5 Exaggerations About Islam

[Armand Tanzarian]

www.cracked.com/article_18911_5-ridiculous-things-you-probably-believe-about-islam.html

While some of these are a bit of a stretch, like the fact that some of the Muslim nations came into being under the sword, just goes to show how disparate the modern image of Islam is compared to the image of Islam in the GOP mind, or even the mind of Richard Dawkins.

[Distind]

Anyone want to bet a conservative reading that would only take away 'Muhammad was a liberal!' from that entire article?

[clockworkgirl21]

Knew it all.

Of course, some are a little stretched. Cracked stretches everything.

[wolfgangravenna]

I read a book at one point that said Islam was actually validated by science, and have seen other stuff where they validate the Quran through science and math. It's pretty interesting, and may be why the religion is growing faster than a tumour in a reactor.

[Meshakhad]

Good article. Of course, Islam has its faults, but so does Christianity (Crusades? Inquisition? Repression of scientific knowledge?). This is the reason why I like Islam better than Christianity - Jews in the Middle Ages were better treated in Muslim countries than Christian countries.

[safaraz]

Dec 20, 2010 11:54:52 GMT -5 Meshakhad said:

Jews in the Middle Ages were better treated in Muslim countries than Christian countries.

Yeah, the term "holocaust" to describe the murder of Jews was first used in 1290 by the English when Edward I expelled them all from the country, killing a lot in the processes.

Also some of the comment on that article are main-page worthy amounts of racism and fail.

[MaybeNever]

Dec 20, 2010 10:36:26 GMT -5 wolfgangravenna said:

I read a book at one point that said Islam was actually validated by science, and have seen other stuff where they validate the Quran through science and math. It's pretty interesting, and may be why the religion is growing faster than a tumour in a reactor.

Christians also make this claim about being validated by science, and it's exactly as meaningless.

[Sigmaleph]

MaybeNever beat me to it. The Koran is no more validated by science than the Bible, the Book of Mormon or The Lord of the Rings. From what I remember of websites parroting that particular claim, it's mostly the same bullshit as those "100 scientific facts in the Bible!" lists, a mixture of trivialities, falsehoods and shoehorning.

[wolfgangravenna]

I still have to respect them whenever they actually make it plausible, though. I haven't seen it with the Bible where they make it seem like it couldn't be interpreted otherwise.

[Admiral Lithp]

Or outright, unsourced lies that take refuge in audacity. Like masturbation causes hairy palms, anemia, memory loss, depression, insomnia, & probably death. And doctors or psychiatrists who suggest otherwise are lying & don't know what they're doing.

Of course, that has nothing to do with the Koran, but the point is that some Fundies throw around the term "science" in justification of insanity more than Vene.

[Smurfette Principle]

I liked the article, but the comments... jeez. I used to like the Cracked commentators, somewhat. Now it's just stupid.

[wolfgangravenna]

Dec 20, 2010 20:45:51 GMT -5 Admiral Lithp said:

Or outright, unsourced lies that take refuge in audacity. Like masturbation causes hairy palms, anemia, memory loss, depression, insomnia, & probably death. And doctors or psychiatrists who suggest otherwise are lying & don't know what they're doing.

Of course, that has nothing to do with the Koran, but the point is that some Fundies throw around the term "science" in justification of insanity more than Vene.

This was more along the lines of "Hey look, Seismic fault lines were quoted in the Koran before they were actually discovered." I don't know, i have only browsed through the Koran, and it isn't like the bible where you can just skip to the end.

[askold]

I'd like to point out that the article (like most articles on cracked) is exaggerating things.

Even during the dark ages christian women had more liberties than muslim women, muslims often massacred non-combatants or sold them to slavery (just like the christian crusaders did) and although the muslims had an ideology similar to western chivalry (can't remember the name right now) they would break the code whenever it would benefit them. (Silly rant I know.)

[devilschaplain2]

Haven't read it yet, but I wonder if they'll tackle that stupid "A Muslim can lie to a non-Muslim if it furthers their cause so we should distrust them all" bullshit.

[DeadpanDoubter]

Dec 21, 2010 18:21:34 GMT -5 @devilschaplain2 said:

Haven't read it yet, but I wonder if they'll tackle that stupid "A Muslim can lie to a non-Muslim if it furthers their cause so we should distrust them all" bullshit.

That's a stupid 'point', anyway; many Christians have demonstrated willingness to lie to further their own cause, secular or otherwise.

I've never really understood how "don't bear false witness against your neighbor" = "NO LYING PERIOD", anyway.