news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7112929.stm

This says it all about islam. Backward, stupid, ignorant and repulsively vindictive even to a woman who went to a dump like Sudan to teach children.

Levenax wrote:
This says it all about islam. Backward, stupid, ignorant and repulsively vindictive even to a woman who went to a dump like Sudan to teach children.

No, it doesn't.

It may say it all about the regime in the Sudan, but I find it hard to condemn a whole religion from the actions of one part of it.
Look at the vast spectrum of sects that purport to be Christian - are you comfortable with the values held by all of them?

It's not the religion that stinks, it's the people that twist it to their own ends to justify they way they would act in any event. There are good, bad and indifferent in all religions. You can't just tar them all with the same brush.

Of course other religions are stupid and repulsive and they are certainly ALL irrational. Islam stands out though in terms of intolerance - just look at Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Somalia or Nigeria. It is unequalled at repressing women - well just look at muslims anywhere. So whilst there may just conceivably be such a thing as liberal, modern islam it's really hard to find.

Levenax wrote:
Of course other religions are stupid and repulsive and they are certainly ALL irrational.

You miss my point. Take any religious philosophy you want; They are all based on a moral code. Of course you can pick unsavoury items out of the Bible, the Koran, the Torah etc but generally they are a guide to morals. If you were to give the same text to, say, a psychopath and a well balanced person, they would have vastly different interpretations of the same script.
A great deal of good and evil have been done in the name of God (whichever one you happen to follow) but blaming the religious teaching is naive.
It's the individuals that are responsible for their actions, not the book they swear on.

dws wrote:
Levenax wrote:
Of course other religions are stupid and repulsive and they are certainly ALL irrational.

You miss my point. Take any religious philosophy you want; They are all based on a moral code. Of course you can pick unsavoury items out of the Bible, the Koran, the Torah etc but generally they are a guide to morals. If you were to give the same text to, say, a psychopath and a well balanced person, they would have vastly different interpretations of the same script.
A great deal of good and evil have been done in the name of God (whichever one you happen to follow) but blaming the religious teaching is naive.
It's the individuals that are responsible for their actions, not the book they swear on.

The term "religious philosophy" IMO is a non sequitur so I can't take it seriously. I'm all for individual responsibility but otherwise moral people are often deluded into putting aside what is clearly right on the basis of nonsense set down in whatever religious text they hold to be the revealed "truth". For example I have a good friend who is a Jehovah's Witness who believes that the death penalty is OK in certain circumstances because the 5th (or 6th depending on your religious flavour) commandment by the JW's reading of it is not "Thou shalt not kill" but "Thou shalt not murder". Judicially authorised killing, can then, by his lights, can be justified. He got into a bit of a fankle when I asked him what his moral position would be if he found out that the person he'd just hanged was innocent. IMO the main religions are based on an immoral code because that code, whatever it is, is always contradictory and open to the interpretations of the often wicked and deranged leaders. It's perhaps unfortunate for islam that it seems to be 500 years behind other popular religions in the way it conducts its affairs, as is demonstrated, yet again, by the predicament of the unfortunate teacher.

dws wrote:
There are good, bad and indifferent in all religions.[/quote]

Where's the good in a religion that requires you to "kill all unbelievers"?

davidn87 wrote:
dws wrote:
There are good, bad and indifferent in all religions.[/quote]

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. For every religion there are "saints and sinners" that follow it. My point is that you can't condemn a muslim family down the road for what happens abroad because they happen to follow the same faith, or do you condemn someone for their thoughts as opposed to their actions?

david87 wrote:Where's the good in a religion that requires you to "kill all unbelievers"?

You can quote selectively from any religious work. Try "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live".

For "witch" read "heretic" or, erm..."unbeliever"

Look, I am in no way condoning what is happening to the poor woman out in the Sudan, but blaming all followers of Islam across the world for it benefits no-one.

Here's a quote I prefer.

"An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind."

Ghandi.