The Religious Extremism the Media DOESN’T Tell You About

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Written by: Carey Wedler at theantimedia.org

 

Violence is bad. Most people around the world, regardless of demographic, agree. That’s why people from all walks of life even and especially Muslims wholly condemned the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.

Predictably, however, many who protest Islamic violence are quick to advocate it themselves.

There may be components of the Quran that some groups believe advocate violence and eliminating infidels. This is what terrorists preach when they launch their attacks. But while these may be the most highlighted types of terrorism and political violence, the Christians and Jews castigating such acts are guilty, like Muslims, of belonging to a broad demographic with sects that “commit terror.”

For example, not all Christians have condemned Christian violence against Muslims in Africa. Are all Christians savages?

On a larger scale, in 2003, George Bush declared that God “told him” to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. If Christians did not want violence committed in their name, shouldn’t they have protested? American citizens are 83% Christian and in 2003, it is undoubted that they made up some of the 72% of Americans who supported Bush’s “crusade.”

“But that’s justified because…9/11! It was retaliation and therefore justified war and violence!”

Was it?

Because it is now common knowledge that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and everything to do with war profiteering. Further, George Bush simply said that God told him to remove the tyrannical leaders. In his twisted messianic view, it had nothing to do with avenging violence done to “us”. This makes it aggressive violence as condemnable as the terrorist attacks in France. Did nearly hundreds of thousands of civilians need to die and suffer because of American terrorism?

Like many claim of the Quran, the Christian bible contains countless references to violence, including killing homosexuals (which Westboro Baptist Church would likely do if it could).

Further, Christians justify excessive violence on the part of Israelis not only because “Israel is a democracy!” and “Terrorists are bad!” but because they have religious underpinnings to their support of the Jewish state. Some (not all-so as not to collectivize) evangelical Christians believe that having Jews in Israel is central to achieving the rapture.  Therefore, to some, anything Israel does to Palestinians is justifiable after all, God wants the Jews there. How is advocating and funding (complicit through 100 billion U.S. tax dollars) war, bombings, and a racist police state not extreme?

Speaking of Israel, the Torah is extremely violent and the aggressive Israeli government has incorporated religion into its identity. It is eager to declare itself a Jewish state.

global-terror-index_840_528_100
Click on the picture to enlarge

“But Israel is a democracy!”

Yes, with a Jewish star on its flag, and some (remember, collectivizing is bad!) religious Zionists who claim that they have the right to settle on Palestinian land because they are entering a “messianic age.”

One “settler,” Oster Baras,who moved from Ohio to Israel and serves as the Director of the Israel office for Christian Friends of Israel Communities Heartland, claimed:

“God is basically beckoning you; and realize that all you need to do is do your part…God doesn’t put cities down from the heavens; he’s never done that. He opens the opportunities, but humans have to make it happen.”

This sect of religious Zionists believes that God opening opportunities means kicking innocent people off of their land. And “making that happen” often requires violence. The Israeli government has taken to using bulldozers to demolish houses and humans alike. “Settlers” were guilty of 399 terrorist attacks, according to the U.S. State department’s 2013 calculations.

Even Buddhist terrorism is a growing problem in the world, but few condemn the religion of the Buddha and all of its subscribers. Saudi Wahhabism is at the root of the Islamic State, yet Americans do not attempt to stop the practices of Saudi Arabia, which beheads, cuts off hands, and punishes people for exercising the natural right to free speech.

Invariably, though, (non-Saudi) Islam is the devil and any conversation about the West’s interventionist policy that radicalized it is heresy.

And therein lies the most dangerous root of religious extremism: obedience to the state. Christians, Jews, Muslims, and the non-relgious in many countries exercise a substantial amount of  fanaticism toward their governments, which claim to represent their nationalities.

Being American or Israeli or Egyptian is a religion in and of itself. In America, citizens perform rituals: pledging allegiance to an inanimate object, voting, and celebrating the holidays of the holy founding “fathers” of the Constitution. Citizens harbor a magical belief that the state is their salvation, whether to implement their views or guarantee their freedoms. People perform similar rituals around the world to show their faith.

