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To: Kaiwen
Just out of pure curiosity, are you of Islamic or Arab descent? If you aren't, what made you want to study Arabic? Are you sympathetic toward the Islamist Terrorist, or are you a Gung Ho American? Or are you just plain confused?
31 posted on 12/09/2003 7:25:19 PM PST by webber (The Constitution, Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers were based on Christianity.)
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To: webber
Just out of pure curiosity, are you of Islamic or Arab descent?

Nope, just a boring whiteboy (mainly Irish/German) that's nominally Christian. My love of beer and bbq ribs forever prevents me from converting to Islam, along with the fact I don't think I'd like to stone anybody, for whatever reason.

If you aren't, what made you want to study Arabic?

I'm a religion nut. Got my bachelor's in Comparative Religions, with a focus on Buddhism. My favorites to study are Buddhism and Islam. I have no idea why, as I would never convert to either. Maybe its because I find the mysticism of both religions fascinating. My Chinese gets me pretty far in terms of studying Buddhism, so I've taught myself a bit of classical Arabic, mainly through books designed to teach Muslims to read the Qu'ran. Pimsleur's Eastern Arabic course has also been a big help in learning a but of the spoken language.

Are you sympathetic toward the Islamist Terrorist, or are you a Gung Ho American?

I'm very unsympathetic to people that would kill me on sight, be they Islamists or whatever. I think the War on Terror is going in the right direction. But I tend not to get gung ho about anything, more for reasons of personal temperament than a lack of principles. But get enough beer in me and I'll argue passionately for just about anything.

Or are you just plain confused?

I'm definately confused, about a great many things.

33 posted on 12/09/2003 9:51:21 PM PST by Kaiwen
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