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To: paul61 who wrote (55035)	3/2/2006 8:53:03 AM
From: loantech	Respond to of 110194

I don't think all Muslims believe that. People used to believe the KKK too. As long as we are in there land killing them they might believe it though......... Later Paul Let's just hope peace survives some day.

To: paul61 who wrote (55035)	3/2/2006 10:34:38 AM
From: glenn_a	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 110194

((Don't all Muslims believe that the rest of us are unclean? WE have a choice - become a Muslim or pay them a tax or be killed?)) Hi Paul. Do you know any Muslims? Do you know anything about their history? Like Christianty, Islam has gone through phases of extraordinary tolerance (11th & 12th centuries most especially), and periods of incredible blood-letting. My angle on it, believe it or not, "Muslims" largely aspire to the same conditions as most human beings, you know, to be relatively well-off, to see their children grow up and be happy, etc. The day of 9-11 I was at a golf tournament sponsored by the Ismaili community in Edmonton Alberta. I kind of view the Ismaili's as the Protestants of Islam. The Ismaili's at the tournament were absolutely horrifed when 9-11 occurred. And the Ismaili community in Canada knows a thing or two about genocide. Most Ismalis in Canada came here after our late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau accepted some hundred thousand (I'm not clear on that figure, but I think it was somewhere in this ballpark) refugees after Uganda's Idi Amin threated to commit genocide on the Ismaili community if they did not leave the country immediately. Trudea had been roommates with the Ismaili spiritual leader, the Agha Khan, at Harvard. And his old roommate gave him a call when his people faced genocide in Uganda. ((Do they allow christian/catholic/jewish religions in their countries? our bibles??)) In its golden age, Islam has been a very tolerant religion. Far more tolerant that Christianity. The curse of Islam in the past few centuries, however, has been that this once great culture has seen its influence almost entirely subsumed by the west. Ironically, the West went through somewhat of an intellectual renaissance in the 12th century significantly as a result of an extraordinary exchange of ideas in 11th-century Spain (as it is now called). This dialogue was a wonderful intermingling of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic philosophers. The Islamic philosopher Averroes, in particular, was an extraordinary powerful influence on such Western luminaries as St. Thomas Acquinas and Peter Abelard. See the following link: arabworldbooks.com With regards to "live and let live", well, as an example, that's exactly what moderate Iranians wanted when they tried to create democracy in their country in the early 1950's by electing the Mossadeq as Prime Minister. Of course, however, genuine democracy in Iran would have spelt BIG trouble for US an British oil interests, so they had Mossadeq assisinated, and replaced with their personally-selected dictator who we know as "the Shaw of Iran". If you are interested in learning more about this historical episode, I highly recommend the following book: amazon.com Unfortunately, the peoples of the Middle East have had the extraordinary historic misfortune to have been effectively colonized by the West, and culturually have had a very difficult time adapting to the more secular view of modern society. Equally tragic, is that they happen to be situated on a gazillion barrels of oil, which has meant that they have not been "allowed" by the west to develop their own democratic political cultures, but have had corrupt dictators imposed upon them to secure a continuing supply of oil. It are these socio-economic-historical circumstances more than anything which has produce much of the anger and intollerance in the Muslim world towards the west. It's not about religion. It's about power. Anyway, your post came across as incredibly narrow-minded, ethnocentric, and parochial. But perhaps you simply don't know any Muslims, or know nothing about their history or socio-economic context. Sorry if this is an overly severe judgement, but it's pretty scary to me that in today's global villiage, someone can be so lacking in understanding and empathy about the culture and history of another people. Best wishes, Glenn