Is Islam the problem? It's an increasingly public debate the White House seems less than thrilled to have. President Bush insists that "our quarrel
is not with Islam," because, well,"Islam means peace." End of story...
...At one time or another all religions have been nasty. For all of the passages in the Koran that have been used to justify violence, one can just
as easily find passages in the Jewish or Christian Bibles justifying violence.
The difference is that Europeans and Americans, broadly speaking,no longer have the desire to use religion to justify violence. Vast numbers of Arabs, North Africansand East Asians still do. Our inquisitions are in the past, their inquisitions happen every day.
Much of Muslim world simply livesin a different time than the West. Oh sure, some of the big cities, with their cars and satellite dishes, may look modern. But their culture is horribly behind the times...
...Meanwhile, Muslims use the word jihad in its literal sense, i.e. a holy war, and nobody in America or Europe is at all offended, despite the fact that the West has been a victim of Muslim jihads just as much as Muslims were victims of Crusades- take the Ottoman Empire for example. But you don't hear us shrieking about their insensitive use of the word because, frankly, we don't remember or care enough to know we should be offended. That's all in the past.
It's unfashionable to say some cultures are more "backward" than others, but that doesn't make it any less true (the lifestyle of millions of Afghans today is indistinguishable from, or worse than, the way Afghans lived centuries ago). The West went through the Protestant Reformation, the Counter Reformation, hundreds of revolts and revolutions, the Enlightenment and dozens of wars to unshackle itself from the sort of mindset that seeks religious justification for cruelty and barbarity.
Much of the Muslim world has yetto go through such a process. When they do, I have no doubt they will still be Muslims. They justwon't use that as a justification to murder people./ - - - :-> Transtors: 1.http://free-translation.imtranslator.net/lowres.asp 2.http://translate.google.com/m?twu=1&hl=en&vi=m&sl=auto&tl=en