Quite so Benjamin.

For those of you not old enough to remember, here's an event a little closer to home:

http://www.cia.com.au/vic/cia.60min.txt

More here:

http://www.cia.com.au/vic/cia.html

- of course we're friends, so when they squeeze our nuts they do it with kid gloves. No blood on the carpet as long as we toe the party line.

You say, "Jump!" We say, "How high?"

Enjoy the read -

Sorry Rache.

I meant to compliment you on the nice set of links you posted.

Thankyou -

Marilyn Shepard seems to spend a lot of time pontificating and not much time directly engaging the arguments of those who criticize her. She was so condescending toward me, yet I'm still waiting for a reply.

..."little is done to discourage the supply of terrorists", you say Ankon - and it looks like this will do little to help either...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1892888,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

rache

"A quick check of the facts would show you that there are already 15 Muslim democratic nations in the world"

Sorry if I got things wrong. Please enlighten me by naming these fifteen nations. I do not count a country as democratic if any of the seats in the main house of parliament are reserved for groups such as the army, or clerics of a particular religion, or if the electorate is deliberately skewed towards particular religious groups.

I was also refering to nations which declare themselves as Islamic as opposed to nations which have a Muslim majority but allow equality to all.

I think your views regarding the media and goverment are too cynical. People in western democratic nations do remove leaders if they are not satisfied with the results. And that is very important. It does keep the leaders on their toes.

The following, written by a Muslim, illustrate just how fuzzy the borders are. A Muslim can be an American patriot, just as equally, any one Jewish is able to support a pluraristic and open society, just as any one on the left of politics as any on the right can value the ideals as contained in an open democracy. The extremists within any group identify and operate only in a narrow political vacuum, engaging only those of similar rabid and narrow persuasion.

“My pride in faith and country remain rock solid. But my real life American dream often feels more like a nightmare these days. Renegade members of my faith are committing horrendous acts of global terrorism, and I am left embarrassed and angry.

I am embarrassed when I read the names of the terrorists in the newspaper. What must non-Muslims think when some criminal claiming to act in the name of Islam and bearing the same name as the Prophet Muhammad is arrested?

I am also embarrassed that not all American Muslims do all they can to expose those in our community who would commit mayhem or would give succor in any way to those who would cause harm. Too many American Muslims hold back from publicly speaking out against extremist ideologies that threaten us all because they fear being stigmatized by their coreligionists for cooperating with security agencies.”
Osman Siddique September 1, 2006
http://www.aifdemocracy.org/policy-issues.php