I think a lot of the problem stems from two sources: Our desire to be incredibly PC in this culture, and the ability of humans to project their own thought process to other cultures.

> a lot of the problem stems from two
> sources: Our desire to be incredibly PC
> in this culture, and the ability of humans
> to project their own thought process to
> other cultures.

Here's another source: People wanna worry about things, and feel thrill of causing others to worry.

Amy has been doing this wake-up-sheeple thing for many years now. And in that time I've not met a single person who's converted to Islam. Not one.

No friend has reported that anyone of their acquaintance has done so, either. Nor friends-of-friends. Not even going back to 9/11. Not even across my adult life, which is turning into a very long time.

The only people who I've heard about converting to Islam are individual goofbrained teenage boys... Sons of divorce, usually... Socially incompetent little pissmuffins who think a life of impoverished, unshaven, earthy violence will answer their needs for masculine accomplishment more readily than would a postmodern career in data processing.

Shrieking about Islam's exotic terrors, rather than it's more typically mundane expressions, plays right into their daydreams.

And Sweet Jumpin' Christ is it silly.








(This will be the part where Amy pretends to know more about Islam than other people rather than answering the points in the comment.)

And in that time I've not met a single person who's converted to Islam. Not one.

I've never met a proton, either. Doesn't mean they don't exist.

For instance, perhaps you should go visit a prison near you? ask for the recent converts to Islam. Do not be surprised if there are more than a few.

You're freaking me out. Do you want to go on like this for the rest of your days? To what effect? You could be a sweet old lady someday. You'd be kinda tall, but...

> the fact that you don't know any converts
> to Islam in your circle is utterly meaningless

Not in my circle, not the next loop outward, and probably not the next three… We're talking serious Kevin Bacon here… Nuthin'.

Nobody else, either. Nobody in your life, nobody in the lives of others reading the post, or the lives of their friends... If somebody, Conan or someone, had a cousin who knew a guy, would you tally it as a data point? Would the rest of us be expected to take heed, even though we so readily ignore each other's beliefs about food, sex and drugs? And music and sushi?

> nothing to do with the contents of
> this post, in which Harris is
> absolutely correct

Signifying _______? Anything at all?... Besides 'Worry about this'?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa-my, it's weird. You don't want anything from anyone... You're not trying to encourage forward motion, or to instill any insight. There's never any statistical data, but we're all totally cool with that... Yet there are never any broader political considerations, no military consequences, no policy analysis, certainly no theological reflections.... Precious little of the history of Islam, and nothing at all of its geography.

What? Put it in a sentence. What do you want?

> Do not be surprised if…

In other words, none in your life, either. Zeroid. "Don't be surprised" rather than '30,000 converts in middle-class Tulsa in the last five years.'

…Even among the delinquent kids you knew from the next neighborhood over.


This is rilly weird. Y'know, I've seen a few waves of irrational fear role through society over the years. Heterosexual aids, table salt, child snatchers.... I know this will end —in the United States— not with a bang, but with whispers too soft to hear...

Pop Quiz!

A. Religious extremism

B. Resentment from poverty

C. Both

D. Neither

D. Neither ☑

OMG! Austrian teenage Islamic Girl-Steebing!!!

This blog is one of the few that have actually focused on debunking those PC myths. Generally speaking, you can't criticize the religion for fear of a fatwa requiring your execution. There is no poking fun at Mohammed. Remember that SNL skit Djesus Unchained? You will NEVER see one depicting Mohammed like that. It's also a problem because though we don't see the conversions taking place here in the States, have mercy, it's running rampant across the pond.

http://www.newsweek.com/twice-many-british-muslims-fighting-isis-armed-forces-265865

Yeah, I posted that link last week... When quoting Kagan's thought that Britain had pretty much retired from global leadership after WWII.

But poverty's got nuthin' to do with it, huh? You guys think people are naturally enchanted by Islam....

As a Christian, I never took the prosecution and execution of Paul Hill--a former pastor who murderer an abortion doctor and a colleague--as an attack on my faith. He was punished for his actions, and I don't identify with him.

As a Christian, I don't take the rebuke of the Westboro Baptist Church as a rebuke of my faith. Their antics deserve scorn, and I don't identify with then.

However, that is what concerns me about Muslims. So many in the peaceable majority take our retaliation against terrorism and the preaching of jihad as an attack on their faith. My question being, why do you identify with them rather than rebuke them, the way most Christians rebuke Paul Hill and Westboro?

I couldn't remember who did, but that link was eye opening. They have a real problem. And I agree with Trust, I think most Christians consider anyone who is a radical like those he referenced, to not be actual Christians. You can't have the hate and murder and have the love and forgiveness. Oil and water.

