<p>"but I do know that there is no unified Muslim "church" so there is no unified interpretation."</p>
<p>Islam is one of the most unified religions in the world, and its called a "mosque."</p>
<p>I think it's difficult to keep a board like this free of politics. We can't even compare college guides without getting into it :) But when you think about it, political issues such as affirmative action, government funding, campus atmosphere, who has the best political science department, are the faculty too left wing, and the like, are legitimate aspects of college discussion. The genious of the two "cafes," in my opinion, is that they keep the rest of the threads relatively "clean." I don't visit the general cafe, but the parents cafe strikes me as as a repository for threads that have veered off of college discussion, or a place to start a conversation that's not germane to college, if one wants to. The thing about this particular site is that, like it or not, it's become a community of people who stay on for years. I doubt it would remain that way if it became too sterile, and a lot of extremely valuable institutional memory would be lost.</p>
<p>I've noticed that the mods are more relaxed about policing the parents cafe than the more scholastic threads, which I think is as it should be. On the other hand, that must mean that some of the threads or posts they delete had gotten pretty far over the top, and that must get tedious to deal with. I support continuing political discussion in the cafes, and I think for the most part the posters and mods make this one of the most consistently civil boards around.
Roger said:
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Political discussion often seems to create animosity between members.
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It does seem that way sometimes, but I've been surprised at how often I've been PMed by an "opponent" who said something like "wasn't that fun? Let's do it again soon." So the perception may be much worse than the reality.</p>
<p>laura...you're basically stereotyping all teenagers..."play video games and hang out with friends." If you were informed as to what the average age of a college bound student is, you'd know that slipstream is a student. Also...us teenagers are very well informed, and tend to keep up with politics more than adults think. Furthermore, College Confidential Users tend to be within the upper rungs of the academic ladder. It is in these particular years that we begin to formulate our deep-seeded beliefs, and being a member of the voting age population, our views must be taken in to account. You basically say that "adults are smarter than teenagers; we know better than they do," which is a lie. If you'd have read the entirity of this thread, you'd know that we're actually speaking against sensitivity towards particular viewpoints. Many people in these forums do get touchy when an argument that opposes their own comes up. They resort to personal attacks, and they're the opposite of educational. I may be 19 myself, but I'm pretty well informed on current issues and how government actually operates. I know how to formulate opinions on the basis of cause and effect, and, most importantly, I know that I can back up my views and articulate an argument much better than many adults. Age doesn't matter.</p>
<p>
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Islam is one of the most unified religions in the world, and its called a "mosque."
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I'm not sure if you're trying to paint me as anti-Muslim or what, but please explain to me the difference in interpretations of womens' rights, tolerance, etc. Personally I'd say the most unified religions in the world are cults, just because there are so few opposing viewpoints within the religion.</p>
<p>It is simply not true that Islam is "unified." It lacks a single leader, and it is simply too large to not have division.</p>
<p>And...there are only 2 different sects of Islam...primitive was correct...they're political rather than religous. BUT...these two sects are, in fact, very different. Sunnis and Shiahs do not attend the same mosques, nor do they don't pray in the same manner. The basic beliefs are the same, but ritual and custom does vary. And, though we are unified by basic beliefs, we are still divided to a high extent. There is extensive Sunni/Shiah conflict within the Middle East. Look at Iraq...such violence and oppression.</p>
<p>And you don't come off as an anti-Muslim. Primitive's just really sensitive when it comes to this particular topic.</p>
<p>And women do have rights in Islam...they're required to maintain a certain amount of control when it comes to clothing and what not (can't wear anything that comes below the knee's etc.), but so are men. Men CANNOT pray if their clothing exposes their knees or shoulders. Women are not required to wear the hijab(head covering), but they may choose to, because it is Sawab (brings blessing). Women are NOT required to marry someone they really don't want to...Men are expected to treat their wives with respect and dignity. Abuse and opression is absolutely intolerable.<br>
Yes...it does state in the Q'uran that men are allowed to have 4 wives, but this, I believe, was more of a doctrine of the early ages, when there were very very very few Muslims. This goes in to a study of kinship culture. When Islam was prominent only within a small number of tribes, there was a need to intermingle so as to spread the religion. Now, the social norm is one wife...Polygyny was very common in the early times of history. It was embraced by many Western tribes, African tribes, Asian tribes, Native-American tribes, as well as particular sects of Christianity.</p>
<p>I agree that political discussions should be kept alive in the cafe. Some posts are enlightening, well thought out, hysterical, rude, whatever. You do get to see another (not-so-good) side to some of the posters, and it is always eye-opening. I have unexpectedly found some of the younger posters to be extremely clever and well-read, and some of the older ones (adults) to be quite arrogant and narrow minded. But it's all fun.</p>
