Because there is no moderate Islam.

My point of comparing the history of violence, hatred and war committed by Christians/Catholics and by Muslims, is intended to for all to gain a greater perception of the actual immorality embraced by these religions. In a prior post, someone comments that “Christian don’t fly planes into buildings.” Well, not on 9/11/01. But Christians in Uganda, TODAY, are working on plans to execute ME; Christians in the US want to arrest ME, because the love of my life is a man.
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Mike, Gotcha, sorry for the misread!

But to hear members of the LGBT community condemn all of Islam as though all Muslims are exactly the same and think exactly the same thing is disgusting. It’s little wonder that LGBT people of color and LGBT people of a non-Christian religious background find so little to love in America’s extremely white-dominated, upper-class, strangely Christo-centric LGBT “community.”

No… they don’t fly planes into buildings. They sit around and do nothing while a Holocaust happens, hell, many of them ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE in the Holocaust against Jews, gays, the mentally handicapped, Roma… they engage in the attempted “ethnic cleansing” aka “genocide” of the Bosnian Muslims, they conduct a war on a foreign country based on false evidence (that would be the Iraq War cheered on by so many self-proclaimed Christian fundamentalists), in many countries they still threaten with death people who choose to have sex with people of the same gender.

If you want to compare the number of lives taken and/or ruined by Christianity and Islam, Christianity is still leagues ahead of Islam by any count.

NO, NO, NO, I am not arguing whatsoever that militant or extremist Muslims should be coddled or babied.

Indeed, I warned “The genuine fear for us … [is that] extremist Muslims [have] the ability to quickly and efficiently terrorize millions throughout the world … and the ability to murder millions with WMDs is achievable…[I]t can take but a few years/decades for extremist Muslims to achieve even greater destruction [than all the destruction Christian/Catholic wars of the past 2000 years] against the infidels.

I also closed with the sad realization that “a Muslim chaplain at an august American university takes stock with the extremists and not the reformers. Many dark days ahead.”

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My point of comparing the history of violence, hatred and war committed by Christians/Catholics and by Muslims, is intended to for all to gain a greater perception of the actual immorality embraced by these religions. In a prior post, someone comments that “Christian don’t fly planes into buildings.” Well, not on 9/11/01. But Christians in Uganda, TODAY, are working on plans to execute ME; Christians in the US want to arrest ME, because the love of my life is a man.

A major problem among the American culture is a separation of ignorance we apply to our checkered past. And because of that, most American lack compassion for the toils of others around the world. Balzac’s great line “Behind every great fortune there is a great crime” is an accurate assessment of American history, but a history we hardly learn about in primary/secondary education. We fail to take ourselves, and our heritage, to account for the murder of the millions of American Indians, as they were, “savages.” White America hardly gives any understanding nor empathy for the enslavement of Africans and the essential enslavement of Chinese.

And what our heritage did at home in the 17th-19th centuries, we continued off shore in the 20th century. America as a culture, continues to take from others that which we want for ourselves.

And as so many American Christian leaders point out all so regularly, that our nation is a Christian nation, it is, by a vast majority, a Christian initiative that pushes through the treatment of others by our country.

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The struggle America and the non-Muslim world faces against Muslim extremists is real and dangerous. To take effective action, both offensively and defensively, we need to understand our own history, through honest vision, to be able to make our efforts effective.

The past 7 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan have been disastrous from any measure. The original $20 billion, 18 month, multi-national effort has turned into a TRILLION dollar effort, 7 years and counting, and, except for Britain, we are basically on our own. Most all reports suggest that our gross mismanagement of the situation has been usurped by the very Muslim extremist terrorists we fight allowing them to gain greater footholds for themselves.

Good points, thank you. I did say that comparing “mythological stories is hardly the same as the pain-staking observation, testing, retesting, and more and more retesting as plotting our ever expanding Universe back to its original core.” And by the pain-staking observation, test… I was referring to the points you made about Einstein, Hubble and many others.

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A point about the severe criticism of Islam compared to Christianity, sounds an awful lot “the pot calling the kettle black” scenario. [Is "pot calling kettle black" racist?] After all, 9 times did Christian/Catholic nations crusade into the Middle East, raining death, rape and pillage on Muslims, Saracens, and Arabs.
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Is that a joke? You’re trying to put today’s events in context because a thousand years ago crusaders went into Turkey and the Holy land? Is that really what you are trying to do? Ok fine, then lets go back a few years earlier. Why did the crusaders move in? Because in 1076 Muslim armies invaded Jerusalem. The Christian countries responded. So I’m curious, you’re saying that poor mistreated Islam should be coddled and babied because a thousand years ago Some Christian nations in Europe were discourteous enough to respond to a Mulim army invading Jerusalem? This is ridiculous. If everybody went back a thousand years we could all find plenty of grievences to bitch about.

