In reply to:
And finally what effect do you think the U.S. entertainment industry has in the rest of of the world, on unsophisticated peoples? How do we look creating great scenes of slaughter and mayhem for entertainment, not to mention what is to traditional cultures, floods of depraved sexuality, greed and horror. Are we so accoustomed to these things that we can't imagine how they look to others? I can tell you they see plenty.
As horrible as the beheadings are, are the images we send out to the rest of the world really better? If you slaughtered your animals with a knife for food would these beheadings have the same impact? If in that context you saw what we watch for entertainment what would you think of our culture?
I see, md55, brothers kill their sisters with the approval of their families, honor killings, child marriage, slavery and systematic sexual abuse of slaves (what Muqtadar Al Sadr and various mullahs refer to as "sex slaves") and you criticize us for flooding that 'peaceful society' with a flood of "depraved sexuality" from Hollywood?
Moral relativism.
What is it that we do that you equate to the "poorly constructed equation" of cutting the heads off of living human beings?
Let's take a look at an excerpt from an Egyptian 9-11th grade text books:
A description of Jihad in Grade 11 from an al-Azhar religious schoolbook makes compelling reading, as do two other descriptions of Jihad in Egyptian State schools, Grade 9 & 10, that are also reproduced here, and in more detail in our written statement NGO/27 to the UN Sub-Commission:
“[One] of the rules derived by the [religious] scholars from these [Qur'anic] verses is the following: Obligation to fight the infidels with utmost vigor and power until they become weak, their state disappears and they submit to the rule of the law of Islam.” – Commentary, the Surahs of Muhammad, Al-Fath, Al-Hujurat & Qaf, Grade 11 (2002, pp. 312), p. 24 (al-Azhar)
And now two more ordinary quotations from books in the State schools:
“Jihad is honour. Inability to perform it is a cause for grief.”
– Islamic Education, Grade 10, (2002, pp. 111) p. 69 (State school)
“Jihad is one of Heaven's gates. Whoever desists from it willingly is humiliated by God...” – Arabic Literature: Literature, Texts, Eloquence, Grade 9, (2002, pp. 201) p. 144 (State school)
But it is once again the al-Azhar teaching that goes to the core of this gruesome subject. Pious justifications are offered to Grade 11 students concerning the reasons for beheading infidels:
“When you meet them in order to fight [them], do not be seized by compassion [toward them], but strike the[ir] necks powerfully…Striking the neck means fighting, because killing a person is often done by striking off his head…This expression contains a harshness and emphasis that are not found in the word “kill”, because it describes killing in the ugliest manner, “i.e. cutting the neck and making the organ – the head of the body – fly off [the body]” – Commentary on Surahs of Muhammad, Al-Fath, Al-Hujurat, Qaf, Grade 11 (2002), pp.19-20.
So md55, where do you think these folks get their idea that it's OK to cut the heads off of Christians and Jews? Do you think it's our fault, our media, our "depraved" movies?
I think if you want to criticize a culture constructively in order "to find a course through life with less conflict" you may want to start with a systematic program of the education of children which encourages them to cut the heads off of Christians and Jews.
