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Dawkins And Islam

Ummmm... no. I've heard him criticize Islam. Of course, people tend to be bigger critics of the local religions that they are more familiar with, because they are more knowledgeable and because they have a bigger impact on their lives. I don't know about Dawkins, but radical Islam doesn't affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
 
The biggest problem with criticism of Islam in the UK is the backlash and inherent "Donald Sutherland-Invasion of the Body Snatchers style pointing" accusation of racism from the "race relations industry", lefty useful idiots, Guardianisters and so forth. It is virtually impossible to have a sensible discussion in Britain regarding race, immigration, Islam etc, because to even bring these subjects up leads to an automatic branding unless of course you happen to be black or a Muslim or <insert minority here> commenting on your own group. Until Britain grows up and allows it's citizens to openly debate such topics without the stigma, which can easily break a career, then most people who hold any view that questions such a minority keeps their head well and truly below the parapet.

What's the point of raising a valid point and starting a debate when all you are going to receive is a barrage of abuse from the "thought police" along with various Muslim groups such as the MCB riding on the thought police's coat tails? The irony is it's likely that the vast majority, including British Muslims, would want the debate.
 
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Sunstealer said:
The biggest problem with criticism of Islam in the UK is the backlash and inherent "Donald Sutherland-Invasion of the Body Snatchers style pointing" accusation of racism from the "race relations industry", lefty useful idiots, Guardianisters and so forth. It is virtually impossible to have a sensible discussion in Britain regarding race, immigration, Islam etc, because to even bring these subjects up leads to an automatic branding unless of course you happen to be black or a Muslim or <insert minority here> commenting on your own group. Until Britain grows up and allows it's citizens to openly debate such topics without the stigma, which can easily break a career, then most people who hold any view that questions such a minority keeps their head well and truly below the parapet.

What's the point of raising a valid point and starting a debate when all you are going to receive is a barrage of abuse from the "thought police" along with various Muslim groups such as the MCB riding on the thought police's coat tails? The irony is it's likely that the vast majority, including British Muslims, would want the debate.
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Many people who complain about being called racists are just mad because they dislike accurate criticism of their racism. You can tell because they call people who accurately describe them silly names like "lefty useful idiots," or "Guardianisters." Then, those racists turn it around and claim that the minorities they discriminate against are the real racists... as you have done, coincidentally.

It is such a common pattern that one would assume at some point racists would learn to stop broadcasting their idiotic bigotry... but that assumption would be wrong.
 
Dawkins needn't critisise islam. It's weak, and supported by useful idiots.
The followers of the misogynist paedophile mohammed aren't worth even thinking about.
They will grow up soon, and their silly religion will fade into the past.
 
Well, I actually haven’t read a lot about Dawkins, I really don't follow the creationism/evolution debate. I find it boring actually. But I find people who will beat up on the creationists constantly while not saying anything about even radical Islam to be hypocritical. I know it is easier in some countries to bash Christianity than it is to bash Islam. That’s what I was venting frustration at.
 
Mark A. Siefert said:
Ignore him. SunniMan is our alledged-Muslim (there is no real way to tell) troll. If you are a masochist, pull of a up search under his handle and read his hate-filled little diatribes against homosexuals and other people who don't pass Islamic muster.
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It's impossible to tell a caricature of Islamic extremism from the real thing, huh? It would be laughable if it wasn't so so deadly serious.

Here is just the latest new evidence

Because they are so clearly designed for the convenience of large testing companies, I had always assumed that multiple-choice tests, the bane of any fourth grader's existence, were a quintessentially American phenomenon. But apparently I was wrong. According to a report put out by the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom last week, it seems that Saudi Arabians find them useful, too. Here, for example, is a multiple-choice question that appears in a recent edition of a Saudi fourth-grade textbook, Monotheism and Jurisprudence, in a section that attempts to teach children to distinguish "true" from "false" belief in god:

Q. Is belief true in the following instances:
a) A man prays but hates those who are virtuous.
b) A man professes that there is no deity other than God but loves the unbelievers.
c) A man worships God alone, loves the believers, and hates the unbelievers.

The correct answer, of course, is c). According to the Wahhabi imams who wrote this textbook, it isn't enough just to worship god or just to love other believers—it is important to hate unbelievers as well. By the same token, b) is also wrong. Even a man who worships god cannot be said to have "true belief" if he loves unbelievers.
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skepticalbeliever said:
Well, I actually haven’t read a lot about Dawkins, I really don't follow the creationism/evolution debate. I find it boring actually. But I find people who will beat up on the creationists constantly while not saying anything about even radical Islam to be hypocritical. I know it is easier in some countries to bash Christianity than it is to bash Islam. That’s what I was venting frustration at.
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So, you don't actually know a damn thing about Dawkins, but you feel confident that he is a coward, pure and simple?
 
