Originally Posted by
drk
My take on the religious aspect:
There seems to be inheirent in Islam and the Arab world a desire to unite and form some sort of political/religious state (the so-called Pan-Arabic-whatever).
(There are the militant Arabs, like Saddam [although he was nominally Muslim] that simply want power. Nothing unique there, so they shouldn't be included in this discussion.)
A reasonably high percentage take their religion rather seriously, more so than in the soon-to-be completely secular West. Their religion seems to have the tenet that all are to be Muslim or at least to live under their Muslim law (shar-something?). Their sense of holiness dictates that. It is a easily offended religion, I think, as recent history has shown.
The religious Muslims seem to understand what western culture can do to destroy their holy laws/culture, and they take umbrage to Western presence and culture. And I understand that: lots of popular Western culture, especially American, is trash. Muslims and Christians would agree, here.
I don't have a problem if Islam wants to keep itself isolated from external forces, but that is increasingly unlikely to occur (same in the US/West). It's how we interact with our neighbors that count, though, and these killers are giving Islam a very bad name, worldwide. In segments of Islam, it's acceptable to kill the neighbors.
(As a comparison, in defense of fundamentalist Christianity, its response to neighbors is to proselytize. At least in Christianity, there is an understanding that Christianity is voluntary. Yes, to those cynics that will complain of fundamentalist Christianity's attempt to interact with the world's culture, it is voluntary. So I would claim that at least fundamentalism in Christianity leads to no bloodshed [the rare wacko abortion-bomber is not a Christian].)
What I'm preaching here, is religious tolerance. If we could script the way the world works, I would recommend a situation where religions co-exist, and leave all the "fighting" to peaceful discourse between religions. There's no need to kill in the name of religion.
Having said all that about religion, I would say there is at least an equal amount of worldly/secular/military/economic/power-related force behind the conflict between the Arabs and the Western Civilizations. I would say even that's a conservative estimate. That's not to be ignored; a lot of bad stuff is done in the name of religion, and no matter how tolerant and respectful we might be towards their religion, that would by no means end the friction.
Warning! Warning! Warning! Only read the below if you are not offended by a conservative:
Rush Limbaugh doctrine (and I paraphrase): Regrettably, history has shown that peace rarely comes with negotiations and treaties, but rather from one side militarily enforcing it's will on another's.
I fear that is true, and that that will never change. We must be realistic.
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