by Sam C.

Created on: January 12, 2010

A religious hypocrite is someone who breaks a central tenet of his or her religion in order to promote it. These can be Muslim terrorists who try to spread their religion by committing both crimes that Islamic law considers capital offenses; they can be Christian fanatics such as Fred Phelps who spread their message of "love" in an incredibly hateful manner; they can be anyone of any religion.

There have been popes who have called crusades to attack the Islamic empires in the Middle East. This is a direct violation of when Jesus said to love your enemies and neighbors. These popes, as well as the armies they sent to the Middle East, were definitely not turning any cheeks, and the amount of treasure they brought to and from the Middle East definitely would not be able to fit through the eye of a needle, or even through the Old Jerusalem gate called such that required camels to be unloaded and goods transported through separately. If these popes and the armies they led to the Middle East were truly honest Christians, they would follow what Jesus said.

The government of the State of Israel is hypocritical in their interpretation of Judaism. They are rather oppressive toward the Muslim population of their country, and their religion says to accept all who worship the same deity. Judaism teaches not to be merciful to those who have turned to idolatry, but in Islam, that is also considered blasphemy. When you examine the religions closely, they're about as similar as Catholicism and Protestantism, so both sides should stop arguing and admit that they worship the same deity in different ways.

Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, the Saudi Government, and many other groups are hypocritical in their interpretation of Islam. Islam teaches that murdering an innocent person is just as bad as murdering the entire human race. These groups have definitely murdered many innocent people in their existence, Muslim or not. Islam also teaches to respect the other worshipers of the Abrahamic god, whether Christian, Jew, or some smaller religion, such as the Druze or Bahai'i (admittedly, those last two split off of Islam like Christianity or Islam split off from Judaism or the Rastafari Movement from Christianity). These other Abrahamic religions definitely don't get much tolerance and love from extremist Muslims, which contradicts their teachings. Holding Osama Bin Laden as the defining example of a Muslim is like considering Aryan Nations the defining example of a Christian church.

There are many other examples of religious hypocrisy. I don't have the time to list all people I know of who violated central tenets of their religions, and you don't have time to read that list. I don't want to waste your time, but if you want to know breaches of central tenets of a religion by people who aren't Catholic, Jew, or Muslim, I would advise watch the "Golden Crocoduck" videos here.

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