"The BBC is full of Liberals afraid to mock Islam" Roger Bolton.

[Childrenofthestones]

Roger Bolton confirms what Muslims, Christians and just about anyone with half an eye has known for a long time.

"Regarding the BBC Mr Bolton said it had got to a point where audiences thought it was ?fun? to mock Christianity but would not dare laugh at jokes about Islam"

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...teran-BBC.html

"am i right that some followers believe music shouldn't be listened to."

A bit like the members of certain Highland churches here in Scotland then (music and dancing being the work of Satan, leading to sins of the flesh). Whose members oppose Sunday ferry sailings and other secular activities on the Sabbath, who don't celebrate Christmas and abhor the pagan festival with its trees and lights and booze which passes for Christmas in the rest of the UK. There are Christians with some very hardline beliefs up here, but because they no longer put people to death for their non-belief, society tends to regard them as harmless and quaint.

Of course, the vast majority of Muslims I've met do not put people to death either, and in fact are peace-loving, tolerant folk, but we do like a scapegoat, don't we?

I'm sick of the casual Muslim-bashing which goes on - those circular emails with their nonsensical claims about "councils stopping Christmas to appease Muslims", for example. The last one of those which reached my inbox had been posted by a cousin of mine - she's Catholic, and (disturbingly) a teacher in an English Catholic school. I sent her a Snopes link - and asked what was the purpose of her email. I didn't hear back.

" but because they no longer put people to death for their non-belief, society tends to regard them as harmless and quaint. "

I would have thought that is a really big point to make. Given that there are people calling for the deaths of other people and claiming they do this in the name of Islam it's not surprising that anything or anybody linked with that religion might cause alarm or be viewed with a degree of suspicion.

But there are nutters in every religion. Some deluded "Christians" in recent times have caused the deaths of many others - some because they assured their followers that they were leading them to a better place (after death).

People may claim that they are killing people in the name of Islam, but that doesn't mean that Islam - or your average Muslim - is responsible for that wrong-headed thinking. Islam does not teach violence and murder any more than Christianity does, but we all know how believers can adapt written teachings to suit their agenda.

I think Islam scares alot of people including myself at times because to me some of the behaviour from certain factions is similar to behaviour that has died out in Western society on the whole. i.e. the state being entwined with religion as some earlier poster mentioned.

I feel society has become more liberal and to me extreme Islam doesn't reflect that. I am sure there are loads of positives in the religion but I am sure the media doesn't always portray these.

I did see your post babyboom about christianity in certain churches in scotland and i don't think much to their ideas either

Are you serious? Iranians? You do believe the majority of Sunni Muslims don't believe shows are muslim and don't identify with them and see them as a separate religion?

It's not even like catholic and protestants coz afaik they accept they are both Christian.

We are basing opinions on shia scholars?

Shia not.shows
There is no islamic state.

I do also think people are forgetting or excluding the full range of Christian belief and practice and conflating all Muslims with mad mullahs when complaining about the relative treatment of the two religions.

Many Christian sects remain resolutely hardline. Plymouth Brethren? Hardline churches in the US like Warren Jeffs and his horrid gang? They may not be committing violent acts as a rule, but there is a lot of sometimes violent repression of women and children by such groups.

Just to clarify, what I am saying is people are making informed judgements on a religion using the actions of a minority who 90% of the followers of that religion dont consider to be followers of their religion or have any thing to.do with them as evidence to substantiate those judgements.

Just to demonstrate my point, the same anger Muslims feel at people slandering the prophet sas, Sunni Muslims feel at shia slandering the sahabah ra.

They 90% regard shia in the same way they regard those people making films against the prophet.

Yet people are using the actions of those whose actions Sunni Muslims hate and find deplorable to judge Sunni Muslims.

Subhanallah

The sahabah being wives and companions of Muhammad

Btw those are not my personal feelings, I have never talked to any shia about their beliefs, watched their tv channels etc and I know media and popular opinion is not always true, so I prefer to reserve judgement.

However I know many people who have lived in countries with large shia populations etc, and the Sunni Muslims there follow the feelings I described above. As do 99.9% of the Muslims I have come accross.

