How Muslims around the world condemned the Paris attacks: ‘Terrorism has NO religion’

[Ken Burch]

Source: Washington Post

Muslims and their supporters took to social media last night and this morning to condemn the deadly terror attacks in Paris and reiterate the difference between Islam and extremist dogma.

As news about the shootings trickled out, an eyewitness said that one of the perpetrators had yelled “Allahu Akbar,” (“God is great” in Arabic), before firing into a crowd at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris. Just before noon local time, French President François Hollande said the Islamic State was responsible for the deaths and called the attack an “act of war.”

Muslim groups and countries widely condemned the terror attacks in Paris, and Muslims and supporters around the world took to social media to defend Islam as a nonviolent faith.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/14/how-muslims-around-the-world-condemned-the-paris-attacks/

[Ken Burch]

1. This image from the link was worth posting on its own:

https://twitter.com/Moha_Alruwaili/status/665443017130668032/photo/1

[Feeling the Bern]

13. Jihad is a defensive holy war. The concept being Islam is under attack.

With that mindset, there are no innocent human beings. Sad, but true.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. Many of the young guys joining were given an "Islam for Dummies" book....

They joined up to be cool and get laid.

[uppityperson]

3. K&r

[Marthe48]

4. If a person kills for religion

he's made religion a convenient excuse for his actions. Saying that all Muslims are terrorists, all Christians are Westboro Baptists, saying any religious extreme is the religion, ignores the tenets of faiths that say taking a life is a sin.
None of the major religions are going to go away, so all of us who recognize religion, and all of us who don't, had better find a way to get along. All of us humans who aren't mass-murdering psychopaths need to get along with each other and make the killings end.

[6chars]

5. Good for them

[NonMetro]

6. Terrorism has no religion?

Sure, let's just forget these religious fanatics did this in the name of their God to get the 30, or maybe 72 "black eyed virgins" when they get to paradise as their reward for murdering infidels? That has nothing to do with religion?

[Elmergantry]

7. Crazy I know...but you are expected to suspend ones common sense these days

Fact of the matter is it has everything to do with religion. Christianity was founded on the idea of the love of God and of a God of Love, by the 12 apostles. The 12 apostles never lifted a sword, hurt a hair on someones head, to make their case. Mohammed, on the other hand...

Truth is, even though most Muslims are not terrorists, most terrorists these days are Muslim.

[Ken Burch]

9. Millions died at the hands of warriors quoting the Bible.

Christianity is not pure on any of this(and I say that as a Christian).

As the great Leon Rosselson lyric put it:

By sword and gun and crucifix
Christ's gospel has been spread
And two thousand cruel years have shown
The way that Jesus led
The heretics burned and tortured
And the butchering bloody Crusaders
The bombs and rockets sanctified
That rain down death from heaven
They followed Jesus, they knew the answer
All unbelievers must be believers
Or else be broken

[Elmergantry]

29. Most here missed my point.

I am talking about the foundations of each religion. I am not talking about those who have misused the religion.

Christianity's foundation is built on love. And its founders, the 12 apostles, demonstrated that.

Islam is based on submission, at times a forceful, violent, submission as demonstrated by its founder, Mohammed.

I realize most Muslims do not want anything to do with the violence, however those who do violence claim to be only following the example of their founder and his writings. In their eyes, the peaceful Muslims are the heretics.

Although Christians have committed atrocities in the name of their religion many moons ago, it has by and large matured into a faith that strives to reflect its founders. Islamist terrorists are only reflecting its founding founding principles.

[hollowdweller]

36. True. In Christianity a martyr is not somebody who when he dies for his faith takes others along

[trillion]

49. No true. We have plenty of fundies who consider people who kill gays and go to prison for it martyrs

Hey, that bigot lady who wouldn't give out marriage licenses to gay people got declared a martyr for simply going to jail for a day.

[trillion]

48. The ignorance on your post shouldn't exist on this site, but alas here is your posts and many more

like it from others. The Extreme right Fundies also kills in the name of God - abortion doctors, in war, heck they all wanted to nuke Iran when we first went to war there. They however are anything but Christians while claiming to be Christians. The Muslims are putting up with the same problem. Their religion has evolved to be as peaceful as Christianity and killing people is anti what the vast majority of their churches teach. However they get the extremists just like Christians do. The sad part is the gross ignorance of Christians - no matter how much the Muslim churches try to tell you that they're about love, they get this ignorant crap in your post.

[Elmergantry]

51. Yes all the security at the airports

stadiums, et all are because of those Amish terrorists...and we all know about those Christian suicide bombers come from the Vatican..

