Understanding the Revolutions in the Middle East

Hold on bro. Did you seriously just ask that?
That's vague assumption on a Fox News level.

Well why aren't there? Is it possible that what people believe about God and about the afterlife might actually affect how they react to political situations? That's the point I'm trying to get across.

"The world is filled with poor, uneducated, and exploited peoples who do not commit acts of terrorism, indeed who would never commit acts of terrorism of the sort that has become so commonplace among Muslims; and the Muslim world has no shortage of educated and prosperous men and women, suffering little more than their infatuation with Koranic eschatology, who are eager to murder infidels for God's sake." -Sam Harris

Buddhist extremist groups do exist......

I know. However, Buddhist extremism manifests itself differently than Islamic extremism. Religions are not all the same, their differences actually matter. I’m not pro-Buddhism, but we must recognize that religions are not all equally dangerous, some religions really are worse than others.

No it's not, they still kill people. What I'm trying to tell you here is that people will kill each other over anything, no matter how petty it is. Islam isn't some special case. There are some Christian nations in Africa that put most Islamic nations to shame, and yet you act like Islam is the greatest threat that exists. When the reality is terrible things have been done in the name of every ideal, religious and political.

Name one instance of a Buddhist suicide bomber. Name one instance of a Jain extremist murdering someone in the name of his religion.

I know... What did I just say?

http://www.tamileelamnews.com/cgi-bin/news/exec/view.cgi/1/1557

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I know what you're thinking:"Hypocrites. I am disappoint."

And I can respect that. But don't try to equate everyone to extremists.

Actually I was thinking something more along the lines of: "This isn't what I asked for. I'm already well aware that Buddhists have killed in the name of their religion. I asked for a single instance of a Buddhist suicide bomber and a singe instance of Jains murdering in the name of their religion."

Extremism is the result of people taking their religion too seriously. So I don't see why I can't blame the base ideology for what extremists do. Maybe if religion had such a good effect on society in such a way that it negated all the bad that is done in it's name, but that’s just not the case, religion does nothing good that couldn’t or isn't being done by secular means. A religion is no better than the worst of it's extremists.

WOW. Really?
It's a different situation when the bomb isn't strapped to the bomber?
News Flash: It's still a bombing, it's still terrorism, and it's still wrong.

Extremism is the result of charismatic psychopaths manipulating people and twisting the truth to meet their world view.

You don't judge capitalism by the actions of Augusto Pinochet. Or communism by the actions of Pol Pot.

I think that maybe forming the base of society, science, literature, and law might negate the stuff religion has done.

Uh, there's a HUGE difference. Suicide bombing means you sacrifice your life. Something not so easily done unless you believe an afterlife exists where you will be rewarded for your actions. Also I'm still waiting for you to give me a single instance of Jain extremists murdering in the name of their religion. It shouldn't be so difficult, considering all religions are apparently equal. You should expect to see the same rate of religious violence in Jainism as in any other religion.

There’s a difference between those political ideologies and irrational dogmatic religious ideologies. I said: "Maybe if religion had such a good effect on society in such a way that it negated all the bad that is done in it's name, but that’s just not the case, religion does nothing good that couldn’t or isn't being done by secular means." That argument doesn’t apply to political ideologies. Political ideologies actually have a purpose when it comes to figuring out how to properly run a society. That's not the case with religion.

Ugh... don't even get me started with this nonsense.

Can I just point out that you're misusing the word dogmatic/dogma. Since religion and politics have been intertwined for so much in human history, saying religion and politics are different based on their affect on society is false.

Got it. It's normal if it's a regular bombing. It's extremist if it's a suicide bombing. :roll:
And you just threw Jainism in out of left-field while we were talking about Buddhists. Nice set-up.

to corB

i would like you to answer this question please.
bombs have been in existance since the late 19th century yet muslims have only been sucide bombing since 9/11 if sucide bombing as you say are based on the beliefs in the quran why wernt they used earlier wars the muslims fought( for example the six day war , the iran iraq war)

it seems to me that suicide bombing were the ideals of osama bin laden not islam. because suicide bombings would have been used much earlier.

what are your thoughts on this.

It's almost as if you've forgotten what we we're originally discussing and the point I was making. Go back and reread my posts from today. We were talking about how different religious extremism manifests itself differently for different religions.

Again, you seemed to have either not understood my point or you've just forgotten what we were talking about. I said: "Is it possible that what people believe about God and about the afterlife might actually affect how they react to political situations? That's the point I'm trying to make." If what people believe in terms of religion doesn't actually effect how they react to a political situation then why are their not Buddhist suicide bombers and Jain killers?

Verifiably false statement. From Wikipedia: "According to a report compiled by the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, 224 of 300 suicide terror attacks from 1980 to 2003 involved Islamist groups or took place in Muslim-majority lands. Another tabulation found a 4.5 fold increase in suicide bombings in the two years following Papes study and that the majority of these bombers were motivated by the ideology of Islamist martyrdom."

Well of course Jain killers don't exist. (Could be wrong.)

Why aren't there Buddhist suicide bombers? I don't know. Maybe they aren't stupid. But a bombing is still a bombing in my book.

But I do know this: It is a sin for anyone who believes in the Abrahamic god to commit suicide.

When a Muslim blows him self up for god he is a hypocrite, the same way a Buddhist is a hypocrite when he blows up a church with a gas bomb.

I don't blame the religion or the ideal. (Even though its hard not to sometimes.)
I blame jackasses.

As I’ve said before this is one interpretation. There is no correct interpretation. If you're arguing that moderate Islam is the true Islam then you are committing the no true Scotsman fallacy. Which would be ironic because that's exactly what Kalalification was accusing me of doing earlier.

Here's one of the reasons Muslim extremists justify suicide bombings according to the Wikipedia article on suicide bombings:
"Verily, Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their wealth for the price of Paradise, to fight in the way of Allah, to kill and get killed. It is a promise binding on the truth in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur'an." -Surah 9 At-Tawba verse 111

to corB

what you do not understand is that the interpretation is dtermined by 3 groups of learned quran scholars if 2 out of 3 agree on an interpretation then that is it. it is not up to the average muslim to interpret the quran his own way.
and they have all agreed that suicide bombing is wrong

Well of course there is no "correct interpretation". It's a religion.

And you aren't going to get me argue in favor of those psychopaths.

latest news from egypt.

i jewish spy called allaan was caught yesterday and is having a public trail. cctv pictures show him beside the burning of a christain mosque and in tahrir square against the protesters.