Islam is retarded

I mean this in every sense of the word. Islam is retarded. I've grappled with this phrase for some time now, and I think it is the most accurate and succinct phrasing I can make. It is retarded, of course, in the modern sense of being ridiculous, stupid, laughable, inane, juvenile, and pointless; but it is also retarded in the traditional literal sense: it has been retarded. I've talked quite a bit about how Islam, in theory, is no worse than any other of the faiths of the Book. And I think the recent surge in evangelical despotism, to say nothing of the disastrous consequences of Zionism, bear this point out. The thing that does give Islam's big brothers an edge is the fact that they have fewer uninformed riots.

A lot of pretty vicious killers have done what they've done in the name of their religions. This is not something limited to the Big Three, but, in point of fact, it seems to be a component of most zealotry. The difference is, they didn't usually commit these acts in response to being called barbarians. Or, to be more accurate, falsely believing that they were being called barbarians.

Let's take a look at the Pope's speech:

The emperor must have known that surah 2,256 reads: There is no compulsion in religion. It is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat.

But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur’an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the “Book” and the “infidels,” he turns to his interlocutor somewhat brusquely with the central question on the relationship between religion and violence in general, in these words:

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.

The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul:

God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death....

The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature.

The blood of the infidel will spill for those vicious slanders, won't it? This is definitely the incendiary rhetoric that Hitler and Mussolini were espousing, isn't it? Statements to the effect of "don't kill anyone in the name of God" is definitely a reason to go out and shoot a nun, right?

Islam is retarded.