[NonMetro]

10. Well, we're kind of in a "we're the good Muslims, they're the bad Muslims" sort of thing.

Christians do that to. When some religious anti-abortion fanatic murders an abortion doctor, other Christians are quick to say "that's not us!" - even though the fanatic's beliefs were nurtured on the same bread and wine, in the same pews, listening to the same priests and ministers, and reading the same bible. They all come from the same house, and so do all Muslims. The terrorists are their mosque mates, their soul mates. They can try to comfort themselves all they want by saying "that's not us" - but they can't separate Islam from this.

[Ken Burch]

17. You cannot hold all Muslims or Islam as a religion responsible for this. n/t.

[hollowdweller]

37. Not all muslims but I think there is a case for Islam as a religion.

A lot of these guys are being radicalized in mosques. A lot even in mosques in countries where they are free to be Sunnis, Shiites or whatever. Nobody is telling them what to do.

Christianity may have been perverted in the past but it's essentially pacifistic if you read the New Testament. If you read the Old Testament however there is a very violent and intolerant strain in it. Yet the amount of Jewish people who still believe you should stone people for adultery or cut off peoples hands and stuff? A HELL Of a lot fewer than muslims.

As a religion has to survive in a multi religious society the extreme elements are discarded. However to me at least Islam is actually going backward.

I have a pal and he went back to his home town in Algeria for the first time in like 35 years. He said people he used to drink beer with when he was in his 20's were giving him shit for not praying over and over. He said he could never live there now it's so intolerant. Back when he lived there there were hippies there for the hash and people were Islamic but not wanting to kill non believers.

[LeftyMom]

47. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

[Ken Burch]

8. No more than the Crusades(which were terrorist acts against the Muslim world), buddy.

Christians and "the West" will never be entitled to claim moral superiority on things like this.

[NonMetro]

11. Really? Says who?

Nobody living today is even remotely responsible for what happened nearly a thousand years ago, and what does that have to do with what happened in Paris?

But let me ask you something: can those who have not murdered hundreds of innocent people in cold blood claim moral superiority to those who have?

[Ken Burch]

19. Christianity HAS murdered millions of innocent people throughout its history.

Western imperialism(driven by the use of Christian scripture)is soaked with blood.
So were the Christian civil wars throughout European history.
Manifest Destiny(or what John Wayne comically called "The Winning Of The West&quot was Christianity-fueled genocide against Native Americans. As was slavery in the Western Hemisphere.

Christianity has more blood on its hands than any religion in history. No Christian has any right to demonize ANY OTHER RELIGION on this issue.

[NonMetro]

22. Really? Christians don't have any right? Since when?

Look, buddy, Muslim history is pretty much blood soaked, too. Shall we try to figure how many gallons of blood each one has spilled? - and then compare? Shall we talk about recent blood? 3,000+ Americans murdered on 9/11?

However, we will note here that it took less than one day for someone - you - to try to justify this atrocity in Paris by bringing up the crusades from a thousand years ago, and what happened to native Americans hundreds of years ago. If any of these murderers survived and are arrested, maybe they can use that at their trial - at least if they can stop shouting "Alluha Akbar" long enough for their lawyers to get a word in edge ways!

[Ken Burch]

23. I justified nothing. I simply pointed out that no Christian can ever have any righteousness on this

What happened was unspeakable. The vast majority of Muslims have condemned it. So why are you so fixated on holding all of Islam responsible? No good can come from demonizing Islam as a religion or Muslims as a collectivity.

I have no idea why you are committed to doubling down on your defense of cultural/religious hatred.

(by the way, my comments about Christianity, my own religion, are neither hatred nor self-hatred. They are simply honesty).

[NonMetro]

27. So, now I'm "fixated" on holding Islam Responsible, and "doubling down"

In defense of cultural/religious hatred? And now you say no Christian can have any "righteousness" in this matter? Why? Because you decide who can be righteous and who can't? Christians living today have no "right" to demonize (your word, not mine) any other religion because of things that happened long before any of us we born?

And as far as "cultural/religious hatred" is concerned, I'm not the one who murdered 120 innocent people in Paris. Have you seen me defend it?

[Ken Burch]

28. You didn't see me defend it either. A small group of psychopaths killed those people.

The beliefs they may claim to have held had nothing to do with those acts. People all over the world have killed in the name of nearly every religion, ideology and philosophy, and also for no good reason. Insisting on holding Islam responsible,, and pretending that Christianity is innocent, does nothing to honor the dead or to prevent and more such acts.

For the love of goddess, stop channelling Terry Jones(the Koran-burning pastor, not the Monty Python guy) and George W. Bush. You are a better person than that.

[NonMetro]

30. So, would you also say Christian beliefs had nothing to do with the crusades,

and all those other awful things you mentioned? Incidentally, I didn't say I disagreed with you while you were demonizing and denouncing Christianity - other that your use of the word "genocide" in relation to Native Americans, because, IMO, it must be intentional to be called that.