<p>I personally would find a thread on the differences in belief amongst different Muslims to be fascinating. Any followers of Islam willing to start one?</p>
<p>the fact is, logos, that many Muslims aren't really educated...they don't know much about the sect to which they dont' belong, just as many Methodists don't know much about Mormons, or many Jews don't know about the basic beliefs of Islam.</p>
<p>That is why I think it would be interesting and educational for everyone. Each person need speak only of their personal religious beliefs. I think it would be enlightening.</p>
<p>I'm not bothering to read of all of these lengthy paragraphs thoroughly, so I apology if I'm wrong. But it seems to me that we're supposed to be discussing whether or not we should be able to debate politics and it seems many people are arguing about politics and religion itself. Let's keep this on topic.</p>
<p>If a political discussion ever gets out of hand, then a moderator can always delete or close the discussion.</p>
<p>thank you nahrafsfa, they always talk about educating common Americans about Islam on the news, but they never actually do it. Actually yeah I'd think most peopel don't know much about religions outside their own.</p>
<p>As for polygamy in Christianity, there are people that don't think Mormons are Christians (obviously more traditional Christians). They believe the difference between Mormons and other Christians is like the difference between Christians and Jews (because the Book of Mormon speaks of a second coming of the Messiah).</p>
<p>grapeful- yes this is true, and this is usually how political discussions result here. we get off topic. I do believe though that discussing different religions and their beliefs is important enough to talk about.</p>
<p>nahrafsfa and slipscrean..you haven't read my posts correctly..I said that students can be very bright..I'm on here because I, too, have a gifted son, however, I said that wisdom and perspective comes with age. Talk to me when you're 53 and you will see what I mean. You can have a lot of book knowledge, but if you don't have years of seeing it in practice you won't understand. As I said on another site..we said never trust anyone of 30. Yikes. We had some years to go too. Most young people have had too much of "feeling good" and esteem building, whereby they think they're right a lot more than they are. Yes...my son and both of you may be incredibly bright teenages, but I will stand by my thought that wisdom will only come from years in school of hard knocks. slipstream..trust me about most bosses..many are downright terrible or nutty..and I've had many of these. That's why I own my own business. Ah.. the perspective of old age!</p>
<p>Yeah, but lauras50- thats a non-issue, you're challenging their credibility, which is unnecessary.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm not bothering to read of all of these lengthy paragraphs thoroughly, so I apology if I'm wrong. But it seems to me that we're supposed to be discussing whether or not we should be able to debate politics and it seems many people are arguing about politics and religion itself. Let's keep this on topic.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree; with the way this topic is going, it is in itself becoming a good reason not to create a political forum (there is a performative aspect).</p>
<p>Anonymou5, you lost the point, this all started out when slipstream wanted to remove the political issues from the board or put it somewhere else..that's how our little side discussion started (a couple of pages ago... So we've been going back and forth on whether political discussions should be "nice" or at all.....that's when I came in on the fact that passions can run high and it's still okay to discuss politics and religion..you can't come in at the end. Teenagers don't always feel comfortable when people get "hot" on discussions, but age lets you discuss things and understand that having a different view...even with passion.. is okay.</p>
<p>Ohhhh, gotcha. I guess I could understand that. (I'm 18) and I just found this forum that is ridiculously liberal. Much worse than any cc discussion, lol. uspoliticsonline.com, first thing that came up when i searched yahoo for "Political Discussion Forum."</p>
<p>political debating is bad but discussion is good. But the problem is that just as most of the liberals are liberals refuse to understand the conservatives point. They just refute it. That is the same with conservatives. So everytime we havea discussion it turns into a debate and then later personal attacks. I know that we're teenagers and that we have much more to talk about than our political affiliations. For example, life in school or ur common thoughts or problems can be understood by virtually everyone regardless of their political thoughts.
So I think that political discussions should be avoided here.</p>
<p>Discussion is a wonderful thing. It opens up dialogue among people of opposing views who can learn from each other. Some of the political-orientated threads have been great. They have been civilized, good learning experiences, and accepting of different views. I remember being involved in one thread where people were discussing (not argueing) on the issue of interracial relationships/racial stereotypes or something like that. Several controversial but eye-opening points had been made, but people remained relatively civilized, contrary to the normal offensive/criticizing behavior. This is one of the highlights on CC. Most often political-orientated threads, such as Affirmative-Action threads, turn into ugly debates, not pleasant at all. It's hard to regulate such threads. It's a shame to sacrifice positive discussions for the offensive. One should remember, though, that offensive behavior tend to show up on any topics, whether it be a what-are-my-chances to current events.</p>