Hola Sandman,
Originally posted by Sandman
I'm wondering how that works out if we calculate nutballs per capita. AFAIK, there are more muslims than christians on the planet. Stands to reason they would have more nutballs as well.
Anyway...
Actually, it depends on how you define "Christian," if one includes Roman Catholicism in that definition, then there are more Christians than Muslims worldwide (according to the 2003 CIA factbook):
Religions:
Christians 32.84% (Roman Catholics 17.34%,
Protestants 5.78%,
Orthodox 3.44%,
Anglicans 1.27%)
Muslims 19.9%Hindus 13.29%
Buddhists 5.92%
Sikhs 0.39%
Jews 0.23%
other religions 12.63%
non-religious 12.44%
atheists 2.36%
In terms of growth, Islam is
growing faster than Christianity, largely because most of the zero indigenous population growth areas are in countries that were traditionally Catholic or Protestant and more importantly because Muslims are free to proselytize throughout the world (and are pouring billions in state sponsored petrodollars into that effort), while conversion from Islam is illegal in most Islamic nations. In other words, we give them free reign to spread Islam, but conversion
from Islam is illegal in all Muslim countries, and a death penalty offense in most.
It has been conservatively estimated that well over 30% of the umma (the Muslim faithful) support the idea that violent means should be used in the pursuit of Jihad and the majority support the Quranic ideal of one worldwide Islamic Caliphate.
Now if we want to adopt the line that all of this has been blown out of proportion by Zionist/Christian propaganda, and slash the estimate of Muslims actively supporting violent Jihad to just 10%, which most people would recognize is a ridiculously low estimate, then you are still talking about
at least 114,000,000 people.
There simply isn't a violent worldwide Christian movement to establish Christian hegemony. We have no parallel to the Muslim Brotherhood, no Christian Jihadis rushing off to foreign countries to blow themselves up for Christ. When someone claiming to be Christian does resort to violence in a particular nation in support of an agenda, then the worldwide Christian community falls all over itself to be the first in front of a camera or a microphone to condemn the action. In the Balkans and Kosovo, nations that Muslims would call "Christian" supported the Muslim rebels and bombed the supposedly Christian ethnic Serbs.
Are there violent nutcases in the Christian community? Most assuredly, but they are isolated, seldom reach beyond a small community, and are universally scorned by the greater body of Christ. When they act, orthodox theologians are quick to point out that there is no biblical basis for using arms to establish the Kingdom. On the other hand, in Islam, the conservative scholars are the ones who are quick to point out that Jihad is enshrined in the Quran, and that Mohammed himself lead the first series of campaigns. The idea that Islam is a non-violent religion is an idea advanced only by liberal Muslims who interpret the Quran in ways that neither the Hadiths, Shariah Law, or any of the major historic schools of Quranic interpretation support. Exegetically, it would be roughly the same as claiming that the U.S. Constitution teaches Communism.
So, all that to say Sandy, there simply isn't a comparison. Christians and Christianity may irritate the living daylights out of modern American materialists*, but there is no basis in fact for claiming that they are just as violent as Muslims. Ringing your doorbell on Saturday morning to hand you a tract or upseting your school board meeting with complaints about the curiculum hardly compare to diving airliners into the WTC and blowing up nightclubs.
- SEAGOON
* I speak here from experience. When I was an atheist, I personally found evangelicals to be more irritating than other group of people on earth.
