in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria, etc do not equate to conspiracies. I also do not believe the majority of Muslims are radicals, certainly not. I stated that for whatever reason, which is not a conspiracy, that when there becomes a large or majority percentage of Muslims in one nation or area, the radicals (who are much fewer in number) end up in the position of gaining power which flips the area into a violent mess. That often times violent mess is also used against fellow Muslims as well as minority faiths. It is accompanied by conversion efforts. You don't have to believe me, you just have to assess what is going on in many parts of the world currently. Quite frankly, I don't agree with proselytizing commandments of any religion. They too often lead to wars of political and monetary domination under the guise of religious sanctimony. |
I guess we will just have agree to disagree. I think the violence and oppression against minorities is just that, violence against minorities irrespective of the religion on either side. I think that is more human nature than anything else. The countries you list have been predominantly muslim for as long as I can remember so I can't speak to your theory that once the muslim population rises to a certain point the others disappear. That being said there ARE minority populations there of other religions that have been stable for quite some time, and yes sometimes they do experience oppression because they are a minority. But I don't see that as any different than the muslim population that has to deal with violence in india because they are a minority. Or the asians that built the railroads during the gold rush (no islam there, just humans being humans). Thankfully that era has passed (for the most part) in developed countries, but even in the U.S if a muslim goes to one of the more conservative southern states and walks around the streets with a headscarf I guarantee you she is not going to feel welcome. People just don't like "different". Let's not forget the oppression of muslims in Israel, that's a huge one. Bulldozing peoples houses and evicting them to make room for people moving to Israel from abroad? The point is minorities are always oppressed throughout history, regardless of religion. You still see it overseas more frequently because there are undeveloped countries that are ruled by violence to begin with. Sorry for the wall of text |
This, exactly! Some people put a lot of effort into getting thoroughly pissed over the most insignificant things that really have no effect on their daily lives at all! |
Thank you, couldn't have said it better. |
I see that you would like to make this a broader more generalized issue rather than focusing on strictly on Islam and that's natural of course. There are some discrepancies though since I was discussing what happens to minority faiths in Islam majority areas or areas with larger percentiles of Muslims (and again I will state that this tends to happen because the radicals tend to end up in the positions of power when this happens). The countries listed included Pakistan and Bangladesh which are very young countries, you don't need to look far back into history to see that they were not long ago not predominately Muslim. They partitioned just in 1947, just 68 ago and became countries after bloody violence that occurred when many Muslims in India demanded there own separate countries because they wanted their own home rule based on Islam. At Partition, after the largest forced human exodus in history (of over 8 million Hindus and Sikhs to the partitioned India) the population of Hindus and Sikhs and Jains in Pakistan was between 20-30%, now it is at 1%. In Bangladesh, it was 30% and is now 9%. (Surprisingly better than the Pakistan statistics considering the Hindus also were subjected to mass genocide in 1971 slaughtering 3 million Hindus). After Partition the population of Muslims in India was 9% and has grown to 14%, and it is the fastest growing religion in India. There is not a 'disappearance' or dropping percentages of Islam there, as happens to the minority religions in Islam majority countries or areas. Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria had a long stand history of peace amongst various religions, but that too went downhill with drastically reduced populations of other religions. I'm not saying that Islam as religion in whole is the problem, I'm stating that something goes wrong when the percentages get high in an area. Yes, minority faiths always face some sort of discrimination or violence even, but in this case the minority faiths actually dwindle. I don't know why and I know most Muslims are kind and not extremists by any means. Why does it go wrong so frequently and to such a degree, is what I can't figure out. All religions have their weaknesses and have gone through dark times, perhaps this is that time for Islam right now. In which case, there is hope for a future turn of events. |
Wowww talk about oversimplifying a complicated issue! Many Hindus were killed during Partition and what about Muslims? Weren't they also killed by the trainload by Hindus? Didn't many of them have their lands taken from them and weren't they forced to exit India by angry mobs? Can I blame Hinduism for that or politics? It irks me when political unrest is conflated with Islam as if everything that's happening under the vast political spectrum in Muslim majority countries is happening because Islam somehow sanctioned it. So simpleminded. |
Religious people make the error that we are Atheists are singling them out based on their specific religion. Christians complain in the Christianity threads about this; Muslims complain in the Islam threads about this. But the fact is, all religions are equally worthless to Atheists; when we talk about the bad things done by Christians, Muslims or Hindus, it is not an exclusive discussion. So yes, Hindus also did bad things in the name of religion, but that is no excuse for the bad things done by Christians or Muslims. |
Misses the point. Most people here don't seem pissed about reporting on the artifact find. They seem pissed about the other disengenuous representations in this thread re jizya, marital practices, and so on. |