Gold_tutor...
I have to STRINGENTLY disagree with you. I spent the afternoon with some friends of mine who are from Afghanistan (their uncle was one of the first ambassadors to the UN for that country).
They are DEVOUTLY against the Taleban, and consider themselves to be Americans (they were flying US flags all around their place of business)... Several of them have been here over 20 years and have worked their butts off to create a new life here for themselves.
They FULLY RECOGNIZE that Islam, IN NO WAY, justifies or condones the actions taken on Tuesday, and they live in fear of people like yourself trying to tell them that they are "incapable" of living in a democracy.
What you must understand is that Muslim extremists represent a social force which has, in part, spawned from the lack of social change in the Middle East. There is all of this wealth that has been accumulated and little of it is seemingly filtering down to the average person living there. They feel that "westernization", which began to have its influence only during the past 60 years, has not met their needs so many are looking for an alternative system, namely instituting Sharia, and discarding western values.
But these extremists are fooling themselves and the people they are trying to sway to their cause, because the regressive system that Sharia has imposed in the past has gained them nothing either.
What you're going to have to understand is that many muslim can fully function in, and support, a democracy, when they are educated and raised under such a system.
And this is why, I believe, many of the extremist are so bent upon destroying Israel.. It's not so much that they are Jewish, but that they represent a westernized society in their midst that has prospered in a manner that a fundamentalist Islamic state never will be able to.
Israel is a constant reminder that the Islamic imams and clerics are facing the threat of losing their influence in the daily lives of muslims. And the only way to maintain that influence is to direct muslim sentiments towards a hatred of Israel and western values of individual freedoms and inalienable human rights.
And they will twist the Koran as they see fit in order to prevent the entrenchment of moderate and tolerant values.
Thus, this is a battle between the forces of progress and moderation encroaching on the traditional religious controls.
This is little different than the resistance the Catholic church put up against the diminishment of their power base in Europe during the 15th through 17th centuries.
Hawkmoon |
