A universal tendency.

And unlike the violent ones, the author does not engage in violent conversion.

But I understand why.

Which, if not a universal tendency, is pretty widespread around these parts.

Local mythology has it people are just assholes, and they do bad things because assholes do bad things. And then, for reasons not fully explained, these assholes are deeply concerned about how people perceive them, and vigorously obscure their inherent assholishness behind fake religious motivations.



The trouble is we don't apply this principal to anything but cases of religious violence. If a racist says he killed fourteen black people because he hates black people, no one questions whether he's using racism to a hook from which he hangs his inherent violent tendencies. When some right wing fanatic detonates a bomb in a government building, no one questions whether he's using his libertarianism or his collection of cocked up conspiracy theories as excuses to kill people. Hell, we don't even question it whenever some self-absorbed fuckrag says he shot a commuter to death over a minor traffic offense.

But whenever someone says they kill, injure, or otherwise harm their fellow beings because their religion commands it, they're fucking liars. Because reasons.



Give it a rest, already. This bullshit argument is so full of holes it isn't even worth defending.

But since the vast majority of people do not commit violence, it is far too simplistic to blame the claimed source rather than the person actually committing the violence.

Is it a variety of Christianity that isn't Christian?

Define "Christian"? Huguenots and others were killed because one Xian sect rejected the other's self-definition. Now many such groups are "mainstream" and are doing the same.

Meanwhile, the entire "we don't allow bid'ah" and "we don't allow fitna" tends to be deep-rooted in many--not a hundred, not a thousand, not just a hundred thousand or even a mere million--Muslims' minds.

In fact, the entire advocacy movement for Muslims for a decade tended to assert that there was one Islam. Instead of decrying the false Islam of the 9/11 hijackers, many Muslim "authorities" did everything possible to discount that they could even be Muslim. There are 4 pillars of Islam; anyone who says the shehada is Muslim; etc. You don't hear this talk these days because it simply didn't work. Now, did those now insisting that there's a variety of Islams suddenly change their minds and admit they were pathetically wrong, or is it just another attempt to say, "Hey, don't judge me, bro."

This is a deep-rooted problem in most communities. It keeps them from facing internal problems and maximizes the number of people on one's own side.

Let's say I'm a Christian. A "distortion" of Christianity is anything that I don't believe. Ta da! Works for liberals, conservatives, and everyone in between.