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To: LS
Believe me, if you once had pests and found a way to control them, and at some later date pests infested me, I'd seek your advice for controlling the pests.

I respect your view of Islam, but I must pose questions. Can we succeed where predominately Muslim democracies have not? Can we trust Islam to restrain itself? The two Islamic nations with forms of democracy your post brought to mind were Turkey and Egypt. In both the government has taken extraordinary steps to control the schools that train the imams so they are less inclined to adopt some Islamic teachings. If these two predominately Muslim countries have seen it necessary to take such steps to preserve their government and societies, should we not at least stop and ponder why?
159 posted on 10/21/2006 8:11:05 PM PDT by backtothestreets
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To: backtothestreets
Good questions, and if you remember the violence that was associated with the early Christian church---especially the Reformation---I'm sure people asked the same thing as Hugonots were being drowned or various translators of the Bible were being burned at the stake.

No religious "reformation" occurs quickly. Islam has managed to avoid the hard questions, due to the West basically allowing it to, for centuries. Westerners---esp. the English---were more willing to prop up Islamic governments (as long as they were "friendly") rather than seek the fundamental changes Bush seeks.

Also, there are going to be lots of countries where Islam will not be the majority religion, and the non-Islamic governments (if they are smart) will also reinforce this "moderation." I'm not saying it will be easy, but it won't happen overnight, and the conditions now are quite different than even 30 years ago. So we'll see.

164 posted on 10/22/2006 5:53:21 AM PDT by LS
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