But, since you brought it up (and please, control yourself. Terry Jones, Really!!) let's discuss what role religion plays in atrocities. You see, initially I expressed my incredulity about someone on the Internet saying "this is not religion" over and over again - as if repeating it often enough would make it true. But then you said - in so many words - that Christianity spawned all of these horrible things in the past, but these acts in Paris, with guys shouting "Alluha Akbar" wasn't spawned by Islam? Do I have that right: Christianity spawns horrid things, but Islam does not? Horrid things "come out of" Christianity, but when horrid things are done by Islamic extremists, well, well, let's not trace that back to Islam the way you traced slavery back to Christianity!

During the crusades, Christians murdered Muslims in the name of God, but when Muslims murder innocent people in the name of Allah, that's ....like....different. Has nothing to do with Islam! The Crusaders were real Christians - representing all of Christianity, but those who murdered people in Paris weren't real Muslims. Is that what we're supposed to believe?

[melman]

31. +1

And the response from OP... *crickets*

lol

[NonMetro]

33. Isn't interesting, too..

In the link in the OP, the person said "Terrorism has NO religion" exactly five times? Five times. Gee, I wonder what religion that person was?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

44. So you're basically contradicting your own OP

Religion CAN be tied to terrorism.

Glad we straightened that out.

[Ken Burch]

46. Religion can be twisted into an excuse. It still doesn't mean terrorism "has" a religion.

It is not inherently the cause. There was nothing in the Scriptures that had to lead to the Inquisition, the Crusades, the Holocaust and the Native American Genocide.

Equally, there was nothing in the Suras that had to lead to what happened in Paris or any other despicable acts somebody used them to justify.

It's in the interface between the person and the text.

No dominant religion anywhere can claim moral superiority over any other. And there is no good reason for anyone to try to prove that any religion is morally superior to any other.

What we should be doing is to say "how can we make a world where things like this don't happen?", not "whose God is better than whose other God".

[Feeling the Bern]

12. Ummm. . .I'm Jewish. I can legitimately claim my people had nothing to do with the Crusades

and were victimized by it as well. We are part of "the West" too.

[Ken Burch]

15. Yes, you can. There was no excuse for the Crusaders trying to take Jerusalem.

You are part of "The West", but never meant to say you were to blame for the Crusaders. Sorry that I somehow made it sound like I was attacking the Jewish people or Judaism. That's a million miles from my intent. How should I have worded that to avoid creating the impression you took?

[tabasco]

32. Yeah, the 13th century was a rough time.

The Muslim attack on Paris was two days ago.

BTW, are you truly ignorant of atrocities by Muslim armies in historical times?

Your statements are ridiculous.

[Feeling the Bern]

14. I live in a Muslim Country

I live in Kuala Lumpur and the Muslims here are completely sickened by the "animals" and "mongrels" in the Middle East. As the Imam in Petaling Jaya told me when we went for coffee: "Don't confuse those pigs with real Muslims." When I asked why this isn't said publicly, he, first, gave me conspiracy theory (because it doesn't fit into the Western narrative as to what a Muslim is) and then the real answer (the animals control people through fear).

I am not a religious person. I am Jewish and a Jew and a Muslim sat in a coffee shop in Petaling Jaya. He said his prayer of mourning. I said the Mourner's Kaddish and he is one of the best men I have ever known.

With that said, when I asked if it is time for the world to step up, he said "It is a Muslim problem. Muslims need to do it." Without knowing American idioms, he basically told me Muslims need to do some house-cleaning internally.

[Ken Burch]

16. Good for him.

Must be a pretty hot day there today.

[Feeling the Bern]

18. 35 degrees and oppressive humidity that hits you in the face immediately.

But it's so damn beautiful.

[Ken Burch]

20. Maybe I'll visit there someday.

(I'm thinking of going to the Phillippines at some point after retirement...a lot of my crewmembers on the Alaska ferries are from there, and it wouldn't be that far to go to Malaysia from there).

[Feeling the Bern]

21. I reccomend Kota Kinabalu, Penang, Langkawi or Tuwau.

[Ken Burch]

24. Thanks for that. n/t.

[vkkv]

35. I lived in Petaling Jaya ( New P.J.) in 1965-66 when I was 9 & 10.

We often heard the Muslim call to prayer in the mornings and sometimes throughout the day, if I happen to notice, even in our community neighborhood just outside of Kuala Lumpur. I had Muslim friends from school, "Sultan Alam Shah" and a mix of Muslim, Chinese and British neighbor-friends. My Malay neighbor kid Sham was a good friend, he'd go with us sometimes to the A&W Root Beer downtown on Batu Cave Rd, I think it was. His older brother would give me rides on his Lambretta once in a while. Everyone was extremely nice, but this WAS in the mid-sixties when kindness could be found easily everywhere.. Everyone there lived in peace back then after the military skirmish of Singapore seeking its independence in the early 60's.

