Originally Posted by MCMashetty

Wow, this is crazy. I did not even know France had separatist factions, much less that they committed over 200 acts of terrorism. How come the news never reported this?

I know! I was trying to look at events in the past couple of years, and I can barely find any information on it. DX

Originally Posted by adaptation

You know what the absolutely horrible thing about that is? Part of me doesn't believe that statistic even though its backed up by sources purely because of media brain washing.

I feel dirty

I know. It's actually really scary how much brainwashing we go through DX

Originally Posted by ShouldBeStudying

Religion is like a goose that lays gold-painted pieces of crap and every so often some of the paint comes off.

This is a general discussion about a recent event, the OP isn't for anyone's opinion on religion.

Originally Posted by adaptation

You know what the absolutely horrible thing about that is? Part of me doesn't believe that statistic even though its backed up by sources purely because of media brain washing.

I feel dirty

lol, i have no doubt that at a subconscious level we all have some prejudices*, and the media play a massive role in forming/cultivating those stereotypes. but it's important to look at the facts and come to a rational conclusion and that bit is our responsibility.

once one does that, they realize how ridiculous it is that one could possibly believe that the followers of an entire belief system (that spans across the globe) could be terrorists or fascists, or supporters thereof. btw, this isn't directed at you - it applies to me as well as it does to you as well as it does to anyone else who has race/ethnicity-related associations, whether subconsciously or consciously.

*do an IAT race test at "https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/" if you're not so sure about that

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

This is a general discussion about a recent event, the OP isn't for anyone's opinion on religion.

If you don't see how religion is a major topic of this discussion I have nothing more to say.

Last night's Daily Show covered this well!

(July 27)
http://dailyshow.thecomedyne twork.ca/

Originally Posted by ShouldBeStudying

If you don't see how religion is a major topic of this discussion I have nothing more to say.

you were very vague with your comment. what did you mean? Islamic ideas aren't the best (euphemizing a bit there) or religious ideas generally? and how do you connect that with the portrayal of Muslims in media, which is basically what we're talking about? don't worry, it's the summer, i can't really wear a vest and pay you a visit, i'd attract attention

Originally Posted by ShouldBeStudying

If you don't see how religion is a major topic of this discussion I have nothing more to say.

I do, I just don't see what your comment contributes or adds to the discussion in any way :/. It was merely a comment on religion as a whole. Whether or not you believe in religion, that's a different story- definitely not the topic of the thread.

Originally Posted by waldo92

you were very vague with your comment. what did you mean? Islamic ideas aren't the best (euphemizing a bit there) or religious ideas generally? and how do you connect that with the portrayal of Muslims in media, which is basically what we're talking about? don't worry, it's the summer, i can't really wear a vest and pay you a visit, i'd attract attention

although he worded it poorly im going to have to agree with the guy here, enough of this my god is better than your god, why can't you see that! its childish and divides us instead of uniting us as ppl.

Originally Posted by herBs

I cannot say if that is true or not because I didn't follow the Norwegian bombings really closely unfortunately..but why did the media forget that the U.S. government admitted to funding to 'Islamic Extremist Groups' such as Al-Qaeda. Wouldn't that make the U.S. government terrorists as well for aiding/funding and training such people/groups? (sorry I went on a tangent)
/rage

I think this is their reasoning, but correct me if I'm wrong please. The U.S. government provided the creation of the Taliban with money. The main condition for this groups was that they could spend the money as they pleased. After the fall of the communist leader in '92, CIA funded the organization of the Taliban to combat the spread of communism in the Middle East. Since the members were branded "extremists", they believed that they had enough passion and belief in their religion to combat the spread of the communists. As for al-Qaeda, I think it's basically the same. With the spread of the soviet war in Afghanistan, the US was caught between the combined effort of the Marxists and the Soviets against the Mujahideen (sp?). Considering the fact that they saw communism (and especially the Soviets) as this terrible force that would bring about the destruction of the earth, they decided to fund and train the Mujahideen, in effect created al-Qaeda. Since both of these organizations were funded by the US, they often get a bad rep for it. However, one condition that I've found in both deals was that both organizations were free to choose what to do with their money and training. For that reason than, I personally would not hold the US government/CIA accountable for the terrorist actions done by both organizations.

Wow, this thread is amazingly well-timed. Apparently, the FBI has just intimated that a former American Muslim Solider was attempting to carry out an attack on Fort Hood, the military installation that was attacked last year. He was arrested yesterday, with explosives and quite a bit of ammunition. Now you can see how your theories play out in real life, and whether or not the media is really as biased as you suggest

Great perspective: http://www.burzum.org/eng/library/war_in_europe01.shtml

The question isnt of what religion sugarcoats and what it actually is. The real question was whether it is fair to judge that any bombing taking place in this world is the hand of Muslims. The reality is that humanity suffers by these terrorist attacks, not individual races. No religion teaches to terrorize others, and anyone who does use terror means only do it for the sake of their own mental insanity.

The big problem is that 9/11 was so punctured on the news channels and is still discussed by people because the media highlighted the issue, claiming that it was Islamic terrorism. However, other statistics barely even get mentioned. Ask any person about 9/11 on the street and they will be able to tell you the whole event in so much detail. However, ask about the casualties of the Kashmir crisis and you might find 1 person, if you are lucky who even knows the name of Kashmir.

Talking purely about stats:

2997 people died in 9/11 (which includes muslims)

Now lets see how many muslims have died due to terrorist activities.

In 2008 alone in Pakistan, 200+ suicide bombings took place and the last bombing that happened was in fact 4 days ago, but you will barely find the stats in the news over here.

Kashmir: Since 1990, 13,000+ Kashmiri civilians have been murdered for the sake of land.

Palestine: 7,987 is the statistic US has given out of dead palestenians since the palestine/israel conflict. 59% of this stat were confirmed civilians.

Iraq and Afghanistan: a tolling 919,967 bare minimum is the stat US gives of dead civilians. Take a guess of how many of them were actual terrorists.

The point is that if muslims suffer from terrorism as well, then is it fair to subject the word "terrorism" with only muslims?

2 million+ people die in the atomic bombings of japan. To this date, it is not considered a terrorist act because it wasn't a muslim state or establishment who bombed japan.

Originally Posted by Salik

9/11 was huge, but not even close to as big as nagasaki and hiroshima.

which is why i love when a history teacher repeats that the nuclear bombs on japan were only a way to end the war, and not an act of terrorism by state. :p

^ a bit irrelevant i know but i had the urge to post it LOL

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure it's appropriate to be comparing World War 2 to 9/11.

Originally Posted by Salik

2997 people died in 9/11 (which includes muslims)

Now lets see how many muslims have died due to terrorist activities.

In 2008 alone in Pakistan, 200+ suicide bombings took place and the last bombing that happened was in fact 4 days ago, but you will barely find the stats in the news over here.

Kashmir: Since 1990, 13,000+ Kashmiri civilians have been murdered for the sake of land.

Palestine: 7,987 is the statistic US has given out of dead palestenians since the palestine/israel conflict. 59% of this stat were confirmed civilians.

Iraq and Afghanistan: a tolling 919,967 bare minimum is the stat US gives of dead civilians. Take a guess of how many of them were actual terrorists.

The point is that if muslims suffer from terrorism as well, then is it fair to subject the word "terrorism" with only muslims?

Agreed. It's kinda sad that most people don't realize that the most common victims of terrorism tend to be other muslims. Still don't agree on the japan analogy, but other then that, spot on.

Japan is different, its not terrorism it was a WORLD WAR !! its different. we cant use that to compare things