Okay, so, we’re not saying Islam (qua Islam) is a necessarily violent religion with appalling attitudes to women but…well, let the islamists tell you themselves.

These images are from a video called “God Delusion”.

We think that last image is pretty clearly a sick joke…isn’t it?

UPDATE: Here, apparently, is the original of that placard. Is that better, now? To an impartial onlooker it might look like a threat of violence?

But then, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman did say, about the Pope’s 2006 repetition of some ancient Byzantine emperor’s comments about Islam, that “anyone who describes Islam, as a religion, as intolerant encourages violence”. And the un-dear, unlamented, thankfully-departed Ayatollah Khomeini did put a fatwā (in this case “kill him (and you will go to heaven)”) on Salman Rushdie. And Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist, has now had to make use of the “panic room” in his house.

“On February 12, 2008, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) announced the arrest of three Muslims — two Tunisians and one Moroccan-born Dane — who were charged with planning to murder Westergaard…On January 1, 2010, a 28-year-old Somali Muslim intruder armed with an axe and knife entered Westergaard’s house and was subsequently shot and wounded by police.” According to the Timesonline, “the assailant had shouted ‘swear words, really crude words’ and shrieked about ‘blood’ and ‘revenge’, as he smashed the axe in vain against the bathroom door”.

We don’t think islam is any more violent than christianity¹. So we’re not saying Islam is a violent religion but Matthew (7:20-21) says the Muslim prophet, Jesus, said:

“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

We’ll tell you what, though, it’s a good thing there’s a dog to tell us how to live our lives and stop us hurting each other by scaring us shitless with the threat of eternal wailing and gnashing of teeth, because without the threats of such loving sadistic brutality (and being bereft of any personal moral sense, and incapable of rational thought) we would naturally go completely berserk and we’d end up killing and bombing each other into oblivion. It’d be like…it’d be like… it’d be like god-forsaken Pakistan or Iraq, or (Murder Champions of the world) America.

RAmen.

¹ After all, the noted Christian, George Bush Jr, in the course of whose personal conversations with his god, his special friend told him directly to kill Iraqis, was responsible for the deaths of over a million human beings and his personal signature lies on the execution orders of 152 Texans. ["God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did..."]

[tags]islam, muslim, christ, christianity, religion, rushdie, fatwa, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah, Khomeini, violence, Pakistan, Denmark, Westergaard, cartoons, jesus, Matthew, Iran, Somalia, values, religious values, islamic values, christian values[/tags]