Most Muslims? I really honestly don't know.

As for Islam, Islam doesn't endorse secularism. In an imaginary islamic state all citizens would have freedom to worship. The penalty for apostasy is for the one who causes trials in the land ie treason,

However the rules of the state would be based on what Muslims believe is divine guidance.

alemci - I'm not sure there's much liberalism in some mainstream churches either.

www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/glasgow-s-archbishop-elect-links-mp-s-death-to-gay-lifestyle-1-2428847

You say you "don't have much time for" the Highland churches I mentioned; I'm with you there. However, you're "scared" of Islam, and that's something I don't get. What are you scared of?

I just seen someone explain well on the feminism thread, she said she runs her company according to her principles, all interactions she has are according to her principles, she can't separate them from who she is.

yes baby but he's not being violent, he is just expressing an opinion and people can take it or leave it. People are allowed to chose their sexuality in GB. this wasn't the case earlier in the century Could they be openly gay in an Islamic State?

People openly have sex outside of marriage here. They can practise whatever religion they chose. again the same question in regards to an Islamic society.

on the BBC news the other night there was the story about the girl being accused of burning pages of the koran, and then a priest saying how there was so much violence and intimidation towards the christian church in pakistan. Also if someone wants to become a christian from a Moslem background then it isn't tolerated on the whole.

what about cultural Islam with women being killed for 'adultery' and female circumcism.

Did you miss the part of the story where
the judges bailed her even though they have never bailed someone for blasphemy before as they have evidence the person who pressed the charge lied?
In an islamic state the rights of society are put over rights of individuals.

So for example it may be a person's right to consume what they want but Islam states alcohol has more harm then benefit to it due to the effects on society therefore it is not allowed.

Same goes for sex before marriage etc.

alemci I was responding to "I feel society has become more liberal and to me extreme Islam doesn't reflect that".

I didn't accuse the cardinal of violence - I was just pointing out that some other - allegedly mainstream, non-"extreme" - religions aren't terribly liberal either.

I see what you are saying about alcohol Nailak and that is how society used to be in Great Britain a long time ago

re: the girl in pakistan - why did the poor girl have to go through all that in the first place and what sort of religious leader (who is meant to set a good moral example) tries to set up an innocent child. cannot understand the mentality. sorry. it reminds me of how people were accused of witchcraft in the middle ages and dragged off.

Baby i know you didn't accuse cardinal of violence but to me there is a great of difference betweeen thought and actions hence my view

Because they are idiots. Won't find me defending Pakistan

So who watched citizen khan last night?

Obviously BBC wasn't to scared to make jokes from the adhan!

Or jokes about imams going to pubs and getting in to brawls.

DH and I watched the first episode. And found it really, really bad.

alemci, I know blasphemy was the alleged offence, but to me the story of the girl in Pakistan is at least as much about ignorance and the mob mentality as religion.

Reminds me somehow of the mob on the estate somewhere in the UK who targeted a paediatrician because they thought that meant paedophile: rough, ignorant people on a self-righteous 'moral' campaign designed to give them a victim to take things out on and to allow them to fancy themselves as seekers after justice.

totally agree Eldritch about the girl in Pakistan but found it hard to fathom the mentality of the person accusing her - the imman supposedly planted burnt pages of the Koran on her. had a quick look at the bbc website.

I suppose the majority fear christianity but quite horrendous if you are a christian there.

at least here in GB people are free to worship how they wish or if they don't want to, they don't have to.

"In an imaginary islamic state all citizens would have freedom to worship"

As long as they are Muslim, that is. Presumably, all non-Muslims will have fled lest they live under the rule of 600-year old laws while segregated from the opposite sex, so this will not be much of a problem.

"The penalty for apostasy is for the one who causes trials in the land ie treason"

Iirc the procedure to follow for apostasy was something like this: Try to talk him back into Islam. If that doesnt work, separate him from community & wife (in case dangerous thoughts are contagious?). If that doesn't work, give him a last chance for Tawbah, and then killing him is Jaeez (permissible).

Imam, not "imman".

Iman means "faith". Imam is the religious guy you are talking about.