Philosophical Vegan Forum

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30 ... ws_central

This is slightly frightnening. Thoughts?

This looked really bad. I was pretty shocked by it. Things are even worse than I thought.

Volenta wrote:This looked really bad. I was pretty shocked by it. Things are even worse than I thought.

Indeed. That one can do such horrible things under the banner of a god is unbelievable. But then again, so is their god.

I read somewhere that the far-right parties are gaining support in European countries. Such incidents will further increase support for them.
Do you think these parties have a good chance at winning in the near future?

preet wrote:I read somewhere that the far-right parties are gaining support in European countries. Such incidents will further increase support for them.
Do you think these parties have a good chance at winning in the near future?

Absolutely. Currently in the Netherlands, our far-right party is on the top of the opinion polls. The big problem is that people who want to do something about Islam/Islamism do not have a real alternative. The extreme right-wing parties are going well beyond what I would call good humane policies, but all the other parties are just ignoring the scale on which the problem is taking place (and certainly on the left). I think this is driving people towards the far-right. And it seems that people who end up there—but also the parties themselves—are radicalizing themselves too.

Edit: typo

In Denmark our far-right party is has 20% of all votes (3rd largest, very close to 2nd), and I can only imagine them getting more votes from this.

If there was an election tomorrow, they'd probably have my vote too, even if I had never dreamed of voting for them before. Many of their policies are stupid, but they are also the only ones who are not afraid to criticize Islam.

At the moment I'm very mad and fed up with the Islam apologists who spew their usual bullshit when this happens; "religion of peace", "just a few bad apples", "all religions are equally bad", etc.

Volenta wrote:Absolutely. Currently in the Netherlands, our far-right party is on the top of the opinion polls. To

The idea that Geert Wilders might become Prime Minister frightens me. Let's hope it does not come to that.

Sakana wrote:If there was an election tomorrow, they'd probably have my vote too, even if I had never dreamed of voting for them before. Many of their policies are stupid, but they are also the only ones who are not afraid to criticize Islam.

At the moment I'm very mad and fed up with the Islam apologists who spew their usual bullshit when this happens; "religion of peace", "just a few bad apples", "all religions are equally bad", etc.

Surely they love to take a strong stance against Islam, which I have no problem with if it's factually correct (which isn't always the case for populist reasons). But do you think that the policies they propose are actually worth something? They are generally not that desirable because most of them are discriminatory and inhumane, but also not always attacking the source of the problem. Banning headscarves for example isn't taking away their believe, but it does take away other essential freedoms. The only reason why such thing is proposed—and they are actually quite honest about it—is because they don't want their culture to change.

If you are indeed planning to vote for them, I can only see that as a confirmation that we indeed need a real alternative that addresses the problems of Islam in a honest and pragmatic manner.

miniboes wrote:The idea that Geert Wilders might become Prime Minister frightens me. Let's hope it does not come to that.

All other parties (except for the VVD maybe) have stated that they don't want to be in cabinet with his party. As long as half of the Netherlands doesn't vote for him (or VVD), he doesn't make any chance. So that's why I'm not really that worried about it.

Volenta wrote:

miniboes wrote:The idea that Geert Wilders might become Prime Minister frightens me. Let's hope it does not come to that.

All other parties (except for the VVD maybe) have stated that they don't want to be in cabinet with his party. As long as half of the Netherlands doesn't vote for him (or VVD), he doesn't make any chance. So that's why I'm not really that worried about it.

Good point, thanks. Besides, Wilders seems to like being in the opposition.

@Volenta


Yea, there are a number of problems with voting for them. I'll have to give it some more thought and see how other parties respond, I was just in a very bad mood yesterday after arguing about this and being ganged up on by a bunch of Islamophobia-phobics .

It went something like this:

Person1: "My condoleances to France. I hope people realize these people were just crazy, and that Islam didn't have anything to do with it."
[Large number of likes on this comment]

Me: "The problem is they were carrying out the word of their God, EXACTLY as prescribed in the Qu'ran [some references in the Qu'ran]. We can only be thankful most muslims don't actually do the things their holy book asks them to, but an extremist is often the same as a literalist in religious context."

Person2: "Wow, that's the most ignorant thing I ever heard. Islam, like all other religions, promotes peace."

After a bit of back and forth I had to let it go, as I realized I was dealing with idiots who can't tell the difference between racism and phobia of religious dogma.