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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (72874)	2/10/2003 3:16:19 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I suppose it doesn't hurt to say it again. In terms of the differences between Islam and the West, it is the secular nature of the latter and the failure to secularize government, added to a rejection of modernism, that makes for an unavoidable clash of civilizations. Until Islamic societies accept that a modern culture operates best by rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's, there is no hope. Islam's failure to separate church and state is an Achilles heel. It's rejection of modernism--broadly defined as respect for tolerance, democracy, individual rights and individuality, scientific advancement, the liberation of women, the loosening of tribal connections, etc.--is another. As Islam's failures become apparent, Islamofascism arises. It hijacks a great religion which has unfortunately lost its way.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (72874)	2/10/2003 4:06:44 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

You are doing your best to define Islam as the Other, with every other Idea on your side. Good tactics, bad history. I see a lot of similarities between Christianity and Islam, in ideology and methods, which set them apart from all the other major religions. 1. The Hindus are using the methods of Holy War, but their ambitions are strictly limited. Hinduism is an aspect of Indian national culture, not a global religion. So, after they finish converting/expelling/slaughtering the 130,000,000 Muslims in India, Hindu Nationalism become a satisfied status quo Idea. 2. Confucianism is also a national religion, currently being revived in China to replace Marx-Lenin-Mao Thought. 3. The Jews once did this: In the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded" (Deuteronomy 20:16-17). Just in case you don't remember what the Good Book says they mean by "save alive nothing that breathes", it meant every man, woman, child, and all the livestock. Breathtakingly thorough. But they've mellowed a lot since then. Besides, there are only 13M of them. 4,5. So, Christianity and Islam stand, today, as the only truly global religions, the only ones that (by ideology and deeds) are trying to be universal. 630,000 Christian missionaries in 2000 (sum of cross-cultural, foreign and pioneer full-time Spreaders of the Word): gem-werc.org Remember, this is not just, not even mostly, a military competition. It is an ideological struggle, and the Sword is just one tool in that struggle. That's the way both Christians and Muslims have always seen it.