Quick response to Greg's demonization of Islam:
The Israelis quote the Old Testament to justify their atrocities in Israel;
shall we condemn Judaism?
And if Islam is so nasty, how come Moslem countries were historically more
tolerant of other religions than Christian Europe? Christians and Jews were
second-class citizens in the Arab Empire, but they were citizens. In Europe
Moors weren't, and Jews were confined to the ghetto, or subjected to pogroms,
at least for a long time.
I don't think you can brush over the history of these peoples. Afghanistan is
a poor, violent, country, which got abused by the Soviets. The Palestinians
were among the most well-off and educated of the Arabs, before they got
invaded by the Jews and then crushed between them and the Arab armies. The
whole region's poor, resource-poor, and colonialized enough to develop
grievances and not enough to pick up good habits. Except maybe for Iraq,
which was a good secular country before the Gulf War... with sanctions, come
poverty; with poverty, comes religion, and veils on women... The revolution
in Iran has something to do with with our support of the oppressive Shah. And
yet, Iran seems to have the most democratic structure of any Arab country (not
that Iran is Arabic); it's just that the democratic decisions get overruled by
the clerics. But there's movement toward moderation.
-xx- Damien X-)
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