Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWaters
I've said it before. Whether Islam is a "religion of peace" is not a qualitative or philosophical question. It is an empiric question.
Look at the Islamic world--the poverty, the lack of education, the dictators, the religious autocrats, the terrorism, the hatred.
Is there a people that is less likely to look in the mirror and so some self-accounting?
It is always someone else's fault. The USA. Israel. Britain (both present and old). The West.
It makes me sad that the good, reasonable people of those countries have to suffer like they do.
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Poverty accounts for some of the violence, hatred, terrorism and despotism, but the religion doesn't seem to calm the natural tendencies of social forces. I wonder why.
And your point, why doesn't Islam encourage introspection?
If there's one thing admirable about this site for example, is it shows LDS tendencies to self-analyze and look for internal causes and room for improvement.
My speculation is that an Islamic self-evaluation would proceed in this fashion: Blame Israel, blame the US, and then blame any moderate Islamicists who cooperate with westerners. They would characterize the self-analysis as having been done when they blamed the moderate Islamicists.
It seems to be a religious movement incapable of self-correction.