The nature of the beast is that the Promethean fires of cultural advancement have been passed along different cultures over the last five thousands years, for about 600 (around 900 to 1500) it was kept for us flaming by the Muslim world. The rejuvenation of the "western" society came at the cost of subjugation, if not annihilation of the new world. I doubt that religion has anything to do with the current conflict, even though, Bin Ladin would want the Muslim world to believe this is a war between Christianity and Islam. It is not, it is a war between terrorists that target innocent people and the rest of the world (including many Muslim nations). Right now, too many voices within Islam are too silent, just as too many voices in the west were silent in the 1933 to 1945 period, hopefully we will have more Muslims like Prof. Khan and Rushdie raising their voices, but in the meantime, there is no other choice but to meet force with greater force and completely eradicate terrorism of all kind.
I certainly do not want us to come to the "intellectual" conclusion that Islam, or for that matter, any religion is either superior or inferior and thus intrinsically prevent cultural progress. It simply is not the case, and Turkey is a living example.
Zeev |
