Sam Harris on Liberals and their views of muslim extremists.

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Sam Harris on Liberals and their views of muslim extremists.

 

Video here 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBOGQckaF0U

 

My commentary on a myspace bullettin I left regarding this video here. 

Ok, I already know and will preemptively reply to any comments back which will undoubtedly relate this to the palestinian/Israeli conflict from some of you on my friend's list. First of all....I agree that much of the conflict and muslim extremism is fueled in part, by the zionist movement. I fully support the disbanding of AIPAC and the abolition of the Christian Zionist lobby. There is nothing more I despise in American politics than these two groups.

However, the plight of the Palestinians has very little to do with the ideologies prescribed in Islam as far as apostasy, free speech, freedom in general, misogyny, jihad and the spreading of Islam world wide.

Religion is not only, part of the problem in the middle east. It is the elephant in the room NO ONE wants to talk about when it comes to the problems associated with that part of the world.

Yes, Israel commits atrocities in the middle east, and there is no bigger critic than myself on the way Israel conducts itself, however, the muslims are not completely innocent here either. Are all israelites murderous savages? Of course not, are all muslims murderous savages, no of course not. What we have to understand is that the hatred between Israel and muslims is religious at the very foundation. If it was not for the religious values of those lands and the people, there would be no conflicts.

Now some argue that there are ALWAYS reasons why people hate each other and kill each other. Although true, we cannot chase that red herring, we need to look at the historical realties of that specific part of the world. And history tells us that these lands are considered "sacred" and holy by the religions that the people in those lands prescribe to. Israel claims religious rights to those lands and so do the muslims.

Now, the strawman of blaming muslim extremism solely on the israeli/palestinian conflict is flawed and here's why. Look at the rest of the world where muslim extremists are violently spreading their "jihad" against the infidels, Philippines, Somalia, North Africa/Algeria, Chechnya, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Thailand come to mind, not to mention the large population of muslims migrating to western Europe. None of these countries have any care or vested interest in Palestine...theirs is a pure ideological hatred of secular societies. They believe they must spread Islam. We've seen this path before with the crusades, except back then it was the christians.

So even though I agree that we need to stop supporting Israel solely from an american interest and foreign policy standpoint, we can't use that as an excuse to justify muslim extremists and their irrational and thoughless war on innocent women and children so that they can gain their 72 virgins once they commit a suicide bombing.

Religion is divisive, it spawns hatred and "feel good, live and let live" liberals need to get smacked with a sense of rationality and approach the debate regarding the atrocities committed by islam and all religions, sensibly and honestly.

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