Good points, thank you. I did say that comparing “mythological stories is hardly the same as the pain-staking observation, testing, retesting, and more and more retesting as plotting our ever expanding Universe back to its original core.” And by the pain-staking observation, test… I was referring to the points you made about Einstein, Hubble and many others.

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A point about the severe criticism of Islam compared to Christianity, sounds an awful lot “the pot calling the kettle black” scenario. [Is "pot calling kettle black" racist?] After all, 9 times did Christian/Catholic nations crusade into the Middle East, raining death, rape and pillage on Muslims, Saracens, and Arabs.

Lets not forget the other millions put to death during the Inquisitions, the internal Crusades against the Cathars, against women, and the bloody wars between the Roman Catholics and the breakaway followers of Martin Luther. The Christian Manifest Destiny, in the American colonies and future US, gave “Godly” cover for the murder of 10+ million American Indians; the 16th-19th century slave runners were Christians; and the Christian repression against European Jews provided Germany with the ability to inflict the Holocaust. And even just a few decades ago, white Christians were using their religion and Bible to continue repressing African-Americans with bloody police back lynchings, beating, and terrorism. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, and their colleagues all preached for violent disobedience against desegregation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act.

The genuine fear for us between the difference of the vile actions of extremist Christians/Catholics over the centuries and today’s extremist Muslims, is that in today’s world, the ability to quickly and efficiently terrorize millions throughout the world is cheap and easy and the ability to murder millions with WMDs is achievable. It took Christians/Catholics 2000 years to inflict their actions against non-believers; it can take but a few years/decades for extremist Muslims to achieve even greater destruction against the infidels.

And of course, the world is still not free from extremist Christians and Catholics who, even today, as regularly reported here on Queerty, plot and plan actions of a gay holocaust (Christian Ugandans executing gays) and gay apartheid (imprison gays until we turn straight, and if that fails, execution).

Irrespective of the morality of such action, the ability to wipe out the 1.2-1.5 billion Muslims around the globe, would be an absurd undertaking. In 8 years, with our TRILLION dollar war machine, and we are nowhere near succeeding against less than the 200 million strong Iraq + Pakistan + Afghanistan. Strong vigilance defending against Muslim extremists will be required until Islamic reformers, as the Christian/Catholic reformers during the past 100 years, succeed to bringing a stronger global harmony. What is shockingly enlightening is that a Muslim chaplain at an august American university takes stock with the extremists and not the reformers. Many dark days ahead.

The original big bang model was a simplistic solution to Einsteins field equations (for gravity) assuming the universe was the same everywhere (uniform density of matter averaging over collections of galaxies). At the time there were no observations. The solution was so surprising that Einstein introduced a new term called the “cosmological constant” because everyone “knew” that the universe was unchanging. Then Hubble made some measurements showing it was in fact expanding, at which point the cosmological constant was dropped, with Einstein calling it a mistake. There were a number of other models as well, and it took some time to sort it all out, mostly because of needing better data.

We now have a fair bit of data, but we didn’t a century ago, so I wouldn’t be all that hard on early mythological stories – they are merely early attempts at understanding our place in the Universe that failed, and you don’t make progress if you don’t try. It’s the people living today who believe that mythology is true merely because someone wrote it down thousands of years ago who are out of it.

All or nearly all religious texts have some crazy parts in them that are quietly ignored by more sensible people in those religions.

“I don’t classify Islam as a religion. It has all the look and feel of a cult. Cult’s do not receive protections under the first amendment.”

You’re a moron. The Bible says the same thing. It says men who lie with other men should be killed. Does that mean Christianity isn’t a religion either?

Then there is the chance of being slaughtered like Van Gogh or forced to live in hiding like danish cartoonists

Well I have never claimed to be a theologian and I am hardly an astrophysicist. And I did preface that my post #28 were my thoughts.

So, what metaphor? If anything, Genesis’ “Let there be light” and Islam’s Allah act of saying/willing “Be” are metaphors for Big Bang, a spark of pure energy from out of nothingness (that is the nothingness before the event horizon of Big Bang), into cosmic inflation that begins the transformation of energy into matter. Not in six days, as there was not a Sun/Earth calendar relationship for the first 10 billion years.

