There are many stories of early Christians preferring to die rather than deny their faith. Perhaps the best example is Perpetua (read The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas). Felicitas, who was eight months pregnant, and three men were scheduled to be martyred in an arena filled with a boar, a bear, a leopard, and a wild cow (probably a bull). Felicitas gave birth to a daughter two days before the event, allowing her to participate (pregnant women were not martyred). Felicitas and the men were killed in the arena.
"[Perpetua] screamed as she was struck on the bone; then she took the trembling hand of the young gladiator and guided it to her throat. It was as though so great a woman, feared as she was by the unclean spirit, could not be dispatched unless she herself were willing," stated the article.
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Christian Pfeiffer of the criminal research institute of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) interviewed 45,000 teenagers aged 14-16 including 10,000 immigrants from 61 German towns and regions. My German is no great shakes, but the following is my translation from the Süddeutsche Zeitung article (an English review can be found at The Local).
Frequent praying and mosque visits do not reduce Muslim boys' willingness to use violence. On the contrary, the more religious a Muslim boy is, the more violent he is.
Boys from Muslim immigrant families are the most violent of all and are often involved in crimes of assault and robbery.
Muslim boys admire the image of a strong man, especially in the home; beating one's wife appears to be venerated behavior.
Violence in Muslim boys is not connected to whether their parents are unemployed or if the boys are aiming at trade school or college.
Protestant and Catholic boys are demonstrably less violent than Muslim boys; Christian immigrants, usually from Poland or the former Soviet Union, are no different. The more seriously a boy takes his Christian faith, the less likely he is to engage in robbery, vandalism, or shoplifting.
Muslim boys from immigrant families were more than twice as violent compared to boys from Christian immigrant families.
Muslim girls are no more violent than Christian girls, however. The only silver lining is that Muslim boys are less likely to drink alcohol or shoplift.
Pfeiffer concluded that there is an indirect, but not direct, connection of Islam and violence in boys. I suspect he is still in shock over his finding that there is a provable connection between Islam and violence. And this is in relatively peaceful Germany.
Originally posted in 2010.
"[Perpetua] screamed as she was struck on the bone; then she took the trembling hand of the young gladiator and guided it to her throat. It was as though so great a woman, feared as she was by the unclean spirit, could not be dispatched unless she herself were willing," stated the article.
* * * * *
Christian Pfeiffer of the criminal research institute of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) interviewed 45,000 teenagers aged 14-16 including 10,000 immigrants from 61 German towns and regions. My German is no great shakes, but the following is my translation from the Süddeutsche Zeitung article (an English review can be found at The Local).
Frequent praying and mosque visits do not reduce Muslim boys' willingness to use violence. On the contrary, the more religious a Muslim boy is, the more violent he is.
Boys from Muslim immigrant families are the most violent of all and are often involved in crimes of assault and robbery.
Muslim boys admire the image of a strong man, especially in the home; beating one's wife appears to be venerated behavior.
Violence in Muslim boys is not connected to whether their parents are unemployed or if the boys are aiming at trade school or college.
Protestant and Catholic boys are demonstrably less violent than Muslim boys; Christian immigrants, usually from Poland or the former Soviet Union, are no different. The more seriously a boy takes his Christian faith, the less likely he is to engage in robbery, vandalism, or shoplifting.
Muslim boys from immigrant families were more than twice as violent compared to boys from Christian immigrant families.
Muslim girls are no more violent than Christian girls, however. The only silver lining is that Muslim boys are less likely to drink alcohol or shoplift.
Pfeiffer concluded that there is an indirect, but not direct, connection of Islam and violence in boys. I suspect he is still in shock over his finding that there is a provable connection between Islam and violence. And this is in relatively peaceful Germany.
Originally posted in 2010.