This was posted by Scott on AF. These are pretty much my sentiments on the issue.

Please note, and I believe I mentioned this before, I have absolutely no problem with people of the Islamic faith. I work with several Muslims and they are great people whom I respect very much. I do think they should be able to build the mosque, but I also find it rather insensitive and wish they'd reconsider the location. That being said, I won't defend the religion while such atrocities are committed under the guise of "Islamic Law". I've never read the Qur'an, so I have no idea if it supports such laws. I can only hope it doesn't.

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I may not be as excited about Avatar as I use to be. But, I will never forget that it changed my life.

As our bodies die, all the stars reply, "Now you see the lie"



"Bide your time and hold out hope"

I don't believe Islam is a gun -perhaps a tool, but meaning it as a gun is a real bad graphic example.

I must agree on saying that, sadly, all religion based laws (not only Muslim) are brutal: there you've got the witch-hunt, the bonfires and torture to heretic people in Middle Age Christianity; Jewish faith did also promote dilapidation for example.

All what's needed to overcome them is a rational effort and religious flexibility; something Muslim radicals refuse to do in order to protect their faith.

However not all Islam-based countries adopt the Sharia as their main system: only 5 of them apply completely the code (Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen and Iran); 6 of them do so only in a regional level, 3 for familiar matters and the other 14 use foreign systems (some with exceptions, plans or influences).

Anyhow, and again; I believe the imam must have a good reason for making all of this, and I hope it is enough to explain it.

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Yeah, it's not the best example. But I think it helps get the point across, nonetheless.

That's a sad fact of history. It's unfortunate because those events were the antithesis of Christianity(and possibly Judaism and Islam, but I don't know that for sure).

I agree.

I hope there is a good reason. *note emphasis on "good" *

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I may not be as excited about Avatar as I use to be. But, I will never forget that it changed my life.

As our bodies die, all the stars reply, "Now you see the lie"



"Bide your time and hold out hope"

If you put guns into people's hands, they will feel the need to do something with them. If they didn't have one, they wouldn't be able to, and generally would feel no need or willingness to. The same goes for beliefs, which are if anything more dangerous.

Yet we no longer accuse people of being witches and burn them to death. We no longer torture people for having the wrong invisible friend, or for dismissing geocentricism. Muslims still stone people to death, they still oppress women, they still believe they have to force things on everyone else, and they demand special privileges while they do so.

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Things change, but Avatar is always a part of us, our inspiration and our dream. We all follow it differently, but remember how it brought us together.
\m/ \m/

Living isn't easy when you're far away from home...

I believe that if someone had enough will to do something, it wouldn't matter whether or not you put a gun, hostage, or airplane in their hands to carry it out. I'm sure the extremists would go to any lengths necessary, just like any criminal wouldn't care less about gun laws. If the will is there, a way will always be found... just like if the way is open, the will to do it (like you said) is stronger. But the latter is a relative assumption anyway, since the will might never come to a person who's against doing it altogether.

Just to play devil's advocate, there.

I think I stated why a gun is a real bad graphic example due to the death connotation; and that it's only in 5 Muslim countries where the Sharia law is imposed integrally. There are around 20 else which do not cut hands or kill indifels.

So you're judging a bunch of countries which have in common their religion of making the crimes of a fifth part.

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Hey, just wanted to mention... you will not BELIEVE how much of a Biblical battle this topic is on AF.

The Ground Zero Mosque

Also weird is how most on AF seem to agree with Tysal's OP...

...considering how no one contested the faulty arguments given.

Most people don't question anything...

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Things change, but Avatar is always a part of us, our inspiration and our dream. We all follow it differently, but remember how it brought us together.
\m/ \m/

Living isn't easy when you're far away from home...

And I can't believe how silly religious arguments have turned on AF.

I respect Christian arguments as the ones given by Woodsprite or rapunzel, and even applaud them for avoiding as much as possible the faith element and sound reasonable. But this:

Come on...

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It's kind of embarrassing for me to even look at...

I just posted in that thread at AF. Yay for me...

__________________
I may not be as excited about Avatar as I use to be. But, I will never forget that it changed my life.

As our bodies die, all the stars reply, "Now you see the lie"



"Bide your time and hold out hope"

If someone said that to me IRL, I'd probably punch them.

__________________

Things change, but Avatar is always a part of us, our inspiration and our dream. We all follow it differently, but remember how it brought us together.
\m/ \m/

Living isn't easy when you're far away from home...

Ouch Zenit, that was painful to read....LOL! How embarassing . I find that kind of grandstanding to be very harmful and detrimental to any type of discussion, especially religious. It doesn't contribute anything positive and just furthers the view that all religious people are nutty and ignorant .

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You wont walk alone
I'll be by your side
There will be no empty home
if you will be my bride
the rest of my life will be
Song for Rapunzel and me.

I see you

I agree with you . I have come across some silly things like that before. I roll my eyes mostly and try to be nice but deep inside my mind, I would like to punch them too .

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You wont walk alone
I'll be by your side
There will be no empty home
if you will be my bride
the rest of my life will be
Song for Rapunzel and me.

I see you

The times where you just wanna punch someone or wring someone's neck for saying something stupid in the name of "the Bible"...

Yep. It's hard out there for a Christian.