Brief history lesson on Islam - Fwd: ALA Senate candidate Bernard Gaynor struts his stuff in a powerful speech.

[Endless]

>
> From an aspiring Australian senate candidate who I and many others
> admire, Bernard Gaynor. Hopefully he is observant enough to not get
> imprisoned on trumped up charges like Pauline Hanson did some years
> back due to a united effort (it turned out) between our two major
> ("left" and "right") political parties.
> 
> Good luck Bernard,
> Zenaan
> 


Hello Zenaan,

I'm afraid that Islam, and Islamic ideology, although undoubtedly
founded in the midst of violence and chaos and closely linked to quite
violent and bloody wars throughout much of history, is not a violent
religion.
Texts in the Qur'an, as in the bible, promote and glorify the violence
of it's followers when perceived in the context of historic events. Such
is the nature of holy texts, advocating the victory of their followers
in battle over the followers of other religions pertaining to foreign
cultures.

To say that Islam is a violent religion by referencing battles that
occurred hundreds of years ago completely negliges the positions members
of other religions and faiths, such as Christians, took throughout the
course of history.
Christian movements such as the crusades and the idea of spreading
religion through missionaries to be a noble act caused damage in the
same way that Islamic movements did by conquering swathes of land in
order to spread their ideology and economic power. Such a comparison
clearly reflects the nature of religions based on interpretative
scripture without so much as delving into the violence caused as a
result of more modern colonialism, closely linked with Christian
ideology and capitalism.

An even more modern example of tragedy motivated by religious
interpretation is that of Australia's "stolen generations", where, by
means of the Christian religion, Australian society itself separated up
to 30% of indigenous children from their families.
Evidently, no religion is immune to acts of violence perpetrated in the
name of religion or "protection of religion", taking as an example the
persistent Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where Judaism and the fear of
Jewish people being oppressed is used as an excuse for the colonization
of Palestinian territory.

To blindly accuse "Islam" as the root of all violence perpetrated by
those proclaiming to be of Islamic faith is a broad and particularly
callous generalization, especially when addressing the issue of
immigration. Regardless of one's religion, if a person is conditioned to
react with violence, violence will ensue. Preventing any group of people
based on their faith from immigrating to a country is simply
discrimination issuing from a stereotype propagated by members of a
society acting out of fear. Instead of screening immigrants (refugees or
otherwise) based on their religion, it would be much more appropriate to
screen for signs that a person may attempt to perpetrate or incite violence.


> Ladies and gentleman, Australia is facing a crisis.

Australia is not facing a crisis. Rather, the Australian government is
facing a particularly tough issue of generalization and
misrepresentation within Australian borders.
I hope that Australia will not succumb to the fear and hatred of Muslim
people so often preached by those able to benefit from it.


All the best,
Endless

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