So soon they forget about the earthquakes in Pakistan and Iran.

Or the thousand or so that have been trampled to death over the last 10 years during the Hadj in Mecca.

I would say they are idiots, except that would be an insult to actual idiots.

Yes, but sadly, they're not alone in this. Remember some of the religionist right comments after 9/11? As my daughter and I like to say, this is your brain on religion.

Bam!

I have to argue that there is a difference between some "religionist right comments" that are condemned by the majority, and what is going on here. Group condemnation for individual behavior is not a slope I want to descend, and it's an example of pretty sloppy thinking.

Ward Churchill is not representative of Academia, and the Unabomber is not representative of liberals. Timothy McVeigh is not representative of people who believe the govenment is usurping powers it is not legally entitled to. If this is representative of Islam, well as I've said before, I accord it the respect it accords me.

I'd guess the next earthquake in the Middle East won't see many Italians clamoring to provide relief.

Excellent points MarkD.

I was wondering who was going to use the earthquake as a religious propaganda device first. I was betting on the Pope saying it happened because these people were relapsed Catholics or something.

On a related story, the Baptist church in Topeka Kansas said the Winnipeg floods were god punishing Canada for being nice to 'fags' (their word, not mine).

Chrissy -

Westboro Baptist church was formed because his entire family was kicked out of another church for being assholes. Phelps doesn't think Bin Laden is radical enough.

And the Pope isn't into the whole divine blame thing. You've confused him with those shitbags in the middle east.

Well at least we can write off our wackos as, you know, wackos who don't represent normal thinking. Their wackos, however, clearly represent an accurate sample of the entire religion.

Ooooooookay...

Scott -

"their" (I presume you mean muslims) "whackos" aren't whacko. They are mainstream.

The muslims who believe in perpetual jihad are presently running four nations. The leaders of the two largest sects of Islam (Wahhab and Shia) are committed to the destruction of Israel and the Jews, and the subjugation of the rest of the world.

You only think they are fringe whackos because that's what CNN tells you. CNN is full of shit.

Hey, what can you expect from a religion of peace?

Here's an interesting article about an Islamic Reformation:

Unfortunately, Islam in Britain has been taken over by the followers of a warped manifestation of the faith. The Muslim Council of Britain, the main Muslim newspapers and many of the big mosques are dominated by men who subscribe to a virulent and backward-looking brand of Islam that has been exported from the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent.

We need a reformation that saves Islam from foreign-inspired zealots. That reformation is already under way, with Muslims going back to the pristine teaching of the transcendent Koran, not taking on trust the hadith (a compilation of sayings of the Prophet Muhammad recorded some 250 years after his death by non-Arabs) or the corpus of medieval man-made Sharia (religious law). But because this reformation is still in its infancy, the reactionary clergy and its supporters is doing everything to strangle it.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6069581.ece

Thanks for the link, Norman. It's a small ray of hope and I'm glad the writer is also calling for other non-extremist Muslims to speak out. I can live with any religionist that doesn't want to kill or oppress my atheist butt, or force me to live by the tenants of their religion. Despite what some people think of my outspokenness.

I have two best friends -- one of which I don't bother calling on Sunday mornings because she's in church and who I assured was in the right insisting her teenage son attend church with the family.

Islam isn't going to die any more than any of the other religions. (I think with time, probably not in my lifetime, they all will as science continues to put the lie to their words.) Let's at least hope that it, like Christianity, evolves away from violence.