Stupid question alert... Christian extremists / terrorists

[RattusRattus]

Ok so I've been thinking about all this stuff with IS supporters having such strong beliefs that they will kill innocent people without a by your leave. How come it is just IS / AlQuaeda / Daesh who all seem to represent Islam? Surely other followers of other faiths feel just as passionate about their religion but aren't taking these tactics. Can anyone explain why this is to me?

[RattusRattus]

Sure, but if they are why aren't air strikes happening against us?

[RJnomore1]

But these people do not represent Islam any more than what happened at Jonestown or Waco represented Christianity.

[Reapwhatyousow]

Look up on Google a woman called Wafa Sultan. Or here

[talkiinpeace]

One of the most shameful parts of Indian Prime Minister Modi's past was when he did not stop Hindu fundamentalists killing hundreds of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and others back in the early 90's

Islam is unusual in that he Jihad rhetoric - which all comes from Saudi - is against "THe West" as well as against other parts of their own faith.

If Saudi would stop spreading poison, the whole thing would simmer down.

[talkiinpeace]

voyage
And of course there is one very famous crucifixion in religeous history.
But it was not done by Christians or Jews

[Debbriana1]

I think if you followed what has been happening in Central African Republic you will find that the Christian fundamentalist have retaliated against Islamic groups their and hundreds of Muslims are being killed.

I do agree with you op that at the moment the only extreme group that has gripped the world is from Islamic factions. Yes there are other religious groups around the world but they are not murdering to the same extent as the Islamic factions.

[RattusRattus]

Voyage - the historical thing is a bit of a red herring - we can hardly say that this is revenge for the Crusades. This is not what the Jihad is about, is it?

Waco was of course fundamentalist cults but (if you believe they started the fire) they killed their own rather than other innocents of different religions. Therefore they were not terrorists. Jonestown had sympathies with communism and the USSR, so yes there were wider political implications within a religious cult, but again it was mainly a suicide thing.

I googled Christian Terrorism and there was some interesting stuff on Wikipedia which answers my question, and the African thing is massive and shocking. It certainly seems to me that it is a combination of hugely biased media reporting (which is a whole other can of very disconcerting worms) and that this suicidal Jihad mentality is something that is only really held by IS.

[AuntieStella]

There are differences, because different religions adopt different world views and that influences what their extremists do.

There's quite a difference between, say, a proselytising religion that believes struggle (including armed struggle) is justifiable, and one which seeks meditative self-enlightenment.

Christians are not necessarily proselytising, though many denomination are. But there's a rejection of armed struggle, so it's not common.

Of course, all that changes if it's not about religion at all (religion being a proxy for sectarianism).

[talkiinpeace]

One persons terrorist is anothers freedom fighter.
Who are ISIS freeing ?

[fourmummy]

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was designed to prevent exactly this slide into moral/cultural relativism. If only we'd all adhere to it...

[FinestGrundyTurkey]

\link{https://thebuddhistcentre.com/news/urge-your-government-support-un-countering-buddhist-violence-against-muslims-burma\Buddhists killing Muslims in Burma}

Buddhists

[Reapwhatyousow]

The Crusades are widely misinterpreted and I question whether teachers today have a grasp of the facts and their context. In a nutshell, the Crusades came about after an appeal to Christendom to stem the conquering armies of Islam which were preventing Christians from visiting and being safe in the Holy Land, which they had been for centuries before Mohammed was born. This is so often portrayed as the contrary, one must ask the question, why? Below is a quote from Winston Churchill:

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities – but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.

– Sir Winston Churchill
British Conservative politician and statesman of the United Kingdom (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965).

[talkiinpeace]

finest
Nothing new there
Buddhist monks in Nepal were known to be dangerous nut jobs - the accounts of Victorian plant hunters regularly mention it

[LurkingHusband]

In a nutshell, the Crusades came about after an appeal to Christendom to stem the conquering armies of Islam which were preventing Christians from visiting and being safe in the Holy Land, which they had been for centuries before Mohammed was born.

Is one view. Another could be a weak Pope decided the best place to send any troublemaking kings was a long way away. (cf 25% of the Roman army being camped in Britain at any one time after the 43AD conquest. Not militarily necessary - but it made it hard for a usurper to control the army).

[fourmummy]

Try this one:

[NaughtToThreeSadOnions]

Could you not say that some of the attacks on birth control and abortion centres in the States are "Christian terrorism". In that they believe they are doing gods will in that contraception and abortion is against gods will so they must stop it?!


The crusades were an attempt to force Christianity on the holy land, wether you like it or not.

You get extremists in ever religion in every walk of life.

[JonSnowKnowsNowt]

The ira

[BeeMyBaby]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned the IRA, who were surely RC Christian terrorists?
And perhaps Islamic terrorism is partially the result of all the things that the west has done in the past? DH is from a Muslim country which was occupied by France for over 100 years and has had a lot of terrorist activity- in Algeria they had to fight to be free of the French in the 1950s/60s and about 1million Algerians (population about 30 mil) were killed in the process. Once all the French had left, the country had an illiteracy rate of about 80 or 90% as the Algerians were treated as subservient to the French during the colonisation. Pretty quickly strict islamic views began and in the 90s an Islamic party was successfully elected, which the army forced out = years of terrorism by Islamic extremists. A lot of the attacks in France over the years have been by Algerians and to think that France's actions did not contribute to this, would be ignorant. I'm pretty sure some of the Charlie hebdo attackers were Algerian, for example. Here endeth the history lesson...

[LovelyFriend]

Isis are as Muslim as the KKK are Christian.