It is this “religious” extremism that has allowed war and destruction to occur and leads to the deaths of innocent children, women, and men. It leads people to glorify psychopaths like Chris Kyle who reveled in killing hundreds of people in Iraq. Is it not a little extreme to celebrate cold-blooded murder as a triumph of humanity? The same goes for citizens of any country or religion who rejoice in the loss of life.

Extremismwhether to religion, the state, or the two intertwinedis an impediment to peaceful civilization. It’s time to stop pointing fingers when the hands they’re attached to are soaked in blood.

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33 COMMENTS

  1. How is ‘the media’ not telling us this? America being a very religious country? Nothing new to me. The war on Iraq being unjust and based on lies? Has been covered countless times in countless articles. War crimes committed by Israel? They have been fucking condemned by the UN and the European Union. Seriously, stop fueling the mills of conspiracy theorists.

    • Wow – I go to the comments-section and actually don´t get angry or pissed off immediately. Thank you for your Comment, I fully agree with you there.

    • Well said. These topics are some of the most discussed issues on the planet, yet some people still persist in pretending it is all being kept secret as it fits in with their paranoia. .

    • There is no such thing as a type of terrorist, whether they use cyber tech, biological weaponry, or bombs. A terrorist is a terrorist, and they need to be locked up or put down. Life in prison is like the end of the world to them, especially Muslims.

  2. Since when did Anons get so Islam heavy. What ever happened to being equal to religions. All that’s on the site anymore is anti Christian and anti Jew. Its insulting to me.

    • That is why the word ‘christian’ is a bad word. To a non-religious and non-christian person, this word christian brings thoughts of backward thinking people, who have little knowledge, or do not want to know the truth about politics and their own country.
      If these same folks did less attraction toward the ‘man-made laws’ in their religion of christianity and focused more on the Master. Then this world would be a much better place for all of us.
      “Love Thy NEighbor as Thyself” and “Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them DO Unto You”….lets start here first!

  3. Since when did Anons get so Islam heavy. What ever happened to being equal to religions. All that’s on the site anymore is anti Christian and anti Jew. Its insulting to me.

    • Whats scary is every time I hear a person proclaiming that they are a christian. I start to get worried that they want to support IDF. It makes me run the other way, that is any one who talks about religion. Religion has nothing to do with spiritual truths, its a club or a logo-brand attraction,…much like apple and starbucks fans. Nothing special just a logo…..or brand.

  4. Again, American arrogance at work…Either you condemn the whole of muslim religion, You are a jew, or a christian. There is no middle ground. How about a fucking sane induvidual? Killing people is bad. Taking their homes for profit is bad. There is no BUT here. Especially in the name of a make-belief old guy in the sky? I get so fed up, Starting to think a crusade on religion is what it is going to take to get you psycopaths out of the rotation. Kill you , eradicate you`re beliefs. Freedom of speech you say. Unless you mean the wrong thing. Then It is terrorist.

    Fucking hipocrites.

    • CP is not free speech, neither is convincing people to commit murder. Sure you can be angry and say shit like “I am going to bury that fat ass!”, but when you activly convince someone to actually kill people, you are complicit to the crime. The FBI and their informants are not exempt from this either mind you, which is why Sabu and the Feds are just as guilty of the hacks they convinced others to commit, and why Sabu and his handlers should be sitting along side Jeremy Hammond.

      • “On a larger scale, in 2003, George Bush declared that God “told him” to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.”

        Other people who have used the “God told me to do it” defense are sitting in jail for murder. Tell me then why Bush is any different?

        I do not affiliate with ANY political party so let’s make that clear. I am a free thinker. And on the issue of Bush and this statement, I have ALWAYS wondered when the world will see some of these politicians who have committed crimes, be tried like Nazi’s were, years later for their war crimes?

