Fleurette,

In fact, worse than just putting words in others mouth. Your strawman "A Logical Sequence of Events by GZ TAN" is firm indication you have a propensity to bear false witness. I do say you are phony and you are a liar.

Also, in your strawman: "..seeing as we have thousands upon thousands of Christian variants...", I figure you also lied when telling us you are a "Christian" Lebanese. I do not believe a true Christian thinks there are "thousands upon thousands Christian variants". You owe me a list of names of those Christian sects (starting from "Roman Catholic"), if indeed you did not tell a lie.

Fleurette, I agree with GZ Tan - you sound most unlike a Christian, the statement "..seeing as we have thousands upon thousands of Christian variants..." gives you away. I think you are a Muslim posing as a Christian in order to promote the (very tiresome) 'Muslims-are-the-real-victims' agenda.

"You tell me how we are going to have peace in this country if people remain tribal and don’t intermarry."

To prefer marrying among ones own race, religion or nationality is a natural state of human beings. Why should any group of people willfully commit racial and/or cultural suicide by encouraging intermarriage with vastly different groups? Referring specifically to the Jews - if there had not been strict rules regarding intermarriage, the Jews would not exist today, they would have been absorbed by other cultures. No sane human being wishes to see this happen to their own racial or cultural group.

How is it that the two of you have managed to write 400 or so words in which neither one of you even attempt to make a clear argument? Of course, there exists a barrage of personal insults which neither add to the discussion nor attempts to address any of my points.

My religion, my first language and my sarcasm really has very little to do with Middle Eastern politics and the very fact that you think otherwise suggests more about your argument than I can ever ridicule with the power of touch typing.

You have made this one very easy for me.

Rather than try to actually give any credence to the personal assumptions which are highly irrelevant I’ll answer the one question which has occurred several times in this discussion.

It’s not hard to do some research to see why Israel is an Apartheid state. Clearly you have never heard of a South African Jew called Uri Davis who ever so succinctly explains this idea in his book Israel; An Apartheid State (I wonder what it’s about!)

Ever heard of Gideon Levy, Robert Fisk, Antony Lowenstein, Tanya Reinart, Noam Chomsky, Uri Avnery, David Bernstein, Susan Nathan, Yulie Gershell Cohen? No? Some of the most prominent writers (most of them Israelis or American Jews) on the issue have all tackled this subject ad nauseum.

But because they have managed to write ever so eloquently on the subject I’ll leave it up to you to find out for yourself.

Go do some light reading. You’ll feel better (and perhaps a bit uncomfortable) afterwards but at least you won't be so inclined to spill diatribe about Muslims being the problem when you can see clearly that it's neither Jews nor Muslims who are causing trouble - it's the political zionists who are to blame.

Dee maybe you should be asking your friend GZ TAN if English is his/her first language, given the grammatical errors and syntax issues abound in their posts. I suppose one could be forgiven for thinking that you would stoop so low as to label muslims as ‘creatures’ given the context and the content of the majority of your posts.

As for your, ‘how can there be thousands of Christian denominations?” question. I should be kind and let this one slip but it’s so much more fun this way!

There are currently 42,000 separate Protestant churches, 12 Orthodox churches and one Catholic.

It’s estimated that there are 5 new, separate churches growing a week (churches not in communion with each other).
(Figures taken from the Oxford dictionary of religion)

So I guess, whilst I could have been sarcastically exaggerating that fact, the truth is, I wasn’t. So I'm glad you picked up on it in the way that you did. Although I bet you feel mighty foolish now.

As for me ‘posing as a Muslim’ – wow. This one takes the cake for best argument on OLO to date. Clearly I’m wasting my time here but if you must know I’m a Maronite Catholic from a little village in the North of Lebanon called ‘Baan’. Their patron saint is St George. My father’s village is right next door to this one and their patron saint is Saint Maroun.

Did you think that only Muslims would want to defend themselves? Or did it not occur to you that non-muslims may wish to educate themselves further in a field so pertinent to Middle Eastern politics, particularly when that person is a journalist.

Maybe you should read a bio on Ghassan Hage, another Christian concerned with the plight of the Muslims – or is he ‘a self hating Christian too’?

fleurette

"It’s not hard to do some research to see why Israel is an Apartheid state. Clearly you have never heard of a South African Jew called Uri Davis who ever so succinctly explains this idea in his book Israel; An Apartheid State (I wonder what it’s about!)"

When you quote a book which happens to agree with you viewpoint that is not a logical argument. It could be that the author is just as wrong as you are.

Apartheid in South Africa was a policy of segregating certain defined "races" by law. (look up a decent dictionary such as the Shorter Oxford). Different groups had to live in different areas were not allowed to travel in the same sections of buses could be prosecuted for cohabitating etc. This is not the case in Israel.

Different religious groups are allowed to intermarry there but have to do the ceromony in another country because Israel has no civil marriage system. This is a thorn in the side of liberal Jews but their politics require the apeasement of certain conservative groups, including the Muslims.

There is no Apartheid in Israel unless you are trying to rewrite the English language on your own. I don't think you will succeed at that.

Fleurette,

Wow, impressive list of writers, just on a narrow subject of Israel and apartheid. How much time have you spent reading their views? Is this how you get yourself brain-washed (by reading books that agree with you view-point)??

You didn't answer my previous question:
"Please explain why middle-eastern countries are not apartheid, based on your concept of apartheid applied to Israel?"

Let me guess- This is because you (1) only attack Israel (bias and narrow-minded). (2) are incapable of APPLYING your wealth of knowledge on apartheid to those Islamic states. (3) are a Muslim.

Bias, tunnel-vision and inability to apply new knowledge are characteristics of a brain-washed person.

Now... Who is brain-washed. You or me?

I will indeed address ALL your points in due course (including the Japanese Red Army attack!). You are the one who avoids answering my questions. (Thought about "oppression breeds stupidity" yet??)

You think each and every separate Protestant church represents a variant Christianity? This shows how little you know about Christianity. Have you asked church_xyz and church_abc whether they believe in different Jesus?

You wrote: "As for your, 'how can there be thousands of Christian denominations?' question."

Sorry, but are you lying and bear false witness, yet again?

I don't think anyone had asked the question you quoted. Those are your own words. Also, I notice you changed from "variants" to "denominations".

Gee... you do speak with a forked tongue.

You wrote: "...I’m a Maronite Catholic...."

Trust me, saying this does not make you a Christian any more than telling us previously that you are a "Christian Lebanese". We can tell a tree by its fruit.

So here's a question for you:

--> "Muslim Allah == Christian God". Do YOU think this is true or false? Why?

My question and your answer will surely add to the discussion.