Back To The Middle Ages

[LoneWolf]

Its entirely up to you if you wish to follow the links at this site.

However, be aware some of the content is extremely upsetting.

[Edited to Remove Link]The purpose of the post is to make people aware of the realities of extremism.

Dont support it, dont argue the case for it.

It seems to me we have taken large steps backwards towards the middle ages .

Anyone have any ideas how this sort of thing can be defeated?

[Cronky]

Golly, you must have been on a real downer to have posted that in the middle of the night!

 

Well, we have allowed ourselves to be party to torture in Iraq and to 'rendition' by America. I think lack of democracy and the growth of dogma in the UK has lead to this. People feel remote from Government in Britain. It's all too complicated and fighting policies you don't like is just too hard and fruitless. I remember driving through London some years ago and encountering a huge demonstration agaisnt the Iraq war. When I switched on the BBC in the evening there was no mention on it.

 

The New Labour people made a dreadful mistake when, by default, they acceded to the Americans torturing terrorist suspects. We had always been able to boast (perhaps falsely) that Britain didn't do such things.

 

Now, anything goes and wicked behaviour abounds.

 

If there were continuiung mass demonstrations in Britain against torture things might improve. Alas, a lot of people are just too wet to care these days.

[Chinahand]

Do you really feel a need to look at such things.

 

They exist, they are a barbarity, and I think the morbid curiosity we all have should be resisted.

 

These films are the deaths of individuals. They should be respected and not treated as objects of teenage curiosity.

 

It is vital we know and understand what is occurring, and that includes the atrocities commited by both sides, but I do not think it is necessary for me to view them, or for them to be generally available. There is no need for us to see them as long as journalists and specialists do their job.

 

Treat the victims with dignity and not allow their deaths become the objects of "entertainment" or curiosity.

 

I would remove the link, and just explain how you came across the site and the repugnance it made you feel.

[LoneWolf]

Do you really feel a need to look at such things.

 

They exist, they are a barbarity, and I think the morbid curiosity we all have should be resisted.

 

These films are the deaths of individuals. They should be respected and not treated as objects of teenage curiosity.

 

It is vital we know and understand what is occurring, and that includes the atrocities commited by both sides, but I do not think it is necessary for me to view them, or for them to be generally available. There is no need for us to see them as long as journalists and specialists do their job.

 

Treat the victims with dignity and not allow their deaths become the objects of "entertainment" or curiosity.

 

I would remove the link, and just explain how you came across the site and the repugnance it made you feel.

 

Agreed .. I have edited the post to remove the link.

I had to be on line late last night to check the ofice systems had coped with the clock change OK [They have]

and was using a bit of time up googling for information on Al Jazeerah.

The offending link was embedded in the middle of an otherwise unremarkable document arguing the case for secular regimes in the Middle East.

For those who havent seen it, someone has taken the trouble and the time to put together a "portal" or a gateway to videos of people being beheaded.

Two problems here. First who the hell would think this a useful venture?

Secondly how do we deal with people who commit this type of act? It really is a series of steps backwards into the Middle Ages.

[Chinahand]

Two problems here. First who the hell would think this a useful venture?

Secondly how do we deal with people who commit this type of act? It really is a series of steps backwards into the Middle Ages.

 

I think three types of people put these things together on the web.

 

Firstly the militants themselves, to intimidate and prove their prowess in butchering the infidel ... the fact the victims are killed in a similar way to Halarl food isn't a coincidence in my mind. The infidel has become an animal to these people.

 

Secondly morbid people with the mentality of a 13 year old who think its cool to look at such things.

 

Thirdly freedom of speech people who think it is important that everyone has a right to see these things.

 

I cannot stop the first from acting the way they do, for the other two I'm not sure ... I believe these things shouldn't be surpressed, quite the opposite, the more people who understand the inhumanity of such people the better, I applaud and sympathize with the journalists and intelligence officials who track these things down and who have to watch strangers or even their collegues massacred. However I disagree that every body needs to see these things for themselves. We are capable of understanding inhumanity without witnessing it ourselves. So I challenge the gorpers and the "I have a right to see this" brigade.

 

How to stop the perpetrators in the first place. I have no idea, but I totally agree they represent medieval barbarity.

 

I have no truck with people who claim it is God's ordained law to stone to death adulterers, slaughter the apostate, and maim thieves. The people who behead and gut claim their authority based on the same theological authority ... it disgusts me. No system of law that contains these type of commandements can be just ... all it can be is God Ordained.

 

Aristotle pointed out that Gods do not mediate morality. A God cannot change an evil act into a good one by heavanly dictat. No matter what the God says an evil act is still an evil act. Unfortunately the determinism of the Islamic world says Man must submit to Allah's will and his actions are ineffible ... hence injustice and inhumanity is accepted as a part of Allah's mystery.

 

I can understand why people like Rog despise this religion ... if people who think like this were to gain power I would agree with him. However reasonably large sections of Islam are going through what looks similar to the Christian reformation. Sharia law becomes the inspiration for law, not the only source of it. The meaning of Mohammed's words can be reexamined and reinterpreted, just as his commandments changed as Islam changed and developed. By gaining a separation between the dogma and the practise hope is possible. The contradictions and barbarities of both Jewish and Christian theology have been overcome and mutated into a more just system. I think the same is possible with Islam. Though this will not be an easy or short term task.

 

The pope's recent contraversies directly addressed whether faith and God were accessable to reason. The pope's main point, developed via his contraversial quotation of a Bysantime Emperor, was that it is unreasonable to demand conversion via the sword. Without the acceptance of faith on a basis of reason all the religion will be left with is coercion. The pope condemed that and appealled to Muslim leaders to engage him on the issue. I applaud his efforts. If the only reply Muslim theologians can provide is that Allah is uneffible, I believe their religion has no future, other than been borne forward by dogmatics and fanatics. The trouble is such people exist in sufficient numbers to do this for many more generations and the masses are too plunged in ignorance to resist them.

 

Sad world we live in isn't it.

[haX0red_Account]

even more ironic, this thread's about middle age practice beheading while someone has to go into an office to check if a computer knows what time it is or something hi tech like that?!