Another one that hurts

Modulous writes:Neville Chamberlain was a politician during WWI etc.

Islam does not have any leaders.

Ringo writes:And France, Russia and the USA had better get ready for wave after wave of new recruits and new terrorism.

To take another example, if I were to decide you'd done something bad and needed to be punished, so I locked you up, that would be kidnapping. But when a society does it, it's called "justice" ...

I agree that I shouldn't label him a pure pacifist, he was, after all a politician and therefore not a pure anything. But he undoubtably had his heart in the right place. Naively.

How odd. I met the son of one today, he must have been mistaken, and for that matter so must have been the UK government who granted him a visa because his dad was a Taliban commander.

That is a giant hoax of coarse, I'm surprised you fell for it, just because they have no pope does not mean they have no leaders.

As for the nuclear arguments, I'm familiar with them all. But the point of raising them was not to get into the ins and outs of them, but to point out the problems when you actually get a real pacifist - and you must admit that he is a real pacifist - as a leader in government. Particularly in times of war. When security is at risk they quickly look rather stupid.

A Taliban commander is not a leader of Islam.

Dr Adequate, I don't think you ever got so mad on the forum. It is telling. I suspect you are so angry because of cognitive dissonance.

Omnivorous said it well somewhere, 'I care more about sparing the innocent than hammering the guilty'.

Modulous writes:Muslims have leaders. Islam does not.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been described as a "theocratic republic" (by the US Central Intelligence Agency),[12] and its constitution a "hybrid" of "theocratic and democratic elements" by Francis Fukuyama.[13] Like other Islamic states, it maintains religious laws and has religious courts to interpret all aspects of law. According to Iran's constitution, "all civil, penal financial, economic, administrative, cultural, military, political, and other laws and regulations must be based on Islamic criteria."[14]In addition, Iran has a religious ruler and many religious officials in powerful government posts. The head of state, or "Supreme Leader", is a faqih[15] (scholar of Islamic law), and possesses more power than Iran's president. The Leader appoints the heads of many powerful posts: the commanders of the armed forces, the director of the national radio and television network, the heads of the powerful major religious foundations, the chief judge, the chief prosecutor, special tribunals, and members of national security councils dealing with defence and foreign affairs. He also co-appoints the 12 jurists of the Guardian Council.[16]The Leader is elected by the Assembly of Experts[12][17] which is made up of mujtahids,[18] who are Islamic scholars competent in interpreting Sharia.Another body, the Council of Guardians, has the power to veto bills from majlis (parliament), approve or disapprove candidates who wish to run for high office (president, majlis, the Assembly of Experts). The council supervises elections, and can greenlight or ban investigations into the election process.[12] Six of the Guardians (half the council) are faqih empowered to approve or veto all bills from the majlis (parliament) according to whether the faqih believe them to be in accordance with Islamic law and customs (Sharia). The other six members are lawyers appointed by the head of the judiciary (who is also a cleric and also appointed by the Leader).[19]

A Taliban commander could of course be an Atheist who just prefers one state of affairs over another.

I can bet a lot that he justifies his actions as being for the furtherance of peace in his lands.

Christianity has loving ones enemies and turning the cheek. Christians have written much over the years to justify racism, homophobia, wars, torture and other atrocities in light of Christianity.

Islam has leaders

I'm prepared to bet my beautiful lawnmower againt a bag of peanuts that there are no atheist Taliban leaders.

Modulous writes:Muslims have leaders. Islam does not.

Wrong again. The Supreme Leader you propose makes the same category mistake as the Taliban Commander. They lead Muslims, not Islam.

Modulus writes:Wrong again. The Supreme Leader you propose makes the same category mistake as the Taliban Commander. They lead Muslims, not Islam.

Why do you say this? There have probably been atheist Popes, and there have been less of them than Taliban commanders.

Dr Adequate writes:I also know for a fact that if we let ISIS get away with their shit then we're like the people who appeased the Nazis, or like how we let Pol Pot get away with killing 25% of Cambodians.

Dr Adequate writes:And your amateur attempt at psychoanalysis is wrong. 'Cos it turns out that I can read my mind, that you can't read my mind, and that you can barely read my posts.

Dr Adequate writes:Is there anything else you'd like to be wrong about?

Dr Adequate writes:I obtained this information by reading their public statements about what they want. It's not "inside information". It's what they say in their public statements.