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?

Oh I know, maple although some of the activities in the Old testament could be seen as pretty extremist.

And tbh, your absolutely right, I constantly argue with Christians who tell me homosexuality, abortion etc is wrong, and tell me we should condemn it in Jesus's name because we simply don't have the right to judge. But in the perpetrators heads they are doing gods will.

Bee well yes I actually think the western attitude to Islam, has to an extent created IS, it certainly helps with the radicalisation. The more the extremists to can go look these people have killed innocents in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Syria, it is the west that is the force for evil, and it goes round in never ending circles. People feel oppressed, they go to the extreme opposite, to free themselves of their oppressors, it becomes almost they did it to us we can do it to them.

And absolutely, the IRA, the Catholic Irish were oppressed by the British Army, but they truly believed the only way of getting their country back was with violence.

That said, the IRA in no means represented the majority of Irish, and I don't believe IS represent the majority of Muslims or Syrians.

NaughtToThreeSadOnions

You make a good point about the anti abortionists in the US.

However -

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

Terribly frightening what they have been teaching in school for the last 40+ years.

The Christian Church existed in Syria at least 300 years before the birth of Muhammed..... The Crusades began because of the presecuted Christians in the Holy Land making a direct appeal to Christendom as they were being prevented from travelling and pilgrimage. I am not making this up. Look it up and compare and contrast various sources. Keep the Crusades in it's context of defence and warfare.

Terrorism is a relative term though. Depending on geopolitics, amongst other things.. I saw a picture online with Thatcher and Reagan (I'm sure you've all seen it) in his golf buggy. It read something like ~ 'Back in the 80's Bin Laden was a freedom fighter and Nelson Mandela was a terrorist'.

ISIL are a CIA creation, funded armed and trained to fight a proxy war.

The crusades
The chidlren's crusade
Burning at the stake

We';ve done it all - it's just we are more advanced so we did it, finished it and have moved on to being better whereas more Muslims haven't. They will catch up.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned the IRA, who were surely RC Christian terrorists?

Not really - they want[ed] a united Ireland. They happened to be (mainly) catholic.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Irish_nationalists

The activities in the Old Testament were not Christian. How could they be, when Jesus hadn't even been born then?

DeoGratias. You must have very low self esteem to actually want to be perceived as such an imbecile? I do so hope you get through this... Have a nice day....

Well, maybe because now we don't wage wars on fellow Christian countries we don't have that sort of thing.
But Christian extremists do certainly exist, just they mostly keep to themselves.

But Christian extremists do certainly exist, just they mostly keep to themselves.

Except when they are targeting birth control clinics ...

Batshitlady - I don't understand your comment to DeoGratias who was merely making a point about enlightenment.

I have a joke:

Passanger on a flight bound for Saudia Arabia asks a member of the cabin crew "how far do I put my watch back?" the answer "about 600 years"

Exactly. The muslims are just behind us but they are catchingup. There is a huge feminist muslim movement which makes it very clear the Koran does not require women to cover up any more than men and no reason women cannot be in charge and leaders - and good for them. I support them all the way. They are in a sense learning from Western atheists and indeed the quakers and C of E that you don't have to be sexist and backward to be religious. You can have equality between the sexes and be happy with homosexuality and of course not kill (most muslims don't kill of course) and be a very good muslim.

The muslim reformation or modernisation is the way forward.

It sounds more like a feminist 'culture' movement rather than a 'Muslim' movement- plenty of areas follow Islam but don't require a hijab - it is how the culture sees the religion and therefore is a cultural change rather than a religious change iyswim.

Christianity began in the Middle East - remember - and expanded greatly there while the Roman Empire ruled.
The Crusades were in reaction to the 7th century Muslim conquests, with the rise of Islam, to try to protect the large Christian communities and their freedom to worship.

Even in the early 20th Century, about 20% of the population there was Christian and the religions got along together reasonably well. Sadly, Christians are a v small minority now, due to persecution.
The former secular dictators in Egypt, Syria, Iraq etc - whatever their other failings - were tolerant of different religions and of women having freedom; the current regimes / chaos are not.

My late mum's huge extended family were Middle East Christians. They have now all moved to the West, to escape religious oppression.

That relevant piece of history is not taught well in schools BigChocFrenzy is it? I do think the failure to teach this correctly has allowed a vacuum in which an apologist and politically correct narrative has flourished.

OP, Anders Breivik (the one who murdered 69 children and young people four years ago) referred to himself as a Knight Templar and defender of Western civilisation against Islam, communism and feminism. Does he fit your bill?

Breivik was a bit of a lone wolf, rather than one of many. The rise of the Caliphate and the large number of atrocities they commit daily is rather larger. I am sure it will all be fine - Islam will catch up with the secular democratic west and modernise and adopt feminism and all will be well.

That is true, Deo (great name in this context!), but Breivik did claim to be part of a larger (though hopefully non-existent) organisation, which was an integral part of his defense. I also think that religious fanaticism plays a large part in many white supremacist or neonazi attacks (e.g. the Tyler brothers, who murdered a gay couple in California in 1999, attacked several synagogues and an abortion clinic), but these enter the public consciousness as extreme homophobic/misogynist/racist/antisemitic acts of terror and the religious component in the killers' self-justification gets played down.

Fwiw, I don't think religion, whether Islam or any other, is the problem here. I think that these people (frequently young men) crave the kind of power inherent in murdering unarmed civilians and that religion often lends itself to legitimising acts of extreme violence.

What about the Lord's Resistance Army? They're probably a better fit than the IRA, although I'm not sure how active they have been for the last couple of years.

I'm almost certain it's not true that Christianity as a whole moved on or that justification for taking up arms can't be found in the new testament. It's just that as moderate Christians we tend to ignore those bits and focus on the bits about loving your neighbour and turning the other cheek.