Pat Condell on Christianity and Islam

Five videos from Pat Condell on Christianity, Islam, faith, and religion in general. This guy rocks so hard…

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Pat Condell on why Christianity is so stupid.

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On Islam in Europe.

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A response to allegations of “islamaphobia” – because apparently any criticism of someone else’s idiocy automatically = racism.

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and on faith in general.

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On Catholic Morality

Actually, fuck it. just go to his website.

And, for the record, I just *know* some liberal is going to accuse me of racism for reposting his video about Islam in Europe because a lot of people who are genuinely racist use the same facts he recites to  argue that Arabs shouldn’t be allowed to immigrate to Europe (or America, for that matter).  Thing is, that’s not what he’s advocating and definitely not something I’d ever advocate.  The thing the racists, and most liberals, forget is that “Arab” does not equal “Muslim”.  There are Christian Arabs (40% of Palestinians prior to the creation of Israel were Christians),  Jewish Arabs (or at least, there used to be prior to the creation of Israel.  Nowadays very few people still self-identify this way), Athiest and Agnostic Arabs, and Arabs who belong to dozens of other religious groups as well.  Arguing that criticizing Islam amounts to anti-arab racism is just plain stupid, almost as stupid as the people who actually do use their objections to Islam to justify their racism against Arabs.

It’s disgusting and racist to objectify, exploit, or exclude someone based on their ethnicity or physical appearance, but it’s completely reasonable to decide that you don’t want to associate with people who hold (and  more importantly advocate and attempt to impose) oppression.  And the fact is that at the end of the day- cultural tolerance notwithstanding – the type of Islam being advocated by many in the Islamic “world” is brutal, violent and oppressive.  That type of Islam has no place in the type of world order based on mutual aid, egalitarianism, and free association, that I’d like to see.

It may well be that, as many of my Muslim friends argue, the oppressive fundamentalism is a perversion of the true peaceful message of Islam, though personally I have my doubts.  As much as Christianity pisses me off, Jesus seems like he was a pretty cool guy at the end of the day – he taught people to disdain material wealth and possessions, help the poor,  and do unto others what they would like to have others do to them.  Not bad for an ancient jewish hippie.  Muhammad, by contrast, was a war-mongering bastard who spent the majority of his life spreading his new religion by force of arms.   As far as I can tell, Bin Ladin & Co. are a chip off the old block in the same way that fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Jewish Zionists are a throwback to the bloodthirsty genocidal God of the Old Testament and Torah.     There are types of Islam that genuinely are centered around peace and tolerance, Sufism springs to mind, but more and more it seems like these folks are a minority, either because the fundamentalists genuinely outnumber them or because – like liberal Christians in America – they’re simply too spineless to stand up to the fundamentalist minority.

Whatever the case, the fact is that religious fundamentalism of all flavors is a very real threat.  It’s NOT a threat that can be effectively combatted with tanks and bombs and other tools of State Terrorism, Bush’s war has done more to encourage and empower the Jihadists then just about anything else could have possibly done., but it is a threat we’re going to have to meet.  And the first step in meeting that threat has got to be freeing ourselves from the idiotic liberal belief that it’s somehow racist to call a spade a spade and point out just how brutal and disgusting Sharia law, “honor” killings, etc really are.

Posted: September 7th, 2007 under gods & religion, video.
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