Thread: Sad, sad sign of the times...

Originally Posted by JMS

We are still in Germany aren't we!

not for the same reason though.

back to the islamic radicals, i would have to disagree with the person saying there's a problem with that religion and it's going worse. i agree with bruno and wirebeard (big surprise here) that when given political power every religion seem to have done pretty badly. and i don't see reasons for claiming some special mechanisms that ensured the transition in christianity from genocidal to fairly civilized.

My country was invaded in 14th century by the otoman turks (a tiny tribe at that time, which just used the local conflicts to gain full dominance over large region and popluation and become the otoman empire). Gaining independence again took about 500 years and while there were mass conversions into islam, the fact is most invaded countries survived centuries under islamic rule.

Perhaps Islam starting 600 years after Christianity is about 600 years behind, but that doesn't mean they have to be nuked. I have a lot of muslim friends and even though I've never been in a muslim country I have several friends (some americans) that have traveled in such or in muslim regions and every one of them has said that these were the most hospitable and nice people they have ever met.

And it's quite hard for the people of Saudi Arabia to overthrow their government if US keeps supporting it the way it does.

Finally to me the war on terror is just an empty concept. You can't eliminate the terrorists by fighting them - anybody who cares to read history can tell you that. Instead societies just learn to live with it and as times goes hope that the conflict will get diffused (usually it takes generations).

Originally Posted by gugi

not for the same reason though.

back to the islamic radicals, i would have to disagree with the person saying there's a problem with that religion and it's going worse. i agree with bruno and wirebeard (big surprise here) that when given political power every religion seem to have done pretty badly. and i don't see reasons for claiming some special mechanisms that ensured the transition in christianity from genocidal to fairly civilized.

[/color]My country was invaded in 14th century by the otoman turks (a tiny tribe at that time, which just used the local conflicts to gain full dominance over large region and popluation and become the otoman empire). Gaining independence again took about 500 years and while there were mass conversions into islam, the fact is most invaded countries survived centuries under islamic rule.

Perhaps Islam starting 600 years after Christianity is about 600 years behind, but that doesn't mean they have to be nuked. I have a lot of muslim friends and even though I've never been in a muslim country I have several friends (some americans) that have traveled in such or in muslim regions and every one of them has said that these were the most hospitable and nice people they have ever met.

And it's quite hard for the people of Saudi Arabia to overthrow their government if US keeps supporting it the way it does.

Finally to me the war on terror is just an empty concept. You can't eliminate the terrorists by fighting them - anybody who cares to read history can tell you that. Instead societies just learn to live with it and as times goes hope that the conflict will get diffused (usually it takes generations).

Most Americans don't realize that the Saudis are despised in moderate Islamic countries...and their adherence to their precious laws seems to stop at the border (witness drunken Saudi Princes while in the US or Europe). The US keeps the royal family in power to ensure the flow oil....period. Thus the US overlooks all the wrongdoing by the Saudis. It will be interesting to see what happens in the Middle East when the oil dries up or when someone comes up with a viable alternative fuel....(c'mon America...we put a man on the moon...we can't come up with an alternative fuel...oh, wait...Halliburton has how many politicians in their pockets?)