Quote:
Originally Posted by sigma8
Also..."islamic fundamentalist" is the worst label for a terrorist ever. Committing atrocities is not fundamental to any mainstream religion. They should simply be called terrorists. If Islam was about terrorism, then why weren't muslims historically terrorist? Why did it take over 1000 years for that "fundamental" to crop up? Religion isn't the problem or the cause of terrorism, politics and socio-economic problems are.
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You've made a great point. It is important to separate the acts carried out by individuals from some larger group with whom they have a tenuous connection. In this case it would be individuals willing to indiscriminately kill others from the wider Islamic community. Many religions have fundamentalist elements but I would argue that the fundamentalists are a subset of the whole, sometimes a very small subset. I also believe that those willing to commit acts of terror are an even smaller subset. This applies to other religions as well as Islam. We have seen some Christian fundamentalists willing to murder physicians and bomb abortion clinics but I would not condemn all fundamentalist Christians based on the acts of the few. I think your last sentence above has much to commend it but sometimes the grip of a bad idea (in this case, the certitude that a God approves of a despicable act) is the problem. People have and will make choices that go against their political and socioeconomic interest when consumed by religious fever.