You are ignoring my posts. You have not addressed a single word of what I have said. Nothing on the hypocrisy of defending violence in the Old Testament as “divinely ordained”. Nothing on the problem of your council not defining religion as you think they should or the threat such a definition might pose to your own religion. Nothing on the fact that surrender is also a basic tenet of Christianity. Nothing on the Koran pointing to the need for interpretation by those with understanding.I am not ignoring your posts.
Steve already noted the contradiction between your early claims and what you say now. You have moderated your own immoderation. This too follows a common pattern. You begin with an untenable position and then slowly retreat, modifying what you have said, but in such a way as to appear as if this is what you have said all along. Early on (second page) you said:
But now you simply condemn these tolerant and non-violent Muslims for not condemning the intolerance and violence found in their scripture.… all of these so-called good, "moderate" Muslims have the same ultimate goal; i.e. to defeat the enemies of Islam, and there are many ways to engage in "jihad" beside utiliizing personal physical violence.
There are outspoken Muslims who do condemn those who use the Koran as justification for perpetrating violence and intolerance. You want to paint the picture as one of theological ideology in order to defeat the enemy Islam, by destroying the Koran. But it is not a matter of theology but rather of contemporary geo-politics, a reaction to the violence and disruption perpetrated by the West. The current generation of extremists is a direct consequence of being born into a world whose foundations was in rubble. It is no surprise that they would seek stability and meaning in their religious roots, no surprise that there would be a growing, fermenting anger and resentment toward those who destroyed their world, and no surprise that their powerlessness would lead them seek power in whatever ways they could.
To be clear: to understand is not to condone. Violence should not be tolerated. If we are to find solutions we must uncover the root of the problem. The solution is not the destruction of what they hold to be most sacred. Such action is not “divinely ordained”. In fact, your assumptions about divinely ordained actions shows just how much you have in common with Muslim extremists. You hide behind a facade of civility with your call for rational commissions, but your Holy War by other means will inevitably lead to Holy War by all too common and familiar means. But you will, no doubt, justify the violence you would precipitate because it is divinely ordained.