Comparing the Big Bang theory of creation to Zeus, Genesis and Neptune is invalid faulty logic. That our predecessors 10,000 years ago began explaining the constructs of the Universe with mythological stories is hardly the same as the pain-staking observation, testing, retesting, and more and more retesting as plotting our ever expanding Universe back to its original core.

I very much like the line from MIB (Men in Black): “1500 years ago everybody knew the earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody knew the earth was flat. … Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.” Of course mankind will learn more and more about the origins of the Universe and the origins of life. I will caution, however, that, by definition, it is not possible to see beyond the event horizon.

And there will be the unfolding of the currently unknown relationship between matter and spirit. Through science, we know that that relationship exists; though human cells die, the atoms that make-up the cell do not. Indeed, many of those very same atoms reform to become the replacement cell.

Lastly, while I certainly agree with your statement: There’s really no need to revert to primitive thoughts of a creator god just because the scale of the universe causes awe” I fail to see how that applies to my post.

I know to many the thought of a kindly, understanding, compassionate “Grandfather” God, somewhat as depicted by Michelangelo in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, is comforting. But, that God, in my opinion, is a monster. For only a monster would accept the fate that children are raped, slavery could and still does exist, hate and war mongering abound. But, to me, those are the failures of man, not the Universe.

…. nope – if a Christian said, “the position of the Catholic Church is X” (because the Pope said it is X), nobody should demand that he be fired – he’s stating a fact. That doesn’t mean the Catholic Church (specifically its pope) is right.

Also, the URL I cited above stated, “A related problem to full enforcement of the laws against homosexuality is that while the sexes are often segregated, men are encouraged to developed close friendships with other men, and women are encouraged to develop close friendships with other women. Also, the Islamic law requires a certain number of male and female witnesses to the homosexual act to testify in court. Islam does place a strong value on the right to privacy in the home and thus homosexual relations that occur in private are theoretically outside the bounds of the law, although that is more theory then reality.”

And “Some self-described liberal Muslims accept and consider homosexuality as natural, regarding these verses as either obsolete in the context of modern society, or point out that the Qu’ran speaks out against homosexual lust, and is silent on homosexual love. However, this position remains highly controversial even amongst liberal movements within Islam, and is considered completely beyond the pale by mainstream Islam.”

Note: this suggests there is a possibility of progress. Given that it took the Catholic Church over 400 years to admit it made a mistake about Galileo, and using that as a rough estimate of how long it takes a religion to change some strongly-held beliefs, Islamic opinions of homosexuality may change over time, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it to happen.

Serious christers, islamists and judaeists are, for the most part, extremely violent homohaters. Their violent intentions differ not in their degree of hatred or the level of violence they’d like to inflict on us but in their ability to inflict violence.

There has yet to be an equivalent of the French Revolution in islamic countries with its cleansing use of the guillotine to clam the abuses of clerical monsters.

Increasing industrialization and mass education will create the political layers in islamic countries that will produce powerful revolutionary democratic movements. The growth of decidedly anti-American and socialist petro workers unions in Iraq and the recent pro democracy anti-clerical upsurge in Iran are a taste of what’s to come.

As for some of the comments here they demonstrate the continue influence of racism and islamophobia in American society. Jason in No. 7 tells us that “Islam worships a murdering child molester”, stupidly confusing the islamic sky pixie, allah, with the shyster Muhammad. And conveniently forgetting the thousands of priests, pastors and rabbis’ convicted of child rape recently.

The injection of racist ideas that claim that all people living in muslim cultures are as homophobic as the killer ayatollahs is as silly as saying the all Italians follow the guidance of der papenfueher.

If we are going to attack islamic bigots for their murderous jihads against our brothers and sisters racism and support for American imperial oil piracies have to excluded from the debate and left in the gutter where they belong

I wish many Sheiks would understand that. Sharia law is man’s law. As in, it can be changed. Many of the laws contradict each other. Forgiveness for murder, but stoning for adultery?

As for Jason, I can see you think of this religion as a cult. But most Muslims aren’t hateful, and don’t care to blow people up or have any ill will towards gay. They just wanna pray 5 times a day in piece. It’s just like Christianity in that it has many of the same stories like Noah’s arc, and it can be interpreted differently by different people.

They way you condemn it as a cult, I hope you feel the same way about Judaism and Christianity. If you do, great! Equal opportunity.

I just hope ppl realize making all Muslims look like cult members is rather futile. It’s the fastest growing religion, and the more people follow it than any other religion. It’s not going away. Your boss may be one! I’m not.

