21–30 of 89 posts
That's a fair bit more substantial than the "death threats" that continually float about on both sides of debates like GamerGate and whatever. Very sad that this happens anywhere in the world. Surprised? Not entirely. This is the local Bangladeshi version of Charlie Hebdo...
This hits so close to home ( my username ),
Bangladesh has a serious problem with religious tolerance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Bangladesh_anti-Hindu_viol...
Bangladesh has a population of about 20 million hindus who even if the number seems huge, are a minority given that the country has a huge population.
I have been extremely fortunate to have had my dad make the sensible choice of abandoning his homeland for a job in Dubai which even if is not the best he could be doing. Is way better than being scared of your life.
Most of my rest of family moved illegally to India and managed to get an Indian passport and are living peaceful lives.
However it saddens me to see the situation in Bangladesh, since I have been there countless time and a lot of my cousins still live there. I also hold an bangladeshi passport.
I really would want to do a tech job in bangladesh if given the opportunity. I am currently finishing in undergrad in an top British University and the situation here is so much nicer.
One my goals is to one day open a research lab / company in bangladesh involving robotics.
Bangladesh suffers from a lot of political corruption / cultural disintegration / poverty / natural disasters / education / . . .
My dad sometimes worries about my online activities lol Since I am myself an atheist but I make sure to stay anonymous.
My family due to so many problems in the past has adopted a closed mouth policy since we have lived all our lives in muslim majority countries. The only safe haven seems to be India.
In any case these types of news is much more common if you keep in touch but I am surprised to see this becoming news here.
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There are nutcases (organized or otherwise) professing allegiance to all religions.
Yes, but different religions inspire different propensities towards violence in their hosts. Remember the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon ? I doubt the Mormons liked the play's content, but they responded to it positively. In some venues, they even took out ads in the playbill. Do you think it would be possible for Trey Parker and Matt Stone to make a similar production about the Qu'ran? Even in the US, it would…
Look at all the atrocities committed throughout history in the name of christianity: The imperial conquests of Africa and America were conducted in the name of spreading christianity and with the blessing of the church. American fundamentalists regularly murder abortion doctors in the name of religion. Breivik is a "christian warrior" defending christianity.
Second of all, Mormons?
"On Sept. 11, 1857, a group of California-bound pioneers camping in southern Utah were murdered by a Mormon militia and its Indian allies. The massacre lasted less than five minutes, but when it was over, 120 men, women and children had been clubbed, stabbed or shot at point-blank range. Their corpses, stripped of clothes and jewelry, were left to be picked apart by wolves and buzzards."
The truth is this: Humans are really not creatures of love. Murder is as natural to us as anything else, and history proves it. Killing is easy. It doesn't take much. If there's any lesson to be learned from genocides like the Rwanda massacres, civil wars like the breakup of Yugoslavia or the Nazi era, it is that a large proportion of humanity will readily become mass murderers for almost no reason at all. It really doesn't take that much.
Read about King Leopolds campaign in Congo. There's no need for islam to make people into murderers. People are murderers already. Religion is simply another excuse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State#King_Leopold.2...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are nutcases (organized or otherwise) professing allegiance to all religions.
Yes, but different religions inspire different propensities towards violence in their hosts. Remember the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon ? I doubt the Mormons liked the play's content, but they responded to it positively. In some venues, they even took out ads in the playbill. Do you think it would be possible for Trey Parker and Matt Stone to make a similar production about the Qu'ran? Even in the US, it would…
Anyone that would suggest that the propensity of Islamic fundamentalists towards violence is particularly unusual amongst religious adherents has a remarkably inadequate grasp of history.
I may get downvoted, but I fail to see how religion will ever help guide the human race to a better place. You may be able to point to impoverished places where missionaries are saving lives and providing support, and yes, that is fantastic. But just as quickly it turns into imprisoning homosexuals and local government policies being driven by religious dogma.
Organized religion scares and saddens me. I wish it didn't, I'm aware there are many religious participants on HN. I do not mean to cause personal offense.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but different religions inspire different propensities towards violence in their hosts. Remember the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon ? I doubt the Mormons liked the play's content, but they responded to it positively. In some venues, they even took out ads in the playbill. Do you think it would be possible for Trey Parker and Matt Stone to make a similar production about the Qu'ran? Even in the US, it would…
>Yes, but different religions inspire different propensities towards violence in their hosts. It is more complex than that. There is no on one side "good religions" and on the other side "bad religions". It is rather a combination of social and economics factors (education, poverty, exposure to other cultures, frustration, feeling of injustice (real or imagined), corruption, etc) The debate does not really interest m…
Let me give a more obvious example of religion's role in encouraging/discouraging violence: Jainism. The core contributor to Jainism, Mahavira, said, "All breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away." It is really hard to be violent as a Jain. Jains protest by fasting. In fact, Gandhi got many of his ideas about nonviolent resistance from the Jains.
Also, you didn't answer my question. Do you honestly think there is any religion besides Islam that would raise such security concerns if mocked in a Broadway musical? I agree that culture and other factors matter, but the doctrines of religions are quite different. Some of those doctrines call for violence more than others. The sooner we admit that, the sooner we can try to fix the problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but different religions inspire different propensities towards violence in their hosts. Remember the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon ? I doubt the Mormons liked the play's content, but they responded to it positively. In some venues, they even took out ads in the playbill. Do you think it would be possible for Trey Parker and Matt Stone to make a similar production about the Qu'ran? Even in the US, it would…
Disgusting. Other religions are perfectly capable of inspiring similar acts. Look at all the atrocities committed throughout history in the name of christianity: The imperial conquests of Africa and America were conducted in the name of spreading christianity and with the blessing of the church. American fundamentalists regularly murder abortion doctors in the name of religion. Breivik is a "christian warrior" defend…
Disgusting. Other religions are perfectly capable of inspiring similar acts.
Sure, killing is part of human nature. Just some religions motivate more to do it than others.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but different religions inspire different propensities towards violence in their hosts. Remember the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon ? I doubt the Mormons liked the play's content, but they responded to it positively. In some venues, they even took out ads in the playbill. Do you think it would be possible for Trey Parker and Matt Stone to make a similar production about the Qu'ran? Even in the US, it would…
>Yes, but different religions inspire different propensities towards violence in their hosts. It is more complex than that. There is no on one side "good religions" and on the other side "bad religions". It is rather a combination of social and economics factors (education, poverty, exposure to other cultures, frustration, feeling of injustice (real or imagined), corruption, etc) The debate does not really interest m…
Any religion that fundamentally doesn't tolerate the existence of other religions and calls its followers to slaughter those who don't convert is "bad religion". Islam is a "bad religion".
There is a fundamental difference between the violent excesses of an ideology, an ideology than almost inevitably leads to violent excesses and an ideology the prescribes violence. The Islam is all the way at the extreme end of that spectrum.
Religion of peace and all that...