Religion wank
On the Amazon review board for Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography, Prince of Carthage has this to say:

Bashing Islam is the Best Selling Plat du Jour

It never stops amazing me how in the greatest country on earth where we're leading the world in the fields of academia, technology, economy, innovation, arts, etc. some mediocre (and that's an overstatement) books and authors manage to become instant bestsellers... the formula is obviously clear... Bash Islam and Muslims, these evil people... medicore writers like hannity, o'reilly, coulter and countless more figured out the best way to make a quick buck... attack a religion and a civilization that has given so much to the world.. one that achieved the unprecedented fate of 900 years of world domination... helping to advance maths, science, arts, philosophy, medicine, etc. a religion that from the time it was revealed set itself apart from previous ones by giving women many rights that were at the time unheard of in the rest of the world (women were still treated like sub-humans in the Christian world)... a religion with a prophet who worked for his wife, a leading noble businesswoman in Mecca... it goes without saying that Muslims have mismanaged their fall from grace... some did blame women... but should this be seen as illustrative of a culture where women were religious scholars, poets, writers, etc... or should we listen to Ayaan Hirsi Ali... [...] That she felt stranger at home is ok, it happens... many teenagers go through that process... sometimes, they are right, sometimes they are wrong... but for her to jump on this Muslim bashing train is unethical... more and more Muslims will be unfairly profiled, mistreated and abused...

Ad hominem remarks, accusations of closemindedness and McCarthyism, "Your religion sucks!" arguments, and Very Special Logic ensues.

Other highlights include:

James H. Hill: Yes,Islam has given us alot. It has given us honor killing, stoning and forced marriage of women, church burning, rioting in response to a few cartoons, indiscriminate murder of innocent civilians all over then world, gross intolerance of other religions.

A. Hajric: And christianity gives us inquisitions, crusades, Pope tyranny, drugs, crime, violence, women abuse, beatings, illegitimate children, colonization, gangs, prostitution, AIDS, sexual abuse, transgenders, alcoholism, slavery and adultery. Peace!

and

All the fuss over female circumcision shows just how random the whole debate is. Of course it is a horrible practice, but the world is full of horrors and injustices that require urgent attention, so why are we so keen to single out this particular, pretty farfetched one, that seems limited mainly to one tribal culture in one African country? How about the routine genital mutilation of jewish boys?

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

Re: Respect religious authority? What? Have you heard what they say?

alya1989262
2007-05-05 09:08 am UTC (link)

putting bird flu sufferers and AIDS patients into an island isolated from the rest of the world…
*facepalm*

Why are people so stupid?!

Of course, now, Azhar scholars, while still not being utter loonies yet, sometimes manage to say inane things. One of them issued a fatwa last Ramadan saying that it's forbidden for a woman and a man to be completely naked together, even during sexual intercourse... That is, you have to have sex with your socks on, or something. And the debate on whether this is a law or just 'Sunna' or 'mustahab' raged on for a month, until another guy went saying that anything not explicitely forbidden in Qur'an is allowed, so everyone was outraged that cigarettes aren't forbidden during fasting, and... Yeah.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Respect religious authority? What? Have you heard what they say?

t_boy
2007-05-05 09:25 am UTC (link)

Like I said. Hundreds and hundreds of years of scholarly and non-scholarly ~~wank~~ debate.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Respect religious authority? What? Have you heard what they say? seiberwing 2007-05-05 03:55 pm UTC (link)
	It's easy to tell that you guys have roots in Judaism, I'll say that much. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Oops! Wrong comment. Here's the right one.

t_boy
2007-05-05 04:39 pm UTC (link)

There was a point when the early Muslims pointed themselves towards Jerusalem, so yeah, plus the fact that Muslims claim Abraham as the progenitor of their faith and the whole arguing about practice and the whole cultural/religious Muslim divide… yeah, pretty obvious.

Which is kind of ironic and all, because if there’s anything that modern Islam has appropriated from Christianity it’s the rabid antisemitism.

(“Wait, you think the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is genuine? Seriously, what the shit?”)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Oops! Wrong comment. Here's the right one. seiberwing 2007-05-05 04:59 pm UTC (link)
	That's what bothered me when I went to Christian Bible Study. I was expected lots of tl;dr about meanings of words and specifics and cultural perspectives and all I got was 'yay, Jesus!'. Needless to say, I prefer the Jewish style. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Oops! Wrong comment. Here's the right one.

t_boy
2007-05-05 05:04 pm UTC (link)

You know, I can’t be sure about this, but I’m pretty sure Christian theological studies was a mite more complicated and involved than just “Yay, Jesus!” up until just recently.

I mean, we’re talking about the same branch of knowledge here that was explored by St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Søren Kierkegaard. Those guys weren’t, to my knowledge, “Yay, Jesus!” kind of guys.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Oops! Wrong comment. Here's the right one. seiberwing 2007-05-05 05:06 pm UTC (link)
	I'm referring to 'local' Christians--mostly the Southern Baptists in my area.If there are ones who can hold a genuine biblical text discussion without being 'yay Jesus', I haven't found them yet. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Oops! Wrong comment. Here's the right one.

t_boy
2007-05-06 12:21 am UTC (link)

Oh. Southern Baptists.

You know, I had a friend who was a deep Southerner from North Carolina, and even she didn’t like the Southern Baptists. These are the guys who called the Hindu celebration of Diwali a “celebration of darkness”, didn’t they?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Oops! Wrong comment. Here's the right one. seiberwing 2007-05-06 02:47 am UTC (link)
	Lots of things get called that by S.B.s. We don't care too much for them. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: Respect religious authority? What? Have you heard what they say? visp 2007-05-06 02:37 am UTC (link)
	One of them issued a fatwa last Ramadan saying that it's forbidden for a woman and a man to be completely naked together, even during sexual intercourse... That is, you have to have sex with your socks on, or something. Nah, it just means you can leeeve your hat onnnn! (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -