Though I listen to The Today Programme most mornings, I mentally swtch off, and sometimes physically, when Thought for the Day comes along, a misnomer in my view. However, this morning I half listened as some Christian did his bit for God, the church really, by asking us to imagine whether a visitor from outer space would consider earthly religion an advantage to society or a handicap. One phrase he used struck me as hypocritical. He said that the spaceman would find “Christians and Muslims at each others’ throats.”
Really? Have I missed some news item, some incident in which radical Christians have destroyed a mosque, or massacred the people praying there? I doubt it, though am preparted to hear otherwise. I suspect that the phrase is the kind of dissimulation that the politically correct liberal uses to give an impression of balance.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I don’t think it is hypocrisy, Tom, just imprecision.
It’s hardly a replay of the Crusades but he may well have been thinking of Afghanistan, for example.
More likely the Crusades, I would think. It is associated to time-perspective, surely.
Zen, I’m inclined to think from the perspective of some of the more radical followers of Islam, it may well be regarded as a Crusade.
I don’t think many Christians view it in this way; I’m not sure how many actual “Christians” there are remaining these days, and most could hardly be regarded as “radical”.
If it is imprecision, araminta, it recurs with remarkable frequency in some circles, sufficiently to give the impression of words carefully chosen.
A great pity someone doesn’t provide the ‘balance’ needed in a less historical perspective!
It’s just part of the continual drip of PC to which we’re subjected.
A bit like Chinese water torture, which is why I’ve progressed from one who listened to the Today Programme on most mornings to listening to it occasionally.
I don’t bother any more – I try to get the facts, then make up my own mind.
Hello, jazz, for me, ‘listening’ is an exaggeration. It is a noise in the background as I prepare breakfast.
In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, muslims kill more muslims than christians do, even assuming that the majority of the MNF are at least nominal christians. Muslims are at each others’ throats all across the globe, and at the throats of any other religion, PC prevents such accuracy.
It has been pointed out many times that this is the case, Bravo. PC is nothing to do with it. In my opinion we should not be there.
Your opinion means less than nothing to those who muslims who are killing other muslims Araminta, since you are a woman.
PS, nor does such an opinion change the fact that muslims are being killed by muslims across the World, would you like this week’s numbers?
Nor does it address the point that the quote in the post is mealy-mouthed PC nonsense that obscures actual fact.
My opinion, Bravo is considered frequently to be less than nothing by men who are not Muslim.
No in response to your comment #12, Bravo, I don’t need the figures, I agreed with you, if you would care to read it again!
Arrers, “I agreed with you, if you would care to read it again!” That’s fightin’ talk! 🙂
The Priest’s Wife’s Tale:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100072294/birmingham-%E2%80%93-best-place-in-europe-to-be-pure-muslim/
Bravo, that is horrifying. I fear for the future what was our society.
Another view here:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielknowles/100072340/inner-city-birmingham-is-not-some-sort-of-post-apocalytic-islamic-ghetto-its-just-poor/
A nice piece from someone else who moved out. Some interesting comments on that piece, too – leaving aside the whack jobs, of course.
Well, would you want to live there, Bravo?
I am always telling people that there is no such thing as a stupid question – but that comes close.
No.
It was somewhat rhetorical Bravo, with just a faint touch of irony. 😉
Pointless, you mean.
As pointless as you pointing out that yet another person leaving the area, I would say!
My own feeling is that rogue elements in society band together on the herd principle using race or religion as their motif, in the same way as football fans used their club loyalty, as an excuse for violence. It has become much more serios in the last few years, and must be stamped out somehow, before it becomes uncontrollable – if it hasn’t already.
Well, you would sat that. To my utter surprise, the other person who says he left the area was not a muslim, either. I was shocked, shocked!
I’m utterly shocked too, but only because you seemed to have at last grasped my point!
Nope. No idea what your purported point is.