Is Shinto still a problem?

At one time it was the organizing philosophy behind a terroristic military dictatorship, doing biological warfare experiments, on thousands of other Asians, and strapping IED's to their own women and children, and forcing them to run into enemy lines. While at the same time, working on their own atomic bomb.

Now, Shinto is pretty much a quaint little cultural artifact.

Arab values, and culture, as expressed by Islam, is the problem here people. It is the banner the radicals march under not the driving force.

A sensible moderate Muslim either supports the terrorists, or keeps his mouth shut for fear of become the next target. Only people born and raised in a representative democracy could be so naive as to think that standing up to, or disagreeing with murderous thugs, is an intelligent idea.

> So many in the peaceable majority
> take our retaliation against terrorism
> and the preaching of jihad as an attack
> on their faith.

Yeah? Name one. (1.)

Tell us the name we'11 all instantly recognize… Just one whose paradoxical feelings we'd instantly identify with, as by the suffering of a famous accident victim or fate reversal. After all, "so many."

Seriously, Amy, get back to us on this… Tell us what you want. (Besides wakeupsheeple.)

All those years of study ought to add up to something.

No problem in your life, no subject for your attention has ever been —or could ever be— such a simplistic time sink.

Also, Trust, tell us how many non-junkie women you knew who died of aids, how many died from salt, and how many kids were snatched by strangers, because Mom never bother to fingerprint the little buggers.

Data.

We want numbers.

This afternoon I was flipping through my copy of "Reading Lolita in Tehran," by Azar Nafisi.

I came across this passage, page 103:

"As I got to know him better, I realized he was not as arrogant as I thought him to be. Or perhaps I grew more accustomed to his special kind of arrogance, that of a naturally shy and reserved young man who had discovered an absolutist refuge called Islam. It was his doggedness, his newfound certainty, that gave him this arrogance. At times he could be very gentle, and when he talked, he would not look you in the eyes - not just because a Muslim man should not look a woman in the eyes, but because he was too timid. It was this mixture of arrogance and shyness that aroused my curiosity.

[...]

When the radical students canceled classes, he was among the first who showed up, with evident disapproval. During these canceled classes, we usually talked about the various events unfolding at the university or the political issues of the day. He cautiously tried to make me understand what political Islam meant, and I rebuffed him, because it was exactly Islam as a political entity that I rejected. I told him about my grandmother, who was the most devout Muslim I had ever known, even more than you, Mr. Bahri, and still she shunned politics. She resented the fact that her veil, which to her was a symbol of her sacred relationship to God, had now become an instrument of power, turning hte women who wore them into political signs and symbols. Where do your loyalties lie, Mr. Bahri, with Islam or the state?

Now, Shinto is pretty much a quaint little cultural artifact.
yes, because after WWII, it was de-institutionalized. It didn't happen by "itself".

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1437

It was Shinto, the native religion of Japan, that had not only given its wholehearted support to the war machine but had provided its very rationale: the myths and legends that led directly to the kamakazi pilots. Shinto taught that the emperor was a descendant of the very gods who had created their islands and that Japan thus had a mandate to rule the “world under one roof” (Hakko Ichiu)....

...the Allied Directive of December 15, 1945: Shinto was to be completely disestablished: it could not be taught in Japan’s public schools, state funding would be eliminated, and the emperor would be persuaded to denounce his divinity (to “de-god” himself, as the GIs called it). On January 1, 1946, Emperor Hirohito shocked Japan with a radio announcement -- broadcast repeatedly, so there could be no misunderstanding -- stating that it was a mistake to think of him as a descendant of the gods or that the Japanese were a superior people.

...the Allied Directive of December 15, 1945: Shinto was to be completely disestablished: it could not be taught in Japan’s public schools, state funding would be eliminated, and the emperor would be persuaded to denounce his divinity (to “de-god” himself, as the GIs called it). On January 1, 1946, Emperor Hirohito shocked Japan with a radio announcement -- broadcast repeatedly, so there could be no misunderstanding -- stating that it was a mistake to think of him as a descendant of the gods or that the Japanese were a superior people.

Posted by: Stinky the Clown at September 15, 2014 6:05 PM

Well the Shinto temples and shrines are under new management, and doing a roaring business in Japan. If you lived there, like I do, you would know that.

And Hirohito's birthday is a national holiday. Same flag, same national anthem.

And yes, In spite of official edicts of denial, the Japanese are still some of the most racist people on the face of the earth.

But Shinto itself was never the problem, the Japanese were the problem, as the Arabs are now the problem.

Boy they don't tell you all that on Wikipedia. I tell my kids not to depend on that site for their info, and then here I went and clicked on their article first when you said "shinto." Lesson relearned.