Quote Originally Posted by Monty92 View Post
but just a few comments on your last post.

Firstly, your suggestion that these terrorists can't be inspired by scripture because they drink alcohol and don't always quote the Quran is so stupid that it frankly exposes just how shallow your understanding is of the subject.

Secondly, I don't "blame" the scripture in a moral sense in the slightest. Blame has very little to do with any of this. My only point is that acknowledging the nature of the problem is essential to solving it. And acknowledging the nature of the problem begins with acknowledging its roots are in Islamic scripture.

The reason we don't do this is because we fear that Muslims will lose their shít if anyone says that their holy book inspires evil because it advocates/justifies evil. But the problem is that these low expectations are entirely justified, as we see every time anyone points it out. But the answer cannot be to indulge this pathetic, infantile over-sensitivity but to empower those with the ability to reform Islam, i.e. other Muslims, to cut through this culture of denial.

But instead what happens? Muslim reformers who acknowledge the role of scripture are ostracised by Muslim communities, with the overt backing of western liberals. Take, for example, the Southern Poverty Law Centre in the US who put Majid Nawaz (a former Islamist but now a reformer who founded a counter-extremism think tank) on a list of anti-Muslim extremists!!!

These are the people who should be held up by everyone as role models for the entire muslim world. But a conspiracy of silence, led by muslims and endorsed by western liberals, mean they are unable to play a meaningful role. And that is why your "do anything, just don't offend them" policy is doomed to failure.

Yeah……..

I can pretty much see where I would go in responding to this. I have a fairly clear picture of where that will take you, and so on…….I thought we were making progress last week and we are going backwards again. I am not massively in the mood for the mud slinging and insults either.

Maybe we can end where we agree…this is something that muslim communities should be concerned about and should be addressing. Whether its attitudes, culture, ethnicity, religion….lets say that is their problem to identify. They know these people better than we do.