Journal sm62704's Journal: Muslim Moderation 7
One of the nice things about metamoderation is you get to see some stuff you missed before, that come up for you when you metamoderate. here's one:
My faith...
by - on Thursday February 07, @03:17PM (#22337950)
I'm an American Muslim who was born and raised here. While I choose to reserve my opinion over the images of the Prophet I do find a lot of the comments on Slashdot to be disappointing. I've been a part of this community since its very inception and have done my best to contribute my expertise to relevant topics. However, its troubling to see that whenever anything Islam-related is posted, there are endless tirades painting my faith with a broad brush of extremism and ignorance.As I've seen in the past, this sort of post always garners responses such as: "well if you're so level-headed then why aren't you changing the Muslim world?" Unfortunately, all 1+ billion of us are treated as if we're one big happy family. I have no more power to change the world of Islam than I do my own country's domestic and foreign policy beyond the established routes (i.e. voting, debates, etc). We make small but significant gains in our own ways but none of possess earth shattering abilities to make miracles happen. If we--as westerners--are really bastions of knowledge and free thinking then I'd do far more to educated the masses about my religion instead of having it hijacked by both non-Muslim Islamophobes and international extremists.
I will say that discussions littered with such ignorance and hate don't help people like me when we try to open up dialog with members of our religion. As much as people here may call the anti-portraitists relics of the past its very difficult to defend enlightenment and modernism when its laced with veiled Islamophobia [1]. Its even more difficult when people outside of the religion have the audacity to tell Muslims what is and isn't antiquated or kosher. Defining our religion for us wreaks of orientalism and causes even the most moderate to stop listening. I certainly hope I don't get modded or flamed into oblivion because this discussion needs to start somewhere.
[1]: Lets not beat around the bush and call it what it is when 15 century old stereotypes are thrown back in our collective faces even though they may have been debunked already. It even offends me.
Original Discussion: Muslim Groups Attempt to Censor Wikipedia
Rating: Insightful.
This rating is Unfair Fair | See Context
Of course, by the time one metamoderates a moderation, the discussion is often or even usually archived. Yesterday I metamoderated a moderation of a comment for which my comment was the grandparent comment, which I found kind of weird.
Some thoughts on the above comment:
its troubling to see that whenever anything Islam-related is posted, there are endless tirades painting my faith with a broad brush of extremism and ignorance.
Be glad! They're as extremist and ignorant about ALL faiths; most of them anyway, it seems. Any mention of religion at all and the athiests attack. Often no mention of religion is needed for them to flame and troll.
Yes, troll. A troll is NOT "an unpopular opion" as some here seem to think (I get modded "troll" all the time, especially if I'm too blunt about an opinion). A troll, according to wikipedia, is "someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response[1] or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.[2]" (emphasis mine).
The Muslim gentleman quoted above is in the monority, but so are Christians and Jews. Slashdotters generally worship science (or what they percieve to be science, and they're generally as wrong about science as most Christians are about Christianity) and Americans worship nothing but money.
Tolerance goes both ways. Athiests need to tolerate, too. If you substitute "gay" for "muslim" in you anti-Muslim rant and it sounds homophobic, perhaps you might need a little self-reflection.
Re: (Score:2)
I suppose the so called Christians are as tolerant of ahteists as you expect atheists to be tolerant towards them
Th etrouble is, most so-called Christians doen't even RTFB. Christianity is about the teachings of Christ. The old covenant (Jewish and Muslim) was overturned by the new cobenant. It has two rules which embody all of the ten put forth by Moses: Love God above all else, love your neighbor as yourself.
My take on athiests is that if you are an athiest, then God must want you to be an athiest. I'm no
Re: (Score:2)
If there is any reference to drugs, I haven't found it. As to alcohol, it says (and I'm misquoting from memory as accurately as I can) "give wine to the grieving and strong drink to the dying". The apostles got shitfaced drunk at the last supper, and it grieved Jesus that they were passed out and couldn't wake up to be there for him.
I did an electronic search of the words "whore" and "whores".It says you shouldn't sell your daughter and you shouldn't be a pimp, and if you consort with them other people will
From my point of view... (Score:2)
Look at it this way: to me, believing in some sort of "supreme being" which cares about and influences your existence is an irrational belief.
This basic irrational belief can be the basis for a number of other beliefs about unrelated fields of knowledge: ethics, morality, consumption of food, sexual behavior. These in turn can influence a lot of other thought processes. This seemingly simple irrational belief is the starting point, a premise, of a number of other illogical ideas and decisions. It informs yo
Re: (Score:2)
Look at it this way: to me, believing in some sort of "supreme being" which cares about and influences your existence is an irrational belief.
Yes, it is irrational, but my belief doesn't come from reason. It comes from something I can't ignore [kuro5hin.org].
You realize muslims, from their "sacred" laws, must stone atheists?
You won't change that by fighting them.
I cannot give those people any respect.
Respect != tolerance. I have no respect for anyone who wants to kill their fellow humans either. Rather, the rational thing
Yes (Score:2)
I don't respect your belief in an Imaginary Sky Santa, but I do respect your right to believe it.
So long as you don't prattle on about it at inappropriate times or places.