Our whole attitude to Islam will be set by what happens over the next
few years. It may be that their threat will change from a direct
military threat and terrorist campaign to a wild internal
fragmentation that will be a quite different threat.

As James Kunstler writes;

Global disintegration has advanced furthest, not surprisingly, in the
fragile band of regions most strung out on the primary commodity:oil.
The Middle East / North Africa / Central Asia war zone is
steadily combusting, and there is no sign of resolution across the
whole of it, only the promise that conflict will get worse. Saudi
Arabia was the cornerstone of that district, and the senile Saudi
leadership finds itself in peril as its military pretends to support
splintering Yemen. The other Arabian princes of other non-Saud clans
must be watching the spectacle with wonder and nausea. When Arabia
blows up, that will truly be the beginning of the end.

'Our whole attitude to Islam will be set by what happens over the next
few years'

I doubt it Bazz. If people can't see now its because they are blindfully ignorant. Just waiting for Bush to be blamed for the massacre in Kenya.

Well Runner I think that is what I meant.
It will force people to remove the blinkers and will reform the majorities
attitude to Islam. It will be seen to be bereft of realty, to be the
most ill-directed religion of all, and to be no more than a fascist religion.

Hi Bazz,

I know what you mean, but I'm beginning to suspect that the fascists are using Islam as a veneer for their atrocities, and like any book, the Koran serves that useful purpose. The various Islamist groups certainly don't have any trouble citing their scripture to suit their vile aims: the destruction of the world, to pave the way for Paradise to supersede Earth.

If anything, maybe the Islamo-fascists (and what else would you call them, James?) are exposing the fact that Islam itself is a veneer over the ancient, backward and incredibly reactionary (in 2015) traditional culture of the desert Arabs, who from the beginning, despised towns, agriculture, peasants, and anybody who was not of a similar desert culture to their own.

So, from the beginning of Islam, manual labour, work, honest toil, was despised, taxed, and generally exploited. That might explain the Islamic predilection for slavery, theft, pillage and conquest, for taxing non-Muslims, and for carefully balancing the proportion of despised workers and Islamist rulers go ensure that revenues were sufficient, without the Islamist themselves having to actually work.

Hence, the vaunting of architecture and the non-social sciences in Islamic culture, the standard approach in all totalitarian societies.

The tragedy for all Islamic societies then has been the discouragement of all actual industry, except basic food production and artisan cottage industries, and prohibition on any technological development in production, and in scientific thought.

That's my take on it all, which perceives the current 'Left' as finding itself, yet again, on the wrong side of history.

Wow, you can take the boy out of Marxism, but .......

Joe

Agreed Loudmouth,
Here is an illustration of where Islam gets itself
stuck in the Middle Ages;

Historically the Jews decided there was something wrong with eating pork.
So they banned it as not Koshure. Muhammad adopted the Jewish food
laws and wrote the ban into the Koran. Also written into the Koran is
the ban on any reinterpretation of the Koran and death for anyone who trys.

Now back around 500BC the Chinese discovered what the probem was with
eating pig meat. It was a simple case of proper animal husbandry.
This knowledge passed through the Middle East into Europe and
the raising of pigs became common.

However both the Jews and the Moslems were unable to accept this
"modern" knowledge because Jarwah and Allah had forbidden it.

This simple problem illustrates why those non moslems calling for
a renaissance in Islam are wasting their time, they are just unable
to accept that the Koran may have got something wrong.

Such blind stubborn ignorance is why they can never negotiate honestly
and why they can never accept that they are wrong.
It has become genetically imprinted into their behaviour.

Hi Bazz,
Ill accept some of the things you say such as animal husbandry in your last comment, and I will agree with you that radical Islam is a concern, but I cant go along with everything you said.

Firstly its really ignorant and narrow minded to stereotype religions.
- Ive said this before and I'll say it again.

Not all Muslims support ISIS or are religious extremists.
Not all Jews support Zionism
Not all Christians support Israel
(Only the useful idiots in all the above instances)

I could provide examples for all the above if needed, but I do accept the trend in each different example.

What I mostly wanted to say - and without any insult - is that you are most certainly wrong about collecting content and not just metadata.

You see you aren't actually arguing with me on this topic but the former Technical Director of the NSA, William Binney.

You mentioned a 2hr video, well I'll give you the 1hr interview in the hope you and others might actually learn something.
If you want to say I'm wrong then at least do yourself the justice of learning the truth for yourself.
You will find out exactly how they do it, every program they use to do it, and where they store it all as well.
(Don't forget the US spends billions everyday that it just prints, so yes someone can afford it.)

Watch this video - PLEASE watch this video, then come back and tell me once again I'm wrong.
Skip the first 4 minutes...

http://youtu.be/rsVqIRXdYDc