h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I read this time ago. It´s still relevant. Saddly. http://fair.org/media_criticism/making-islamophobia-mainstream/

Islamphobia in Spain started in the XV century with the Catholic Monarchs and there is still that idea and even the pejorative word of moors equal not trustworthy. Franco dictatorship insisted on that. It was taught at school.
However, cultural heritage and just a bit of common sense and education make most people not tarring a whole community of 1.5 billion people as nut terrorists for the actions of a few.

Saddly, mainstream islamophia help people to blame religion for the actions of those nuts. I can see that here and abroad. Blaming religion you blame something considered as essential and defining of a person. So, even if you are not a terrorist, still you... you know... you share wicked ideas with those lunatics. So muslims are essentially wicked.

I friend of mine, Arabic philologist, sent me a video( since it´s in Spanish, I wont link it, just in case moderation rules remove this post)

The teacher, An Arabic philologist and historian from the UAB, autonomous university of Barcelona, explains the meaning of the word jihad. It appears in the Koran about 35 times. In none of them means Holy war ( that´s a west idea) jihad means struggle to be a better muslim, a better person. In few times, it means fight or war, and it explains how that fight should be:

No muslim should attack another muslim ( most people who have died in terrorist attacks are muslims)

In case you are attacked you should respond but considering: no harm to buildings nor animals, not killing of women, kids, elders nor mental disabled or sick people.( avant garde Geneve convention?)

There´s another question. How much islamophobia has to do with the situation of refugees? Why the EU is treating them that way? If they were Germans, or Italians... would citizens accept so much callousness toward them?

According to a recent poll, Muslims in America rejected violence more than any other group.

I knew that a jihad was an attempt to become a better person.

Sadly, there are different groups within Islam that can't get along. I don't know if this can be solved.

I think institutionally the UK is very - drop down from government really, who's outlook always seems very phobic-inducing, in the actual population... I just think it varys a lot between towns/citys and mainly just between individuals...

My (admittedly very limited) understanding is that the terrorists are trying to drive a wedge between muslims and everyone else in order for the muslims to feel ostracized and so come round to the terrorists' way of thinking.

Sadly the first part of that must surely work. So many people seem to see the word terrorist and the word Islam as synonymous - there must be a lot of muslims who feel the world is staring & wondering.

Deb

Ah, the old "no true Muslim" bollocks.

And you're struggling to even keep your story straight from one sentence to the next:

"In none of them means Holy war ( that´s a west idea) [...]. In few times, it means fight or war"

So in NONE of them does it mean war, except in, y'know, the ones where it does. Pick one.

As for all the other Koran-denying stuff your Arabic friend is spinning you, one word: taqiyya.

One day, I will get back to my (albeit English translation of) the Qu'ran. The first 3rd or so is in fact pretty peace loving. Including fair reference to loving and being considerate of 'non-believers'. The basic premise being to leave them and their fate to Allah.

I'm sure that there are many in Canada that immediately associate olive skin, full beards and burkhas with violence. But I don't think that is the full national picture. We seem to have a fairly well read populace maybe, that recognizes the difference between Islam and "Islamism" - a word that has been badly hijacked by the deadly sort.

We have a fair sized population of "First Nations" people, and mixed-blood commonly known as Metis. We also have some extremely militant members of those communities that have no qualms about shooting at peace officers, civilians' houses, etc. We don't equate all "Injuns" by the dastardly violent small measure of them.

*A* war is not the same as a *Holy* war, Hooloovoo. That's why we don't call World War 2 the Fifth Crusade or something stupid like that.

In the situation they're referring to, I believe they mean "fight/war" in a metaphorical sense. Like the fight between good and evil in each man's soul.

I think women's souls also have such struggles.

No, no, no, obviously women are just born evil.

That apple incident was a long time ago

Besides, she was tempted by the master of temptation .

Most men seem to think that their mothers are good.

"Besides, she was tempted by the master of temptation "


You mean God?


God: "All things in this garden were created for you, and only you. Eat, drink, and be merry."

God: "Oh, but, uh... You ABSOLUTELY do not touch this ONE thing under any circumstances, because shut up."

Eve: "Well what happens if I touch it -- "

God: "Shut up!"


I mean, come on, EVERYBODY would touch it.

Exactly! God invented reverse psychology, but won't admit it. He could parent humans if he tried, which seems not to have even occurred to him. So the humans went off and figured out how to survive by themselves, because they sure didn't get any divine help with it.

Sorry, I meant that he could *not* parent humans. Maybe he expected humans to be like other animals, which figure things out fr themselves. But did God tell the animals what not to do? Apparently not. Just Adam and Eve, which seems like a discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen.

"*A* war is not the same as a *Holy* war,"

Yeah, and *a* bomb on a bus full of innocent civilians is not the same as a *Holy* bomb on a bus full of innocent civilians. They're completely different.

Unless you're one of the innocent civilians. Or a member of their families. Or their friends. Or someone who regularly took that bus. Or someone who lives near the route. Or someone who saw the bomb go off. Or someone who had to scrape the liquefied remains of other humans off the pavement.

Right then, it all looks pretty much the same. Y'know - like Muslims.

Apparantly Islamophobia in the EU is all the fault of the Jews - http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-role-of-the-israel-lobby-in-fomenting-islamophobia-in-the-european-union-report/5523967

How did Vonnegut put it, about the bombing of Dresden? The first pass turned the city into toothpicks, and the second pass lit them. And of course, there is the A-bombing of a couple of cities into oblivion.

Obviously not Muslims those times - no icky wet marks left to clean up, nor family and relatives to mourn. In all, a much tidier sort of war and, of course, entirely justified.

(In case my point was missed, there is NEVER justification in the mass killing of anyone or anything.)

'there is NEVER justification in the mass killing of anyone or anything'

What about the smallpox virus?

<BB<

I'm not *defending* them Hooloovoo, and don't pretend you didn't know that.

I knew that stuff like the Plague and other lovely things would come back to "bite me".

I guess it all comes down to how broad-scale, life-threatening, the mass slaughter is. A virus that does nothing on the planet any good, pretty minor. Anti-democratic human life forms, maybe just as disposable. Or any other sort of problem life form ...

Global warming is a big thing, maybe all mammals that flatulate the methane ... Cows, pigs, people and all other critters of the larger gaseous sorts ...