        I am using Bush as an example, but the Clinton’s have far too many suspicious deaths shrouding their lives. There are so many more.

        Does it really matter what religion hates the other? This has been going on since the beginning of time. Each religion says they are peaceful, yet they find one issue in the other’s religious beliefs, and in true human form, try to convince the other side that THEY ARE/THEIR BELIEFS are, WRONG. But that happens even when religion is not the issue. It’s people. People have a need to find fault, and it’s gotten worse over time, as we have (supposedly) progressed.
        But then, have we really?? Do you honestly think this is about religion? I don’t. That’s just an excuse. There are Muslim terrorists that are prominent. And there was Hitler and his idea of a perfect world, and Stalin, and Israel, and Palestine, and Putin and Obama, and Russia, and China, and N.Korea…OOPS! That’s not religions either!

        It’s people, and power, and the people who have tohave the most power. The Crusades were terrorists too. And so is Israel. It’s happened because the countries are older and have had this kind of behavior from people, well, for too man years. But in the states, this kid of scourge and disease has not really prevailed as it has now. So is it REALLY about religion? or is it power, fueled by an excuse, a way of life, and people. Stop blaming religion.

    • CP is not free speech, neither is convincing people to commit murder. Sure you can be angry and say shit like “I am going to bury that fat ass!”, but when you activly convince someone to actually kill people, you are complicit to the crime. The FBI and their informants are not exempt from this either mind you, which is why Sabu and the Feds are just as guilty of the hacks they convinced others to commit, and why Sabu and his handlers should be sitting along side Jeremy Hammond.

  5. “There may be components of the Quran that some groups believe advocate violence and eliminating infidels. This is what terrorists preach when they launch their attacks.” Now they are not, and that´s not what “they preach” and that´s what the BS “indepedent press” ends up with. No even fucking research on the topic and posing as knowitalls when you don´t know SHIT. This discredits any BS that can be written by you dimwit cracker, as you prolly don´t even know who Sayyid Qutb is to make such statements. The rest is obviously BS starting from the second paragraph when you make a dumbfuck statement like that. This whole page is PRO-ANON in a sense that it´s clearly murican BS disguised as anon, yeah yeah anons devote their time to graphic design and this… SHIT ARTICLE like every bs post you write. The “OHH THE MSM ONLY WILL SHOW YOU THIS OR THAT” card has already been pulled and they still make profits those fags at ViCE to name one that regard journalism as putting a safari hat and paying for a “cannibal people” tour. Nice job nice and cozy fucks at vice waaayyyyy far from the gunfire and bombs their own country throws at a massive rate by the minute. this site is BS. Your are not anons gtfo, of course this kind of BS benefits REAL anons = see the question mark and the WORLD at the back? It´s not all murican bs. And btw do you actually enjoy making your open ignorance on the shit you speak of as if you know jack shit just by reposting from other sites? GTFO. And this site = INFILTRATED AND MURICAN CRACKER BS. And lulz “Written by: Carey Wedler at theantimedia.org” yeah the antimedia gives a lot of dumb fucks the oportunity to make a living reposting, not checking sources and this = obviously paid to disinfo. Either that or epic idiot. Rearch and this whole site is bs paid by the friends at the nsa or worst, great times for “JOURNALISM” (!!!??? yeah ok…) you can pick two pictures, take shit out of context, post without citation, who cares, we are anti media and pro- dollar!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYY!

    • Although I disagree with most of the article, albeit the underlying theme and motive for it can be productive (given the author gathers more information on this topic) and I can agree with you on some of your criticisms, you did nothing to validly discredit this article. What you are accusing the author of is precisely what you are doing yourself. Just like I have no reason to believe this author’s claims, I have no reason to believe yours. But to delve more into these religious behaviors, I reference both of you to the works of Sam Harris. He is a neuroscientist who’s main study in grad school was on belief, which naturally lead him into the study of religion. I believe he gives the most objective point of view onto all religions, an is fair in his criticisms. I have yet to see a hint of bias from this guy, as he debates rationally with a level head displaying sound logic and reasoning, whereas most of the people he debates with are quite the opposite. Please, just check out his work, think for yourselves, and formulate your own opinion.

