To: Ilaine who wrote (8779 ) 9/13/2001 12:43:39 AM From: smolejv@gmx.net Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 74559 a Billion plus a dozen people I have no intention to ignore or to diminish the dangers in the form of people like Osama bin Laden & Co; the war on them requires all the necessary involvement and above all the activation of instruments of international law - which btw is yet to happen. However, the reduction of evil to a saudi Billionaire and islamic fundamentalism obscures completely the fact, that it's not a battle of cultures we're are experiencing now. This war draws a line not only through the islamic world, but also, if we think of Oklahoma bombing and Tokyo sub gas attacks, through other cultures as well. It's surely a civilisation war, but it is not a war between civilisations. It is an attack on the values, which are common to all human civilisations. The first to suffer under the taliban fanatism, under the iran state ajatollahs, under puritanic oil muslims of arab peninsula, were the muslims themselves, and they were the first to oppose and to flee them. It is the rich and once libreal islamic cultures of Egypt, Sudan and Pakistan, who are endangered by the new bigotry. There's no western us and muslim they . If we accept this divide in our minds, then the endevours of terrorists like Osama bin Laden to polarize the world along their line of understanding what's good and evil have paid fruit. Reducing the role of muslims to "they kept Aristoteles safe for us and started on arithmetics" plus "they will never extricate themselves out of their tribal past" is plain (factually) wrong. One more thing: the moral, civilisatory values are in no way connected with the colour of our skins. Remember the US citizens of Japanese descent after Pearl harbour? They swore to the same flag and still severe unjustice happened to them. dj