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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (384955)	5/18/2008 11:47:18 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573921

I'm not sure how things will play out, but I can only hope that it doesn't involve WWIII. Maybe the moderate Islamic theologians will finally gain more influence, or maybe the contradictions cannot be resolved and the whole religion of Islam itself will collapse, especially as the Middle East modernizes. The problem is that modernization is contrary to Islam, so modernization is a very difficult way out of the quagmire. As I've discussed with tejek (and he disagrees with me about it), the Jews were able to take the speck of land now occupied by Israel and turn it into something special. The Arabs would never have done anything like this. In the 20 years from 1980-2000 a total of about 400 patents for technology were granted to Arab countries, contrasted by more than 15,000 for South Korea alone. It just isn't part of the culture. Consider that, notwithstanding the oil wealth, the GDP of the Arab countries -- about 300 Million in population, is half that of Italy. They simply don't want progress and find it contrary to Islam. While we talk about "moderate" and "extreme" Islam, it is worth nothing that even the most moderate form of Islam is fairly extreme by the measure of most Americans. Is there reason to be hopeful? I don't know. Ideally, the moderates would be able to reign in the extremists. I do think there are many Muslims who don't see the hatred and violence of Islam as being their own brand; but ultimately, you just cannot know what will happen, I don't think. One of the reasons I've always believed in the Iraq war, even when it has gotten tough, is that I think Iraq is well-suited to establish a new kind of center of dialog for the region. While Bush is getting criticized a lot about Iran, the reality is that the deterioration of Iran is all the more reason we need to make a success in Iraq. It is a mess, I know that much. And it isn't "America's" making, as so many would have us believe.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (384955)	5/19/2008 12:16:15 AM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573921

"Maybe the moderate Islamic theologians will finally gain more influence, or maybe the contradictions cannot be resolved and the whole religion of Islam itself will collapse, especially as the Middle East modernizes." foreignpolicy.com Sorry pal, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Christianity comes in a distant fifth. Even the suicide bombers give Islam the sheen of a depth of commitment that other modern religions seem to lack. This has to be attractive to the idealistic young and impressionable. Christians can't even be bothered to shed their wealth and worldly goods and follow the Christ.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (384955)	5/19/2008 1:28:35 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573921

Maybe the moderate Islamic theologians will finally gain more influence Ten One other point on this subject -- these moderate Islamic theologians could certainly speak out right now if they chose to, yet they are silent. This is one of the things that really bothers me about the proclamation that there are so many moderate Muslims out there. Where are they? Is it that they are so "moderate" that their religion, and its hijacking, isn't important to them? Why are they not trying to take it back or salvage what is left? Do they fear for their own lives (it is a fact that a Muslim who speaks out against jihad becomes an enemy). Perhaps they're afraid to speak out, I don't know. But if there are so many moderate Muslims, you'd think more of them would be outspoken critics of the jihad against America.