If Jeffrey Dahmer had been able to recite the Koran etc. then would the media label him as a Muslim?

[Boojatta]

Poll question: If Jeffrey Dahmer had been able to recite the Koran etc. then would the media label him as a Muslim?

Explanation of "etc" in the poll question:

1. Suppose for our counter-factual hypothetical that Dahmer had claimed to be a Muslim.

2. Suppose for our counter-factual hypothetical that Dahmer had known the meaning of lots of English language loan words borrowed from the Arabic language, but nevertheless couldn't understand even one Arabic word. Suppose that he had memorized the Arabic-language Koran even though he couldn't even correctly guess the meaning of one word of Arabic. Suppose that he could recite the Arabic-language Koran.

[gerrilea]

1. Who cares about Jeffrey Dahmer?

Why should we care, unless your point here is to discredit the MSM, which most of us here at DU already have...?

[Boojatta]

2. To find out who cares, it would be necessary to do some polling. No?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. You can claim to be anything

Claims mean nothing. Actions mean a lot more.

Besides this, "Muslim" means different things to different people. "Muslim" can be translated as "one who submits to God"--by this definition, lots of people who go by the label of Jew, Christian, or other faiths could be called Muslim. In some Muslim traditions, they say all people are born Muslim, in that they come from the angelic plane here; it is only when they choose another path that they become not Muslim, and they may always "revert" back to Islam. Another definition of the word is one who practices peace--since the Arabic root for "peace" is found in the term "Muslim" and "Islam" both. By this definition, many folks even of no particular faith could be called Muslim.

Even if you restrict the term to those who practice the 5 Pillars, there is wide variation. In some sects. it is important to memorize the Qur'an; in others, it is far more important to understand and practice the meaning of the message.

Of course, these subtleties are generally lost on the MSM, as they tend to want to paint things in stark contrast rather than to find nuances.

[Silent3]

4. You mean Jeffrey Hussein Dahmer?

:evilgrin: :hide:

[smoogatz]

5. Suppose Dahmer had preferred the taste of Muslims because of their diet,

and could tell an observant Muslim from a non-observant Muslim in a blind taste-test. Would that make Dahmer blind, a Muslim, or an epicure? What if he ate their livers with some fava beans and a nice Chianti? Wouldn't that be kind of a cliché? What if Jeffrey Dahmer ate Osama bin Laden and then attacked the World Trade Center? Would he then have become what he ate, or could he blame it on indigestion?

On edit: eating Muslims is one thing, but eating them with the wrong wine is something else entirely. If Dahmer drank, say, a dessert wine with his sauteed haunch of Muslim, should he have been given the death penalty instead of life in prison? Or should he have been found innocent by reason of insanity?

[edhopper]

6. The other day

I had a very good pastry at a French bakery.

[Boojatta]

7. That's good news.

However, what happened before that? You told them that you wanted shaving cream, didn't you? Then they said, "Sorry, we don't sell shaving cream," and they invited you to buy pastry, right?