The Atheist Blogger

The popular web-comic “Indexed” has a somewhat controversial Venn diagram out today, listing Osama Bin Laden (and Santa) as a “symbol of a popular religion”.

Santa? Rarely seen? Surely not!

Now Santa is hardly a symbol of a popular religion, a symbol of a certain holiday usually associated with a popular religion maybe, but not of actual Christianity itself. However, is Bin Laden a symbol of Islam? The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the name Bin Laden is “terrorist”, or “9/11″, but it was Islamic terrorists who committed that atrocity (as well as many others). It seems almost too easy to associate terrorists with Islam, and vice-versa; the religion certainly encourages followers to kill unbelievers, even if the “moderates” deny it.

Proponents of Islam will often refer to it as the “religion of peace”, and yet you have to take a step back and look at what this so called peace has brought. I have to admit, every time I hear Islam described in such a way, I just stare in disbelief. It all boils down to a couple of things; namely, whether it is right to judge a religion by its extremists, and whether the religious beliefs of the terrorists were the influencing factor in their decision to carry out their plans.

Religion being an influencing factor is, in my opinion, undeniable. The hijackers died as martyrs for Islam, and we all know what their last words were, so the factor that remains is whether religious extremism is a good indicator of the actual religion. There are extremists in all religions; many simply twist the words of prophets to force their own agenda, but others are quite the opposite. Islam rewards those who kill infidels in battle, whilst Christianity makes no such promise. When considering the religion of Islam purely from scripture, I’d say it is more of a religion of hate than of peace.

As a religion of hate, Bin Laden is a good a symbol as any, although he is one of many, including the hijab (symbol of the Islamic oppression of women), and the scores of young Islamic girls who know all too well the religion’s position on child molestation.

I noticed we haven’t had a poll recently, so this is a good point to have one. Simple yes or no question: Do you think of Osama Bin Laden as a symbol of Islam? Leave a comment on why you voted, or if you think I’m talking complete nonsense.

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I’ve been invited by some of my Hindu friends to a event on facebook, asking people to “wear a white shirt on monday” to show respect to the 150+ people who died in the Mumbai terrorist attacks that happened earlier this week. When perusing the event details, I came across an interesting section on t-shirt ideas.

Front: 150+ Dead in Mumbai…
Back: Why?

I guess the “Why?” is more a metaphysical question concerning why so many people could have died, but to me, the actual answer to the question seems quite obvious. Islam. The terrorists who slaughtered over 150 people did so because they were deluded by the idea that it was somehow the will of Allah. Reports have already confirmed that the terrorists went after American and British passport holders, letting a British man who claimed to be Italian live.

The event coordinators have already made it very clear they don’t want to answer the question themselves, even though deep down they know the answer.

****ANYTHING HATEFUL TARGETING ANY SPECIFIC PERSON, GROUP, RELIGION, ETCETERA WILL BE DELETED AND REPORTED.
this event is to not target and attack certain people/etc but to create UNITY & SUPPORT.

So you can create “unity and support” groups, keeping people happy by blaming the governments and police for the mistakes they made, without caring at all about the real problem. Groups like these simply push the problem under the rug, and instead of trying to stop the problem at the root, they work on the premise that these things are going to happen and that we should work on preventing them from ever reaching a climax.

That is a ridiculous view to take. Police do not work on the premise that racial attacks are bound to happen, they go around actively trying to promote harmony between people of different races. Instead of going after the terrorists before they strike, we should be working to stop people from joining terrorist organizations in the first place. Unfortunately, for as long as we have religious doctrine, we will have people who resort to killing in its name.

Here is a better idea for a t-shirt:

Front: 150+ Dead in Mumbai.

Back: Why? Islam. Religion Kills.

People will probably call it hate speech, but I don’t care. It’s the truth, and that should be all that matters.