February 26, 2009

Islamic Mission?

I found a strange map about how some Muslim "radicals" want to "take over the world" by converting everyone to Islam. Strange, huh?
After 100 years, apparently everyone would be Muslims according to this scheme. They outline certain areas with a black line, which I suppose represents the "Islamic Caliphate". It's funny how they include parts of Western China, Tibet (where people are Buddhist, not Muslim), Russia (I suppose places like Tatarstan are included?) and India (which is mostly Hindu) as parts of the caliphate but leave out other countries that are predominantly Muslim (i.e. Albania, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Malaysia). Strange... either this is some kind of a joke or if it's serious... then... wow, what freaks!

I personally will admit it here and now. I'm not a huge fan of Islam, the religion. I don't care if people choose to believe it, but personally... I find all religions a little ridiculous, especially Islam. I mean... I read the all the holy texts of the Judeo-Christian religions (Bible, Koran, Torah) and of those, I found the Koran the most ridiculous. If any Christians, Jews, or Muslims actually followed what each of their holy texts said, then:

  • Christians should sacrifice all their wealth and become missionaries or monks, spreading the "truth" to people where they've never heard of Jesus Christ
  • Jews should still be sacrificing sheep or rams or other livestock to ask God for forgiveness of their sins on a regular basis.
  • Muslims should actually all try to force conversion and dying as a martyr is the most honorable thing a good Muslim can do.
So, personally, the way I interpreted the texts, Islam is still the most violent religion. I've read some texts on Hinduism (but the whole reincarnation, Karma, etc. stuff I find hard to believe), Buddhism (which is like a heresy branched off of Hinduism), and a little into Zoroastrianism (which is said to be the first monotheistic religion, even before Judaism) while I went through a should-I-have-a-religion phase in my life. Islam is the only one that is openly sexist and explicitly states a man can have up to 4 wives (polygamy! *gasp*). As a woman, Islam would be the last religion I'd choose if I were forced to choose a religion. It's blatantly sexist and I find that offensive. So yes, that's my bone to pick with Islam... but all religions in general are just not for me. I'm happy with being agnostic by name and atheist in practice.

Today's Random Video:
The whole "Radical Muslims" thing reminded me of this video I saw on YouTube.

It's a clip from a Danish newschannel. I don't know Danish, but my limited Swedish helping me understand some of the Danish text + my limited knowledge in Russian = rough translation in English. (If you speak Danish or Russian, you can probably do a better job than I can so feel free to correct any translation errors!)

Danish Reporter: When asked about the circumstances in Chechnya, Putin replies
Putin: If you also wish to become a radical Muslim and you want to be circumcised, then I invite you to Moscow. We are a very religious country and we have specialists in this field. I would recommend that the operation is performed in such a way that nothing can ever grow back in this place again.

Talk about insane!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree that Islam is probably the most illogical religion of the three you mentioned. Judaism was old-fashioned, Christianity tried to modify it, then Islam tried to go back to Judaism in some ways but in a screwed up way. Oh, and as for Putin, I think I'd prefer him over Bush II any day. At least he's smarter than Bush.

Siarhei Kuryla said...

Your translation from Russian is good enough :)