To: Dan B. who wrote (491723 ) 11/12/2003 8:32:59 PM From: Oeconomicus Respond to Dan, maybe I read something into it that he didn't intend, but I thought the tone of the column reflected a view that the "moderate" Islamic states were somehow not representative of Islam or that their "brand" of Islam was an exception, but that Islam in other states, and therefore the states and Muslims in them, was NOT consistent with democratic rule. The implication is that it is the religion, not the conditions of the people or the oppressive governments, that makes certain states a threat. La Civilta Cattolica that all of Islamic history is of conquest and jihad against the Christian world is both telling and ironic. It is telling in that he obviously either doesn't know his history or chooses to lie about it, and it is ironic in that it comes from an Italian whose nation's renaissance helped awaken all of Europe from the dark ages, but which renaissance had its roots in the Islamic world, specifically in what is now Iraq.
