Posted on 05/16/2005 5:41:35 PM PDT by SJackson
All of those nations are dictatorships of one stripe or another. The people don't have a say. So what the government does is based on what the leaders believe not on what the people believe.
Christians may be persecuted in these countries because the leaders believe that is what good Muslims are supposed to do.
But just as likely the Christians could be persecuted as scapegoats for failed economic policies.
Throughout history the Jews have often been the scapegoats when economies go to hell. The leaders might use some scurrilous and sacrilegious propaganda to stoke up animosity towards the Jews, but only as a means to another end: deflecting criticism away from the government.
The persecution of whites in Zimbabwe is an excellent (and horrific) case in point.
So you can name as many totalitarian regimes as you want that claim to be abiding by Islamic law and that doesn't make your point.
There have been Christian nations that persecuted Jews and Muslims so if you want to tar everyone with the same brush be my guest.
Yup when they were stoning the IDF I could tell they were doing out of hatred for the PLO. The mobs in Egypt are all government owned I'm sure, too.
Christians may be persecuted in these countries because the leaders believe that is what good Muslims are supposed to do.
And I'm sure the Koran doesn't say to take no Christiand or Jews are friends. I'm sure that was just a misprint, along with everything else. Sorry, I've read up on it.
So I suppose we should shun them as well.
First, I don't remember where the Jews killed the Hittites, especially since the Hittites were the conquerers of the ME and Egypt. But aside of that, any wars the Jews fought were specific and to one group. Islam has 2 houses: der el Islam and der el Harb (House of War), guess where all the none Muslims are? Oh but I have a feeling you already know that.
We have a muslim apologiest in mr: farbels_bear there. Want to join in?
I am not a Muslim apologist. An apologist would put forth some arguments in favor of Islam. I have never done so. I happen to believe that the Islamic religion is incorrect, but that's just my informed belief.
However, I also know that as with all religions (and organizations in general) not every member believes the same thing.
The vast majority of Muslims, like the vast majority of Christians, Jews, etc. are not fanatics and do not want to go to war with everyone else.
The bad (or maybe good) news is that the vast majority of people of every faith neither act according to the tenets of their faith nor even believe or are aware of the vast majority of the tenets of the faiths.
For example, the last time a poll was taken among self-proclaimed evangelical Christians a startlingly large percentage were OK with pre-marital sex.
Now you can claim that the only true Muslims are the ones that believe the Koran and interpret it as you do. And if you interpret the Koran as basically a terrorism manual, then you are correct in that all of the people you claim are Muslims are in fact terrorists and need to be brought to justice or killed in the process.
But unfortunately (or fortunately) you don't get to decide who the real Muslims are. I'm sure that there are about a million or so openly gay people who claim to be Muslims and I doubt that any of them are about to tie bombs to themselves and blow up a pizza parlor.
All I'm saying is that it isn't particularly helpful to lump all self-proclaimed Muslims into the same set and mark them all as terrorists.
Unless you want every American to go to war for the next 100 or so years we will not be able to carry out your scorched earth policy to its logical completion.
This is the motivating ideology of the partner Israel is supposed to negotiate with according to the Bush Road Map.
Why does the born-again Christian American president insist on cooperating with those who seek to conquer and kill all of us infidels?
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