Why are there Musilm extremists & what is their cause?

Question

I am interested why a group of people seem to bring down their own religion and do other religions have extremists of a violent nature? I respect all religions and am interested in your point of view.

Answer 1

The problem with extremism in religion is, in fact, inherent to all religions. But, it is true that Islam has, in modern times, taken the title as the most extreme. If we were to examine any period between the 12th and 16th centuries, however, we'd discover that the Christian Church was then a hotbed of extremism. It was during these centuries that the various "Inquisitions" were launched by the Church and its leaders against the people of Europe in an attempt to punish and eliminate people who the Church deemed to not be religious enough. It's estimated that well over 100,000 people were executed -- many by being burned at the stake -- by the Church during that time. Also consider that these centuries coincide with the various Crusades, or "Holy Wars," launched by the Church throughout Europe and Asia against non-Christian peoples. Many millions of lives were violently taken during those campaigns, as well.

The problem inherent to religious faith is really two-fold. Firstly, religious texts, like the Bible and Qur'an, are believed by the followers of those faiths to be the inspired word of their respective god. As a consequence, followers of those faiths believe that any message conveyed in those religious texts is a direct message from god, and furthermore, that as believers they must act out any demand made in the book in order to please their god.

Both the Bible and Qur'an, for example, make vague references to the notion that homosexuality is a sin. As a consequence, many religious people now aggressively seek to persecute homosexuals in modern society. The rational for doing so, however, isn't based on any sound reasoning. It is only based on the assumption that since the Bible or Qur'an were supposed to have been written by god, that persecuting homosexuals is what god wants his followers to do.

A further complication to this first point is that, because religious texts are typically very old, they have often been translated from very ancient, foreign languages -- many of which are rarely spoken today. As a consequence, we can be quite sure that as those texts have been translated over the years (parts of the Biblical Old Testament, for example, are likely more than 4,000 years old) that they have been "reinterpreted" by the translators along the way and intentionally changed in order to reflect the personal viewpoints of the translators themselves, and not the original authors. This creates a problem because modern-day followers of a religion may be attributing divine influence to passages in their religious text that have really only been written by translators who were pushing their own agenda by secretly inserting passages into the religious text. Furthermore, many passages in these ancient texts are so vague and difficult to understand that you could easily interpret them to justify any of your own personal beliefs. It has often been joked (but with a great deal of truth and sincerity) that the Bible, for example, is so vague that you could conceivably find within it a passage to justify just about any crime, from theft, to murder, to rape. You can see how, if people believe "God" wrote the Bible, that it could be very easy to convince a great number of Christians that the Bible condones and advocates those crimes.

The second problem inherent to religion is that it makes people VERY emotional, and when people are emotional, they tend to not think rationally. The hijackers of the 9/11 planes, for example, were so emotionally charged up with their belief in the words of the Qur'an that they were willing to take their own lives and the lives of thousands of other people without flinching. In short, religion can so powerfully affect people's emotional state that it can cause them to do very destructive and hurtful things.

When you combine these two problems -- 1) a person's assumption that religion tells them the will of God (which they have to obey), and; 2) their inability to think straight when they're under the influence of religion -- it becomes clear that religion is inherently capable of making ALL religious people extremists. This is exactly what non-religious people -- such as atheists, agnostics, and humanists -- have been saying for centuries. But unfortunately, since modern-day society has still not become comfortable with the idea of people not being religious, these non-religious people (who account for most of the world's best scientists, writers, and artists, by the way) have had their philosophical viewpoints largely ignored. I hope, however, that one day the United States will elect a non-religious person to the Presidency, as that would probably be one of the best decisions we could make, especially in such a time when religious extremism in ALL forms -- not just Islam -- is quite literally destroying the world.

Answer 2

I'm sorry, this is an interesting question... but what does it have to do with Earth Science/Geology?

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The reason there are Muslim extremists is for the same reason there are Christian and Jewish extremists... some people are just plain nuts. The fact that Islam is the most common religion in poorer regions of the world would explain why there seem to be more Islamic extremists than there are for other religions -- the lack of a good secular education makes a person far more likely to become an "extremist" for any religion.

I'm not picking on Islam, I'm just telling it as I see it. There are extremists from all religions, and none of them are any better/worse than the others. Personally I am not a religious person at all, and I don't find any of the three major religions to be any more/less attractive - they all seem kind of silly to me. But that's just me, everyone can believe what they want.... just don't kill people because of what you believe.

Just a side note in response to the first answer.... Since when do radical muslims "lean to the extreme left"? That's about as absurd a statement as I have ever heard. Radical Islam is probably the most conservative (right wing) religious dogma in the world. I'm not saying that most conservative right wingers have much in common with these radicals - but they are far from being leftists.

Answer 3

There are many jihads everywhere in the globe. Some are shockingly terrorist situated, a few acquire much less media insurance policy. The media is just too fickle to be relied on. They'll best document the cutting-edge and so much stunning parties, however make no mistake... the jihadists retain to plan, plan, kill, and spoil. According to the Qur'an, there's no such factor as a peaceable Muslim. Muslims who wish peace and peaceable coexistence, are classified as dangerous because the "infidels," and are subjected to the identical healing. Nigeria...500+ Christians have been killed there within the poast 6 months. Tanzania... folks are being abducted, tortured, and killed. Indonesia; Philippines... jihadists combat in opposition to their fellow Muslims Sunni/Shiite Muslim mercenaries of northern Sudan oppress, harrass, and starve out the Christians in Southern Sudan. Somali Muslims nonetheless terrorize ships within the Indian Ocean.

Answer 4

I respect all religons too and do not discriminate in my comments here. As in all walks of life be it politics, religion or social structure factions of sub groups exist. Within the sub group structure there is a break away from the ideals common to the organization. Sub groups tend to lean to the extreme left and are selfserving based on ideaology that is not the norm of the associated parent group. Sub groups can be positive if they are moderate because they maintain accountability of the parent group. Unfortunality as in your question this group has chosen ideals and activities that are extreme.