The Coalition of the Swilling

Actually, it gets worse. On page 3 you encounter this:

quote

...And by speaking of jihad without alluding to Christianity’s dark history of violence in the name of God—the Crusades, forced conversions, pogroms, the Inquisition—Benedict seemed to be denouncing Islam while failing to acknowledge that any religion, including his own, can be manipulated and perverted to evil ends. “It is very hard to construe the pope’s remarks in a benign way,” says William A. Graham, the dean of the Harvard Divinity School. “Historically, there is no more basis for arguing that Islam is irrational than there is for arguing the same about Christianity or Judaism. In all three you can find tremendous discussion about revelation and reason, and there are people in all three who have landed outside the rational. Islam has bloody borders right now, but Christianity has certainly been bloody, as has Judaism in its more extreme forms....”

unquote

What the writer and the goobers he interviews seemingly fail to appreciate is that we are all living in the 21st Century, whether we want to or not. Which major religion is issuing death threats (and carrying them out) now? Which is forcing conversions under pain of death? We're not talking 'historically' here Mr. Harvard; we're talking current friggin' events. Put a crucifix in a bowl of urine and you'll get feted by blondes in little black dresses; try that with the Koran and your execution in a soccer stadium will be witnessed by women in burqas.

Since all Islamic wars are sanctioned and their central leadership-Dude personifies the badass merchant-turned-warrior, how are a bunch of peacenicks with a long-haired Carpenter as a leader supposed to proceed?
People are always blaming Christianity for all sorts of European wars notorious for their usual "God is on MY side" claimants, and also for various Euro-King's entrepreneurial colonizing effects while simply ignoring several thousand years of bloodthirsty "European Civilizational Development," upon which the Church was but the smallest, and most recently affixed rudder.
Then when the argument fails them they yell "The Spanish Inquisition!" as if to throw a D&D curse or something, neglecting the festering history of Islam throughout East Asia, from the conquest of India, traveling like a plague farther southeast through the Burma and the Malay Peninsula down to Indonesia and Borneo, one long drawn-out period of slavery and brutality conveniently left hiding in their D&D Magic Sack.
The question left is, what does Islam have to offer except the sword and stricture after stricture, rule after rule to contain the imperfect and fallible Man, and subjugate him under onerous set of confusing Laws? The evidence we have today after a thousand years is this results in an migraine-induced population of increasingly easily irritable nutcases, wound tighter than a golf-ball and beaten back and forth by "cant do this, can't do that" all of their own making.
In Christianity there is the notion of free-will and sin, but with it also forgiveness and redemption, of being uplifted again and restored to Society through Christ - and with the Reformation and Enlightenment you get "...Or not, do what you want."
Christianity offers a guy who said things like, "Thou shalt not kill," and "He who is without sin cast the first stone," and "Turn the other cheek." The alternate Leadership guy addresses his audience and says to them, "Ok, you can begin stoning the whore now." One leads by example and dies for Mankind, the other leads by force of arms and kills for Allah.

Y'know, really - fuck off, Newsweek. the POPE'S holy war? Is this guy possibly serious? For fuck's sake. That Friday thread can't come soon enough.

DirtCrashr ~ poetic. You were just poetic. So too is my Diptera.

Why doesn't Newsweek just hand someone a gun.

Or have they?

Didn't Newsweek run the fake Koran flushing story that resulted in riots, arson, and several deaths - by violent Presbyterians...?

Bingo, DC.