Hello Again Thrawn,
Thank you for your apology.
You listed the following as examples of "small groups of Christian Nutballs who blow people up on a regular basis":
Originally posted by Thrawn
IRA, the Lord's Resistance Army of Uganda.
Nothing in the original IRA charter identifies them as a Christian organization. In fact, they were so heavily riddled with Marxists, the first IRA split occurred between those who wanted to join the Republic and those who wanted to form a Communist state. A better example would have been one of the Protestant counter groups like the UDA. For the most part however, that particular conflict is ebbing, the IRA even signed a disarmament agreement this year.
The Lord's Resistance Army is not even vaguely Christian, Kony was heavily influenced in his childhood by an animistic mishmash of Shamanism and Vodoo which had a thin veneer of Christian names applied. For instance, he has always practiced polygamy, divination, polytheism, and any number of practices completely opposed to Christianity. At present, as even Infidels.org notes, Kony is incorporating Islam into his black bag of abominable practices:
"Currently, the Lord's Resistance Army launches operations from the Sudan. Over the past few years, lorries full of weapons and ammunition arrive, from Sudan's regular army, at Kony's main encampment. Young teenagers engage in spiritualistic regimens at the training sites, but they are now given military training with automatic rifles and machine guns--certainly a deviation from Alice Lakwena's earlier military strategy. The decision toward heavier armaments seems to point to uncertainty about the imminent coming of the Silent World. Perhaps Joseph Kony's spiritual beliefs are changing, influenced by his Muslim protectors. Maybe the appeal of seventy-two virgins, in Allah's heaven, feeding pomegranates to zealous warriors is a better vision of Paradise for Joseph Kony and his holy warriors. Sudanese support seems to have had a profound impact on the LRA's main persona. He has now even incorporated tenets of the Islamic faith into his religious practices! According to eyewitness reports, LRA soldiers use rosaries to pray, yet also bow towards Mecca as Muslims. While faithful Muslims turn a blind eye, Kony's rebels observe the two Sabbaths they have created, on Friday and Sunday. Restrictions of the Muslim faith are ignored; the traditional Acholi religion is still practiced by the LRA's leader with a heavy dose of divination and magic ritual. (Divination is a dying offense in parts of the Muslim world.) It has been reported that Mr. Kony keeps an ample stock of snakes, turtles, and lizards, for just such mediumistic purposes." (Source:
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_petraitis/spirit_war.shtml )
The Sudanese are using the LRA to fight a proxy war in Uganda precisely because Uganda is still mostly Christian and Animist and along with Nigeria and Southern Sudan, forms an impediment to the flow of Islam southwards.
In any event, as I mentioned to Sandman above, while you might find a few regional crazies fighting ethnic wars and claiming to be some variety of (generally non-evangelical) Christian, you have no parallel to the Muslim Brotherhood which networks together hundreds of thousands of Jihadis worldwide. Or the fact that states like Saudi Arabia are spending Billions to promote the theology of Jihad worldwide - can anyone think of a "Christian State" which uses its revenue to promote the violent triumph of Christianity? Large numbers of young men from churches in Kansas are not flying off to Saudi Arabia or Pakistan to blow up Muslims. On the other hand men from Mosques throughout the Arab world are flying off to blow up infidels throughout the world, and that catch-all term includes not only Christians but Atheists, Buddhists*, and any non-Muslims.
- SEAGOON
*For instance, Jihadis are now currently operating in Southern Thailand, were their enemies are Buddhists and the central (Buddhist) government. Their initial aim is to establish (what a surprise) an explicitly Muslim government.
