Anti-Muslim Film Figure Also Runs Leading Anti-Mormon Site

[rayofreason]

48. Let's start with "historically violently oppressed"...

I guess you never heard of the riots and violence at Navoo, IL (including the murder of Joseph Smith), or the 2011 Pew study finding that 46% of LDS say there is significant discrimination against Mormons in the United States (whether true or not is irrelevant - it is how they feel).

http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/culture/mormons-america-pew-beliefs-society/

And then there is the whole suppression of polygamy bit. How culturally insensitive (along the lines of Charles Napier's cultural insensitivity). Mormons have plenty of "reasons" to be angry, and maybe some are, but they deal with it. One reason, as you have pointed out, is that they are not impoverished. There does not seem to be anything in LDS teachings or practice that is fundamentally incompatible with modernity. In fact Mormon families thrive because they are two-parent households without drugs or alcohol, and with traditions of hard work, personal responsibility, and education. Someone who grows up with those cultural traits will be successful in our society. And there is nothing in LDS teaching that calls on them to impose their religion on others, or to violently punish blasphemers, apostates, and those who "insult" the church. Hence no riots over "The Book of Mormon" play.

Now, regarding "historically violently oppressed" in the context of Muslims, this has been perpetrated primarily by...Muslims! You just have to read about the reactions of Arabs to recent Turkish statements about restoring Ottoman glory to realize that the Arab world was mostly ruled by the Turks 100 years ago, and it was not pretty. Not to mention one nasty Islamic dictator after another in so many Islamic countries (especially in the ME). Sure western countries supported some of them. The fact is that you have to do business with somebody, and if an entire cultural region is unable to create open, democratic societies you will have to deal with Kings, Sultans, Presidents-for-Life, what have you. But to blame the West for the fact that the Muslim world remains stuck with cultural norms and modes of governance that far predate the rise of the West, and which in fact were operating when Islam was still trying to conquer the West (the siege of Vienna in 1683 was the high water mark) is just silly. Islam is still aggressive, trying to expand in Africa for example. Islamists are furious at the spread of Christianity, which has grow much more rapidly than Islam among black Africans. Boko Haram in Nigeria is a good example of this (do you know what "boko haram" means?). The major reason Islamic countries don't try to conquer non-Islamic countries is that they can't, because in the entire history of Islam when they could, they did, or tried.

The real underlying issue, the deep wound to the pride, is that Islam is not top dog. How can it be that infidels essentially rule the world when Islam is the true, final, perfect, revealed word of God? Why are Islamic countries so backward? Why even those godless, pagan Hindus are developing a richer, better educated, more modern civilization than the Muslims! Someone is doing this to the Islamic world and they must be punished!!!

Worse yet, we refuse to pass blasphemy laws and we block UN action on the matter!!! When Obama asked YouTube to take down the video clip (they refused - good for them!) he signaled to the Muslim world that in fact the US government DID have some authority to censure speech. What morons. Now you have the Muslim Brotherhood calling for "prosecution" of the film makers. "Prosecution" under what law? The "Making a ludicrously idiotic low budget film that angers total assholes Act?"

Their impoverishment is their own doing, as is the violent oppression in their lives. 90% of Egyptian women have undergone FGM. How is that for violent oppression? 3/4 of Egyptians work in agriculture - in a country that imports 1/2 its food, half are functionally illiterate, and there is not a single university in Egypt that can produce an internationally competitive engineer. How is that for contributing to massive impoverishment?

If somebody in the US wants to write a book claiming that Jesus was a fiction, fine (actually several such books exist). If somebody in the US wants to write a book claiming that Mohammed was a fiction, fine as well. And if that causes radicals to riot and try to storm our embassies, I say send in some Marines with flamethowers and toast any SOB who crosses into Embassy territory. And no apologies, lame attempts to get the publisher not to print the book, or anything else that smacks of yielding to "hurt feelings."