Posted by pancho from ? (204.120.48.3) on Saturday, July 06, 2002 at 11:46AM :
In Reply to: Re: Ending "terrism" posted by sankho from ? (62.17.4.100) on Saturday, July 06, 2002 at 11:08AM :
I don't think they're the same thing at all. I think America uses Israel to serve its own end...it knows there is no love gained for Jews anywhere...let the world blame Israel for what America needs done ...the destabilization and demonizing of Muslim lands in the Mideast and Islam...it's the old game...once you convince people that they have an "enemy"...and that enemy is beyond the pale in terms of deserving any decent treatment or simple consideration, or being understood as a human being pretty much the same as you...that her children are as dear to her as you's are to you...you are then free to do whatever you wanted to do in the first place.
They may be all part of the same crap. But there's a reason most historians agree that the Ottomans of the Middle Ages were the "Gentlemen of the Medieval World". They tried to live by their Prophet's rule that the People of The Book should be respected. They tried and succeeded for a long time...a much better record for accepting diversity than the Europeans ever displayed.
The Mongol conquests of the 13th century irreparably devastated Islam and cost them not only countless treasures such as the world had not then seen...but gave their own religious conservatives an uppoer hand that has lasted till now...convincing them they had displeased Allah..and therefore had suffered justly. These elements of reaction are retrograde and destructive...always have been. America is in the grip of it's own religious revival and it is a scary thing.
The Ottoman Turks filled a vacuum when the Arab rulers fell apart and the Byzantine Empire was teetering on ruin itself...aided by its own intolerance of Christians who crossed themselves from north to south, and other arcane matter worthy of murder to uphold. It's a depressing spectatcle...but it seems of all of them, the Ottomans came closet, for longest.
No...I do not approve of the horrendous things ignorant and hate filled Muslims did to Christians, or each other. Neither do I excuse the horrendous things Christians did, or Israelis now do. I just don't see any benefit to remaining ignorant and filled with hatred.
-- pancho
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