We were there for 9 months because my father had set up a job lecturing on pathology and as Assoc Dean of the medical school at the the University of Kuala Lumpur. There was a new wing being added on and he helped set up the new pathology lab as well. I remember him coming home saying that a couple of cobras had been disturbed during the construction.

I had my 10th b-day there.

We experienced the Thaipusam celebration, the Tama Nagara, staying a a former palace turned hotel in the jungle, where we hiked out into the jungle with a guide to visit Negritos and brought them kitch-ware gifts - I still have some of their blow-darts that we traded goods for, the jungle migrating Negritos were as tall as I and I was ten! We also often went up to Frazier Hill Park. What an adventure. The east coast, too, seemed especially wild back then. Wow, chicken satay, fresh rambutons and fresh shaved coconut wrapped in newspaper all to be had at the outdoor market.

It's too bad your Imam friend had this to say ""then the real answer (the animals control people through fear)."" To me that sounds very weak and politically correct... That is as if the U.S. were being held hostage by the evangelical right our of fear. We aren't quite there yet, fortunately..


Enjoy!
Victor

[Feeling the Bern]

38. Aren't we? As well as the NRA? Say anything against them and it's political suicide.

War on Christmas. Posting the ten commandments. US is a Christian nation. Blowing up pre-natal clinics and killing doctors.

Revising history like in Texas. Kim Davis/Ted Cruz. . .even a secularist nutbag like Trump.

[vkkv]

41. So much for a friendly exchange.. read on

Everything the NRA does is legal. Do I support their actions? No. People who listen to the NRA would be voting GOP anyway. Duh.

""War on Christmas. US is a Christian nation."" - these are just slogans, we lefties have them, too. "Black Lives Matter", "No War For Oil"...

""Posting the ten commandments. "" is a blurring of law that is being challenged to this day, no one is afraid for their lives, alright?

Take the actual reality of abortion clinic bombings - EVERY single person who gets caught gets tried - there is no weak-ass shit like "oh, we can't go after these religious freaks even though they're criminals" - not one person believes that - well, except your Imam buddy in KL. If any NRA members shoots someone, they're going to jail. Many Islamic nations seem to have let the religious insane-asylum RUN the place probably because it was the extremists who voiced their disgust with the United States meddling with their politics and economies since and before the ouster of Mosaddegh, I know that, it's not the politics, it's the fear of the religious extremists that we are talking out here and to what your Imam buddy revealed is really sad.

re: revised history, it will continue to get revised.. how many times has the Bible been revised? There are more than 150 version in English alone.

The NRA does not have as much power as you think. The greater threat is all of the gerrymandering that GOP led states are doing.

[Feeling the Bern]

43. Agree！ Agree! Agree! Agree!!!

No need to take offense. My previous reply to you was said in complete agreement.

[cemaphonic]

40. That raises a point that often gets left out of these discussions

The triangle beween India, Western China, and Indonesia has a Muslim population that absolutely dwarfs the Muslim population of the Middle East. And while religious violence isn't totally unheard of in that part of the world, it's on a far lesser scale than the Middle East.

So there is something else going on with ME culture other than just religion that produces this level of extremist violence.

[bluestateguy]

25. Muslim countries are and will be important allies in fighting ISIS

In fact, we won't be able to do it without them.

[rockfordfile]

26. I agree

[vkkv]

34. "Terrorism Has NO Religion" - BUT Religious FANATICS Are Perfectly Willing to Use TERRORISM

Last edited Sun Nov 15, 2015, 01:57 PM - Edit history (1)

in GOD'S NAME

Praise The Lord Jesus! Christ Oh Lord! In God's Name! Allah Akbar!


Yeah, "Terrorism Has NO Religion" good slogan, but it DOESN'T ANSWER A GOD-DAMNED THING!!

In the U.S. if some anti-gay pastor starts knocking off gay in the streets or gay-clubs, he'll be picked up, thrown in jail and await as fair of a trial as possible.. as usual..

[meow2u3]

39. What twisted barbarians they are!

God is great, so I'm going to kill a whole bunch of innocent people in cold blood!

[Ken Burch]

42. As the Lakota said about our ancestors, back in the day.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

45. "Muslim groups and countries widely condemned the terror attacks in Paris"

Were these countries the same ones who stone women and hang gays? All in the name of "Islamic rule of law"?

[Jesus Malverde]

50. The headline is dumb. Tell that to the people who died

In Jonestown or were gassed in the Tokyo subway, or had their heads brutally cut off in Syria.