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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (424)	12/8/2002 10:46:45 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 15987

Some of these stories show that Muhammad had beliefs which are very strange to Western minds. Sure... just as many ideas within Judaism and Christianity from thousands of years ago are strange to secular western society... (although many of our laws originate with Judaic-Christian moral codes). And look at Hinduism, and Buddhism... Those are very strange to western ideas, yet we accomodate them... I don't think we should get into a discussion about what religion is right, or what's seen as strange to various cultures. Many western ideas are extreming strange and very disturbing to many of these cultures. But the system that best reflects the will of the people will eventually win out. Secular government acts as the reins on pack of religious "sled dogs" who are naturally inclined to fight one another. It allows religion to compete in a marketplace of ideas, without trampling minority religious rights. This is what needs to be accomplished in much of the Middle East, possibly setting Mecca/Medina off as a separate Vatican style enclave. There is no reason that Saudi Arabia can't have democracy and secular government decades down the road. They obviously are unstable in their current form, unable to control their militant factions... So a secular system needs to be created to do so. Hawk