I noted, give Islam time and it will either break or adapt as has Christianity. Islam and the historical roots of Christianity both contain barbaric ethics. I hope that you can see this, in many ways one has moved beyond this because of geography and age of existence, the other is still en-route. My argument is that when it comes to the Bible, the lessons taught by history seem to be very easily taken on board by its adherents, but they cannot seem to understand that ideologies yet learning from history should be given equal leeway in order to maintain some sort of reasoned approach.
The problem is that Islam does not want to progress or evolve alongside the rest of the world and this example of what they want to do to the teacher is proof of their unreasonable, murderous behaviour. So what do we do in the mean time? Just sit by and let them reek havoc on the rest of the world while waiting for them to catch up? They do not seem to understand "reason" and I certainly do not believe that they should be given more 'leeway' for their neandrathal behaviour. The more you appease the aggressor, the more aggressive them become.
You intone an appeal to evolution, well then, let us talk in such terms and then perhaps the point might not be missed. Supposing a human chastises a chimpanzee for not acting like a human, suggesting that the chimpanzee should learn from the lessons learned by humans. Why would this argument and approach be ridiculous? Because, though the chimpanzee and human share a common ancestry, they are at different stations in development. Islam and Christianty are likewise, due to geography and time at different stations in life, and unfortunately a modern world which knows few boundaries of time and space have thrown these two imo equally foolish ideologies into the same pot.
Sorry, I don't agree. A chimpanzee could never learn to behave totally like a human (although some of their behaviour is quite human-like). There is no reason whatsoever why Islam should be stuck in a perpetual time warp of the Middle Ages. At one time, they were actually ahead of Christian culture. There is little doubt that Islam has left behind the most brilliant period of their history. They brought about a brilliant culture which lasted for several centuries. For centuries the Muslims excelled in crafts, sciences, philosophy, arts, and higher social order throughout the world. Other cultures adapted much from them. Today the Muslims as compared to many other nations and to their own glorious past are in a pitiable state of decline and backwardness and they seem intent on carrying the rest of the world with them. To me, they have no desire to 'catch up' with the rest of the world and prosper, they only seem to want to regress further and further.
You don't see the Jews of today still attempting to enforce these ancient and arbitrary laws on stoning wayward children, or putting to death a woman who doesn't scream while being raped, etc. They don't put someone on the rack for questioning the Catholic Church anymore and they don't burn people at the stake. In other words: we've learned from past mistakes and we've evolved.
I guess you have missed news items earlier this year about a group of Orthodox Jewish men who punched and kicked an American Jewish woman for refusing to take "her place" at the back of the bus and give up her seat to a man.
You're always going to get individual nutbars in any religion. There's some nutbar fundy Christian who goes around to the funerals of homosexuals and military personel with signs that say "God hates fags" and other disgusting slogans. That's probably never going to change. The point I'm making is that with Islam, many of their whacked out beliefs and laws are official in their cultures/countries. This isn't just a few crazies who think she should be whipped, it's the frigging law there! This idea of a teacher getting 40 lashes for something as silly as letting a student name a teddy bear after Mohammed shows the depths of their insanity. For example, what would happen in Canada, the USA, England, France, Israel or any other Christian or Jewish country/culture, if a teacher let their student name a teddy bear "Jesus" or "Moses"? Would the teacher have been arrested? Would they be facing 40 lashes? Would there be groups of young men gathered on the streets shouting death threats?The women's movement and human rights movements of the 60's were only 40 years ago. Oh, sure we've come a long way baby, but our "evolution" is only a few generations removed from our old testament ancestors. Lets not rest on our laurels and our superiority just yet!
Yes we have come along way in 40 years. However, I still don't recall it being law 45 or 50 years ago around here, where a teacher could get 40 lashes for some perceived offense. I'd say we're more than just a 'few generations' removed from the Old Testmant here.
Regardless, this latestincident involving the teacher doesn't say a whole hell of a lot about Islam. In fact, it epitomizes religious stupidity.