Christian terrorists hijack a plane

[greekalum]

I take it you haven't been listening to Fred Phelps, Randall Terry, or Eric Rudolph lately, then.

[JonInKC]

Originally Posted by greekalum

I take it you haven't been listening to Fred Phelps, Randall Terry, or Eric Rudolph lately, then.

I'm not familiar with Randall Terry or Eric Rudolph, but as a resident of Kansas I'm aware of Fred Phelps. How many "Christians" of all those that profess in the world are like that though, less than a percent?

[shinerbock]

You just named three people. There are thousands of militant muslims. No comparison.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by JonInKC

I'm not familiar with Randall Terry or Eric Rudolph, but as a resident of Kansas I'm aware of Fred Phelps. How many "Christians" of all those that profess in the world are like that though, less than a percent?

Originally Posted by shinerbock

You just named three people. There are thousands of militant muslims. No comparison.

Uh . . . really?

[greekalum]

Three people who lead groups of people. My point is, in terms of mainstream Christianity, they are a radical fringe group. They reflect mainstream Christianity as well as the islamic extremists reflect mainstream Islam.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by greekalum

Three people who lead groups of people. My point is, in terms of mainstream Christianity, they are a radical fringe group. They reflect mainstream Christianity as well as the islamic extremists reflect mainstream Islam.

Right!!

The tendency for people to say "oh, those Christians are the exception and not the rule" reflects the double standard. Muslim is one of the largest (if not the largest???) organized religions in the world. Yet, it has grown a reputation of being violent and anti-American based on a series of events from the past 5-10 years. People don't say "those Islamic extremists aren't the rule."

[shinerbock]

There are extremists for everything...however, I think you'd have a very difficult time showing that Christian extremists commit acts of violence even close to the level that islamic extremists do

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by JonInKC

I'm not familiar with Randall Terry or Eric Rudolph, but as a resident of Kansas I'm aware of Fred Phelps. How many "Christians" of all those that profess in the world are like that though, less than a percent?

Out of millions of Christians, there's way more than "less than a percent."

Just look at the list of hate groups and the FBI watch lists and find that a large percentage of those groups place Christianity as their core. Those are just the people who have been detected as members of well-known hate/domestic terrorist groups.

[Drolefille]

Very true but "involving the USA" is relative.

A lot of the things going on the Middle East aren't directly involving the USA but Americans make it their business to know about them and/or intervene somehow. All in the name of "fighting terrorism." They need to edit that to say all in the name of "fighting terrorism that may or may not have a trickle down effect on the US. We can never be sure so we need to keep a close watch on THOSE PEOPLE."

Yes but there's a difference between "America" and "Americans"

For the most part "Americans" didn't care about the Middle East. "America" in the form of the government did.

I think all the Abrahamic religions have gone through their violent phases. Israelites killed to get into the Promised Land and there were militant zealots who expected Jesus to overthrow Rome. Christianity's major ones were the Crusades, but also witch hunts and Inquisitions. Islam is dealing with a similar thing right now. This does not mean that all people in any religion are violent, just that some have used religion for violence.

Pope Benedict's comment that started yet another fight was basically trying to say that God (by whatever name) and violence do not mix. God is rational, terrorism and violence are irrational.

Oh and shinerbock no, there isn't a lot of Catholic violence right now, but if you don't think that sexual abuse is just as bad as violence, you have some other issues. The percentage of clergy who abused children was small, but still the majority was called upon to denounce them. Just as the percentage of muslim militants is truly small, but the majority is called upon to denounce them.

[blueangel]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Yes but there's a difference between "America" and "Americans"

For the most part "Americans" didn't care about the Middle East. "America" in the form of the government did.

I think all the Abrahamic religions have gone through their violent phases. Israelites killed to get into the Promised Land and there were militant zealots who expected Jesus to overthrow Rome. Christianity's major ones were the Crusades, but also witch hunts and Inquisitions. Islam is dealing with a similar thing right now. This does not mean that all people in any religion are violent, just that some have used religion for violence.

Pope Benedict's comment that started yet another fight was basically trying to say that God (by whatever name) and violence do not mix. God is rational, terrorism and violence are irrational.

Oh and shinerbock no, there isn't a lot of Catholic violence right now, but if you don't think that sexual abuse is just as bad as violence, you have some other issues. The percentage of clergy who abused children was small, but still the majority was called upon to denounce them. Just as the percentage of muslim militants is truly small, but the majority is called upon to denounce them.

I agree with much of what you say.. however.. I disagree about the "truly small" percentage of Muslim militants. There are jhadist networks and cells all over Europe, the US, and... in fact.. the world. There are training camps for militant Muslims, and schools that brainwash young people to promote the hate of all non-Muslims.

The numbers truly are quite staggering. While it is impossible to get an exact count.. there have been estimations. Of course, polls are not an exact science, but can give one a rough idea.

Among them: Monte and Princess Palmer's 2003 study finds an estimated four percent of Muslims in the world are Islamist fundamentalists. That is a HUGE number, considering there are an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. Islam is the second largest religion on the globe.

I just don't see those types of massive organized cells and networks devoted to wiping out other religions among Christians, Hindus, Buddhists or any other religions.

[kstar]

Originally Posted by blueangel

I agree with much of what you say.. however.. I disagree about the "truly small" percentage of Christian militants. There are conservative networks and cells all over Europe, the US, and... in fact.. the world. There are "Bible" camps for militant Christians, and private schools that brainwash young people to promote the hate of all non-Christians.

Made my changes in the quote.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by blueangel

I agree with much of what you say.. however.. I disagree about the "truly small" percentage of Muslim militants. There are jhadist networks and cells all over Europe, the US, and... in fact.. the world. There are training camps for militant Muslims, and schools that brainwash young people to promote the hate of all non-Muslims.

The numbers truly are quite staggering. While it is impossible to get an exact count.. there have been estimations. Of course, polls are not an exact science, but can give one a rough idea.

Among them: Monte and Princess Palmer's 2003 study finds an estimated four percent of Muslims in the world are Islamist fundamentalists. That is a HUGE number, considering there are an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. Islam is the second largest religion on the globe.

I just don't see those types of massive organized cells and networks devoted to wiping out other religions among Christians, Hindus, Buddhists or any other religions.

1 - Citation for stats

2 - Define your terms -> 'fundamentalist' does not equal 'terrorist' or even 'militant', on any automatic level