Quote from: episteme on March 23, 2017, 11:58:48 AM

Quote

If the ideology causes otherwise sane people do horrible things, I blame the ideology.

Islamic terrorists are the victims of that ideology.

Stop pretending it is not true. Nazism, Communism, or Racism are all wrong and are banned in most countries.

Now it is time to ban religion, Islam in particular.

Last prophet my ass. He was a war monger, opportunist. He needed a strong ideology to help him manage the ever expanding empire.

you might get a better understanding of what i am trying to relay if you stop thinking of things in terms of -isms and read up on some historiography and literature.

judgments and opinions don't really give any insight or understanding, but neither will i argue.
it's up to you what you decide to think, what statements to make and how much to educate yourself and in what departments.

Quote from: Spendulus on March 23, 2017, 11:29:47 AM

Quote from: episteme on March 23, 2017, 10:55:26 AM

i don't hate islam.
it's too conveniently simplistic to view islam as 'the problem'.

which is not to say it doesn't have its problematic aspects.
there's only one final prophet there, mohammed - full stop and end of story.

but the historical trajectory there is such that mohammed had to figure out a way to break the perpetual cycle of endemic warfare ....

He didn't, obviously.

how obviously?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historian%27s_fallacy

next thing you know it, you're gonna say cambodia brought it all upon themselves too.

its very convenient to point the finger at a single reason - islam, the jews, the bourgious, the rich, etc...
but that's not how things work, ever. .....
and im not implying islam is good or bad, i am saying that this is not the way to formulate it to begin with.

Your reference notes problems with post facto analysis of history which I agree with, and I think you and I agree that the poster I responded to has it wrong.

He postulates a "single mover theory" of history in which Mohammed was responsible for "breaking the perpetual cycle of endemic warfare."

Not only has such a thing not happened in general, but if it had in some regions, there would be various diverse causes.