“ISIL is not ‘Islamic.’ No religion condones the killing of innocents."
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I've finally gotten around to watching President Obama's IS speech, and my jaw is somewhere around my navel at this point.
No wonder many people don't see any problem with religion: they literally automatically dub any problematic religious behaviour as irreligious! "Guns don't kill people, they only kill animals. The guns that are used to shoot people aren't real guns." It's a textbook example of the No True Scotsman fallacy, and it's a staggeringly dangerous attitude to have.
For anyone interested, below are some bible verses in which the killing of innocents is either commanded by YHVH, performed by YHVH, or commanded by a trusted authority figure.
(This list is far from exhaustive, as it's mostly just off the top of my head)
GENESIS 6:17 “Then I myself will bring the flood of water over the earth to destroy from under heaven every living thing that breathes; everything on earth will be destroyed." (YHVH kills every being in the world. This necessarily includes infants and children. Yowzas!)
NUMBERS 31: 14-18 "And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." " (Moses chastises his officers for allowing the female captives to live. NOTE: this actually contains a point in favor of the President's statement, as Moses wisely suggests that the female children be spared that they might be used as sex slaves. Good thinkin', Mo!)
1 SAMUEL 15: 2-3 "Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: ‘I remember what ‘Amalek did to Isra’el, how they fought against Isra’el when they were coming up from Egypt. Now go and attack ‘Amalek, and completely destroy everything they have. Don’t spare them, but kill men and women, children and babies, cows and sheep, camels and donkeys.’" (Again, in fairness, who among us hasn't called for the murder of "children and babies"? Give the Big Guy a break! You should see what I'm like in the mornings before I have my coffee!)
JOSHUA 6: 20-21 "So the people shouted, with the shofars blowing. When the people heard the sound of the shofars, the people let out a great shout; and the wall fell down flat; so that the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead of him; and they captured the city. They completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword — men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys." (Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, indeed!)
EXODUS 12: 29 "At midnight Adonai killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock." (To be fair, every single one of those firstborns had it coming...)
2 KINGS 2: 23-24 "Elisha left to go up to Beit-El. As he was on his way up the road, some boys came out of the town and began making fun of him. “Go on up, baldy! Go on up, baldy!” He looked behind him, saw them and put a curse on them in the name of Adonai; whereupon two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys." (To be fair, these aren't necessarily 'innocents'. They did, after all, make fun of Elisha's bald head.)
The list goes on and on. I could literally spend all night pulling out quotes from holy books in which the killing of innocents is condoned. Here's the thing, though: in none of these cases are these innocent victims specifically said to be innocents. In some way, they are all thought to be deserving of death, from a divine perspective. That is what religion is capable of; it may be true that no religion specifically calls for the death of innocents (thought this is debatable) but this is only because they universally use theology to define the innocent as guilty. In this line of thinking, YHVH does not commit an unfathomably grotesque act when he sentences nonbelievers to an eternity of absolute suffering; they were guilty of rejecting his totally unconditional love! The Spanish Inquisition tortured and killed no innocents; all of their victims were guilty of heresy! No innocents died in the destruction of 9/11; by aligning themselves with America, they were guilty!
By automatically labeling all negative actions directly influenced by religion as "not religious", President Obama is helping to perpetuate the sort of thinking that is directly responsible for the emergence of IS. By simply defining away the problem of extremist religious ideology, one necessarily fails to confront the problem of religious dogma making good people do bad things.
(PS: The absolute CORNERSTONE of Christian mythology is based upon the killing of what is, according to many, the only truly 'innocent' being ever to have walked upon this world. From what I hear, YHVH is usually thought to have acted pretty damned decently in this action, though hilariously the human pawns that carried out his will are condemned for it!)