5 ms·

It’s especially glaring in the Tibet case where the 20% monks living in temples exploit the rest of the country and redirect the wealth towards them. I’ve read

It’s especially glaring in the Tibet case where the 20% monks living in temples exploit the rest of the country and redirect the wealth towards them. I’ve read numbers in an academic book, that was astonishing. The system is also a theocracy. While not as bad as other living examples, this is clearly not as "enlightened" form of government than the pop-culture would like us to think. I disagree on your point about Islam though. Islam encourages charity within it’s own community only. For non believers it encourages the holy war (jihad), which causes many problems. In this case, it’s indeed better for a country to have bouddhism than islam as state religion, from the point of view of neighbors if not muslim themselves.

cygnusxvega 6y ago
This is actually not true and another common misconception. Islam does not encourage Jihad as a form or spreading the religon, that word is consistently mistranslated. Islam specifically encourages giving charity to the most needy, AND starts with your own community and family and works outwards to the larger good and society. The same Christian beliefs of taking care of your neighbors. Islam also encourages in enjoining in good wherever you find it. Muslims in America donate to local food banks and soup kitchens. You clearly are just repeating what the current false narrative is and have little understandinf of the religon. If you made the point that people dont practice the way the religon is taught I might agree, but this is just false.
- MaximumYComb 6y ago
  I spent 5 years living as a minority white person in a majority Middle Eastern area (in a western country). My take on it is as follows: Muslims in the west are literally like white Christians. Some are culturally Muslim but don't practise the faith. Others are strongly Muslim. Some are amazing people and some are bigoted. Among the religious ones you have the ones who use religion to do good and those who use it as an excuse to be bigots. It's the exact same I see in white people. I would take my son, aged 3-4, into a really dodgy barber (this whole area is low socioeconomic). Drug dealers and unsavoury characters. My little blond-haired, blue-eyed son and me in a sea of black hair. And we would be treated exactly as what we were, a father taking his son for a haircut. They would give him a lollipop and call my daughter over to make sure she got one too.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- MustrumRidculle 6y ago
  'Seventeen derivatives of jihād occur altogether forty-one times in eleven Meccan texts and thirty Medinan ones, with the following five meanings: striving because of religious belief (21), war (12), non-Muslim parents exerting pressure, that is, jihād, to make their children abandon Islam (2), solemn oaths (5), and physical strength (1).'[1] So 29% of the evocations of jihad are about war. Besides, there have been 20+ conflicts thought in the name of 'jihad' since 1980's [2]. I understand that you may have your own definition of what jihad is, but I guess not all muslims will think like you. Besides, social care by islamic organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood [3] is used as a strategy to gain political power. Not only muslims do it, but when a political / religious group begins to substitute to the state, there is a strong susceptibility that the end goal is political rather than only altruistic. [1]Al-Dawoody, Ahmed (2011). The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 56. https://archive.org/details/islamiclawwarjus00alda https://archive.org/details/islamiclawwarjus00alda [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad#Warfare_(Jihad_bil_Saif) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad#Warfare_(Jihad_bil_Saif) [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood_in_Egypt#Social_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood_in_Egypt#So...
- eecc 6y ago
  For what I understand of Islam, there’s no final authority like the Catholic Pope. In Islam, authority is a matter of who has the most resources to make more followers. Unfortunately the USA decided to bankroll the most reactionary sect, giving out the capacity to dominate the scene. Imagine if Marcel Lefebvre had petro-dollars to back him...
  - trasz 6y ago
    Minor nit: there’s no final authority in Christianity either - the pope only matters to Catholics.
eecc 6y ago
Well, all variants of Christianity encourage proselytism which has historically resulted in many lit stakes all over the world. Until recently - if not to this day - pious donations to Missionaries in Africa lifted many from poverty on condition of conversion to Catholicism. You could even pick the new name of the poor little orphan, like a pet... (this detail struck my parents so badly, they decided to find other ways to help.)

cygnusxvega 6y ago

This is actually not true and another common misconception. Islam does not encourage Jihad as a form or spreading the religon, that word is consistently mistranslated. Islam specifically encourages giving charity to the most needy, AND starts with your own community and family and works outwards to the larger good and society. The same Christian beliefs of taking care of your neighbors. Islam also encourages in enjoining in good wherever you find it. Muslims in America donate to local food banks and soup kitchens. You clearly are just repeating what the current false narrative is and have little understandinf of the religon. If you made the point that people dont practice the way the religon is taught I might agree, but this is just false.

MaximumYComb 6y ago
I spent 5 years living as a minority white person in a majority Middle Eastern area (in a western country). My take on it is as follows: Muslims in the west are literally like white Christians. Some are culturally Muslim but don't practise the faith. Others are strongly Muslim. Some are amazing people and some are bigoted. Among the religious ones you have the ones who use religion to do good and those who use it as an excuse to be bigots. It's the exact same I see in white people. I would take my son, aged 3-4, into a really dodgy barber (this whole area is low socioeconomic). Drug dealers and unsavoury characters. My little blond-haired, blue-eyed son and me in a sea of black hair. And we would be treated exactly as what we were, a father taking his son for a haircut. They would give him a lollipop and call my daughter over to make sure she got one too.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
MustrumRidculle 6y ago
'Seventeen derivatives of jihād occur altogether forty-one times in eleven Meccan texts and thirty Medinan ones, with the following five meanings: striving because of religious belief (21), war (12), non-Muslim parents exerting pressure, that is, jihād, to make their children abandon Islam (2), solemn oaths (5), and physical strength (1).'[1] So 29% of the evocations of jihad are about war. Besides, there have been 20+ conflicts thought in the name of 'jihad' since 1980's [2]. I understand that you may have your own definition of what jihad is, but I guess not all muslims will think like you. Besides, social care by islamic organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood [3] is used as a strategy to gain political power. Not only muslims do it, but when a political / religious group begins to substitute to the state, there is a strong susceptibility that the end goal is political rather than only altruistic. [1]Al-Dawoody, Ahmed (2011). The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 56. https://archive.org/details/islamiclawwarjus00alda https://archive.org/details/islamiclawwarjus00alda [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad#Warfare_(Jihad_bil_Saif) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad#Warfare_(Jihad_bil_Saif) [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood_in_Egypt#Social_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood_in_Egypt#So...
eecc 6y ago
For what I understand of Islam, there’s no final authority like the Catholic Pope. In Islam, authority is a matter of who has the most resources to make more followers. Unfortunately the USA decided to bankroll the most reactionary sect, giving out the capacity to dominate the scene. Imagine if Marcel Lefebvre had petro-dollars to back him...
- trasz 6y ago
  Minor nit: there’s no final authority in Christianity either - the pope only matters to Catholics.

eecc 6y ago

Well, all variants of Christianity encourage proselytism which has historically resulted in many lit stakes all over the world. Until recently - if not to this day - pious donations to Missionaries in Africa lifted many from poverty on condition of conversion to Catholicism. You could even pick the new name of the poor little orphan, like a pet... (this detail struck my parents so badly, they decided to find other ways to help.)