But he’s a Muslim (a religion of peace, right? victim of American imperialism, right?). Is there any criticism of him? Not so much. It’s perfectly acceptable for him to say such vile things. Maybe he should get an award for advancing free speech. Some queers even side with him. Perhaps, he should become the Chairman of HRC. Or he should be nominated for the position of diversity adviser at the White House. Yeh, lets applaud to the newly identified champion of gay rights!

Do you see where it’s going? The double standards exhibited in the comments are appalling. Your political correctness is a mental disorder. That’s disgusting! DISGUSTING!

Read http://www.religionfacts.com/h...../islam.htm – there is a little bit of wiggle room, particularly regarding private versus public behavior.

BTW, Awadh A. Binhazim clearly indicated that he was talking about Muslim beliefs in response to a question asking about that specifically, not giving his own personal opinion. The vitriol
directed at him personally seems a bit over the top given that he was responding reluctantly to a question (the questioner had to ask him several times to get a “yes/no” answer out of him).

At the end of the video, they repeated the question and answer, editing the answer to be as short as possible, and also showed it in text. This is a standard technique for getting the viewer to remember that part in particular after the rest fades out among all the other distractions in everyday life.

But, he needs to be very careful. There are laws against inciting violence or crime, recruiting or inciting terrorists, contracting for (various things), contributing to (various things), conspiracy to (various things). By acting on his beliefs, he could easily break some of those other laws.

Most people break at least one law each day, unintentionally. If the FBI sends a team to watch this guy, I expect they could find something in just a few days.

From the corporate perspective — he is a liability. If he is not tenured faculty, he should be fired ASAP. If he is tenured, they need to have a serious talk in the faculty conference, perhaps with the university lawyers.

Yes.

As far as Vanderbilt’s role I think that our community needs a reality check and remember that tolerance isn’t a one-way street; you have to give it to receive it and what we fight for is not to end the hate (that’s a nice fantasy, but not realistic) but rather an inclusive society, where the freedom of others to live according to their own values is respected. I think that academic instituions should strive to provide an introduction to as many different value and belief systems as possible, if for no other reason than to demonstrate the differences that exist in our world and encourage people to question what they’ve already learned.

Condemning Vanderbilt for attempting to do that is not only close minded, but naive…especially if that fantasy is ever going to have a shot at being reality.

well, nice wording. But all you’ve given really is a metaphor for the unexplainable

Unexplainable at the moment, that is. Judging by the speed of scientific research over the past 200 or so years I’d imagine we’ll have an explanation – a scientific explanation that is – quite soon.

Think back to the pre-scientific age and the explanations offered for natural events. Zeus threw down thunderbolts. God created the world and all animals in 6 days. Neptune controlled the ocean’s tides.

One by one science has offered explanations for the formation and running of the universe

There’s really no need to revert to primitive thoughts of a creator god just because the scale of the universe causes awe.

Fair question considering my post. So, this is just me and my thoughts:

God is the Universe, from Big Bang to the now. Imagine the creation of the Universe; per Big Bang, a singular particle (much much smaller than a single electron) of such pure energy, that, at the event of Big Bang, converts into the subatomic parts that become each and every proton, electron and neutron of each and every star, planet, comet, mountain, drop of water, hair, drop of blood, blade of grass, EVERYTHING.

I do not belittle the accomplishment of the creation of the Universe by assigning to that creation human characteristics.

The creation of the Universe is also the evolution of the Universe, and the evolution of all the components within the Universe. The very nature of the Universe is the conversion of one into another. An astroid striking the Earth wiped out the dinosaurs; today we burn the carbon residue of the dinosaur fossils as fuel. New life sprung from the ruins. To the dinosaurs, it was fucked.

Earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, fires, mudslides: natural events that strike without regard to religion or faith, wealth or poverty, or strength or weakness. Unbeknownst to most, the Earth is moving into its next ice age. For us, not a dire problem as its effects will not be detrimental for about 10,000 years. But, if man, not God, fails to take appropriate action in a timely manner, well most of the human race will die off. Of course, when the ice age ebbs again, new opportunities for new life will abound.

In the physical realm of our planet and Universe, God is neither compassionate nor a dirty piece of work. Those are human characteristics that apply to humans. The sad events in Haiti show that some humans are very compassionate and some are very dirty pieces of work.

“I believe in God; I do not believe in religion”: words to live by, well said. Pretty sure that one of two wars in the history of mankind have had their origins in some kind of religions issue……….