*APPLAUSE* I fully agree with what the Baron has just said. As for the "Nice, sweet religion" debate... well islam is and it isn't. Like Christianity, it depends entirely on your interpretation of the holy scriptures.
Just look up a few different Christian factions on the web for examples- one set of people will find lines in the bible that clearly condemn homosexuality as wrong and evil. Another will find something else which says that God loves gay people. Take your pick. The bible says whatever you want it to say, as does pretty much any religious document, I imagine. (I think the same applies to the american constitution, BTW)
As an atheist I feel I can be fairly impartial here, and from where I'm standing, islam and christianity seem to be pretty much the same. What I mean is, they seem to produce the same kinds of people. We have a lot of muslims here in the UK and they are just regular people. Not bomb wielding fanatics, just normal people.
A few interesting facts on Islam:
- Islam is completely decentralised - there is no "Pope equivalent" or God-appointed hierarchy giving out orders to destroy western civilisation. The people who have issued Fatwas (ie against Salman Rushdie) were influential individuals, not religious leaders. Individual muslims are free to follow a Fatwa or ignore it. Muslim governments like the Taliban have no influence outside their own country and do NOT represent the muslim faith as a whole. No- one does.
-Fatwa does *NOT* translate as "death sentence". Jihad does *NOT* translate as "holy war".
- Christianity and islam are siblings, both offshoots of the Jewish faith. The difference is that muslims believe Mohammed was the Messiah and Christians think it was Jesus, about 1200 years earlier. Muslims still regard Jesus as an important prophet.
(The Jews are still waiting for the Messiah...)
- The koran (Qu'ran, whatever) advocates the peace and charity bit just as much as the bible ever did. All the "Thou shalt not kill" stuff is in there, and it is every Muslim's duty to give a certain percentage of their income to helping the less fortunate.
On a different subject...
I agree that it would be stupid putting guns on planes. There are alternatives though - Tasers are also a good idea, but a ranged weapon has obvious advantages. How about non-explosive guns (pneumatic/ catapult type weapons) firing tranquilisers? A crossbow even?
As for tranquilising the entire plane in an emergency situation... the main drawback there is that the dosage required to knock out a large hijacker would probably be dangerous/ fatal for a child or a baby or a passenger on medication. I understand that the safety of the entire plane / people on the ground is at stake, but those reasons would probably be enough to prevent any airline from using that strategy. (After all, if the only people likely to survive a hijacking were fit, healthy adults then they would sell a lot less tickets.)
0.02
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