  6. This is not an anon site but a disinfo site or a cash farm for reposting and posing as “journalists”, when a shit dimwit cracker gringo like this fellow cashes on posing as “the anti-media” making statements such as: “There may be components of the Quran that some groups believe advocate violence and eliminating infidels. This is what terrorists preach when they launch their attacks.” That´s thir paragraph, religions and reposted pictures aside, that cracker fuck prolly doesnt´ know nor even did any research on ohhh how about Sayyid Qutb? GTFO

  7. Wow this just made me lose a little respect for anonymous. Since when are they in deep defense for Islam. I wish that Anonymous would bother to do actual research into Islamic theology and simply stop saying “the majority are peaceful”. In the Nazi times, the majority of Germans were peaceful, but majority of them supported Hitler (80%), this the support that matters. Did you know how ignorant it is to say most Muslims condemn Charlie Hedbo. In the middle east and many Islamic countries hundreds of thousands have claimed support for the killings. In Arab world many many Islamic groups, not just terrorist, are calling for more killings towards Charlie Hedbo and even Muslim leaders. Literally EVERY Islamic country that’s under Islamic Law has capital punishment for those who insult Islam as Islamic instructs them too. Its so sad how Anonymous speaks out so much against this “Islamaphobia” when Non-Muslim hate rampages through out the Muslim world with little to no condemnation on part of Muslim leaders, and many endorse them. I wonder did Anonymous speak out when all those Christians were killed in Pakistan on simple “suspicion” of insult to Islam. Or I wonder when the Pew Research center released its survey info on the most Islamic countries in the world and it found 77% of Muslims in the top five most Islamic countries in the world supported Sharia Law (What ISIS follows) above democracy and and an Islamic Kingdom/Caliphate to rule the world. Anonymous stop being to one-sided and put equal critical thinking on Islam. Oh and BTW the most respected Islamic University in the world is the Al-Azhaar University in Cairo, Egypt. This University teaches the exact same teachings as ISIS look it up. It’s so sad that Anonymous defends a religion that teaches that anyone who leaves should be killed.

    • You seem to have a misconception about everything you’re talking about, I dunno even where to start, stick around and keep reading our articles, maybe that would help, thanks for your comment anyway.

      • Again, you do nothing to discredit his claims. I see nothing scholarly about the majority of these posts anymore. I believe in the anonymous movement as a whole, but it is getting undermined, watered down, and the whole movement just discredited by these unregulated “journalists” who claim to be anonymous and just spew their twist on popular cultures ideas about religion and the situation going on in the Middle East. All it takes is for one of these ignorant articles to turn someone away from the anonymous movement, and I don’t blame these people. For those who want scholarly peices of work from a credible source, please look up the works of Sam Harris. If y’all really care about these topics as much as y’all want to portray like you do, then you’ll invest the time into visiting Sam Harris blogs, books, articles.

        • Wake up religion is ‘man-made’. Guess what I read the christian bible. Who ever the so called god is in the book is a false one. Who would take their son as directed by a ‘voice from god’ to build a sacraficial alter to murder their son on?! You probably never read this book its also filled with incest and other degrading practices….like burnt offerings. Seems like an evil book if you ask me.

  8. 83% is a LIE.

    that was a terrible poll used to illustrate Christian affiliation in America. 50 people (conducted by ABC for that matter) is not a poll, it’s a series of random phone calls. If you’re interested in a REAL STUDY on religious affiliation in this country, here’s one from the Pew Research Center (35K surveyed) back in 2007…

    http://religions.pewforum.org/reports/

    be advised, the trend is still on THE DECLINE.

  9. Luke 6:28

    King James Bible
    Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
    The basic fundamentals of the Christian walk.

