Are the recent attacks related to Islam?

They're certainly caused by migrants from islamic countries. Even if they "don't" follow the religion, we should be careful about who we let in fromm thoose parts of the woorld.

What do you think? Are the recent attacks Islam related or just general fanatics?

Do you think those attacks would have happened had they been migrants from a non-Islamic country, China for example?

Is China a fair comparison to Syria though? One is a relatively stable and peaceful country, whereas the other is a country currently in a civil war. Would we see the same issues from Malaysian Muslim migration?

Whilst Chinese immigrants tend to be viewed positively here, in some countries they aren't. In some countries, the perception towards the Chinese minority is not unlike the view some in the West in the past had towards Jews. Look at the history of Indonesia for example and you will find many uprisings and pogroms against the Chinese, especially so in 1965 and 1998. Also, I think it is worth mentioning that in some countries, the Chinese are associated with criminal elements such as the Chinese triads, prostitution, selling illegal goods.

Surprisingly, Muslims born and raised in the UK or France are far more likely to join a group like ISIS than in a country like India or Indonesia.

Do you think those attacks would have happened had they been migrants from a non-Islamic country, China for example?

Islam certainly has a part to play in this. If you're interested in the cause of the terrorism the links to the Quran and how we should face the problems with out turning in to racist bigots I would recommend reading anything by Maajid Nawaz such as Islam and the future of tolerance.

Ah Maajid Nawaz is interesting, I actually did want to pick up that book as I like both Nawaz and Sam Harris. Thanks for reminding me! I've studied Islam (I was a muslim once ) so I know that there is definitely a link between terrorism and the Quran. I'm interested in what other think because time and time again I hear people (people who have probably never looked into the Quran or hadith) say that Islam is a religion of peace and that it was just "one bad apple".

That's great to speak to a fellow fan of Maajid. Yes many are saying Trump could win the whitehouse on the back of Obama/ Hilary unable to say the words Islamist terrorism to describe the attacks. Although Im sure they know Islam has a role to play they are too scared to mention it because they think there will be backlash. The problem there is Trump could walk into the whitehouse on the back of the left looking weak.

I guess not a fair comparison, I guess Central African Republic would be a better country to compare to. Would immigrants from CAR cause the sort issues being caused by Syrian/Iraqi immigrants in Europe? Well, I actually don't know much about Malaysia/Malaysians to comment on that one.

But have Chinese immigrants caused this level of terror (the level we see now in Europe) in any country?

But why is that? Surely is you are a British Muslim for example, you'd want to reject extremism? Wouldn't you want to appreciate western values that allow people to be who they want to be?

Or is it that when they see the enemy (non-muslims and homosexuals for example) in your face, you grow more angry towards them? Because the Quran isn't exactly the pinnacle of tolerance and acceptance...So when you see the amount of haraam in front of you, you feel as though you must take it into your own hands?

I've never come across anybody from Central African Republic either I do think that there is an element of culture/religion. But I don't think that explains everything, and I think multiple factors are at play.



In Indonesia they have a group of people called the Waria who are transgender, and they are extremely common. I think Indonesia is also home to the first LGBT organisation in Southeast Asia. So if this was true, we should be seeing a similar reaction there, but we don't.

Personally I think the issue is partly due to the infiltration of Salafi/Wahhabi Islam in the West. Here is an old post I made about it:

The Austrian method would be to limit the funding of any mosques to a single one-off payment, and restricting continuous funding. So mosques can still be funded and built within the UK. The only difference between the current system here and the Austrian system is that we currently permit continuous funding. It is quite evident that we have an issue with radicalism and it is also the case that who funds a mosque or Islamic group has control over what it preaches. So I don't see why it should be controversial to limit the influence of foreign Salafi and Wahhabi groups and encouraging the growth of a more British Islam.

For example, many Western European nations with large Muslim populations are largely funded from abroad and if we observe the number of Muslims in each country and look at the number of Muslims from that country who have joined ISIS, we get some rather astonishing figures.

France
1,200 have joined ISIS
Estimated Muslim population is 5 million
240 ISIS members per million Muslims in France

Belgium
440 have joined ISIS
Estimated Muslim population is 660,000
667 ISIS members per million Muslims in Belgium

Indonesia
500 have joined ISIS
Estimated Muslim population is 205 million
2.4 ISIS members per million Muslims in Indonesia

India
18 have joined ISIS
Estimated Muslim population is 172 million
0.1 ISIS members per million Muslims in India

I think everyone will agree that these figures here are astounding. I think the major difference is that countries like India and Indonesia already have well developed national Islamic organisations and groups and so there is less room or need for foreign funding and thus Salafi groups struggle more to gain a foothold. For example, the Indonesian Islamic organisation Nahdlatul Ulama has some 40 million members. The same is not true in Western nations like France, Belgium and the UK, hence our need to take action against such foreign funding.

What do you think? Are the recent attacks Islam related or just general fanatics?

What do you think? Are the recent attacks Islam related or just general fanatics?