For those who have not lost their capacity to think and reason

[Stan]

So true

[debbym]

agreed.

but i think the population of islamic terrorist, with armaments outnumbers socially aggressive and offensive "Christians" like the Westboro Baptist Members.

[phkrause]

I agreed, but debby makes a very good point

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

Westboro Baptist Church

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Westboro Baptist Church

Westboro-church1.jpg

Classification Baptist

Theology Primitive Baptist & Calvinist

Geographical areas Topeka, Kansas

Members 40[1]

Ministers Fred Phelps

Official website www.godhatesfags.com

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American unaffiliated Baptist church known for its extreme ideologies, especially those against gay people.[2][3] The church is widely described as a hate group[4] and is monitored as such by the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center. It is headed by Fred Phelps and consists primarily of members of his large family;[5] in 2011, the church stated that it had about 40 members.[1] The church is headquartered in a residential neighborhood on the west side of Topeka about three miles (5 km) west of the Kansas State Capitol. Its first public service was held on the afternoon of November 27, 1955.[6]

The church has been involved in actions against gay people since at least 1991, when it sought a crackdown on homosexual activity at Gage Park six blocks northwest of the church.[7] In addition to conducting anti-gay protests at military funerals, the organization pickets other celebrity funerals and public events that are likely to get it media attention.[8] Protests have also been held against Jews and some protests have included WBC members stomping on the American flag.

The WBC is not affiliated with any Baptist denomination. The Baptist World Alliance and the Southern Baptist Convention (the two largest Baptist denominations) have each denounced the WBC over the years.[9] The church describes itself as following Primitive Baptist and Calvinist principles.

The above for those who don't know. Since they've been active since 1955, I would have to disagree with the comparison based on how many deaths of innocent people can be attributed to the one group as opposed to the other.

OTOH just how the average Muslim would view something doesn't make it true or false so I can't disagree with whether that is their viewpoint.

God cares!

[CoAspen]

I would think a Muslim knows better than you or I as to how 'extremist' are viewed. What does 'deaths' have to do with the validity of the statement?

[LifeHiscost]

I would think a Muslim knows better than you or I as to how 'extremist' are viewed. What does 'deaths' have to do with the validity of the statement?

I don't believe the WestBoro Baptist Church has murdered anyone in their 58 years of existence, for not believing as they do, so it seems reasonable to assume other Christians don't see them in the same light as Muslims see extremists in the Muslim faith, considering the depth one has to sense their duty to take anothers' life for believing differently.

OTOH, I don't know how deeply Christians feel about the WestBoro Baptist church. Perhaps there are those "Christians" who would be willing to murder for their difference of belief. It doesn't seem anymore a stretch for me to assume I know what a Muslim might feel about something as grievous as murder, than it would be for her to feel she knows what a Christian feels about exterminating those who practice sexual perversion, especially considering there is no evidence of murder by members of the Westboro Baptist church.

God cares!

[D.A. Wintsmith]

I'm still pondering this one -- not your post per se, but whether there is reason for so much fear and paranoia towards the Islamic people (and toward those who are accused of being Islamic.) My problem is that I don't know anyone from that culture. I know other nonChristian groups very well, so can speak intelligently on issues and misperceptions involving them, but I lack a first hand knowledge when it comes to Islam.

I feel in my gut that the fear and hatred toward Moselms is wrong and misdirected because I distrust prejudice toward any large group of people. There is like a mob mentality going on these days in regard to Islam that makes the hair on my back stand up (okay I don't have hair on my back....it makes my antennae twang...not denying I might have one of those)

I can't defend my stand, which is a lonely one since everyone around me seems to have gone rabidly anti-Islam, taking as truth every knee-jerk internet forward and Facebook post that comes along. (Even people I formerly thought had good sense.) They don't seem to care whether the rumors are true as long as it supports their belief. I find it downright scary which is saying quite a lot when one considers that I live in the American South where we are just barely struggling out of the woods on the matter of prejudice against black people. In fact, I have a theory that by letting up on the hatred against blacks that there has come a void which needs to be filled with some other hatred. And they have found one which, handily, is a religion that many blacks have embraced.

I am curious if the Islamaphobia is mostly concentrated in the American South or if it is all over. I know that 9/11 threw all of the US for a loop, so I realize it may not be mostly a Southern thing. What do you think?

[olger]

By that reasoning, sixty million gun owners should never be associated with weirdos who shoot people for no reason.