Hi Constance,

When you suggest that " .... Islam, is the ideology – it is not a religion ...." and I suggest that " .... surely it's ideology we should be concerned about?”, I'm struggling to see why I deserve a flailing with a wet hanky :)

Islamism has the hallmarks of a sort of Caesaropapism, the coming together of absolute religious power - the caliphate - with absolute temporal power - the state apparatuses of IS, and aspiring absolutists like al Qa'ida, Boko Haram, etc., the ghastly marriage of ideology, religion and state power, forms of 'government' which were abandoned - more likely defeated - nearly a thousand years ago in Europe, with the slow developments of the separation of church and state, and state and monarchical rule.

Totalitarian ideology inevitably degenerates - and quickly - into fascism - that's the lesson, surely, of the twentieth century, writing as an ex-Marxist. Islamism is so totalitarian that it makes Mussolini look like Mother Teresa.

Joe

Steelie,

And now you suddenly decide to listen to George Bush, when it suits you? Why now?

And now you say I must be American. Hilarious. I have lived there a couple of times briefly but have also done lots of travelling in quite a few other countries. One experience of mine is that I recall riding on a rickshaw through a Muslim village in India and having a stone thrown at me. I was dressed as a Hindu woman.

And I'm a fundamentalist? My God. My dear, you are the fundy entrenched in deleterious ideology.

As a free (non-enslaved) moderate, and Catholic which actually means LIBERAL, I have reluctantly become one of the new outsiders looking in. I've never been particularly religious but I do have a conscience which has forced me back to thinking more about Catholicism and the kind of upbringing I had and the CCs place in this dangerous ever changing world. Doing heaps of reading and have had awakenings and a realisation that the CC offers true freedom. Heck, every man and his dog has been against the CC through the ages. The CC doesn't control. But the Capitalists (and branch of Freemasons) and Communists do. Hence, you have Leftist, Protestant and Islamic propaganda who have all colluded together against the CC. It is so true, "Truth is stranger than fiction". The CC is so rich and depends on the benevolence of people, not one man ideologues like Marx, Nietchshe, Luther, Henry VIII, Rousseau, Hitler, Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, etc.

Lord of the Rings written by Tolkien, a devout Catholic, is in fact steeped in Catholic theology. Why are Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit so popular? Escapism?

"How to be Free" by Tom Hodgkinson. The so called Dark Middle Ages is a myth (propaganda) and was I believe much more humane than the world we are currently living in. For we are now slaves.

Cont....

...Cont

Steelie,

And you have no time to visit history - oh dear, that is a shame. I know, we are all told to be busy busy nowadays. You really should check facts before you start writing and listen to some of the historical figures, like Churchill for example for warnings. And learn.

And I did not send the Leonard Cohen vid to you – I sent it to the Lefty ex academic, David Fisher. You commented on it and so you persisted with it. Oh please!

My dear, so tell me what exactly do you believe in?

Dear Constance,

No. what Foxy was suggesting was that had
Maureen reported the incident to the Human
Resources Manager, and/or sought legal advice -
the matter would have had serious repercussions
for the organisation because this sort of discrimination
is against Australian law. Re-read my post.

You Madam, owe me an apology.

Ah, SPQR, I bow before your obviously superior knowledge.

Or perhaps not...

http://www.davidmus.dk/en/collections/islamic/cultural-history-themes/symbolism

"The very idea that an image or a sculpture represents something other than itself has often been interpreted by orthodox Muslims as irreconcilable with the central message in Islam: “There is no god but God.” For this reason, one could say that all art made in the Islamic world must be considered devoid of symbolism. But if we look at actual works, we can see that several motifs in Islamic art can easily be related to symbols of both recent and earlier date."

[...]

"The Arabic script has always been viewed as exalted and holy. This is undoubtedly due to the close association between the words of the Koran and the script used for writing them, but it might also be due to a direct linkage between the abstract forms of the letters and the qualities that are attributed to the Divine. In keeping with this interpretation, arabesque decorations and geometrical patterns have been interpreted from time to time as metaphors for God. Because they can be extended infinitely, both vegetal ornamentation and geometrical forms can be seen as a reminder of the infiniteness of God."

Never mind, I'm sure you must be right about how unlikely it is that the Assyrian Empire could have any influence on modern-day descendants of the subjects of the Empire, eh, Senatus Populusque Romanus?

After all, you really are very special...

Continuing bowing Craig

<<The past two years have seen a disturbing trend of systematic grave desecration done by various Wahhabi groups in Libya, Mali, and Egypt. With the fall of ruling powers resulting from the Arab Spring many Wahhabis have decided to utilise power vacuums that opened up in Libya and subsequently Mali to ravage these lands by destroying all signs of their holy sites, which according to their puritanical view are heretical, pagan-like and akin to grave worship...>>
http://themuslim500.com/2013-2/issues-of-the-day/destruction-of-sufi-shrines


And here's another ...


<<One of Islam’s most revered holy sites – the tomb of the Prophet Mohamed – could be destroyed and his body removed to an anonymous grave under plans which threaten to spark discord across the Muslim world...Hardline Saudi clerics have long preached that the country’s strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam – an offshoot of the Sunni tradition – prohibits the worship of any object or “saint”, a practice considered “shirq” or idolatrous.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudis-risk-new-muslim-division-with-proposal-to-move-mohameds-tomb-9705120.html

as they say, actions speak louder than words :)