    • Yeah going by the bible that proclaims incest and murdering your son on an alter because ‘a voice of god’ told you to. This is NOT a god and any one who proclaims this bible as the ultimate law of the land should be commited to a mental institution. Why would you want to up hold ‘man-made’ law. Over lets say: “Love Thy Neighbor As Thy Self”.
      While christianity is on the decline (thank goodness) we can all sleep better at night, knowing the youngsters of the world are not falling for religious crap.

  10. Religion is “best” invention to control the masses. To be more exact, it`s interpretation is the “best” way to control the masses.
    I try to separate fate and religion. Fate is personal, something between ME and “my creator” (in my case my dad, in someone others “God”), while religion is set of MAN invented rules to divide us from the other, so one can be controlled.
    And controlled we are! If a picture in paper can push you to kill other, then you are controlled. If ‘God’ can tell you to kill, then you are controlled. If peace of land makes you kill, then you are controlled!
    Instead of concentrating in one true course – learning and understanding that we are tiny spot in the universe and that we should all, as one work towards acceptance of this fact, regardless to whom we pray to, we are busy looking for differences between us… Maybe we don`t deserve to be here at all? Maybe we need the next “restart” as humanity? Maybe “God” will do us a favor and wipe most of us out so we can progress?
    This has happened before, haven`t it? With all the pain that I fell while i write this, I`m more certain then ever that “we deserve it”.
    Hell, look what is become of this world! Every time I open news, it` getting worse. Nothing progressive, nothing encouraging, nothing to change my mind…

    • I found great comfort in this quote from Wayne Dyer when I was having thoughts similar to yours, maybe you can find comfort in them too:

      “Let go of any repetitious inner dialogue about the horrors and tragedies of the world. Know that everything that happens is perfect, even the parts that you dislike. All of your opinions about how things should take place are nothing more than opinions that you have of how God should be orchestrating this play. There is woe in the world, there are problems in the world. William Blake said it so beautifully […] in his poem, he said: ‘Man was made for joy and woe/ Then when this we rightly know/ Through the world we safely go./ Joy and woe are woven fine/ A clothing for the soul to bind.’ Keep that in mind and get rid of all these ideas that all the woes shouldn’t be happening. It’s all in order and it’s all to teach us some grand and heroic lesson.”

      I’d like to add that the God he mentions has nothing to do with any religion. And the second, maybe even more important quote:

      “Try not to judge God. Know that hurricanes, tornadoes, crime and poverty are as much a part of the divine plan as our sunny days, calm seas and compassion and prosperity. Your desire to improve conditions is ALSO a part of the plan. So concentrate on that: on improving things that you find distasteful, rather than on why certain conditions seem to be wrong […]. It’s all in divine order, including your right to fix it.”

  11. There is no “religion” in the world that has created more acts of violence in it’s name than Christianity. All one has to do is read the King James bible to know that look at pope Pius x11 who had meetings and dinners on several occasions with hitler himself and it wasn’t always about finding peace. The GOD of that bible himself was nothing less than sadistic for the lack of a better word if you take the “story” of Job as an example or are we suppose to take it as just that a “story” The words written by the 12 apostles themselves are contradictory at best I mean 12 people witness Jesus teachings and miracles yet cannot seem to agree on how it went down. So in the end after reading the “good” book you don’t know anymore about this God than you started except it’s act of cruelty against the sheep as we are reffered. My point is all organized religions have more than one act of cruelty preformed in their names namely all world wars and those in between.As a believer in God or supreme being we should abolish ALL orginized religions as this world would be much better oof than again human would just find another excuse to kill their fellow humans

  12. What a load of BS!!! Israel is NOT a “racist police state” – the bible says a lot of things that were in context 2000 years ago or more – it doesn’t mean we still follow biblical rules today – extremist Muslims though are trying to do that – laying down Sharia when this is so out of date – just like the bible is. As to George W Bush – well that was George W. Bush

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