@friend:
i'm not interested in what huntingdon has to say, particularly if he categorises a civilisation as "judeo-christian". that label has absolutely nothing to do with judaism in practice as it never, ever takes into account jewish religious values other than as they are mediated through christianity and the universalist ethical values of the "enlightenment". so don't quote him at me as a means of showing that the jewish religion has something to do with causing the "clash of civilisations" - it doesn't, although it has surely been affected by the effects.
and if you want proper responses, i'm going to need to understand your english better. if i understand you, the point is this - the israelis have an enormous amount to gain by the end of the hatred and destruction in the middle east. it should be obvious to you that "greater israel" is not regarded by anybody worth speaking of as a feasible goal, at least if you mean "between the nile and the euphrates". "land for peace" will be the formula - the question will be which bits of land. all the wastefulness that we are witnessing is the haggling over the price, with both sides trying to get something for nothing. everybody understands that the border's going to be the green line, so the sooner we all get to it and stop with the wall-related land grabs and the attempts to establish a rocket landing zone the better for everyone. and, while we're at it, anyone who talked about "palestine" before 1948, such as balfour for example, meant the british mandate in palestine, which was made up of "palestine" and "transjordan" - the state of jordan where you live, much of whose population is palestinian. now, whilst i am not saying, like some, that "jordan already constitutes a palestinian state", it certainly has a larger role to play in this particular debate over who gets what.
there are those who see this as a religious conflict. it is better for all of us if this does not occur. i would find the prospect of the values of the hardline settlers directing the army utterly appalling; it is to be hoped that this can be averted without a civil war. unfortunately i still don't actually know this yet.
@cyris ali:
You're a moderator of a religious forum? I'll have nothing to do with this.
you can't have it both ways - either it's "one faith" and criticism of one group of muslims reflects on all, or it's an agglomeration of sects, traditions and attitudes and criticism of one group does not necessarily reflect on all. if people insist on treating "islam" as one thing, then i'm entitled to criticise this one thing if that is the subject of this thread. as it happens, i believe islam is nearly as fragmented as christianity is. now, of course, if you want to criticise judaism, come over and do it in the judaism forum and i'm sure i'll join in - but we're not doing that presently. saying "ooh, but what about judaism" doesn't actually address the central point. furthermore no faith should expect a free ride from criticism and no faith is free of idiots, propaganda and chauvinism. being a moderator shouldn't prevent me from pointing that out. i do it freely to my co-religionists as anyone here will tell you.
as for 9/11, believe what you want if it makes things better in your pink and fluffy world.
Muslimwoman said:
Could you expand please. I have my own views about this but would like to know where you draw the line between what is and is not an Islamic practice, because clearly we can only 'blame' the negative issues that are actually an Islamic teaching and not those actions that are purely political.
it's basically the argument you've seen me having with abdullah; if his values are really those of the consensus of scholars, there is no present hope of political islam coming to an understanding with the rest of the world who refuse to convert, refuse to be dhimmi and refuse to die. i am consulting the islamic scholars i know to try and understand this myself. islam will have to accept (as it appears to be trying to do in turkey) an accommodation and it will have to relinquish the idea of a theocracy. it will need, like every other system, to understand how "church" and "state" need to be separated at least in practice.
So who in your mind would govern this Palestinian state? Of course the prior proposal for a 2 state agreement still meant the Israeli's governed the Palestinian state as well as their own, hence the rejection. Would the displaced Palestinians be allowed to return to the new Palestinian state? Who would financially support this?
gosh, that's a facer. i'm not sure i agree with your analysis of the original agreement, however. the point of this would be that the palestinians would elect their own government, which would govern like any other respectable democratic authority. of course the problem at present is that the israelis don't trust the prospective authority to act sensibly (viz hamas in gaza, democratically elected and still hasn't realised it can't just keep blaming the israelis for everything and chucking rockets over the border) and until they do they won't ease up. of course abbas and fatah would be a better prospect but they're so hopelessly corrupt and inept that you'll end up with hamas again.
i personally don't know what i would think about the displaced palestinians returning to the new state, except that the only way it could feasibly be financed is by the arab states coughing up reparations for their exiled jewish ex-inhabitants who are all now living in israel. it's not exactly like they're short of cash *cough cough saudi cough cough kuwait cough cough etc) and, of course, the new state would have to allow its jewish citizens equal rights. i'm not holding my breath for that considering that selling land to a jew is punishable by death in the PA.
In the same way I feel sure BB would object to people suggesting that the awful actions of the Israeli government are demonstrative of the Jewish faith and it's teachings.
i would also argue, of course, that many of the actions that israeli governments have and continue to do are not at all "awful", but rather the opposite - remember governments (in israel at least) come from many different parties and have many different and sometimes contradictory policies. i am not in the business of granting blanket exemptions or blanket condemnations. condemning policy is one thing, condemning practice is another and condemning intent is yet another. nobody is 100% blameless and nobody is 100% guilty. to argue otherwise is futile.
i would also like to say that as interesting as it is to see you and bob knocking spots off each other here and elsewhere discussing this, i think you'd both be happier if you tried to be a little more amicable about it - you're both reasonable people with a great deal to contribute and locking horns about deir yassin or arabic nazi-sympathising simply gives the impression of "hard cases making bad law". you cannot extrapolate generalisations of a faith, culture or religion from singular instances of extreme action as you both must know.
b'shalom
bananabrain