Pope Offends Muslims Worldwide

[bilal]

Quote: (Originally Posted by RalphyS)

I disagree thoroughly, Latin America is now a Catholic stronghold and how did that happen, because of the conquistadores, who were not soft in their persuasions. The same can be said about Northern Africa, islam was not an indigeneous religion to that region, but it was a religion of occupiers at first.

In fact the only way religion can grow is by force and I don't mean this in a warlike way, but children who know nothing of religion are indoctrinated from birth on, forced to go to church, temple or mosque. In every other major decision in life we wait for children to become adults, they cannot vote until they are 18, they shouldn't drink until their 21 (in the US), we urge them to wait with sex until they are at a ripe age, but parents force their god on innocent children even before they can talk, so don't tell me that "Religion don't and cannot be spread through oppression, takeover or by force", it may be a subtler kind of force, but it is still force and even worse it is force on innocent children, who cannot think for themselves yet and have absolute trust in their authority figures.

but that would take Generation(s) to convert an entire nation ..... massacre of those who oppose it in the first place.... destruction of the holy places of other religions already enacted at that location..... breeding of hate in the minds of the young ones to hate the other religious group....and never to trust them..... in my opinon...any system created like this can not survive for long..... or only if those people are kept in a vacume.....

contrary to that, Islam spread in the existing Muslim countries in less then what, some 40 years..... history don't tell any event where a Massacre was done to achieve the religious conversion .... nor the distruction of any holy places belonging to other religions.... in Islam, it is the duty of the state to protect those belonging to other religions.... take Spain for example..... Muslims had it for 300 years..... was all the Churches burned down, Jews killed.... what?.... i suppose you have visited Spain, does that place gives any evidence that Mulims ruled it for 3 centuries... i don't want to comment what later Govt of other religions did to claim that place... take Jerusalem...Israel.... Rome... all were concqured...now these place have been fought over and over and claimed by other religions.....because of their religious importance.....but that didn't deter Islam from the hearts of its followers....

Islam started from one Man.....when in Holy Kabba (the sacred place in Makkah, the building you might have seen in pictures) that place was filled with more than 300 Idols.... no support, no nothing to protect him.... and his teachings converted men, who then fought to exist....and to spread.....from that one man, and his 23 years of preaching... and you say it was force?... it was sword?... it was lust for power?.....


now your view on how religion is spread ONLY through oppression is perhaps what we are witnessing in present times.... take Afghanistan for example.... Taliban's system of Islam..... do you think those kids, or any Afghan in general is happy with it?... do you think women of Afghanistan in general would teach their kids to follow what Taliban are telling them to do?... If tAliban vanish suddenly, would the next generations want to follow them.... ?... Fuck No!..... why, because....simply... Islam or any relgion...CANNOT be enacted through force.... or oppression.... those nut heads Talibans have just proved that.. haven't they..... Even Afghanistan was a vacume, isolated palce for decades.... still, oppression failed.....

this is the reason why i get a little pissed off when people say "by the sword" and draw a picture in their mind as if it was like Taliban's way of government or similar manner in which Islam was spread....and people were converted by force... thats not how religion works... at least that is my opinion....