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Since I have Mondays and Tuesdays off, I usually go to my mom's for dinner on Mondays and help them out with various tasks that are becoming too difficult for them to do on their own. For example, today I mowed the lawn for them. While waring for dinner to be finished, my step dad sees thus post on Facebook about since Muslims don't believe in the Bible and thus the constitution that they shouldn't be allowed in the country. I tell him that the constitution has nothing to do with the Bible. His response was that they don't like the constitution and this country was founded on the Bible and religion. My response was that this country was founded on religious freedom, the freedom to worship what you want, how you want or to not worship anything at all. I also said that I don't see Muslims trying to impose their religious beliefs on others. I added that the only group out there that has routinely and consistently tried to impose their religious beliefs on others are Christians. I don't see Muslims do this, I don't see Jews doing this, I don't see any sect of the Easter religions doing this. He believes that all Muslims are working to impose Sharia law. I just don't see this as actually happening. Am I missing something, or am I correct in what I see? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

Captain747ex 7 Sep 17
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I don't see Judaism (apart from maybe some of their fundamentalist sects) being proselytizing or imposing their beliefs on outsiders, but I definitely see Islam doing it, and one could argue that they do it on average, globally, more than Christians. At least Christians aren't blowing things up on the scale they are. I also think Christian fundamentalism is probably a smaller force in Christianity than in Islam (although its influence IS outsize). Presently on a worldwide basis about 17% of self-labeled Christians identify as evangelical, which is a rough indicator of the percentage of Christian fundamentalists. Those Christian fundamentalists reside more in Western representative democracies, which constrains them from blowing up much besides the occasional abortion clinic now and again, and those tend to be disavowed as extremists by fundies.

I can't find a credible estimate of the percentage of Islamic fundamentalists. The only source I found said 44% but it's quoting an obscure Czech think tank that I know nothing about, and the story is in Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller, hardly a reliable fount of objectivity. It would be interesting to know those numbers but I suspect they're harder to come by, because more Islamic fundamentalists live in poor and/or totalitarian countries where it would be harder to elicit honest opinions.

As to Muslims imposing "Sharia Law", he probably doesn't even know what Sharia Law actually is and isn't. In any case I cannot see how they would "impose" it even if it was quite as nefarious as he has been indoctrinated to think that it is. Western democracies, including the US are generally based on British Common Law, so there is no way Muslims can "impose" some other legal system. In point of fact, research Christian Reconstructionism and Dominionism, and you'll find Christians who dream of "imposing" Mosaic / Old Testament law on America; a theocracy is their ultimate wet dream. Shy of a violent coup as depicted in the TV Series The Handmaid's Tale, that's not going to happen. I don't think even Trump could succeed in machine-gunning congress while in session. But if something like that were to happen, it's FAR more likely to be Christians behind it, here in 'Murica anyway.

Another point I always make is the American Muslims are wealthier and better educated and more law abiding than the average US citizen. They are quite different demographically from European Muslims, who are more refugees and poor folks, and therefore much more easily radicalized (or more commonly, infiltrated). American Christians are boxing at shadows. Their terror of large Muslim communities in places like Detroit is based on ignorance and xenophobia, the same as their terror of immigrants generally, especially the darker skinned ones coming up from the Southern border.

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They do in other countries, but, so far, not in the US, although they often ignore US laws and do honor killings of Muslim women who date or even talk to Christian men, or as was recently uncovered, do female genital mutilation of young girls,etc.

Both religions routinely deprive women of their rights, try to control their reproduction, and attack minorities and the LGBTQ community.

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what you are missing is fox news, and you are doing the right thing, missing that. it lies. it lies consistently. your dad is brainwashed. it's not necessarily his fault. the message is powerful and repetitive. can you show him some of thomas jefferson's letters in which he states that muslims are our friends, and that the usa is not founded on any religion? you can show him jefferon's bible, which was LITERALLY cut and pasted because he wanted to know what it looked like without what he called the "supernatural" parts. you could introduce him to a muslim....

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I agree that he's brainwashed. He believes anything he sees on Facebook.

@Captain747ex he has the wrong facebook friends, then lol

oh my, let's see, can you by ANY chance get him to watch msnbc? it's a network, not a person (i know you know that; i'm saying it for a reason) so it's a mixed bag, as it SHOULD be (unlike fox, which instructs its personnel every morning what it can and cannot and must and must not say, on what topics, and i am not making this up and i am not speculating; this HAPPENS). if he likes republicans, you can ask him to watch what i cannot watch because my stomach turns: morning joe. i can't stand joe, but he used to be a republican senator, and in the beginning i think he even supported trump (certainly not now!) i know your dad will probably say no because to his mind, msnbc is fake news, even though as i said, it's a network with a variety of reporters and news analysts. he probably won't believe you when you say that. the first thing a brainwasher does is cut off all other input by convincing you that everyone and everything else is a liar and a lie. so this is a tough nut to crack. i don't think he will watch morning joe. i think you will have to make it more human, more immediate, closer. let me think upon't. there has to be a way. your dad's not stupid, right? he raised you, right? so... something happened. it can be made to UNhappen. the aim is not to hurt him, but to awaken him.

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