Discussion for article #224694
I wonder which countries are funding these despicable religious bigots?
These folks seem are not simply uncivilized barbarians but worse than pigs. I guess their faith, their families, their schools and their clergy have taught them that hate, terrorism and the murder of women, children and men of other faiths is a virtue.
This represents a complete failure of multiple cultural and social institutions and loss of fundamental human values. I wonder whether the polygamy, misogyny, cousin-cousin inter-marriages and sexual repression of these people is a cultural predisposing factor for these animal like behaviors.
1 Like
Talk about an engraved invitation to which Iran will definitely RSVP.
4 Likes
We can be damn proud that such things have never happened in white European cultures.
…'cause we have the Exceptional™ gene,
Looby
3 Likes
Its very sad to see historical places destroyed out of hate. I remember the disbelief when the taliban destroyed the ancient shrine carved into the cliffs in Afghanistan. Antiquities simply cannot be replaced. These are crimes against everyone who appreciates history and beauty…across religious lines. When these things are gone, they are lost forever.
8 Likes
Well, of course Europeans have done similar things, but I don’t think that means nobody of white European background can say a word about this, or the Buddhas of Bamiyan, or any other desecration. I’ve personally never looted a cathedral or burned a synagogue, so I’m going to go ahead and suggest it’s wrong, unfortunate and unhelpful when anyone does this kind of thing, regardless of their own background.
5 Likes
Ain’t no “winning hearts and minds” involved here. They WANT this to be a Holy War, and this action will assure that happens – all the more reason why our involvement (or anyone’s involvement) should be as short and minimal as possible. You don’t get between two pit bulls going after each other’s throats.
6 Likes
Yeah, but enough about Mississippi…
This is why we can’t have nice things.
3 Likes
I don’t think the bigotry, religulosity and backwardness of Mississippi matches the extremism, barbarism that the sunni in the Middle east, Saudi Arabia and Pakisatan have shown that they are capable. These extremely barbaric and amoral sunni cultures would evolve fundamental human values and advance several thousand years economically if they ever became as “backward” as Mississippi is considered today.
Of course, these have occurred in every culture. But most cultures except the religulous sunni of the Middle East, Pakisatan, Saudi Arabia and Africa don’t do this sort of thing as a religious virtue anymore.
The Saudis are behind these miscreants. Iran backs Maliki, al Sader, Assad etc.
Since banks have been looted, this movement gang now is self funded.
A few notes from colloquial history:
“The First Saudi State was founded in 1744. This period was marked by conquest of neighboring areas and by religious zeal. At its height, the First Saudi State included most of the territory of modern-day Saudi Arabia, and raids by Al Saud’s allies and followers reached into Yemen, Oman, Syria, and Iraq.”
“…Islamic Scholars, particularly Muhammad ibn Abdul Al Wahhab (1703 to 1792) and his descendants, are believed to have played a significant role in Saudi rule during this period…”
“The fundamentalist teachings taught by Al Wahhab positioned him in history as the first modern Islamic fundamentalist… Al Wahhab made the central point of his reformation movement the principle that just about every idea added to Islam after the third century of the Muslim era (about 950 AD) was false and should be eliminated…taught that Muslims must adhere solely and strictly to the original beliefs set forth by the Prophet Muhammad…”
“…The reason for this extremist stance and the focus of Al Wahhab’s reform efforts, was a number of popular practices which he believed represented a regression to pre-Islamic idol worship…praying to saints, making pilgrimages to tombs and special mosques, venerating trees, certain caves and stone monuments and establishing certain forms of ritual worship…The February 27, 1928, issue of Time magazine, describes how Eve’s tomb was destroyed: “To His Majesty Ibn Saud, warlike Sultan of Nejd and King of the Hejaz, came tidings last week of his flourishing son the Amir Faisal, 19-year-old Viceroy of the Hejaz.”
The Hejaz, is a region (mixed cultures and mores) bordering the Gulf of Suez predating the house of Saud into antiquity.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/07/hejaz-desert/salopek-text
1 Like
Pit bull generalizations in a thread about religious extremists ?
Given the ferocity that goes with this type of “civil war”, the metaphor is appropriate. Deal with it or don’t, but that’s the truth.
Self-righteous fanatics belong to all strongly held ideologys – religious and otherwise. The hatred of “the other” which sustains it is manifest in every culture. It’s the human condition; we are all potentially vulnerable.
2 Likes
Organized religions, commercial organizations and tyrannical political leaders are all capable of considerable evil. We are all always vulnerable but it is our humanity, our social, cultural and educational values that can prevent us from falling in the abyss.
If such destruction was sanctioned by ISIS leadership, they may be looking to draw Iran in further, which might pull the US and its “coalition of the willing” back into the fray.
I agree about the RSVP. I just hope that Iraqi Shiites don’t descend into mosque for mosque, shrine for shrine warfare.
And a well-deserved shout-out to GWBush and his motley crew of international destructionists for making all this possible.
1 Like
Tru dat; but our “social, cultural and educational values” haven’t prevented similar American and American-sanctioned atrocitys in the past. In the course of human events, “culture” has often proven an insufficient check to our evolutionary biology. In fact, “culture” has often abetted the destruction.
1 Like
Just look back at the Jim Crow era in Mississippi. Lynching, cross burning, church bombings, church burning.
Religion is such a strong force for peace and understanding. /snark