But Islam is a Religion of Peace!

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The killing IS the point

Since the Islamic bloodletting has come to France, apologists for religious mythology have struggled to make a convincing argument that the problem was something other than fanatics acting on the religious dogma in which they were indoctrinated. But ultimately, it can't be done - there's no way to separate the act from its motivations, and there's no viable argument that the attacks in Paris would have happened outside the framework of religious mythology.

Here's the problem. No one ever 'owns' a religion's holy scriptures. They are intended to be interpreted, re-published, translated, preached and taught by all adherents. You can claim they say one thing, but it simply doesn't matter. They say what the believers believe they say. And in a harsh interpretation like the Takfiri Wahabism that is driving so much brutal violence around the world today, those holy books describe anything but a "religion of peace".

This is one of the reasons that religious mythology is such a toxic overlay on modern societies. A particular belief system can exist for centuries, growing and spreading in peaceful coexistence, and then, in the blink of an eye metastasize into something horrible that appeals to people who are poor, oppressed and/or illiterate or marginalized. And just like that, neighbors are slaughtering neighbors over mythical slights or historical events going back generations. Just like that, "God" becomes something vengeful, hateful and intolerant.

You can believe whatever idiocy you choose. I have no investment in how you live your life. But when you decide that your ridiculous taboos extend to me, that your pathetic "fatwas" become a life or death crisis for people who don't share your faith, when freedoms are constrained by violent coercion, well, that's the point where we ARE going to have to go to war. It doesn't matter if Charlie Hebdo was crude, or racist. The thing that matters is they're dead. A belief in Islamic doctrine, as interpreted by many adherents, killed them. And that cannot be apologized for, that cannot be justified, that cannot be "yes, butted". That has to be resisted.
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