I was thinking a little bit more about this link Fink posted in the Boston Marathon Bombing thread: http://deadspin.com/the-tsarnaev-brothers-allegedly-followed-9-11-conspirac-476607277
In short, it is someone going on about how ridiculous Alex Jones is for his wild conspiracy theories, crazy speculation, and how quick he is to jump to conclusions. The author links to a blog post made by a woman who knew the bombers' mother and retells how their mother believed that 9/11 was done by the US to make Islam look bad and justify war. The author then goes on to do exactly what he condemns Alex Jones for and wildly speculates that maybe the reason these guys did it wasn't because they were Islamic fundamentalists, but because they were paying back America for the evil America has done to them with framing Muslims for 9/11.
Yeah. At least Alex Jones is talented enough to make his wild speculation seem plausible, in a convoluted crazy sort of way.
Anyway, the blogger also goes on a good deal about how religious they were, which seems like a kind of an important point for the author of that article to ignore.
This got me thinking. I'm generally very harsh on Islam, while I tend to let Christianity slide quite a bit. While ultimately, I feel we'd be better off without either one of them, I tend to be far more defensive of Christianity than I sometimes feel I should be. Which always leads me to ask myself, is it just ethnocentrism? Probably to a good degree it is. I have close friends who are both Muslim and Christian, but I was raised Christian, my family, relatives, and closest friends are Christians. It would be almost impossible not to be biased. But even so, I try to be as fair as possible.
Why is it fair that I feel Christianity has redeeming factors, and at the same time feel that Islam has none? I've lived in one primarily Islamic country, and traveled through many others, and have seen misogyny, homophobia, and violence in those places directly associated with their religion. It is backwards and disgusting, and very real and prevalent, even today. The Judeo-Christian culture is certainly guilty of the same crimes, and plenty of others. So where is the redeeming factor?
Bingowings hit this nail on the head for me. Not too long ago he described his fondness for Jesus and his teachings, stating that Jesus is his Buddha. And there is where I find the redeeming factor in Christianity. Jesus was pretty badass, he taught his followers to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and visit the sick and imprisoned. He was all about sacrifice and benevolence. He was all about turning the world upside down and doing the unexpected, selfless good, when all reason pointed to the opposite.
While Muhammad carried around a big ass sword and spread violence in the name of God, Jesus led around a group of lowlifes: fishermen, assassins, thieves, whores, and tax collectors, the dregs of society, and he personally showed them a selfless way of life and rubbed it in the faces of the pious. He practically showed the status quo the middle finger, while living his life for others, and urging everyone around him to do the same. Real or not (probably not), Jesus is absolutely one of the coolest figures ever depicted on any medium.
Islam doesn't have that. Maybe someday we'll be able to toss out all these crumby Judeo-Christian religions, leave all their backwards and harmful teachings buried in the past, but still keep the tradition of Jesus alive.