Here’s another example showing how Islam just can’t get along with those different, in any context.
Keep in mind that Islam was/is involved in the Bosnia mess, in Chechnya, in the Pakistan/India disbute, in the violence in the Phillipines and so on and so forth. The mess in the Sudan is a case where the Arab government in Khartoum (best city name, ever) is persecuting native Africans. Persecuting to the point of sending gunships into neighboring Chad to slaughter refugees.
No, Islam doesn’t have a monopoly on nasty stuff going on around the globe. My point is only that nasty stuff is ubiquitous where Islam comes in contact with “other”. The Rwanda mess, for example, did not involve Islam. And, no, I can’t blame violence in Northern Ireland on Islam. There’s no Guinness drinking Paddy Bin-O’Brien spewing Koranic verses while blowing up British soldiers. Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus are unfortunately all capable of being nasty and evil.
The one differing thing about the other Western faiths (dunno enough about Eastern faiths, though I invite BigHominid to comment) is that the West has the ability of critical self examination. Take America for instance. We air our dirty laundry in public. It can be messy, but it also results in our struggle to fix that which is wrong with us. We strive constantly to be better, to match our vision of what America should be or can become. Can anyone conceive of an Arab looking at Arab society and saying “you know what is wrong with us?”
I’ve debated the nature of this over AIM with BigHominid. We can come up with many reasons why this is so. The fact that Muhammed was both Prophet, Ruler, and conquering General set the precedent for linking militarism to the faith when others are concerned. The extreme tribal nature of Arab society is another contributer. Throw in the dictatorial nature of all Arab governments, and you have a society that thrives on conflict on its borders… even within it’s borders.
The one thing that 9/11 proved to me is that in the modern world, borders aren’t necessarily lines on a map. A border now can exist in the mind. The terrorists saw the US as a threat to their way of life in some way, so they struck. It didn’t matter that we’re on the other side of the world, they still hit us, and hit us hard. The reflexive should be true. It shouldn’t matter to us that they are on the other side of the world. They want to harm us. We should take them out.
