Lots of yelling on this one! Here we have two liberals, Ben Affleck and Nicholas Kristof at odds with two atheists Bill Maher and Sam Harris on whether Islam is about a good religion made horrible by a few, or if Islam is inherently horrible in itself.
On one side there is the unfair stereotyping, the prejudice and the political correctness. On the other are that the vast majority of Muslims do think like intolerant, sexist, violent fundamentalists from not a century ago, but a millennium ago.
There are good arguments on both sides. It’s a tough call because siding with Maher and Harris is pretty much siding with the Republican spin on this. Round them up and sent them back where they came from and then bomb the crap of them. But that aside, I have to go with the atheists on this one. When deities in the firmament become the most important thing in one’s life trouble follows. Which GOD IS GREAT pretty much defines. Which all GODFIRSTERS in all religions are guilty of.
On the Ben Affleck side we have to remember that from about 500AD to 1700AD Christianity was just as horrible as Islam is today. Here at home our Christian nation only got rid of slavery 150 years ago. Refuse to allow women to vote until 95 years ago. Didn’t give African Americans equal rights until 50 years ago and are only just now are we in the process of extending equal right to gays and lesbians. And it has been religion at play holding most all of it back.
All three religions of The Book have a problem right from the gitgo. The story of the founder of the Jewish religion – and subsequently both Christianity and Islam – is the most abhorrent lesson ever put to words. That we must honor and emulate Abraham, the father of Monotheism, who blindly obeyed God who told him to slit the throat of his son just for the Hell of it. That we too must always blindly obey God’s voices in our heads without a thought. Ask Andrea Yates five boys about that one.