Religion and Terrorism

Today, a well meaning friend sent me a video. The tag line was "Take 15 minutes to watch this. It will make you think". Here is the video (it's actually 16 minutes long):

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103

If you don't have 15 to 16 minutes to watch it, I will summarize here. The video shows passages from the Koran and speeches by various Islam extremists interspersed with video scenes of 9-11-01 and other acts of terrorism around the world. The message at the end says "Stop Islamisation, Defend our freedom".
Obviously the message is that Islam and all Muslims are bad and we need to get rid of them or at least defeat their religion.

Here is the response I sent to my freind after seeing the video:
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Terry,

Thanks for the video.
It is true that religion can be used to justify some awful stuff.

I happen to be a Christian but I would never use my bible to justify killing innocent people. Unfortunately, it does happen.

The old testament does speak of some terrible things. Maybe not the same as the Koran, but I wonder how it (our bible) might be interpreted by those who want to make us look bad? So, possibly we are also seeing a slanted interpretation of the Koran?

I think that there are many good Muslims (maybe 99.999% of them!) who would never use their religious beliefs to harm anyone. I choose not to judge the rest of them based upon the actions of a very (very) small minority. I hope that they do not judge you and me based upon the mis-directed actions of a few so-called Christians.

There is lots of oil in the middle east. That’s is why I believe we are there. Not because of what happened on 9-11-01. We should be using our money to develop alternative energy, not kill more people.

We have created more hatred of America than we can ever erase. That’s my opinion.

As for the USA, we were founded on a principle called "separation of church and state" for a very good reason. When so called "religious" leaders run the country death and destruction are certain. History has proven it.

Yours in the spirit of free speech and debate,

Mike

McGov starts blogging

I've heard about this blogging stuff or some time now. In fact I have recently posted some comments on other folks' blogs, such as http://www.brianjones.com/.
While I am fairly computer literate I have not done my own blog before.

There are three general reasons for my wanting a blogspot:

One, I have some opinions I'd like to put out there for people to read, especially as I've learned that many folks don't have enough time to gather their own facts. I do the reseach for them, because I have passions in certain areas for which other folks might have just a passing interest (such as the environment, world issues, classic rock music). The benefit to the reader is that they can read my "informed" opinions, and assume these opinions for themselves (ha ha), or if appropriate they can tell me where they think I need further research..

The second thing I will do with this blog is discuss a bit about people, places, things, or institutions that have impressed me (either positively or negatively) for one reason or another. Not to focus on the negative impressions, but many of these things would fall into the category of "things I cannot change" according to the serenity prayer, and that is why I chose to blog about them rather than be frustrated.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I hope to shed light ideas and things which should make you happy. There is a lot in the world to be grateful for. If you are a 12 stepper (friend of Bill's) like me, you know we need to focus on gratitude. God is great and I need to remind myself occasionally.

Welcome to McGov's blog...