Something vaguely interesting in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.

[Sir C]

If he were a patriot, he could grow a big beard, infiltrate radical mosques and pretend to be radicalised, passing on vital intelligence about these people to the authorities.

Well, he could, if he weren't a snivelling coward living his life in peace and prosperity courtesy of my sacrifices in two world wars

[Burney]

Well, he could, if he weren't a snivelling coward living his life in peace and prosperity courtesy of my sacrifices in two world wars

Two World Wars? I thought you were just WWII and the Nam. Have you had more regression therapy?

[Monty92]

Well, he could, if he weren't a snivelling coward living his life in peace and prosperity courtesy of my sacrifices in two world wars

Actually, I'd say that being anti-Allanism when you live, work and socialise almost exclusively in liberal metropolitan circles is equally dangerous and courageous an endeavour as infiltrating a mosque.

So much as suggest at a dinner party that a terrorist has ever been motivated by Islamic religious scripture and you're literally taking your life in your hands, Jeff.

[Monty92]

Funnily enough, watching Yottam Ottolenghi on TV in Tunisia the other day, I was reminded that a big-nosed jew looks just the same as a big-nosed Ayrab, so I suspect people would just assume you were one of those Allans.

There must be a way you can turn this easy disguise to your advantage.

I guess I could offer myself up to the intelligence services?

[Burney]

I guess I could offer myself up to the intelligence services?

Yup. Just hang around Finsbury Park Mosque looking curious.

[Sir C]

I guess I could offer myself up to the intelligence services?

They'd have to train you out of talking like Shylock though. You can't wander into a mosque with a tea towel on your head going, "Salam aleikum already, :handwringing: oy ve vot about that 2 pence you borrowed from me last week, with interest the total is now 6 million pounds my boy." They'll suss you out

[Burney]

They'd have to train you out of talking like Shylock though. You can't wander into a mosque with a tea towel on your head going, "Salam aleikum already, :handwringing: oy ve vot about that 2 pence you borrowed from me last week, with interest the total is now 6 million pounds my boy." They'll suss you out

Not least because of course usury is strictly haram.

[Osborne18]

There must be a way you can turn this easy disguise to your advantage.

[IUFG]

There must be a way you can turn this easy disguise to your advantage.

:nostalgiabot:

[Monty92]

History is littered with examples of people believing some pretty ****ed up stuff when it is drummed into them from birth, reinforced through peer and societal pressure and particularly where it is enshrined in common law, or at least in its practical application. Just fifty odd years ago large parts of America was still lynching black people, we deemed homosexuality illegal and using a tuba on a rock n roll record was considered acceptable.

There is a huge difference between belief and deed, obvious in this example as in many others. One may profess to believe that some fat bloke flew to the moon because his religion tells him it did. None of us are in a position to say whether that individual genuinely believes it or not. A Church of England Vicar reads from the bible- do you really think he believes all the **** in there? That he follows it to the letter, takes it as a literal instruction on how to live?

Scholars in every religion exist to interpret the word of God into something palatable to a modern audience, to transform a laughable statement into a valuable parable.

You must be able to see the difference between ‘believing’ that old **** and butchering strangers in the street. One makes you the product of your environment, unquestioning, perhaps even weak willed. The other makes you a murderer, and all but very few people will have been brought up in an environment that taught them that this is wrong, whatever else they may have been compelled to believe.

There is nothing wrong with stating that there is a problem with some schools of radical Islam, or that they sponsor, encourage, recruit terrorists. The problem comes when you attempt to blame the religion itself. One may as well chastise Christianity because of the Klan, or the Jewish faith because of Israel.

I have told you before, jokingly, that all religion is a form of mental illness. Yes, believing some of that **** as literal makes one appear rather crazy. However, when the same book promises you things you like the sound of if you are willing to believe it, it starts to sound less mad. Chuck in the fact that your parents and everyone around you believes it and it begins to look inevitable.

.
"All but very few people will have been brought up in an environment that taught them that [murder] is wrong"

Yes but millions upon millions are
brought up to believe Islam exists to conquer the world. If not directly, then by dint of the fact they are taught that the Koran is the literal word of god.

It is only in modern secular societies that we believe murder is wrong.
State-sanctioned murder of gay people and apostates is still murder according to our own moral code.

Do you believe the rulers of Iran,
Saudi Arabia et al are "mentally
ill" for killing people for acting against the rulings of Islam?

No, you don't. So why are
you so quick to assume a 22
year old who blows up
a pop concert for the precise same reason Iran and Saudi kill gays and apostates must be mentally ill?