• Majorities of Muslims call consumption of alcohol, homosexuality and sex outside marriage “immoral”, dismiss morality of icky atheists

    How unbelievably immoral!

    The Pew Forum has conducted an interesting study on the views of world’s Muslims, in many different countries encompassing huge geographical areas and a wide diversity of cultures. It is a big study and it will take a number of blog posts to fully go over it.

    Let’s start with the easy part.

    It is not surprising that expressed opinions vary widely. Survey results depend on who you ask, where they grew up and what language they speak. Nonetheless, there are a few areas in which large majorities of the survey subjects agreed. Those were questions that had to do with “morality”.

    To begin with, (in many cases overwhelming) majorities of responders said that belief in God is necessary for being a moral person. Of all the countries surveyed, on in one (Kazakhstan) the majority of Muslims did not say it was necessary to believe in God to be moral.

    immoral

    Agreement among Muslims is even stronger when it comes to condemning the consumption of alcohol as immoral.

    cheers
    Same goes for extramarital sex.

    som
    Oh, and those disgusting homosexuals? Don’t even mention them.homosexuals

    Pat Robertson, you’ve got company!
    And hence it is not surprising to hear an Imam in Boston complain that Muslims have been too quiet about the gay marriage debate in the US.

    Now, of course I know there are other US Imams that have even offered to marry gays, in places where it is legal. I applaud tolerance when I see it. But if the data are any guide, the few Muslims who are not homophobic have their job cut out for them if care to convince their homophobic co-religionists.

    Dear Christian homophobes: please remember, as long as your morality is based on “deeply held religious values” (read: the demands of an invisible dictator), it is going to be just as absurd as Muslims’.

    Category: Uncategorized

    Article by: No Such Thing As Blasphemy

    I was raised in the Islamic world. By accident of history, the plague that is entanglement of religion and government affects most Muslim majority nations a lot worse the many Christian majority (or post-Christian majority) nations. Hence, I am quite familiar with this plague. I started doubting the faith I was raised in during my teen years. After becoming familiar with the works of enlightenment philosophers, I identified myself as a deist. But it was not until a long time later, after I learned about evolutionary science, that I came to identify myself as an atheist. And only then, I came to know the religious right in the US. No need to say, that made me much more passionate about what I believe in and what I stand for. Read more...