Undesired Walrus said:
Islamic Extremism, if you believe the figures, is booming in Britain at the moment.
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Which figures? I'm honestly interested.

I've often seen similar statements, but I've never seen any data to back it up. Of course, a 'boom' can be an increase from 1000 people to 10000 people, and in some ways it could still justifiably be called a 'boom'. The problem, then, is that some people (Mark Steyn springs to mind) then argue that this 'boom' will cause radical islamists to take over Europe by their sheer numbers.

Granted, even 10000 people can be quite dangerous if they set their mind to it, but they will certainly not be able to impose sharia law on us through general elections.

I've been living in muslim-heavy suburbs for years now, and my completely non-scientific impression is that muslim immigrants to Europe, and their children too, are overwhelmingly in favour of secularism, and deeply appreciative of European liberty.

There's certainly no shortage of muslim-looking drunk girls in miniskirts on the subway on a Saturday night.

Granted, there's also no shortage of horrendous stories where (Muslim, or sometimes Christian) girls are forced to marry someone that the family chose, against her will, or forcibly hindered from choosing a partner of her liking. But that doesn't really appear to be grounded in religion. I'm saying that partially because it doesn't happen exclusively among Muslims, and partially because the "unacceptable" partner may well turn out to be a Muslim, just someone from the wrong family or tribe.

So, all in all, I am rather skeptical about the doom-and-gloom stories about Muslim immigrants. I'm rather more hopeful that freedom-loving Muslims in Europe will be able not only to accomodate their new-found freedoms with their religion, but also to export their reformed Islam back to their former home countries.
 
It always amazes me that people say, "This is a Christian Nation! This country was founded in Christian principles!” Then when I say that I’m an atheist and I don’t believe in Jesus walking on water or talking snakes, they say, “Why do you only attack the Christian faith!”

Well, according to them this is a “Christian” nation. No Muslim ever tried to convert me to Islam. No Hindu ever came knocking on my door on Saturday morning trying to sell me a Watchtower. No Jewish person ever dressed me up every Sunday morning and dragged me off to Hebrew school.

Christianity is the only religion that was ever shoved down my thro…, I mean, that I was exposed to.

They are all fiction, but as for me I am only going to attack the one that initiates.
 
"There is something very, very odd about American fundamentalism, and it's spreading to this country. I am frequently hearing of science teachers who have problems teaching evolution, mostly to Muslim students." At this point, Dawkins lapses into a "let's-not-go-there" silence. In The God Delusion, he mostly mauls Christianity. "I said something about Islam, but not as much. I regarded the book as attacking all religion, especially the three monotheistic religions – Islam, Judaism and Christianity. There's no particular emphasis on any of them; I know more about Christianity, so I emphasised it."
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http://richarddawkins.net/article,2...to-the-primordial-soup,Kate-Muir-Times-Online
 
No single person can attack absolutely everything that is wrong, what's wrong with choosing what you want to "do battle against" if anything? :confused:
 
skepticalbeliever said:
Well, I actually haven’t read a lot about Dawkins, I really don't follow the creationism/evolution debate. I find it boring actually. But I find people who will beat up on the creationists constantly while not saying anything about even radical Islam to be hypocritical. I know it is easier in some countries to bash Christianity than it is to bash Islam. That’s what I was venting frustration at.
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You might consider changing you name. In the light of this post it is impressively inappropriate.
Or perhaps you are being deliberately ironic...
 
I've heard that bookstores catering to the angrier sort of Islam are becoming more common in the UK. Is that true?
 
JoeEllison said:
Many people who complain about being called racists are just mad because they dislike accurate criticism of their racism. You can tell because they call people who accurately describe them silly names like "lefty useful idiots," or "Guardianisters." Then, those racists turn it around and claim that the minorities they discriminate against are the real racists... as you have done, coincidentally.

It is such a common pattern that one would assume at some point racists would learn to stop broadcasting their idiotic bigotry... but that assumption would be wrong.
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Your really ought to work on your reading comprehension, nowhere do I say that the minorities are the racists. What I said was it is possible to criticize a minority, but only if you are a member of that minority otherwise you are labelled a racist. Funnily it's not usually the minority that one is criticising that will make the racist claim, but middle-class, white, elitists who think they a championing said minority. Look at Trevor Philips' or Dr Michael Nazir-Ali comments, for examples. You have effectively accused me of being racist, which I shall ignore because all you have done is make a spurious claim without any knowledge of me or my life whatsoever.
 
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