Muslim Clerics get more respect in America than Christian preachers

[Gary V.]

Almost every day I see something in the news about Muslim cleric denounces this or is in support of that. Yet if a Christian preacher comes out with a thought on something it's "Shut the hell up you maniac who is trying to force your beliefs on everyone!"

It seems to me that the media is almost the friend of radical Muslims; clerics and fanatics use the media to extend their messages of hatred all over the world. And the media is more than happy to oblige. God forbid anyone should offend these kooks.

[Rafal Dudek]

probably because of all those stupid scandals that keep popping up about some bishop molesting some kids. I feel such a shame that this is happening to our religion =[

[Terry Penrod]

.

Well they are at the center of the religious sects and teachings that have created a gobal terrorist mindset amongst many of their own followers. So they do represent current international news moreso than the average American preacher on the street.

However, arch conservative and ultra liberal religious groups and their primary spokepersons in this country also get pretty fair access to the media - especially in election years when many of their counter opinions are adopted as major party platform issues. Take all the press on abortion rights, fetus rights, homosexual marriages, family values, the implications of DNA stem cell research, the ethical dangers of cloning, the morality of trashy lyrics, X-rated movies, nudity on TV and violent video games, etc,. etc., etc.

It's hardly all about a few bad apples in the Catholic church molesting young boys and it's not all negative. It may have a polarizing effect but that simply fuels healthy public debate about critical issues that do impact most people.

I'll admit though that the most ourspoken religious fanatics on either side of an issue - Muslim or not - sure do grate on my nerves and I wish they would all just STFU.

Cheers, Terry

.

[Gary V.]

True, Muslim clerics hold more sway over their followers than Christian preachers(thank goodness most of us recognize an idiot when we see one) but what irks me is the coverage of these guys gives them too much legitimacy. The same thing is done when news channels talk incessantly about serial killers. Those guys eat it up. They do it for the attention. That's why it bothers me to hear about al Sadr and his ilk. They thrive on the attention. I don't need to know his name or agenda. All I want to hear is another fanatic is making it hard on our troops and we are about to take him out.

[Terry Penrod]

.

The main problem I see with al-Sadr and others like him in Iraq is that they are using the current, very tenuous situation to drive an even deeper wedge between the primary, already violently opposed religious sects in their own country. Worse, they are doing so at the most pivotal moment of its modern history, when they should be calling for all their followers to make sober, responsible compromises about practical matters like basic human healthcare, education, vital national security, domestic peacekeeping, civil law and the fundamental economic infrastructure that is their only real hope of ever emerging as a peaceful, prosperous country. Even worse, they and their most fanatical followers are doing this in many cases directly against their own most vulnerable, unarmed citizens and other unarmed / non-military citizens of foreign nations, along with radical outside troublemakers immediately after a 35-year era of violent oppression by the Hussein regime.

If ever the people of Iraq needed their spiritual leaders to offer calm, rational, productive leaderership it is now. But instead, these hair-trigger zealots are so enrapt in their own self-importance and infectious insanity that they are close to destroying any chance they and all the people of their homeland have of ever achieving peaceful independence. This of course makes them complete and utter morons in my eyes.

I ask, would Iraq be better off now or at any time in the future, under any imaginable cirucmstances, under the absolute rule of any cleric? Not a chance. That country simply has no overwhelming majority religious sect that can heal and bind the diverse population there. Neither do these self-styled, political pundits have any business running the government, the public utilties, the economy, internal law enforcement agencies or the military complex in the first place. They are not high level economists, degreed engineers, crack legal experts or modern, strategic combat leaders. They are prayer leaders and that is ALL they should be involved in. They should be restricted to the role of keepers of their given sect's faith, inspirational symbols and teachers of the basic religious rules that bind their individual denominations - nothing more.

Cheers, Terry

.

[Terry Penrod]

.

Speaking of al-Sadr and his violent, fanatical Shiite Muslim followers in Iraq...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=World&cat=Iraq

Cheers, Terry

.

[Rafal Dudek]

thread restored... seems like an accidental deletion hehe