Posted on 07/12/2006 8:21:35 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I'd read about many Muslim leaders who preach the preach, but they themselves indulge -- booze, sex, and other nasty non-muslim world habits.
How true is this, I wonder.
Everyone is an infidel except me and thee, and I'm having doubts about thee.
I find this hard to believe. If the Palestinians, say, had really believed that 9/11 was a Jewish or Western plot, they would not have rejoiced when it succeeded.
From that source:
To the Muslims, eating is a matter of faith for those who follow the dietary laws called Halal, a term for all permitted foods. Those foods that are prohibited, such as pork and birds of prey, are known as Haram, while the foods that are questionable for consumption are known as Mashbooh. Muslims eat to preserve their good health, and overindulgence or the use of stimulants such as tea, coffee, or alcohol are discouraged. Fasting is practiced regularly on Mondays and Thursdays, and more often for six days during Shawwal (the tenth month of the Islamic year) and for the entire month of Ramadan (the ninth month). Fasting on these occasions includes abstention from all food and drink from sunrise to sunset.
My impression was that Arab society was progressing quite nicely until Islam came along. Where am I wrong?
You're welcome. If I had bothered to do a search like I usually do, I would have just pinged a bunch of people to the other thread, and you wouldn't have seen this. Perhaps I will never use search again. :-)
You're welcome.
But I didn't post it knowing about the first one. I just forgot to do a search. Help!
they were (and remain) buried up to their eyebrows in tribalism, blood-feud, folly, and indiscipline.
Under the hellenistic and, later, Romans, some civilizing took place in the levant. The Mede did likewise in their territories. The Ethiopians had some limited effect in the Hadraumat.
However, none penetrated into the interior of the Arabian peninsula, and none really crushed the tribalism endemic to primitive peoples.
The man I blame more than any other for the rise of Islam is Justinian "the Great" - his lunatic reconquest of the western empire bankrupted the East, creating a power vaccum. The plagues which followed (probably due to a volcanic-induced cold snap) didn't help. Additionally, in order to gain the support of the orthodox, alexandrine, and roman churches, he deliberately persecuted the monophysite christians of Syria, the levant, Egypt, and coastal Arabia. This drove these peoples from the church, and primed them for conversion to an indigenous creed which appealed to the austerity they had already developed.
All of this is Justinian's fault.
Had he abandoned the West, come to some form of agreement with Khosroes of Persia, and embraced the real strength of his empire (the "heretic" peasantry of the levant), Rome wcould have endured (flourished) to this day, and there certainly would be no Islam.
But British Muslims return the favor with the most malign anti-Western attitudes found in Europe. Many more of them regard Westerners as violent, greedy, immoral, and arrogant than do their counterparts in France, Germany, and Spain. In addition, whether asked about their attitudes toward Jews, responsibility for 9/11, or the place of women in Western societies, their views are notably more extreme.
One day perhaps the Brits will realize the Muzzies are not worth their friendship. Not worth it by a wide margin.
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