Japan’s PM has been praising Islam for “teaching Japan tolerance,” after having been dragged into cleaning up the diplomatic mess left by the Tokyo governor’s undiplomatic if accurate appraisal of Islamic nations as “fighting each other because the only thing they have in common is Allah.”
Abe could apparently think of nothing more convincing to say in praise of the religion of peace than:
“Japan has learned much of the spirit of tolerance from Islam [through providing Islamic nations technical assistance].”
His remarks come in response to Tokyo governor Naoki Inose having upset Muslims by commenting that “the only thing Islamic nations have in common is a belief in Allah, that’s why they are always fighting each other,” which was promptly seized upon by aggrieved Muslims and his domestic opponents as being “un-Olympic” in spirit, although Turkey itself seems to have magnanimously ignored the comments.
Inose rather lamely disavowed the comment by saying “it did not convey my true intent,” displaying none of his former boss Ishihara’s appetite for offending people.
Amongst actual Japanese there is some incredulity at his statements – although the more ironic reading is apparently lost on them:
“Nice follow through from Abe there!”
“This is laying it on way too thickly. They should actually take a stand against terrorism for once.”
“It is not really a believable follow through, he should have said they discovered zero or something.”
“The only people who say it is a religion of peace are those who know absolutely nothing about it.”
“Thankfully the Turks are being very nice about this.”
“Turkey and Japan, two nations united in being loathed by the world for their butchery. I guess they feel sorry for each other.”
“If they lash out at him for this they disprove his statement so it is kind of clever.”
“Abe’s believers are as bad as Christians…”
“Inose is too smart to just make dumb remarks like this. I’m sure he planned this. to advance his bid…”
“He’s an idiot for saying anything which might offend a pro-Japanese country!”
“The New York Times is just anti-Japanese.”
“Japanese reporters are just salarymen who write what they are told. Overseas they have actual journalists who write under their own names, and the opinions in a paper are not necessarily uniform. Totally different to Japan.”
“Honestly, he wasn’t being sarcastic was he? Islam must be the world’s second least tolerant religion.”
“Tell it to the Buddhas at Bamiyan.”
“Pretty sure everything Inose said in the first place was true in any case… Islamic nations are constantly fighting each other for ethnic and sectarian reasons. He’s right.”
Islamed presented as in the west is NOT the true islam. All that are getting in the west is the “westernized” version of islam.
But as we know most islam are tyrants. Hopefully JP will remain neutral because as seen by these radical of religion they go off the deep edge.
The Japanese better back off the muslims. If the US is having trouble with Islam do the Japanese think they will do any better?
This is why you don’t have idiots in office.
there are 51 nations where islam is the majority. only turkey can be seen as sane but even turkey is constantly fighting border battles with kurds and others. islam is a very bad religion. all of asia was buddhist, hindu or other things that existed thousand and thousands of years before islam even began. islam violently broke into asia and to this day is moving more and more.
If all Muslims are terrorist who want to blow up themselves using suicide bombs, all of us would be in real terrors right now because 1/4 of world population are Muslims. If all of them want to be terrorists, we would be in real danger right now, and probably we would be already in World War III.
With about 1.8 billion followers, that means 26% of world population are Muslims. And majority of them aren’t Arabs. There are Turks, Hui Chinese, Kazhaks, Bosniaks, Uzbeks, coastal African ethnic groups, etc. Open you narrow minds, guys. Generalization is evil.
It’s like saying all Japanese are otakus, or all Americans are big-fat guys who live in their mother’s basements. Generalization is evil. Yeah, bash me.
I didn’t think that you could use Islam and tolerance in the same sentence.
It’s possible, but not without lying.