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To: DB
They need to move out of their own dark ages. They're stuck in time... Hopefully this is the beginning of the own enlightenment period. One can only hope...

Yeah, that's about where I'm at. I'm not exactly a scholar of Islam: Can that religion even have a Reformation? Or are we banking on a miracle?

It might be that the "stuck in time" factor you allude to plays as much a role as their religion. Imagine a country of 16th-century Europeans suddenly confronted with a culture that tolerates MTV, pornography, abortion, and you can fill in the next fifty-thousand examples yourself. The 16th-century Europeans, assuming they survived the initial shock, would be mortified, enraged, repulsed, etc. And they would actively resist any assimilation.

This isn't a hymn to cultural relativism. I like the wild n' crazy freedoms we enjoy. But to expect ALL others to do so bespeaks a willful ignorance of human nature, a dangerous one.

139 posted on 05/16/2005 12:58:16 AM PDT by Petronius (Hunter: Shine On You Crazy Diamond!)
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To: Petronius
It might be that the "stuck in time" factor you allude to plays as much a role as their religion. Imagine a country of 16th-century Europeans suddenly confronted with a culture that tolerates MTV, pornography, abortion, and you can fill in the next fifty-thousand examples yourself. The 16th-century Europeans, assuming they survived the initial shock, would be mortified, enraged, repulsed, etc. And they would actively resist any assimilation.

Actually most 16th Century Europeans would probably understand and accept our culture (after the initial transition period). All of the things that the religious right rails against existed in the Medieval period of Europe. If you doubt me look at the Canterbury Tales (which is of course 13th-14th Century). Our culture is no more or less vulgar than our forefather's. Our media is just larger, more global, and omnipresent. Culturally Islam will have to bend to accept us, or eventually we will come to loggerheads and have to fight it out. I vote for the first option, but also can see the second.

Cheers,
CSG

141 posted on 05/16/2005 6:22:30 AM PDT by CompSciGuy ("At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment." -- Ben Franklin)
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