Karl wrote:Rightey wrote:Calling someone Prejudice/Racist because they point out that a great majority of the religious violence in the world is perpetrated by muslims doesn't solve the issue
"Reminder: ISIS are Muslims!!! I'm not racist, I'm just pointing it out!!!"
Sure, okay, fine; but what have we gained from this insightful public service announcement? Are we closer to solving the problem?
I'm not trying to pick a fight, but the underlying problems are a complex web of political and socioeconomic factors of which faith is one tangential element - does anyone really think it would be any different in a hypothetical world where the only change is that e.g. Iraqis happened to be e.g. Hindu? - and I don't think I've ever seen a good reason for fixating on that Islam aspect -- apart from to justify one's prejudices.
If we can accept that the majority of terror attacks are perpetrated by one group you can more effectively look at how members from that group are radicalized and stop it. For example if we know that radicalization starts early in these islamic schools, it then makes sense to monitor their teaching materials so those that try and brainwash kids are shut down.
I agree it's a complex issue, but saying that faith has nothing to do with it, or only plays a tiny role is just being willfully blind. Loads of these terrorists, especially those from here in the West come from middle class backgrounds, so you can't say it's some socio-economic phenomenon.
To address your example of what if Iraq was full of Hindu's, let's look at South America. This was a region that is pretty similar to the Middle East in that it's had a lot of outside interference for a very long time with dictatorships being propped up by the west which has led to all sorts of rebellions and terrorists groups.
Loads of these guerillas used terrorism to try and overthrow the government, blowing up police stations and going after politicians, but outside of kidnappings to fund themselves they generally didn't target civilians. They didn't go around blowing themselves up in cafe's or running normal people over in the street just because they were members of the enemies society. This is in contrast to islamic terrorists that do target civilians both here and in the middle east.
Lastly you need to remember ISIS isn't just some tiny band of mentally challenged people. When they first started taking over cities such as Mosul, they were welcomed as the population saw them as fellow Sunni's where as the government in Baghdad was Shia.
It is certainly a tough issue to solve and I agree just saying it's because they're muslims doesn't really do anything to solve the problem, but it's an angle that I think should be considered. It's certainly something that's very hard to do in a constructive way though as people on both sides try to make it an all or nothing situation.