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

To: Ilaine who wrote (90601)	4/7/2003 2:18:47 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 281500

> Much simpler and clearer than most modern law. Clearer, yes...simpler, it depends. You should note that Koran and the life of Mohammed provide some basis for behavior and belief, but the vast amount of what Islam is was developed afterwards and much of it has nothing to do with religion. For example, there was a hypothetical discussion on if man fire an arrow and another man holds a baby in its path, who is the murderer? Another question was can inaction be considered an action in itself. Even more practical issues (and in this case totally unsolved) involved the matter of leadership and succession: Who can become a leader? What are his responsibilities? What are his rights? What are the rights of the people? How many people form a minimum acceptable number to claim their own leader? Can a leader resign? Can people take back their loyalty and confidence? These are all very deep issues which are still relevant. For the most parts the discussions were not theological in nature, but they used various versus from Koran and examples by Mohammed to strengthen their position. Not all these discussions were benign in nature. Not even the hypothetical ones. Remember I told you that Islam was the first religion to be the victim of religion as an effective (well that is not the word I am looking for but will do) instrument of war? There were a group who devised their own sect. It is debatable how much they truly believed in Islam to begin with, especially since almost all of them were Iranian. Anyway, they started a huge debate on three theoretical issues: (1) does man have free will? (2) Are actions of god part of him or separate from him [given the special nature of God, this is deceptively simple but proved very divisive] (3) Does God have free will? (is a painter still a painter if he never paints? So is the Creator really so if he would not have created? In other words, does God need us as much as we need him). For a long time, these and similar issues they raised caused huge internal damage to Islam from within. If this is the kind of thing you like, there is plenty of it there for you to enjoy. > Hawala was, as far as I can tell, the first paper money. The word means "in care of" or "forward to". It is closer to ancient wire transfer than anything else. There is also safta, which is more like a cheque or money order. It varies because it requires the signature of the bearer and it can be dated into the future (and therefore be a bond = principle+interest). ST ...they are not all dumb stone throwing mob <g>