This.
I’m really suspicious of Western’s spouting off about the Quran. (Ok maybe not Tom with his fancy Harvard Theology degree) As a 12 year old kid who read the bible cover to cover (ok maybe skimming the begats parts) and then stopped going to church, I found reading the Quran extraordinarily tough. I spent two whole afternoons, with computers and cellphones turned off, trying to read two different translations of the Quran.
The main thing I took away is that these 20-something western kids, many of them with ADD, who joined ISIS and have claim to have read the Quran are liars. For most westerns, who smirk at the lyrical flowery translations of modern Arabic, not speaking Arabic is huge handicap in reading the book. I found it like trying to follow somebody on an acid trip.
Last time I mentioned this, somebody on QT3, maybe Enidigm, suggested that listening to it is easier. Since listening to somebody on an acid trip is kinda of entertaining, I believe them. But I seldom have the patience to listen to QT3 podcast so listening to the Quran isn’t happening in this lifetime.
I guess I don’t understand the huge pushback against Rod’s points. ISIS and Al-Queda claim to be inspired by the teaching of the Quran and Islam. I blame Christianity for the Crusades, the Salem Witch trials, the oppression of woman, the moral support of slavery, and host of other historical and current problems. I also acknowledge that Christianity has done a lot of good in the world, and that much of worse excess of Christianity are no longer part of mainstream Christianity.
As folks who know a hell of lot more than I do about Islam, have pointed out Islam is 400-500 years younger the Christianity, and more than thousands of years younger than the other major religions. Maybe religions are like people they take a very long time to mature. I don’t know.
What I do know is today is that there is a very high correlation between fucked up place to live and places where Islam is the dominate religion. Sure there are exception, Guatemala and Nicaragua are Christian. Russia and North Korea, are not very religious and screwed up, Mynmar is Buddist and bad. Sub-Saharan Africa has so many problems that is hard to put the finger on any one religion.
But the fact remains, starting with Morocco, and stretching all the way to Indonesia there is band of countries where Islam is the predominant religion. For the vast majority of countries, they are horrible places for women, religious minorities, atheists and gays to live, and not great places for Islamic men to live either.
Muslims in America,with a few exceptions haven’t been a problem. However, in many European countries this century has seen a rise of predominately Muslim areas. These areas suffer from high crime, poverty, low employment, and have been breeding grounds for terrorist activities.
As @Tomchick said correlation isn’t causation, but it is also foolish to deny that there is a strong possibility that Islam is a major contributing factor to their woes.
