Germany anti-Islam protests: 17,000 march on Dresden against 'Islamification of the West'

If only you would have removed the bold above...

By the way, nice attempt at trying to come off as a moderate.

 

Is there an equivalent to ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda from any other religion that I should be more concerned about right now?

 

Back on topic, the protests are interesting. Anybody uncomfortable with the potential for the implementation of Sharia in the west is going to have a hard time. They can see what might be coming and look at areas in England where Sharia has been implemented, but they have a fundamental handicap compared to Liberals or Muslims who protest for their causes.

What is the handicap?

They actually care what others think about them. They are practically paralyzed by the fact that if they protest, they may be falsely labelled as racists and lumped in with the neo-nazis (who have no such handicap).

That's why it's interesting to see the numbers of protesters. They know that the media will portray them in a certain light and no longer care. I suspect these numbers will increase as the numbers of Muslims and Muslim-dominated areas grow.

For the west, the best we can hope for is the middle-classification or secularization of Muslims. Nobody is afraid of a Muslim who resembles your average Catholic casual churchgoer. If the vast majority of Muslims are only concerned about their mortgage and the school their kids can get into, at that point they have too much skin in the game to support radicals and may even be willing to speak out against radicals.

At work, most of my Muslim friends fall into this class. We have conversations about what they believe and very little is verboten. A good example is Turkey. It is primarily Muslim, but not run by the church. Sadly, Iran used to be there and no longer is.

 

Unfortunately, Turkey is being brought back to the dark ages by Erdogan.

 

I happen to pass here by accident and I'm surprised as a Muslim to see lots of misunderstanding as well as some positive comments. However I had to reply to this one.


Developing the economy (and now officially residing over G20)as well as balancing sensitive social issues (Kurdish issue, military power, extreme secularism (laicism)) that Turkey has had for over the years is everything but being brought BACK.

Erdogan has never had this much support and as off lately I have been seeing more and more of it.

Come visit Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir or Bursa and see what kind of economical jewel is rising around here for yourself.

Don't lean on the whatever Islamic bashing media people nowadays use.

I am certainly not a blind political supporter myself since I am a European living in Istanbul, but people in Turkey are living much better since ruling AK Party came to power in 2002. Furthermore there has been a lot of positive change overall.

There are of negative sings as well but they are way too exploited in the media outside of Turkey, most notably Europe.

 

Wow SJC a great post. I agree with almost everything you wrote. Which usually only happens when we talk about footbal

 

I have been to Istanbul several times.

The fact that Turkey has had relative economic success in recent years doesn't mean that Erdogan is a good man or a good leader. Under the Nazis, the German economy also relatively prospered in the beginning. Erdogan is an Islamofascist. He is a populist. I know he is popular with (way too many) Turks in Turkey and abroad. That doesn't mean he is a decent human being.

 

It may help to be more specific. Because I read it as anti-Islam the religion.

Religion is neither good or bad, people are.

 

That is completely wrong. Religion is a set of rules and an ideological view of the world developed by people. As such, these rules can be good, bad, misleading, misogynist, calling for violence (or at least be interpreted that way), etc. etc.

To say "religion is neither good or bad" is an unsubstantiated and, quite frankly, not very intelligent statement.

 

Nope.

The belief system or values of a movement or religion can be either out dated or wrong.

For example if I said: "nazi-"ism" isn't bad, it was the followers, most would be quite upset."

 

nobody likes denying people immigration, but if a group is unable to assimilate then it might be best. See Rotherham

 

I totally agree with this post, though I view most religions based on the "old testament" the same way as I do Islam.

 

How did you come up with such a conclusion?

 

Years of displaying his obession almost daily. He wants to be seen as a sort of moderate or nuanced thinker on this issue.

Islam/Muslims are like the Nazis for the second time on this thread alone doesn't help.

 

Don't even try to psycho-analyze me, you ridiculous delusional left-extremist psycho freak.

 

Mixed views here but got say this
- moderate Muslims need to be protected by extremist too,( extremist Muslims,Zionist etc)
they suffer the most when things goes wrong.
- a protest in a civilized way is always welcomed regardless what the true motivation is.
- Edrogan is a leader I used to like him, hate to see him slip more often lately.
-Turkey was never in the dark ages,since a thousand years ago, read some history plz and educate your self a little.
- some of harshest critiques of Islam became Muslims later on as they became more informed so don't shut Atw completely

 

Sure, Xenophobia and nationalism are not the answer. But how about a more restrictive immigration policy?

I hope its not that stupid to suggest that the level and pace of immigration matter. The large and sudden influx of culturally unassimilated immigrants can be very disruptive even if those immigrants to not carry extreme ideology.

 

What? So Satanism is not bad?

Religion can most certainly be bad - i think the inconsistent message of Islam is a problem as it is easy to manipulate it's mixed messaging.

DD