Your thoughts on this, please?

Question

Suppose you read in the papers a news story which goes like this:
"Two Christians were accused today of raping a 20-year old woman."
Wouldn't it sound odd or would you be saying: " What on earth has Christianity got to do with it?

Then consider this similar news story:

"Two Muslims were accused today of raping a 20-year woman."
Would it sound as odd or has it become normal practice to remind readers of the religious identify of Muslim suspects/criminals?

Answer 1

trust me, Islam is in fashion at the moment. 20 or 30 years ago no body heard any problem with Muslims, if there was something wrong with the religion how come only now we hear things like that.

whenever there is nothing else to report they bring an issue which has Islam in it to get everyone talking.

i agree that people now more into reading these things specially after what happened in London and in the world but how come the religion is to blame.

if you ask me about the American and British army, what type of image does it come to your mind? does it come to your mind the image of abuse that they have done in Iraq and in jails?

i think we should not associate individuals with groups/ just because somebody done something why should all people be punished with that?

plus if they were real Christians or real Muslims or real believes or even real human beings, they shouldn't behave in this way anyway!! there is no religion on earth ask people to kill, rape or so all these immoral things!

answering the person who asked are Muslims Christians because they believe in Christ? yes Muslims believe in Christ and they have to believe in all prophets from Adam till Mohamed passing by all the prophets that bible talked about. in order for your to be a Muslim you have to believe in one god that is Allah, angels, books that were sent, prophets and messengers, and the judgement day after death.

Answer 2

You are fishing for bigotry and/or profiling.

The fact is most crimes committed in the USA are committed by Christians. Why? Because most people here are Christians.

Likewise, Iraq, Iran, Saudi, etc., Muslims.

Why you would read that? Because it is unusual. Don't think for a minute that Iraqis wouldn’t have every right to say, "Two Christians were accused today of raping a 20-year old woman." In fact if they didn't one would suspect a cover-up.

You will see, "Two Priest were accused today of raping a 20-year old woman" because they are a little more rare as Muslims are in the USA.

BTW, terrorist don’t care if you are washing the feet of Muslims every day because they will kill you just for being an American. You need to get it out of your head that terrorists are representative of Muslims and you won’t be coming to off the wall conclusions that you have here.

Answer 3

Identifying rapists with their religion can be done to show up hypocrisy - which always stinks. If a rapist has no moral values then he won't even think rape is wrong. A religious rapist is supposed to have moral values, you see. (LoL) But Christ went further than we do by saying even to lust after a woman in your heart is as bad as the immoral act itself. Any men willing to post a declaration that they've never done that?

Of course, hypocrisy is not confined to religious people. It would shock just as much if we read, "Two High Court Judges were accused today of raping a 20-year old woman". They might be totally irreligious but their profession would mark them out for even more disgust. It's the same with today's news item that two policemen were sent down for perverting justice. We needed to know their profession in order to appreciate how particularly vile their crime was and how it affected other criminal investigations.

One problem, though, is the naive idea that just because a person was born into a religion means that's their personal profession of faith. It rarely is. So unless the accused can be proven to have religious credentials and faith, this should never be mentioned.

Finally, we rarely read of supposed Christians committing rape because in our PC world it's deemed better to accuse them of (shock! horror!) wearing crosses on TV, or complaining to airlines of staff taking God's name in vain, or biffing a Vicar on the nose at a tea party. I kid you not.

Answer 4

Your right in part; As a Christian I guess we expect more from them. Even though those accused of a crime, or a different sin, is that we are suppose to be a wittiness for Christ. We are to live like Christ did. I don't think we would ever read," Two atheists were accused of raping a 20 year old woman". I would hope & pray that jouralnists would be more responsible.

Answer 5

That is a very interesting point... But aren't Musilms christians too? They believe in Christ right?

What about this one... Two Mormons were accused today of raping a 20 year old woman.

Answer 6

Well, as a Christian I have read headlines to the tunes of what you're saying (all the news about Catholic priests who've been paedophiles...as and where applicable) and the same goes for other religions and people of colour etc. Don't think as a Christian we dont get lots of verbal abuse because of other Christians misdoings, never mind that you find paedophiles in all walks of life, no matter what they believe! The media tend to sensationalize stories when someone in a trusted position, like a teacher, religious person (such as a priest or so) or some or other politician...when these people do something wrong, they get more criticized because these people are supposed to be role models in this life. When they fail, they get more criticism because the shoes they've chosen to walk in, calls for a role which is opposed to injustice and dishonourable behaviour.
As a teacher myself, I came under a lot of criticism for being strict (because most parents nowadays, here in Essex where I am, cannot be bothered to discipline their kids at home, among other reasons)...so, I got abused and bullied not only by cunning children who abused their legal rights with twisted accusations, but by other teachers as well, because i'm a foreigner. I came under fire once for shouting at a boy when the deputy head once swore at a kid, another head of department literally sprays kids with his saliva so wildly does he carry on when challenged...but because i'm foreign, the very same school were not prepared to back me up when the parent of a boy came to school to shove her nails in my face and threaten me.
I see your point, but dont try to say us Christians get away with lots of things, we don't in fact, we come under similar if not worse criticisms.

Answer 7

I completely agree. If the actions of a person are contrary to the faith they profess, they should not be identified by that faith. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul says that anyone who calls themselves a Christian but is immoral should be expelled from the church and not considered part of it. I assume that there is something similar for Moslems.

Answer 8

You are right. I am a Christian but I do not hate people of other religions. The Muslim aspect has been added to throw wood on the fire by the journalists to keep Americans hating someone besides the government.

Answer 9

It is simply the point of view this is reported from. The media is rooted like most establishments in the west in judaio-christian dogma. So if the attackers are muslim, they are seen as 'other'.

Also, the muslim world is now becoming the embodiment of western fears. This is simply another example of how we cling to our favourite fears and paranoia and amplify them until truly terrible things manifest.

Answer 10

Thats bias for you. You only see it when your looking for it, good eye. Always remember, people of religion don't want to look bad in front of other people when they do wrong. Thats why they hide it or become bias like that. Have you ever wondered why people of religion do that when there god can see and know all... hmmm, some religous people don't look religous at all do they. Nothing like claiming god knows and sees all, yet the most religous people keep hiding stuff like the god they said would see everything would some how not see it. Hippocracies no limitation or catagorization in this world.