Where do worldwide religion, other spiritual beliefs and atheists stand?

Question

I feel there is something of a witch hunt going on against Islam at the moment, with the 9/11 remembrance and the "burning the Koran" issue.  I am not a religious person, but I respect those who are.  I believe that all religions have a moral code which is about respect for others, loving relationships, caring about each other, and certainly not wanting to hurt each other.  I believe that Islam has these views too, even if I don't know enough about their religion.  There are exceptions in any religion, obviously, but I feel they are a minority, where people become so fundamental that they take the teachings outside of the original good-will message all religions have.  This is not happening just in Islam, but also in places where a small church wants to burn the Koran, and other churches/religions unwilling to be open to others, even in established churches, or where a faction of people want to burn the US or another flag or the effigy of a president etc.  This kind of thing has happened in history over and over again, with the prosecution of "heretics", the catholics in the UK under Henry VIII, the Crusades, the Jews, the witches and druids and the Wicca.  Whenever something was felt as a threat to power, people were persecuted because of their religion.  
The whole situation is leading to "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" and it is becoming really ugly.  Can people find some common ground here, please?

Tilly · Accepted Answer

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
^ Gandhi

Throughout the span of the human race, there have always been disagreements and always will be, the unfortunate truth is that some people can not tolerate others opinions and will aggressively wipe out whoever disagrees. The thing is, is that until these people realise that violence will not solve all problems then homo sapiens are forever to be at each others throats.

Anonymous · Answer

Fundies of any religion are bad news. That being said, why should I care if some Florida Fundie Christian wanted to burn a Quran? It's his right to do such if he Wills, and is protected by the law. The Muslims do not have the right to *not* be offended, no one does. Part of having freedom of speech is that someone out there is going to be offended by what you say.

Islam does not have a good message in my view, it preaches the submission of Will and domination of other people to convert them. You need to study more about Islam and other religions if you think they all have a message of good will. 

And Wicca? That religion has only been around since about the 1950's. The Wiccans where never persecuted as a group or faced genocide like some of the other's you mentioned.

Eye for an eye simply means Lex Talions, let the punishment equal the crime. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, our legal system would be better if we followed that.

Anonymous · Answer

Wiccans have never been under a witchhunt, despite the propaganda they like to regurgitate.  The religion is only about 50 years old.

Regardless, the difference here is that we have an overwhelming number of examples of Islams doing terrorism in the name of Islam:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks-2010.htm
Even if the majority of Muslims aren't terrorists, you'd have to be beyond stupid to think that Islam has absolutely nothing to do with this.  There ARE Muslims who take it to be a totalitarianism ideology, and have a goal of converting the world to Islamic law.

By the way "eye for eye" doesn't mean revenge.  The phrase comes from the Bible and it means "let the punishment fit the crime."

Lemur · Answer

Anyone who uses religion as a mask to create hurt in this world does not have a true understanding of God or the religion they claim to be practicing.

MtotheR MIGHTY RA! · Answer

Not a witch hunt as much as an outpouring of extreme right-wing anti-intellectualism.  What next? kick a teddy bear dressed up like a paki day?

Anonymous · Answer

9/11 is a retarded day to remember. we might as well celebrate every day a soldier has died over in iraq, too. besides, just under 3000 people isnt bad by any standard. overpopulation is going to be a HUGE problem soon

Anonymous · Answer

when people make their own decisions on what is right and wrong, good and bad  instead of what the bible says these things tend to happen

Anonymous · Answer

CHRISTIANITY IS THE REAL TRUTH...IF YOU WANT COMMON GROUND pray for Gods kingdom!!! Satan is still running this one and he sucks.

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Where do worldwide religion, other spiritual beliefs and atheists stand?

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